© Divertimento Ensemble

During the fall 2015 Divertimento Ensemble and Sentieri Selvaggi premiered their scores and offered a unique insight into contemporary music from all over the world.
On 20th April 2016 Divertimento Ensemble performs again one of the scores, in a concert program that also presents works from the International Meeting for young composers “Franco Donatoni”.

The concert takes place in Teatro Litta, Milan (IT), with the following schedule and program:

20h30  pre-concert talk

with Federico Gardella, Giovanni Bertelli, Stefano Bulfon and three selected composers among the candidates of the International Meeting for young composers “Franco Donatoni”

21H00  concert

3 works selected from the International Meeting for young composers “Franco Donatoni”
Federico Gardella (1979) Improvvisi silenzi di conchiglia  per ensemble (2016) – (World Premiere)
Franco Donatoni (1927-2000) Flag per ensemble (1987)
Giovanni Bertelli (1980) Libro d’estate per viola e 12 strumenti (2008)
Stefano Bulfon (1975) Nachleben * per ensemble (2015)

Divertimento Ensemble
Michele Gamba, conductor

* score selected from Feeding Music Italian Pavilion, Expo 2015

© Divertimento Ensemble

During the fall 2015 Divertimento Ensemble and Sentieri Selvaggi premiered their scores and offered a unique insight into contemporary music from all over the world.
On 5th February 2016 Divertimento Ensemble performs again two of these scores, chosen from the most representative of the diverse ways of thinking contemporary music today.

The concert takes place in Teatro Litta, Milan (IT), with the following schedule and program:

20h30  pre-concert talk

moderated by Anna Maria Morazzoni with Luca Francesconi, Michael Cutting, Claudio Ambrosini, Antonio Covello

21H00  concert

Michael Cutting (1987), In Fields and Factories * for ensemble (2015)
Antonin Servière (1977), Procrastinations * for ensemble (2015)

Olga Neuwirth (1968), Incidendo/fluido for piano and CD (2000)

Antonio Covello (1985), L’ange du morbide for ensemble (2015)

Luca Francesconi (1956), Insieme for ensemble (2014)

Claudio Ambrosini (1948), Vite di suoni illustri for ensemble (2012)

Maria Grazia Bellocchio, piano

Divertimento Ensemble

Sandro Gorli, conductor

The project is inspired by the book “An Experiment with Time”, by John William Dunne: linearity of time is a collateral event of consciousness, whereas, inside dreams, past and future coexist.

© Daniele Ghisi

During the year 2015, Daniele Ghisi has presented the video installation several times, in different European cities (more information here).

On 26th January 2016, at Teatro Litta in Milano (IT) took place the world premiere of the live and concert version of the projet, including the videos and electronics.

The concert was performed by Divertimento Ensemble at 21h00.

With a pre-concert talk and meeting with Daniele Ghisi at 20h30.

© Giovanni Daniotti

Another presentation of the live-version is scheduled in Paris, at Centre Pompidou, on 5th March 2016.

+++

Commission:

Divertimento Ensemble and Ircam-Centre Pompidou

Coproduction:

IRCAM-Centre Pompidou, Paris, France / Divertimento Ensemble, Milano, Italy

and that has been presented also in Milano (IT) in February 2014

and in Paris (FR) in July 2014,

is performed again in Brussels (BE) at Flagey on 10th January 2016

at 20h15.

At 19h30 you can attend for free a pre-performance talk by Waldo Geuns.

You can watch a TRAILER as well as INTERVIEWS with the involved composers and Peter Eötvös online.

Out At S.E.A. (Someone Eats All)
at the ‘Very alive composers – Rethinking opera’ festival

Sławomir Mrożek’s absurd one-act play titled Out at Sea inspired the idea to provide an opportunity for young composers to jointly create an opera that unites and addresses the predominant phenomena of the modern age (like alienation, abuse of power, conformity and boundaries of freedom) in one grotesque situation, where the problem of the part and the whole is reflected in the opportunities offered by form and technique.

Photo © Balint Hrotko

Version I : Out at S.E.A. 123

Composers: Máté Balogh, Diana Soh, Christian Flury

Version II : Out at S.E.A. 456

Composers: Koka Nikoladze, Samu Gryllus, Mariana Ungureanu

+++

The joint work Out at S.E.A., managed by Péter Eötvös, Luca Francesconi, Balázs Horváth and András Almási-Tóth, is a collective work bearing the musical signature of each composer.

