Gaudeamus Muziekweek festival magazine 2011

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program overview

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engLiSH verSion

draai om voor nederLandS

2 — gaudeamus muziekweek 2011 — english

This is The very firsT Time ThaT The ciTy of UTrechT is hosTing The annUal gaUdeamUs mUziekweek. UTrechT provides Us wiTh a fanTasTic and challenging new environmenT in perfecT keeping wiTh whaT oUr fesTival offers, namely a plaTform for The newesT mUsic by creaTive, yoUng people in an inspiring seTTing.

indexintroduction Henk Heuvelmans

meet tomorrow’s composers

museum Speelklok: festival hub

Utrecht and music

vera carasso, museum Speelklok

new music – new Forms

column aad van nieuwkerk

From midi to Four-dimensional Sound

muziekweek 2.0 column martijn Buser

gaudeamus muziekweek as a platform for

the development of international talent

Utrecht and music

Lucia claus, Utrecht Stadsschouwburg

Beyond the notes

with michel van der aa and rozalie Hirs

the night of the Unexpected

Between image and Sound

the soundinstallations of the muziekweek

Biking for inspiration

composers interview

Utrecht and music

nanette ris, muziekcentrum vredenburg

proportions and Fantasy

artists interview

program overview and locations

colophon, tickets

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Henk Heuvelmans

Utrecht has received us warmly, and with all the good things this city has to offer, this year’s festival edition will be totally different from previous years. Today’s music is an international, exceedingly colorful and lively world of composers, ensembles, bands, vocalists, musicians, electronics, video and sound artists active in every corner of the world. from this wide array, the gaudeamus muziekweek presents the most talented, original, and selfwilled young makers to the city of Utrecht to stimulate your senses with their most recent work. we will gladly lead you through this exciting aural landscape of today’s contemporary music. besides the familiar festival features such as the popular gaudeamus prize, the composers’ meeting, The night of the Unexpected, and top dutch ensembles such as klang, vocaallab, the nieuw ensemble, ereprijs, or insomnio, we now also have quite a number of sound installations spread out over the city, new sound systems, and firstclass international musicians such as the seattle chamber players and Tomoko mukaiyama. a music theater walk will depart from our festival hub at the museum speelklok and a daily radio program by our media partner, the vpro, will be broadcast. and naturally we’ll be present at the finest concert locations in Utrecht: vredenburg leeuwenbergh, Tivoli oudegracht, the nicolaikerk, the geertekerk, and the fentener van vlissingenzaal. we are proud that we may contribute to the flourishing of contemporary music in this beautiful city.

we cordially welcome you all to this bubble bath of interesting sounds, where you will become a partner in a new music history!

Henk Heuvelmans director

Today’s mUsic is an inTernaTional, exceedingly colorfUl and lively world of composers, ensembles, bands, vocalisTs, mUsicians, elecTronics, video and soUnd arTisTs acTive in every corner of The world.

here we are!tHiS iS tHe very FirSt time tHat tHe city oF UtrecHt iS HoSting tHe annUaL gaUdeamUS mUziekweek.

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QU

ote

S o

n Q

Uo

teS‘To achieve great things,

two things are needed; a plan, and quite enough time.’ Leonard Bernstein

‘...and if there’s no time for a plan, it’s still worth a try...’ Yannis Kyriakides

‘Do not rely on unplanned music; it comes out as though it were planned, but planned by someone you cross the street to avoid.’ Robert Ashley

‘Thus my piece was selected for Gaudeamus Music Week :)’ Anna Korsun

‘And not enough money.’ Trevor Grahl

‘Sometimes its good to talk to people you are trying to avoid, then you might know why you wanted to avoid them in the first place.’ Yannis Kyriakides

‘Do not rely on planned music, performers will cross your street anyway and plan it their own way... The result will be unplanned and you can’t avoid it :)’Anna Korsun

‘I prefer to make my plans only on Friday night – any other would hamper me in some way. Why are people so afraid of surprises?’ Trevor Grahl

english — gaudeamus muziekweek 2011 — 3

This festival is about tomorrow’s music made by tomorrow’s composers, about new, contemporary, uptotheminute music. The heart of the program consists of works by the thirteen composers nominated for the gaudeamus prize.

The jury of the Gaudeamus Prize nominated thirteen works from four hundred compositions submitted from all over the world. The pieces demonstrate the diversity of today’s composing: from the extremely concentrated sensitivity of ‘Départ dans...’ by Yoshiaki Onishi to the muscled rock sounds in ‘Velvet Hammer’ by Sean Friar, or the fragile, expressive vocal qualities of Anna Korsun’s ‘Landscapes’. Thirteen pieces, praised by jury chairperson Rozalie Hirs as ‘really very good’. In addition to the nominated compositions, we will also meet a few former winners of the Gaudeamus Prize. Yannis Kyriakides and Ted Hearne won the competition in 2000 and 2009 respectively and now present new works, per-formed by Tomoko Mukaiyama with the Seattle Chamber Players, and Ensemble Klang. We will also hear the results of two honorable mentions from last year’s competition: Insomnio will play a new piece by Artur Akshelyan and Dirk Luijmes ventures into a new piece by Giuliano Bracci.

The competition houses a multitude of styles, genres, and idioms that likewise translate to the rest of the program during the Gaudeamus Muziekweek.

A week that crackles right from the start with a performance by the Rosa Ensemble at Neude Square, the heart of the city and the main loca-tion of the Utrecht Uitfeest that day, the kick-off of the cultural season. For many years orkest de ereprijs has organized its own international Young Composers Meeting, where the ensemble

works on new pieces with young composers. This year’s four winners – Ryan Latimer, Peter McNamarra, Thierry Tidrow and Benjamin Scheuer – will be presented in a special program at the Fentener van Vlissingenzaal in the Utrecht Conservatory.

During the Muziekweek you of course will hear the very best Dutch musicians specialized in contemporary music. In addition to the above-mentioned ensembles, you can listen to the Nieuw Ensemble, the DoelenKwartet and VocaalLAB in programs built around the nomi-nated pieces. In the Museum Speelklok, vocalist Stephanie Pan and pianist Sarah Nicolls will per-form commissioned works, works at the cutting edge of electronic and acoustic music. Here you will hear pieces by Wouter Snoei, Chad Langford, Gert-Jan Prins, Hugo Morales, Daniel Schorno, Danny de Graan and Robert van Heumen.

Hexnut connects very diverse styles – jazz, metal, classic, and improvisation – in its reper-tory, and will bring a multi-colored program inspired by Edward Burtynsky’s fascinating photos. Hexnut asked Jan Bas Bollen, Anthony Fiumara, Mayke Nas, Seung-Ah Oh, David Dramm and Ned McGowan to write a composi-tion inspired by Burtynsky’s photography.

The Muziekweek demonstrates that many composers are looking for connections with other art disciplines.

VocaalLab presents a program around vocality, video, and light, in which new works by Roderik de Man and the Belgians Daan Janssens and

Luc Brewaeys may be heard, in addition to one of the pieces nominated for the Gaudeamus Prize, ‘Landscapes’ by Anna Korsun, and Raphaël Cendo, currently a leading composer in Europe.

And that’s not all that can be musically expe-rienced during this Muziekweek. Barbara Lüneburg comprised a program with music for violin and live electronics; Elisabeth Smalt and Vincent Hepp will play a shortlisted piece for two violas by Andrew McIntosh; the brand new initia-tive under the name European Contemporary Orchestra may be heard in various small groups in various locations (in co-production with the Open Monumentendag) and will perform works by Ezequiel Menalled and Christiaan Richter and more; and a special sound walk by Robert van Heumen and Simone de Jong combines music and text in an individual ‘road trip’. The Night of the Unexpected is exactly what the title signi-fies: musicians from all corners of the spectrum bring together a staggering quantity of musical styles, and string these into a non-stop program that lasts an entire evening in the Tivoli pop stage. The musical travel story ‘Götterfunken’ by Wilbert Bulsink and Jeroen Kimman, performed by Rosa Ensemble of Utrecht, rounds off the week.

But even that is not all. Elsewhere in this maga-zine you can find information about the sound installations set up in the Museum Speelklok and throughout the city. There’s also special atten-tion for the different ways in which music and electronics can interact.

An overview of the whole program can be found on page 14 and 15.

meet tomorrow’s composers

Edward Burtynsky

Hexnut

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UtrecHt and mUSic

for the first time the gaudeamus muziekweek is being held in Utrecht. how musicminded is Utrecht? we asked three directors of Utrecht art institutions about the musical experience that impressed them the most: vera carasso of the museum speelklok, nanette ris of muziekcentrum vredenburg and lucia claus of the Utrecht stadsschouwburg.

Museum Speelklok offers a natural environment for the Gaudeamus Muziekweek. The museum’s brilliant collection demonstrates mankind’s fascination for ‘magic’ machines capable of pro-ducing music without human interference.

compoSerS Have aLwayS Been intereSted in expLoiting tHe SpeciFic tecHnicaL QUaLitieS oF tHiS Set oF inStrUmentS and itS more recent SUcceSSorS.

Not many organ grinders will have heard of the American Conlon Nancarrow, but he was the first composer to seriously use automatic music instruments and to write pieces that could only be performed by these machines. The pianola, of which a few beautiful examples are housed in the museum, was the principal instrument for which Nancarrow composed. Like a street organ, the pianola is a piano with a mechanism that ‘reads’ a book with punched holes, which in turn oper-ates the keyboard. The Disklavier – the modern, digital second cousin of the pianola – will also be presented at the festival, at the two ‘Disklavier Plus’ concerts on Thursday, September 8th.

in paSt decadeS, compoSerS witH a FaScination For mUSic macHineS Have Linked mUSic and tHe viSUaL artS.

During the Muziekweek a number of sound installations by leading Dutch artists may be seen and heard at the Museum Speelklok. Among the museum’s street organs and musi-cal boxes are two interactive installations by composer Dyane Donck and artist Jake de Vos. Dyane Donck will also present ‘Yesterday’ and a new work, both made in cooperation with com-poser and performer Evelien van den Broek. We can also experience the successful Brabant duo Rob van Rijswijk and Jeroen Strijbos with their mysterious ‘Dadoc’, where listeners can create their own ideal aural environment by turning

for the first time gaudeamus muziekweek is being held in Utrecht, with the celebrated museum speelklok serving as the festival center. during the entire week this museum will be the hub of the festival, where in addition to information on the festival activities, concerts will be staged and beautiful sound installations may be admired. moreover, the museum forms the beginning and the end of the sound walk, ‘like harry’.

naTUrally, The mUziekweek will also end aT The mUseUm speelklok, wiTh The gaUdeamUs prize awards ceremony on sUnday, sepTember 11Th.

vera caraSSomUSeUm SpeeLkLok

‘i find it difficult to name a single experience. music is very dependent on the setting and the moment. at home on the couch with a beautiful cd on and a glass of wine is so different from actually going to a concert. in may, we presented two concerts at the museum speelklok on our brand new stage, with ‘daring crossovers’ as theme, whereby musicians were inspired by instruments in our collection. Jan kees de ruijter, our arranger at the museum speelklok, can rework all sorts of music for the instruments in the collection. Jazz horn player morris kliphuis chose something for one of our most beautiful barrel organs, for which Jan kees made glittering arrangements. The musicians who played that evening, including ellen ten damme, lucky fonz iii, wouter hamel and christiaan kuyvenhoven, thought it was fantastic. The best thing at a concert is when the musicians themselves become inspired and that the audience can feel it. at our ‘daring crossovers’, old instruments were used in a new context, resulting in a very special experience. That evening was really unique. you couldn’t go to that concert anywhere else. That uniqueness also made it very special, of course. and at the same time one thinks, why can’t we do this again? so that more people could hear it! luckily, there are many more exciting ‘daring crossovers’ scheduled at the museum speelklok in the near future.’

museum speelklok: festival hub

Rob van Rijswijk / Jeroen Strijbos, Dadoc

various sounds on and off. Also on offer are the musical boxes that Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of electronic music’s most significant pioneers, constructed for his the Zodiac series.

‘Like Harry’ offers quite a different view on how music and sound can be situated in a special context, in this case, in the public space of Utrecht. This music theater walk by Robert van Heumen and Simone de Jong is a philosophical music trip, whereby the thoughts of someone else, namely Harry, nestle in your head. ‘Like Harry’ is an individual walk through the center of Utrecht, beginning and ending at the Museum Speelklok. Of course, information about the Muziekweek is available at the festival desk in the Museum Speelklok, and there are plenty of opportunities for the general public to meet composers and musicians at the festival café.

via a Live Stream on internet, tHe vpro radio Station wiLL preSent a daiLy BroadcaSt on tHe FeStivaL, wHicH makeS tHe mUziekweek acceSSiBLe to a Large pUBLic.

The Muziekweek will close in style with the multimedia performance ‘Götterfunken’ by the Rosa Ensemble from Utrecht, composed by Wilbert Bulsink and Jeroen Kimman, and inspired by a cycling trip, biking thousands of kilometers along the borders of Eastern Europe. Naturally, the Muziekweek is only really rounded off when the winner of the Gaudeamus Prize is announced at the end of this concert in the Museum Speelklok. This first presentation of the Muziek-week in Utrecht gains extra luster by the pres-ence of the mayor of Utrecht, Aleid Wolfsen, who will personally award the prize.