“Three people, abandoned, on no-man’s land, on the open sea, in the world of the media. The participants of a reality show, their situation is that of modern man, lonely in community; depending on each other, they would devour each other; they are selfish and without emotions, acting for show, as if someone was always watching them and evaluating their performance. Three protagonists, three different worlds… the topic of… Mrożek’s one-act Out at S.E.A. appears in a totally new context: within the well-known claustrophobic, yet public framework of reality shows, in the form of an opera. In addition, the story can be seen twice, the two identical, yet different variations reflect on one another, leaving the feeling of eternity, repeatability, and substitutability in the audience. The three protagonists think they are exceptional characters, yet they are only mass products on the metaphysical media market: tomorrow others will come and the same will happen to them…”
András Almási-Tóth

Featuring:

Maurice Lenhard, baritone – Thin
Szilvia Vörös, mezzo-soprano – Medium
Tivadar Kiss, tenor – Fat
Peter Bársony, alto
Horia Dumitrache, clarinet
Ditta Rohmann, cello
Lin Liao, conductor

Photos: Dora Papp

© Daniele Ghisi

On 5th March 2016, the concert will be presented again in Paris (FR), at IRCAM-Centre Pompidou at 19h30, performed by Divertimento Ensemble, conducted by Sandro Gorli, in a program presenting also pieces by Gérard Grisey and Raphaël Cendo.

Tickets available here.

• Daniele Ghisi An Experiment With Time (reloaded),
  commissioned by IRCAM-Centre Pompidou and the Divertimento Ensemble, French Premiere

Composition, Sound Installation, Video and Animation Daniele Ghisi
Inspired by the eponymous book by John W. Dunne
Script Daniele Ghisi, Luigi Acerbi, Paolo Puggioni
Script Assistant Maryam Babaei
Video Assistant Luca Morino
Graphic Advisor Davide Bordogna
Visuals drawn by Luca Nava
Divertimento Ensemble
Conductor Sandro Gorli
IRCAM Sound engineer Sylvain Cadars
IRCAM Computer Music Design Manuel Poletti
Photo credits Miroslav Barták, From Old Books, Karl Jahnke
Copies of the Illustrated London News shoLondon News/Mary Evans Picture Library
Audio credits Tebblofang, empraetorius, HollowRiku, lucaslara, nebulousflynn, exterminat, Omar Alvarado, RutgerMuller, Runey, SunnySideSound
Additional thanks to Mattia Bergomi, Sylvain Cadars, Aaron Einbond, Carla Felotti, Maria Giulia Ganassini, Boris Labbé, Virgilio Maffeis and family, Yann Philippe, Andrea Rota, Christopher Trapani, Paul Slocum and Vincenzo Picariello

Miguel Farías from Chili and Artur Akshelyan from Armenia have written the musics which will be performed along with the mute film, the first taking up the “civil” scenes, the second the military scenes.

The musics written by the two composers interchange during the whole film.

After the performance at Flagey in Brussels (BE), the Italian Premiere of the film-concert is performed at Teatro Litta, Milan on 21st March 2016, with following schedule:

20h30 – Pre-concert talk with Roberto Andreoni

21h00 –  Film screening with live music

© DR

Maudite soit la guerre

by Alfred Machin with musics by Miguel Farías (1983) and Artur Akshelyan (1984)

Divertimento Ensemble

Tito Ceccherini, conductor

The commission is  premiered in Brussels at Flagey

on 23rd February 2016, in Studio 1 at 20h30

by the Belgian ensemble MUSIQUES NOUVELLES, featuring the following line up:

violin, viola, cello, percussion, piano, flute, and clarinet.

Jean-Paul Dessy leads the ensemble.

Film duration: 50 minutes

Photos © Câline Yamakawa

Screened for the first time in June 1914, shortly before the First World War, MAUDITE SOIR LA GUERRE is a Belgian movie directed by Alfred Machin, featuring Suzanne Berni, Baert, Albert Hendrickx, Fernand Crommelynck, Nadia D’Angely, Zizi Festerat, Gilberte Legrand, Willy Maury, Henri Goidsen, Cécile May, Blanche Montel, Albert Dieudonné, and Germaine Lecuyer.

One of the first anti-war films of our time, it has since been restored to 35 mm print and beautifully hand colored with Pathé stencil inks.

The plot of the film, which at no point clearly identifies the countries involved but strongly suggests Belgian/France against Germany, revolves around two protagonists, Adolph and Sigismond. Adolph, a young aviator in the making befriends Sigismond and ultimately becomes romantically involved with the latter’s sister Lidia. War breaks and our two heroes find themselves in battle, on opposing sides of the conflict. Both perish and the film comes to a close with a scene whereby Lidia learns of the death of Adolph.

MAUDITE SOIT LA GUERRE is a social commentary on the hardships of war and its effect of the relationships between men, women, family structures, etc. and on the futility of the loss of youth and humanity.

Another performance of the film-concert is scheduled in Milan (IT), by Divertimento Ensemble on 21st March 2016.