Sound installation route

Wed 7, Sat 10 en Sun 11 September,

from 12.00 hours

Various locations

Like Harry


from 11:00 hours, Museum Speelklok

departure between 11:00 and 12:00,

13:30 and 14:30, 16:00 and 17:00 hours (except Sunday)

disklavier plus

Thu 8 September, 12:30 and 17:00 hours

Museum Speelklok

rosa ensemble – götterfunken

Sun 11 September, 17:00 hours

Museum Speelklok

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Audiences are getting older and you’re sup-posed to attract younger audiences (who, for that matter, will also get older as time goes on). And younger audiences simply want Something Different. Spectacle! Artists want it, too. They want a video with their concert, or a light show during an aria, or female dancers to liven up a piano sonata. An artist is always looking for new expressive possibilities.

That very well may be, but I think it’s actually all about one thing: you don’t get anywhere with only sound, and maybe we never got anywhere with only sound, because in reality we humans don’t only listen. It’s impossible not to simultaneously look, feel, smell, be conscious of your surroundings, of the social context, and of the demands these make.

The concertgoer who doesn’t close his eyes the whole evening is not only listening, he/she is also (unconsciously) looking around at the musi-cians, or at the plaster ornaments all around, or at the irritating person coughing over there on row four. But especially at what’s going on onstage. We can’t do otherwise. It’s always been a challenge to take into account the inability of humans to only listen (and not to look). Compos-ers, musicians, concert programmers, producers of radio programs, everyone wrestles in vain with the same questions.

You can imagine new presentation forms as to locations, mediums, social context, and prepara-

tory methods. I’ve noticed a few examples lately, which I don’t mention below as advice or results, just as opinions.

As to locations, concert halls are barely a match for old factory halls, shopping malls, churches, various outdoor sites, small art galleries, museums, you name it. At Christmas I saw a talented cellist in the Albert Hein grocery market at Schiphol Airport: Bach with broccoli. A few months ago, music by Peter Adriaansz was excellently performed at the old sawmill in the Pastoe Factory in Utrecht.

Linear materialistic warehouse media increas-ingly share their position with streaming offered on Internet, with on-demand items on web sites, with the quickly growing role of social media, and with other new possibilities in the digital revolution. The Radio 4 ‘Eigentijds’ program increasingly makes not only an audio recording, but also a video recording, which is placed online. Museum audio tours are a long established prac-tice; we’re now waiting for audio tours through the concert hall. No, that’s not live, but after all, neither were LPs or the kitchen radio, Last FM, YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, or iTunes. Yes, Justin Bennett already did something with audio walks, but is he a composer or a sound artist? An astounding example of a viral is the YouTube films with the new opera by Nico Muhly, premiered in London at the end of June.

We have to look for an ‘un-performance’ for new social contexts, alternatives in addition to traditional concerts. The flash mob by MCO at Dam Square in Amsterdam last May, a protest against cutbacks, would also have been possible without that calamitous reason. Satie’s ‘Vexa-tions’ were performed as a relay for pianists in a gallery on the other side of the street during November Music 2010. The Amsterdam pianist Lucanet doesn’t perform onstage, but combines her music with short, playful films on YouTube.

And varying forms of classical music at all sorts of festivals – pop, family, cultural, or just cozy – is almost a must, with or without a DJ.

And lastly, on the make-up of a performance. When will the relationships between the different ‘ingredients’ of a ‘performance’ become flexible, variable, and irrelevant? When does the question if something is a ‘concert with video’ or a ‘slide show with music’ become not more than a question about the technical prerequi-sites, instead of a step towards the correct way of venue-related pigeon-holing? Arnoud Noordegraaf (A.M. in the Holland Festival) makes splendid films, uh... music pieces... uh... videos? Yes, yes, and yes.

The only thing I’m still waiting for is a new piece by an inventive composer in the form of a computer game. Then adventurous music will finally become an adventure...

aad van nieuwkerkchief editor VPRO Radio 4

During the festival the Dutch broadcasting organization VPRO will record a special festival program. The concert recordings will be made in close co-operation with the Concertzender, VPRO Radio 4 and the web radio station Radio 4 Eigentijds. There will be online broadcasts through a livestream at www.radio4.nl/eigentijds and on September 15th there will be a broadcast featuring all the highlights from the Muziekweek at Radio 4.

‘Perhaps many of the perplexing problems of the new music could be put into a new light if we were to reintroduce the ancient idea of music being a reflection of nature.’ George Crumb

‘Reintroducing an idea will take us one step away from nature, which might not be such a bad thing.’ Yannis Kyriakides

‘Nature has her own music and music has her own nature.’ Anna Korsun

‘And indeed, as Wilde reminds us, if we view nature as being a reflection of art!’ Trevor Grahl

Aad van Nieuwkerk

aad van nieUwkerk

new mUsic – new forms

new ways of presenTing new mUsic: iT seems like everyone’s Talking aboUT This. iniTiaTives shooT Up like mUshrooms: orchestras are changing tack, concert halls are reconsidering their ageold principles, and festivals are presenting symphonic repertory together with trendy dJs and grunge bands as a matter of course. The question is ‘why?’.

photo: Pieter K

ersph

oto: Pieter Kers


mUziekweek 2.0

martijn BUSerprogram and prodUction gaUdeamUS mUziekweek

tHat tHe gaUdeamUS mUziekweek moved to UtrecHt aFFordS US witH tHe opportUnity to create a new identity For tHe FeStivaL. BUt tHe QUeStion iS: How to adjUSt a FeStivaL Format witHoUt damag-ing itS contentS too mUcH.

This was our challenge when we started to try to reinvent the festival in Utrecht as of this past January. we wanted to use the center of Utrecht to our advantage because it offers so many excellent stages, churches, and other places, and everything is within walking distance. This fact challenged me to think about a number of shorter programs in a single evening. not concerts at one location with a single program centered on one ensemble, but an evening full of diverse performers, composers, and locations. our aim is to make the concerts exciting, with challenging programs that continually surprise the public. in addition, we’ve done up the locations specifically for the muziekweek; you really have to feel that you’re at a muziekweek concert. as an extra attraction, we’ve placed remarkable sound installations at the concert locations, to make your evening complete before, during, and after the concerts.

another challenge was to make the composer more visible. Ultimately, the composer has the main responsibility for what we hear, but usually he/she is anonymously present in the audience. during the concerts we want to bring the composers closer to the audiences and ‘give them the microphone’ so that they can explain what inspired them. i can’t reveal yet in what format this will be, but on the web site of the muziekweek you can meet a number of the nominated composers through their personal short videos, allowing you to become acquainted with them in a fun and easily accessible way.

we Hope tHat we’ve Been SUcceSS-FUL in reinventing oUrSeLveS and tHat aS a FeStivaL viSitor yoU wiLL enjoy tHiS FirSt renewed FeStivaL edition in UtrecHt.

Barbara Lüneburg

Wed 7 September,

12:30 and 22:45 hours

Van Schijndelhuis

disklavier plus

Thu 8 September,

12:30 and 17:00 hours

Speelklok Museum

Sarah Nicolls

Muziekhuis Utrecht

Barbara Lüneburg

with computers, midi, and a rich arsenal of new methods and techniques in today’s manipulation of sound, it seems as if there are infinite possibilities in the electronic music field.

a major challenge for both composers and musicians is the use of electronic sound manipulation in live situations; we will hear examples of this during the muziekweek.

the disklavier – the digital descendent of the pianola – plays the main role in ‘diskla-vier plus’, two concerts for this instrument in combination with live electronics and other instruments. the conlon Foundation stimu-lates composers to write for the disklavier, and today we will hear commissioned works by wouter Snoei, chad Langford, gert-jan prins, and Hugo morales. the piece by morales will be performed by the english pianist Sarah nicolls. the second concert presents the ver-satile singer and performer Stephanie pan in a new work by danny de graan. the program also presents new works by daniel Schorno, robert van Heumen and the winner of the international conlon music prize for diskla-vier plus 2011.

Barbara Lüneburg, an expert in combining the violin with live electronics, will perform new pieces by arturo Fuentes, Lou mallozzi, Henry vega, and john croft within the inspiring architectural setting of the van Schijndelhuis. She will also perform ‘chameleon chant’ by malle maltis, a piece that turned out to be the winner of the third edition of the ecpnm european competition for Live electronic music projects.

in her other performance at the muziekweek, Barbara Lüneburg embarks into a multi-media

environment. the pieces she plays by marko ciciliani and yannis kyriakides are written for violin, live electronics, video and light/laser. Here music and imagery engage in a dialog proceeding from different languages: a search for how light and sound affect each other and which energies that releases.

as will become apparent in this concert by barbara lüneburg, composers of electronic music are not only searching for new sounds, they also want to realize new listening experiences.

at the muziekhuis Utrecht (the office of the gaudeamus muziekweek), you will find a set-up of the trail-blazing sound system called wave Field Synthesis. this advanced speaker system was developed because of the desire to expand the possibilities of the spatial representation of electronic music. the 192 speakers in this system suggest the movement of sound and aim at a realistic reconstruction of the natural behavior of sound. at the lunch concert on Friday, September 9th, pieces by the young composers ji youn kang and yota morimoto may be heard at the muziekhuis Utrecht, produced by this sound system.

‘When I’m writing, sometimes it gets to that place where I feel like the piece is writing itself and I’m trying not to get in the way.’ John Zorn

‘I can totally vouch for this, the not getting in the way is the difficult part…’ Yannis Kyriakides

‘Does music write music?’ Anna Korsun

‘And when this happens, one had better not get in the way – it would be like stopping a runaway locomotive. If there’s an accident, clean up later, and go on.’ Trevor Grahl

photo: R

ené M

esman

from the very beginning, electronic music stands out by its source and the ways in which the sound is treated. Tape music, musique concrète, instruments with tape, or instruments with electronic sound manipulation: a whole variety of forms and types have created a continually expanding electronic universe.

From midi to four-dimensional sound

wave Field Synthesis

Fri 9 September,

12:30 hours

Muziekhuis Utrecht

Wave Field Synthesis-systeem, The Game Of Life

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The gaudeamus muziekweek does more than only offering the public good insight into how diverse music can be by the young composers who visit the festival from all over the world. for these composers, the muziekweek is the place to meet each other and to discuss how divergent backgrounds and sources of inspiration can be, how different their training and local musical environments, or how the world looks from their workplace, and how divergent ambitions and future plans can be. The composers learn from the performances of their own works and from working with musicians and ensembles during the festival. and from the performances of colleagues’ work, they also learn how they can move ahead. but this opportunity has to be given to them.

gaUdeamUs mUziekweek as a plaTform for The inTernaTional TalenT‘From that moment on it really took off; commissions poured in from all over Europe.’Dmitri Kourliandski, after winning the Gaudeamus Prize 2003*

‘And then?... Then one more journey. Other days, other lands, different people… and so forever. I’m ready to leave for other distances again because you made me stronger. Thank you for all.’ Valerio Murat, winner Gaudeamus Prize 2002

The gaudeamus prize is not a prize that forms the culmination of a certain route. rather it is a prize that, because it is coupled to a composition commission, forms a concrete step in a young composer’s development and career. with this prize composers really make progress (see the quotations above). Their development can be even more fruitful if this commission acquires a broader perspective. That is why the gaudeamus muziekweek is working with european and world organizations and networks similarly active in the development of talented composers. Thus talented composers selected by gaudeamus can gain even more experience, while in turn the gaudeamus muziekweek gladly welcomes those composers selected by fellow organizations.

in order to give a fresh stimulus to young compositional talent, the new network ‘Ulysses’ was recently formed for organizations such as ircam (paris), internationales musikinstitut darmstadt, impuls (graz), and voix nouvelles (royaumont). with ‘Ulysses’, special talents, such as the winner of the gaudeamus prize, are offered the opportunity of participating in diverse workshops and of working with musicians or other art disciplines in various surroundings. commissions for new compositions will be shared by member organizations and the resulting work will subsequently be performed more often at various new music festivals. The artistic directors of these organizations meet in Utrecht to make future concrete plans and to experience firsthand the unique projects at the muziekweek. new developments by the wave field synthesis, paul oomen’s 4d sound, or the disklavier project are in turn interesting for these organizations. Thus the gaudeamus muziekweek is the starting point for all sorts of international coproductions, exchanges and other types of cooperation.

UtrecHt and mUSic


LUcia cLaUSStadSScHoUwBUrg UtrecHt

‘This question reminds me of the question, ‘which child do i love the most?’ i love my two children inexpressibly and equally, and hope never to have to choose between them. i have many memories of worthwhile moments in which music predominated. although i may wake up tomorrow morning with another, seemingly even more beloved memory, i’ll still choose ‘diep in het bos’, a performance directed by eric de volder, with music by dirk van der harst. To my surprise, in a sloppy stack of cds i find a live recording of three songs of this performance, recorded in 1999. i listen and think that this won’t convince anyone because the context of the piece is missing. rarely was rational thinking (thinking about dutroux’s deeds) so tied to emotions by amazing, unruly music. That music still sounds unruly. it was immeasurably beautiful at the time: seven women, seven voices, a barren stage floor, and no borders for the audacious imagination.’