© Anna van Kooij

Indeed, Hikari Kiyama is already well-known for the followers of the ULYSSES Network :

# In 2014, he has been one of the Gaudeamus Prize nominees (already in 2012 one of his works for string quartet was performed during Gaudeamus Muziekweek)
and got the chance to present several of his works :

°Myojin
performed on 13 September 2014 at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht (NL)
by Ensemble Klang extended.
You can listen to a recording here.

°Sax Quartet
performed on 11 September 2014 at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht (NL)
by Amstel Quartet.
You can listen to a recording here.

° “????”
performed on 14 September 2014 at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht (NL)
by Ensemble Looptail
(work in progress, different versions have been presented already in Graz (AT), Darmstadt (DE) etc.).
Looptail published a short video with excerpts of the piece here.

You can also find a short video interview with Hikari here.

Concert Electrifying Evening, Gaudeamus Muzikweek 2014 © Anna van Kooij

© Ensemble Looptail

# And earlier in 2014, a piece by Hikari Kiyama, was performed and presented to an international audience, during the Summercourses in Darmstadt/ IMD (DE), in the framework of the residence of the young Swedish ensemble Curious Chamber Players.

© Deen van de Meer

At this occasion, Benjamin Scheuer received a commission for a new work, he presented his work in a public talk on 17th February 2015 at the KUG in Graz (AT) and several of his works were presented to the international audience:

° Benjamin Scheuer –  Impulsive Lieder for sampler, alto flute, tenor saxophone and accordion (2015), 6´, World Premiere (commission: impuls)

Performed by
Dominik Matzka – sampler | Delphine Grataloup – alto flute
Pedro Pablo Camara Toldos – tenor saxophone | Vid Sčavničar accordion
Andreas Fischer conductor

23rd February 2015, 20.00,  MUMUTH . Proberaum

° Benjamin Scheuer – kaleidoscope for 4 female voices with additional instruments (2012), 10´
Peyee Chen – soprano | Noriko Yakushiji – soprano | Alice Fagard – mezzosoprano | Megan Ihnen – mezzosoprano
Andreas Fischer conductor

23rd February 2015, 21.15,  MUMUTH . Proberaum

More information about the whole concert program here.

In addition to that and within the cooperation of impuls and the Ernst Krenek Institute Benjamin Scheuer was also selected amongst the impuls Academy 2015 to write a new piece to be premiered by Klangforum Wien.
Besides this commission Benjamin Scheuer will also be invited to a
three-week visit at the Institute in Krems for depth study of composer Ernst
Krenek.

But Benjamin Scheuer has already a longer history with the ULYSSES Network :

++ 2014 ++

# In 2014, he was one of the Gaudeamus Prize nominees, and his piece Kaleidoscope was already presented, among other works, in Utrecht (NL) during the festival Gaudeamus Muziekweek, including also a public talk and encounter with the young composer.

You can discover a short video produced by Gaudeamus Muziekweek here.

Other interviews with the composer can be found on his website or here.

++ 2013 ++

# Before that, Benjamin was invited also by OPUS XXI/ HfMT (DE) to the international Summer Academy OPUS XXI in 2013 where he received a commission for a new work.

# Also in 2013, Benjamin Scheuer was one of the selected composers to take part in the IEMA Composition Workshop 2013, presenting the premiere of his commissioned work with pieces by the three other selected composers at Royaumont Foundation (FR) before other concerts on tour in the Netherlands (Gaudeamus Muziekweek) and Germany.

++ 2012 ++

# Already in 2012, Benjamin participated in the Composition Session for contemporary music “Voix nouvelles”, organized at Royaumont Foundation (FR).

Under the guidance of the guest composers Brian Ferneyhough, Alberto Posadas and Raphaël Cendo and in direct cooperation with the singers from “Atelier vocal de Royaumont”, this is where he finalized and premiered on 22nd September 2012 the piece kaleidoscope for four female singers.

Atelier vocal de Royaumont
Angèle Chemin, Betsabée Haas, Julia Sese Lara – sopranos
Mari Sano – mezzo-soprano

After the world premieres of the “Franco Donatoni” International Meeting for Young Composers ‘Music + Dance’ in Milano (IT) in May 2014, in cooperation with Divertimento Ensemble and the dancers from the AiEP dance company 

and the first rerun of the performance in Viitasaari (FI) at the occasion of the Time of Music Festival 2015, on 5th July 2014,

the three pieces by the selected composers :

Maurizio Azzan (Torino, Italy) – Umano(dis)umano (with electronics)
Huck Hodge (Seattle, USA) – Apophenia
Daniela Terranova (Udine, Italy) – Lying down on the horizon

will also be presented to the audience in Budapest (HU) at the Budapest Music Center

on Tuesday 21st October 2014

at 19.30 in the BMC Concert Hall.

Further information here.