The idea of an ‘orchestra of the 21st century’ was launched during the gaudeamus muziekweek a few years ago, a new concept combining the symphonic dimension with new technologies, voice, and electronic music instruments; the strength of an orchestra with the flexibility of an ensemble. This special orchestra, baptized as eco, the european contemporary orchestra, is comprised of de ereprijs orchestra (nl), musiques nouvelles (mons, be), and ensemble Télémaque (marseille, fr), in cooperation with gaudeamus muziekweek. in 2013 the orchestra will travel through europe with new works that composers will write in close collaboration with each other. during the gaudeamus muziekweek some of the musicians from the ensembles that participate in the orchestra will work together in three small groups in three short concerts on saturday, september 10th. dutch composers including ezequiel menalled and christiaan richter wrote new works for these short concerts, which audiences in france and belgium will have the opportunity to enjoy later this year.

since its founding, gaudeamus has formed the heart of the ecpnm (european conference of promoters of new music), a network of about seventy festivals and organizations. each year the ecpnm organizes the european competition for live electronic music projects, with the finalists of this competition subsequently touring along the festivals. during the gaudeamus muziekweek, barbara lüneburg will perform the winning works of this competition for violin, electric violin, live electronics, and video in the inspiring architecture of the van schijndelhuis.

in short, gaudeamus never misses the opportunity of offering young composers a chance to continue developing themselves and today’s music, and to continue to excite audiences. www.ecpnm.com www.ecosound.eu www.ulyssesnetwork.eu

* ‘La musique objective’, ed.2E2M, p.11.

eco Small Forms

Sat 10 September, 12:30 hours

Various locations, in co-production

with Open Monumentendag

Barbara Lüneburg

Wed 7 September, 12:30 hours

Van Schijndelhuis

‘The present-day composer refuses to die.’ Edgar Varèse

‘A new composer is born every minute…’ Yannis Kyriakides

‘The present-day composer refuses to have children, if only he is not head of an insurance company :)…’ Anna Korsun

‘Unless the present-day Dutch government kills him or her.’ Trevor Grahl

photo: Jesse N

ortier


beyond The noTes a converSation witH micHeL van der aa and rozaLie HirS

a conversaTion wiTh composer michel van der aa and rozalie hirs, chairperson of This year’s JUry for The gaUdeamUs prize, on The imporTance of This prize for composers.

in 1999, early in his career, michel van der aa participated in the gaudeamus competition with a conceptual piece, ‘between’ for four percussionists and electronics. ‘i was very happy that my piece was selected, that it was played at the festival, and at such a high level of performance. before my concert music had been performed in the netherlands, but that was mostly my music for dance performances. after winning the gaudeamus prize, my career really took off.’

Michel van der Aa

Rozalie Hirs

the jury at work

How did yoU experience partici pating in and winning tHe gaUdeamUS prize? ‘The Gaudeamus Prize is an important podium for composers of the youngest generation in the Netherlands and abroad, and I thought it was wonderful that my piece was performed. At the time it never crossed my mind that I could win the competition. There were so many good pieces that year. I was just sitting there in the hall with a T-shirt on and was totally surprised. I didn’t feel the competitive element in the least.’ Rozalie Hirs: ‘That competitive element isn’t the most important aspect of the prize. Actually, the Muziekweek is about something else: you become inspired, and you meet colleagues and listen to their work. The international character of this prize is remarkable, and friendships are born that often last for the rest of your life. The value of the Gaudeamus Muziekweek as an inter-national meeting place for composers cannot be underestimated.’ wHicH criteria pLayed a roLe in tHe workS SeLected By tHe jUry?Rozalie: ‘I think that all the pieces that we chose (unanimously, that was a prerequisite) are really good. That totaled to only some twenty of the four hundred submissions. From these we chose our favorites. Actually, the pieces that only two of the three jury members thought were good led to the most interesting discussions. It was then that you talked about music, about crafts-manship, about what you think is important. In general, it’s important that the pieces are clearly notated and have something individual to say. You look for something that says something about the maker or about the world. How far does someone dare to go in translating his artis-

tic idea? When a piece really stood out, we got a sort of lucky feeling, we became very enthusiastic and happy. Such a discovery is inspiring.’

Winning the competition meant a lot to Michel: ‘The prize was a firm push for me. Concretely, it was through Gaudeamus that director Armin Köhler of the Donaueschinger Musiktage noticed me. And subsequently, someone from the publisher Boosey & Hawkes was in the concert hall at his festival.’ Rozalie: ‘Someone can always be sitting in the hall who is moved by a piece and wants to do something with it, if it’s the winner or not. But I do think that it’s a very significant step in the career of all the winners.’

According to Michel, winning the prize did not influence his composing: ‘No, I had always been very ambitious, not to become a famous com-poser, but to continually reinvent myself, to develop further. But it was an important feather in my cap. Since then my composing has evolved, although I still don’t understand why I made ‘Between’ back then.’ Rozalie: ‘The most important thing for a composer is that he or she continues composing. That he or she continues to develop regardless of winning a prize or not.’

do yoU tHink tHat witHoUt Having won tHe gaUdeamUS prize yoU woULd Be wHere yoU are now? Michel: ‘It’s impossible for me to answer that. Being performed at the Donaueschinger Musiktage was crucial. Maybe it would have taken longer, maybe not. I am now in the luxuri-ous position that Boosey & Hawkes is active for me. It’s exactly that – having prospects – that has become so difficult for composers now.’

in LigHt oF cUrrent deveLopmentS, SHoULd we Fear tHe end oF aUto-nomoUSLy compoSed mUSic? Rozalie: ‘No, what’s unique about music is that it has something untouchable that can move you. And that is true for autonomous music as well as for film music, for example. I believe quite strongly in the blurring of genres and musical styles, and in the integration of different media, including music, in single works. I think that composers and listeners move ever more freely between different genres and media.’ Michel: ‘There will always be composers, including myself, who will write concert music. But it’s important that composers continue to broaden their viewpoint, that is, if they have a penchant towards this. Composers are increasingly work-ing with imagery, they’re thinking more about stage presentation. People are going beyond the notes. The role of self-sufficient music is certainly changing, but I don’t believe that the combina-tion of music and multimedia is the only answer.’

Works by Michel van der Aa and Rozalie Hirs will be performed at The Night of the Unexpected.


Thu 8 September, 20:30 hours

Tivoli Oudegracht

‘When we separate music from life we get art.’ John Cage

‘Death is the only thing that can separate life from music.’ Yannis Kyriakides

‘If we add art to life, life becomes better, living becomes more cheerful!’ Anna Korsun

‘But in order for this miraculous transformation to occur, we must first learn to listen.’ Trevor Grahl

photo: B

en van Du

in

photo: R

ichard A

yres

photo: C

o Bro

erse


The night of the Unexpected is the title of a special part of the gaudeamus muziekweek. in a single evening the audience embarks on an uninterrupted journey along musical borders, subsonic abysses, and endless soundscapes. all performers play only briefly and are followed without interruption by yet another horizon in the unbounded musical spectrum of The night of the Unexpected. i meet roland spekle, the program director of this evening, while he stops off at Utrecht central station. his enthusiasm for music and for his brainchild translates into a contagious and informative verbal waterfall comparable to the dynamics of The night of the Unexpected itself. That the formula of The night of the Unexpected is successful, is proven by interest in other countries; there are currently contacts with hannover, berlin, moscow, london and istanbul about organizing The night of the Unexpected there. for roland spekle this is an excellent opportunity to realize his goal: exchange and dialogue throughout the entire field of contemporary music.

yoU’ve Been organizing tHe nigHt oF tHe Unexpected For a nUmBer oF yearS now. wHat waS tHe Starting point oF tHiS initiative? ‘The Night of the Unexpected already existed before I joined in 2003. The Night was developed at Gaudeamus because they wanted to organize an evening where the ragged edges of contem-porary music could be included. That’s how electronics, sound art, and even styles related to pop music were hauled into the Gaudeamus Muziekweek. From the start I wanted to create an evening really different from the regular con-cert format and this is the result.’

How did yoU get tHe idea oF organizing a concert tHat comBineS So many diFFerent mUSicianS and StyLeS in a SingLe program?‘A concept like this offers the opportunity of bringing together many different groups and artists into a single, compact program. I got the idea for the concept when I read David Toop’s book An Ocean of Sound. David Toop describes the shock that Claude Debussy felt when he visited the World Exposition in Paris in 1889 and heard the sounds of the Javanese gamelan for the first time. Debussy was amazed by the funda-mentally different music he heard there. From that moment on he began to look for musical sounds unfettered by conventions and beyond the academic rules of harmony, melody, and rhythm. It made me realize that music is timeless and in all corners of the world. All the barriers you raise are arbitrary. With this thought in mind, I wanted to make a statement: contem-

porary music has an enormous palette with colors and styles that develop without borders, which cross and inseminate each other. Mapping the whole musical field without the artificial categories in which some people think, that is what I wanted! That’s how I disassociate myself from the focus on the Western, academic culture of composed music.’

yoU coULd Say tHat tHe nigHt oFFerS a BorderLeSS perSpective on contemporary mUSic. it migHt oFFer compoSed, improviSed, pop, etHnic, djS or BLack metaL. we can rUn into everytHing at tHe nigHt. wHat doeS tHe nigHt try to acHieve witH tHiS diverSity? ‘There are two rules in the concept of this pro-gram. The first is that artists may not perform longer than 15 minutes. This allows for the breadth, diversity, and the dynamics of the whole program to be demonstrated. The audi-ence stays captivated; the momentum of the program holds everyone’s attention. The second rule is that artists may not present themselves on a stage. The traditional 19th-century division between musicians and audience is dissolved. I want to challenge that worn habit offering audi-ences a comfort zone. During The Night of the Unexpected you can’t sit and doze in your chair, you have to stay with it. I wanted to arrange the program so that a pop music fan also wants to listen to and could appreciate ‘Lux Aeterna’ by Ligeti, for example.’Last year at The Night of the Unexpected in Paradiso the interviewer experienced for himself that the dynamics work. After listening to newly composed music for gamelan for some time, the hushed atmosphere was completely smashed to smithereens by the Norwegian metal band Killl. A greater contrast was hardly conceivable, but audience concentration was optimal for both acts.

wHat can yoU teLL US aBoUt tHe program oF tHiS year’S nigHt oF tHe Unexpected?‘The program is still not final, but I can tell you a few things. Pianist Sarah Nicolls will perform ‘Transit’ by Michel van der Aa, and Erik Bosgraaf, a recorder player, will venture into Van der Aa’s work, side by side with music by the 17th-century Jacob van Eyck from Utrecht. Slagwerk Den Haag performs in a set-up around the audience and we will hear and see a piece from ‘Jane’, an absurd and successful combination of film and live music by Jorrit Tamminga, a composer from Utrecht. From a very different corner we’ll hear ‘Hi energy improvisation’ by Lean Left with two guitarists from the Ex, saxophonist Ken Vandermark, and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love.’

How do yoU view tHe reLationSHip Between tHe program at tHe nigHt and tHe reSt oF tHe program at tHe gaUdeamUS mUziekweek? ‘That relationship is very clear. Ensembles specialized in contemporary composed music or pieces nominated by the jury of the Gaudeamus Prize fit into the concept. At the same time we add other accents to demonstrate the develop-ments in new music to its full extent.’

www.thenightoftheunexpected.nl


Thu 8 September, 20:30 hours

Tivoli Oudegracht

Knalpot, 2010

Lean Left

Erik Bosgraaf


photo: Pau

l & M

enn

o de No

oijer

photo: Pieter K

ersph

oto: Maarten M

ooijm

an


The development of sound installations into a mature art discipline stems from two different lines of approach. first of all, composers have the need to develop ‘machines’ that engage in a certain musical interaction with their surroundings or with the beholder. a tendency by visual artists who also want to incorporate sound or music in their art is another development that contributed to this new art form. a leading pioneer in this area was the korean artist nam June paik, who operated at the border of both disciplines and who created a lot of commotion in the fifties and sixties with his sound installations and performances inspired by the fluxus movement. since then, this art form has developed into a flourishing independent art form in which dutch artists such as edwin van der heide and the duo rob van rijswijk and Jeroen strijbos have gained quite some international publicity. located at the museum speelklok are installations by duo pairs rob van rijswijk and Jeroen strijbos, dyane donck and Jake de vos, and dyane donck and evelien van den broek, among others. The ‘road trip’ like harry starts at the festival hub, where you can experience the center of Utrecht in a special way, armed with headphones. (for more information, see the article on the festival hub.) in vredenburg leeuwenbergh you can see and hear a new work by Tao g. vrhovec sambolec, born in slovenia, which he made specifically for this location. sambolec’s installations are often enlargements of a specific natural phenomenon or engage in a dialog with the work’s surroundings. at this same location, in the room next to the concert hall, you can see and hear the ceramic sound sculpture ‘whispers’ by rob van rijswijk and Jeroen strijbos, with text fragments and speech forming the basis of a fascinating aural search. The beautiful installation ‘dropper 01’ by the french artist arno fabre is located in the small hall of Theater kikker. he was inspired by water leaking through a roof: eight percussive instruments are set up in a circle under a network of cables and pipes. a computer program controls the water drops that fall from the pipes onto the instruments. four surrounding speakers amplify the sounds and together they create a composition that sounds somewhat like an indonesian gamelan.


carillonist Joost van balkom presents his ‘humming birds’: driven by a computer, small mechanical things that look like small birds tick extremely quickly and softly on the bells of a moving carillon. The result is that the familiar sound of bells being struck changes into the sound of bells being bowed, a totally different sound experience. The pieces that van balkom specifically composed for this new instrument make thankful use of the enormous expansion in the performance possibilities of the traditional carillon. ‘kniktiks’ by hans van koolwijk is at de neude. Just as with arno fabre’s work, ‘kniktiks’ forms a dialog with a natural phenomenon. ‘kniktiks’ are manipulated flagpoles placed in a circle and moved by the wind. Tubular bells are connected to these flagpoles, which ring out when the flags move. when you stand in the middle of the circle, you can hear this bell music driven by the wind. another installation or sound system should also be mentioned. The revolutionary sound system, wave field synthesis a unique system with 192 speakers, reconstructs the natural behavior of sound, and has been set up in muziekhuis Utrecht, the office of the gaudeamus muziekweek.

Arno Fabre, Dropper 01Hans van Koolwijk, Kniktiks

Rob van Rijswijk / Jeroen Strijbos, Whispers

in addition to the concert program, gaudeamus muziekweek also presents new music incorporated in figurative installations. at various locations in the city, the public can view, experience, or operate beautifully formed sound installations.

‘Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.’ Edgar Varèse

‘Genius is a stupid concept.’ Yannis Kyriakides

‘Good! Fewer composers – less competition!’ Anna Korsun

‘...and to reclaim it, we must learn to listen, and to unlearn.’ Trevor Grahl

Sound installation route

Wed 7, Sat 10 and Sun 11 September,

from 12:00 hours

Various locations

Like Harry


from 11:00 hours, Museum Speelklok

departure between 11:00 and 12:00, 13:30 and 14:30,

16:00 and 17:00 hours (except Sunday)

wave Field Synthesis

Fri 9 September, 12:30 hours

Muziekhuis Utrecht

SoUnd inStaLLation roUte

museum Speelklok

Dyane Donck / Jake de Vos, N2O; Multiversum I + II

Dyane Donck / Evelien van den Broek,

Yesterday; Circular Music

Karlheinz Stockhausen, Music boxes from the Zodiac

Rob van Rijswijk / Jeroen Strijbos, Dadoc

Joost van Balkom, Humming Birds

theater kikker

Arno Fabre, Dropper 01

de neude

Hans van Koolwijk, Kniktiks

muziekhuis Utrecht

The Game of Life, Wave Field Synthesis



Wilbert Bulsink & Geert Glas, Götterfunken Ted Hearne will write a new piece for Ensemble Klang and for ECO Small Forms.

where does mUsical inspiraTion come from? whaT prompTs a composer To decide To siT down aT The piano, aT a compUTer, or aT an empTy piece of paper and sTarT? Three composers on inspiraTion and (aUTonomoUs) mUsical Thinking.

biking forinspiraTion

Wilbert Bulsink cycled via Scandinavia to Istanbul. In five months he biked through fifteen countries, covering some 9,000 kilometers. ‘I planned to make short recordings along the way, but not with the purpose of making a piece. It seemed to me to be conceptually interesting to record 15 seconds each day and to string all these samples together as an impression of my trip. By now this has evolved into an entirely different plan for which I’m looking for a form (June 2011). I do have a feeling what it should become: diary fragments, images, stories, and music will all play a role. I want to make a travelogue in music.’

Do you think that such a personal motivation allows for autonomous musical thinking?‘I try to regard the meaning of the material that I recorded while on the road as separate from its

source. I disconnect the recordings from their origins and try to approach them as autono-mous sounds. In addition, I try to take form and structure as my point of departure, leaving both content and inspiration to recede to the background. Thus, although the content is not perfectly autonomous, the way the piece is con-ceived is certainly autonomous. I actually don’t have to know where my inspiration comes from. Ultimately, my composing has more to do with abstract meanings than with concrete musical content. For me, autonomous musical thinking and program music form opposites, but I con-sider both to be valid approaches to music, and I don’t hesitate to mix them together. A piece can be seen as separate from the contextual occasion and from its source of inspiration. Audiences don’t have to have anything to do with that.’

Together with his band Hexnut, Ned McGowan presents a series of pieces based on photos by Edward Burtynsky. It’s McGowan’s idea and he also composed the music of one of these pieces. ‘I wanted to make a cycle about the earth’s trans-formation due to human intervention, based on a number of concepts. These are extrac-tion, refinement, construction, consumption, destruction, and recycling. These themes may be found in Burtynsky’s work, but I formulated them myself. The photos by Burtynsky are both fascinating and shocking, beautiful photos that

nanette riSmUziekcentrUm vredenBUrg

‘i could name at least 100 musical experiences, but what i’ve always remembered is the first concert by hoketus. i was in my early twenties and it was around 1976 or 1977. hoketus, louis andriessen’s ensemble played works by paul koek and huib emmer, among others, at the gemeentemuseum in The hague. it was my first confrontation with minimal music, music reduced the basics. The ensemble had a double instrumentation, set up on each side of the hall, which sort of suggested a competition. it was so exciting because that double instrumentation created an echo effect in which small rhythmical shifts acquired an enormous charge. you started noticing the details a lot and you really began to appreciate it. it gave me a new, totally different listening experience. later i heard it all, glass and reich, but this was really very exciting. it would be great if these special happenings were held more often and if we could bring in young audiences, like then. The hall was full then.’

‘I became aware that all sounds can make meaningful language.’ Karlheinz Stockhausen

‘Our mind which is hard wired to find meaning is tricked into seeing it as meaningful.’ Yannis Kyriakides

‘Think so not only on Sirius.’ Anna Korsun

This quotation has been edited. Stockhausen more likely said: ‘I became aware that all sounds [that I wrote] can make meaningful language.’ Trevor Grahl

i like To Uncover mUsicians’ resisTances and pUsh Them To Take Them on.

UtrecHt and mUSic


confront you with the results of the way mankind deals with the earth.’

If you compose music based on such a concrete source of inspiration, can we still regard it as autonomous musical thinking? ‘Music is a language and I’ve developed my own language. I think in that language, and it has its own logic that is perfectly clear to me. The music is born by imagination, that is, an imagination in sounds, which in this case is stimulated by the selected photos. I didn’t want musical scenery for the photos nor a slideshow as a background to my piece. Images and sound had to be at the same level. The power of contemporary music is that it has the possibility of saying something with today’s sounds. These sounds belong to our time and therefore have meaning for people of today.’

The American composer Ted Hearne won the Gaudeamus Prize in 2009 with a selection from his ‘Katrina Ballads’, inspired by the horrors that the hurricane Katrina caused in New Orleans in 2005.

What inspired him? ‘I am most inspired by the personal influences of individual performers. What is a particular musician’s comfort zone? What are their ‘default’ gestures? What kind of ideas is he/she not used to exploring in music? I like to uncover musicians’ resistances and push them to take them on. I find that inspiration often comes from this challenge – creating a combination of material that contains particles that musicians can recognize as of his or her own DNA as well as particles of foreign material. And how far can I go before this challenge turns a musician against me or against the project? Sometimes this philosophy has failed me, but often it has yielded results that have helped me grow as a composer.’

Ted doesn’t think music has a universal meaning but also doesn’t believe that music can express something purely musical all by itself. ‘That would be foolish to assert. If ‘musical autonomy’ is the idea that music is not truly capable of representing anything beyond itself, I would strongly disagree. Yet the same piece may be capable of representing a tangible idea that is

received and accepted by a small group or even an individual. When each of us receives music, we situate it within a constellation of our prior experiences. I don’t see a way that this can be avoided – or could ever have been truly avoided at any point in the history of music, for that matter. Furthermore, much of the interest in music can be found in the interplay of genres or influences, and the layered conceptions of lineage and cul-tural dialogue that this interplay provokes.’

Hexnut

Wed 7 September, 21:00 hours

Vredenburg Leeuwenbergh

eco Small Forms


Various locations, in coproduction

with Open Monumentendag

ensemble klang



rosa ensemble


Museum Speelklok

photo: G

eert Glas

photo: A

rthu

r Kaye


proporTions and fanTasy Ulrich Pöhl is artistic director and conductor of

the Insomnio ensemble of Utrecht, one of the leading ensembles in Dutch musical life. During the Muziekweek, Insomnio will perform with exclusively new works: four nominated composi-tions, and a piece by Artur Akshelyan, the result of the honorable mention he received at the Gaudeamus Muziekweek 2010.

How do you work on a piece that you don’t know? ‘As a conductor, I have the score and I take care that I know it before I start working with the musicians for the first time. The musicians expect that from me. Actually, it hardly ever happens that I don’t understand a piece. What does happen is that a piece is so boarded up on paper that I can hardly imagine the result. That also says something about the quality of the com-position. If you can’t see the music among all those notes, then there’s no point in going on. I rate good proportions in a composition as very important, proportions and fantasy. What I also find important is if the score includes contact between the various players. Naturally and happily, I’m occasionally surprised during a rehearsal. Sometimes something like that

strengthens my interpretation, but in some instances I alter something.’

Pete Harden, artistic director of Ensemble Klang, points out the importance of the context of each piece. ‘That context is important, especially if it’s a very abstract piece! With a piece such as ‘Katrina Ballads’ by Ted Hearne you naturally look at what the texts mean. It’s not only the literal meaning of the words, but it’s also about the ‘social ecology’ of a piece.’ Does that information change the interpretation of a piece? ‘Yes, absolutely!’

Pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama isn’t often surprised by the score of a new piece: ‘Unfortunately, I haven’t seen anything with new notation or a new language in a long time. I can always com-pare it with something that already exists. That I can’t identify a score at all doesn’t occur often. There’s always a reference to something else. I’m very familiar with scores as a medium and they generally afford enough information. The advantage of living composers is that you can always phone them.

Tomoko Mukaiyama

Ensemble Klang Ulrich Pöhl

almosT by definiTion, new mUsic forms a challenge To aUdiences. bUT firsT and foremosT iT’s a challenge To The mUsicians who see a composiTion for The firsT Time. how do yoU faThom The mUsical langUage of a piece before yoU’re familiar wiTh iT? a small ToUr along a pianisT and Two arTisTic ensemble direcTors reveals ThaT The composer is rarely offside in inTerpreTing and rehearsing a new piece.

naTUrally and happily, i’m occasionally sUrprised dUring a rehearsal. someTimes someThing like ThaT sTrengThens my inTerpreTaTion, bUT in some insTances i alTer someThing.

Pete Harden affirms this: ‘Because we work with the six of us and everyone always participates in everything, we are all familiar with a piece at all levels. It always takes a lot of rehearsal time, but it’s not often that a piece remains incompre-hensible.’

What’s the case with the pieces that will be performed by Tomoko Mukaiyama and the Seattle Chamber Players at the Muziekweek? ‘Because I’m quite familiar with the language of the pieces that I will perform during the Muziekweek (‘Satellites’ by Yannis Kyriakides, and ‘Style Wars V – Minimal Madness’ by Michiel Mensingh), I easily get a grip on these pieces. I have known Kyriakides’s music for a long time, some ten years now, and I’ve already played a piece by Mensingh. That’s why I’m quite familiar with their language, which makes my introduc-tion to a new piece easier.’

Increasingly, composers prefer workshop set-ups to try out their first compositional sketches. In turn, they integrate this feedback in their piece in the making. Ulrich Pöhl is positive about this way of working: ‘Then you can really model something on an ensemble, address the specific qualities of the musicians and the ensemble. That also improves the quality of a composition.’ Pete Harden confirms the advantages of such an exchange: ‘Composers sometimes arrive with only a few measures or only an idea, which we then discuss extensively. That makes a lot of difference. Many composers are searching for another relationship between their work and the musicians who have to play it. And some composers gladly allow the performers quite some freedom.’

insomnio

Mon 5 September, 20:15 hours


Seattle chamber players /

tomoko mukaiyama



ensemble klang



‘People whose sensibility is destroyed by music in trains, airports, lifts, cannot concentrate on a Beethoven Quartet.’ Witold Lutoslawski

‘People who think that a Beethoven string quartet is the only sensible musical experience cannot hear music in trains, airports and lifts.’ Yannis Kyriakides

‘Russian subway. Noise level 90 dB. Who is Beethoven?.’ Anna Korsun

‘I prefer to take this literally: because of Muzak in public spaces, our population can concentrate on everything else normally, but just not a Beethoven Quartet.’ Trevor Grahl

photo: R

achel N

iebo

rgph

oto: Do

rota Walen

tynow

icz

Documents

Gaudeamus Muziekweek festival magazine 2011