| FREITAG
- 22 MAI 2015 - 20h
ECPNM - guitar duos
KOMMENTAR In Spring 2014, Sound of Stockholm, a festival member of ECPNM (European Conference of Promoters of New Music) commissioned 5 works from 5 different Swedish composers. The commission was for 5 duos for guitar, for young musicians between the ages of 10-12. Pedagogues from Värmdö music school have worked with the pieces together with students and premiered them during Sound of Stockholm 2014. Discover these fascinating pieces now with HEMU's acclaimed guitarist Prof. George Vassilev, together with his students, during Forum Wallis Festival as a Swiss premiere. A program curated by ECPNM (European Conference of Promoters of New Music).
PROGRAMM Patrik Simmerud (*1963) André Chini (*1945) Sven-David Sandström (*1942) Lars Carlsson (*1972) Ylva Q Arkvik
MITWIRKENDE HEMU Site de Sion
EINE ZUSAMMENARBEIT VON
André Chini (1945*) was born in France. He studied music in Toulouse, Rouen, and Paris before continuing his studies in Italy. Married to a dancer of the Royal Opera in Stockholm, he moved to Sweden where he resides to this day. Thanks to the generous Swedish cultural policy, he can entertain his vision of composing music on a lakeside, inspired by the midnight sun in the summer and the ice creaking in the winter. Yet he does not escape the world: his works testify to a deep engagement against racism, death penalty, torture, or French nuclear tests on the Pacific. André Chini is a member of the Swedish Academy of Music. He has received the Hilding Rosenberg Prize from the Swedish Composers’ Union for his compositional career, and the Christa Johansson Award from the Swedish Academy of Music for his piano concerto L’Indien.
The Swedish composer Patrik Simmerud (*1963) studied at the Kapellsberg Music School in Härnösand, the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris and Fondazione Accademia Chigiana, Italy. Since 1993, Simmerud has participated in contemporary music festivals in Europe as well as USA, and his works have been performed in concert halls all over the world.
No composer has made such an impression on contemporary Swedish musical life as Sven-David Sandström (*1942). His catalogue of works, which includes some 300 compositions, gives proof not only of an impressive productivity, but also contains an amazingly wide range: everything from magnificent operas and oratorios to intimate choral and chamber music. With his unlikely combination of creativity and diligence in the craft of composition, restless curiosity and firmly-rooted mastery of form, Sandström alternates, to all appearances unconcerned, between a sophisticated orchestral texture and musical melodies, film music and music for the church. In the 2000s he has focused especially on sacred choral music. Sven-David Sandström had his breakthrough in 1972 with Through and through, an orchestral work that was met with international response when two years later it was performed by the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Sandström quickly established himself as a leading modernist in the younger generation of Scandinavian composers, not seldom with scores of a terrifying degree of difficulty. Pierre Boulez chose, for example, to conduct his piece Utmost with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Around 1980 a decisive turning point occurred in Sven-David Sandström's tone language. Without abandoning the high demands on his executants his musical form of address became simpler, more emotional. The epoch-making Requiem De ur alla minnen fallna, a mighty fresco over the infanticide of the Holocaust, stands out today as one of the most prominent works in 20th-century Swedish music. A number of choral works began to pour from Sandström's pen, all of them eagerly sought after by Sweden's many elite choirs. At the same time his interest in the stage was aroused and resulted in, among other works, six original ballet scores. High Mass (1994), a monumental work for five female vocal soloists, large choir and orchestra, modeled on J.S. Bach's Mass in B minor, was received with high acclaim. With the Mass text laid out in 25 movements, just like the model, the tone language is nonetheless Sandström's own throughout. This powerful Mass was also performed ten years later in Bach's city of Leipzig with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under the baton of Herbert Blomstedt, and a recording was issued on Deutsche Grammophon. Already in the 1980s Sven-David Sandström had composed a couple motets for choir after baroque models: a kind of homage to Henry Purcell and Dietrich Buxtehude. After High Mass he started to feel an affinity with the old masters, especially Bach. Sandström has expressed the wish to link himself to the tradition. He has therefore given us Ordet (The Word) (2004), a large-scale "passion" with the evangelist part tailored for Anne Sofie von Otter. For the librettist he chose the poet Katarina Frostensson, with whom he had collaborated already in the successful opera Staden (The Town) (1996). Further, he composed a Christmas Oratorio (2004), the cantata Wachet auf (2008) and, commissioned by Helmuth Rilling's Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, a Magnificat (2005) with an orchestral texture for baroque period instruments. Rilling and the Oregon Bach Festival are also behind the commission of the colossal Messiah (2009), set to the exact same text as Handel's well-known version. The series of six motets after Bach's originals occupies a special position. The initiative was taken by choir professor Stefan Parkman and resulted in Lobet den Herrn. This inspired Ingemar Månsson, who was once the conductor of the Hägersten Motet Choir where Sandström had sung with the tenors for many years, to place an order for Singet dem Herrn, a work for double choir. In 2008 Sandström was able to conclude this unique collection of motets, each one dedicated to a capable Swedish choir leader. Also in his occupational role Sven-David Sandström has been inspired by the great cantor of St. Thomas. In 2008, when his ten-year professorship in composition at the prestigious Bloomington University in Indiana came to an end, he was able to realize a long-cherished dream: to compose, like Bach, for all the feast days of the ecclesiastical year. He has gladly taken upon himself to deliver music on a regular basis: one work every other week. The compositional process evolves in close cooperation with the musical ensembles at Stockholm Cathedral and Gustaf Sjökvist. But also with choir leader Mona Ehntorp in the Stockholm suburb of Hässelby's congregation, and its more modest resources. This is a gift, as unique as it is generous, to the Swedish Church and its active musical life. Sven-David Sandström's complete church-year cycle is scheduled to be finished by the spring of 2011, and with 65 works to cover all the Sundays. The major part of these works is music of varying complexity for a cappella choir, but there are also cantatas for soloist and organ, as well as purely instrumental works. (Camilla Lundberg) http://www.svendavidsandstrom.com/
Lars Carlsson, born in 1972, is a swedish composer and sound artist currently living in Gothenburg. His latest solo-album Laplaces Demon Electronica was released on Swedish label Firework Edition Records. One third of the record was released last year in an exclusive vinyl edition on the label Geiger Grammonfon, receiveing favourable reviews. His piano piece Constructions for piano solo was awarded first price in a composition contest hosted by Musikspegeln, Swedish Television. Lars Carlsson’s creativity is free and not bound to any specific style or aesthetic. His aim is to start from zero, with a blank canvas, creating something contrasting his previous work. His ambition is to break down traditions, conventions and hierarchical structures while maintaining true to his own creativity. His inspiration often stems from everyday phenomena such as the city lights, processes and patterns in nature or in things most people would consider ugly, in things that wasn’t meant to be and in political thoughts about equality or power. His flows of ideas are constant and its tonal results often have a conceptual touch. Lars works with “traditional” sound art but also with EAM, sound installations and beat based electronica and improvisation. His music has previously been performed by The Gothenburg Combo, Anna Lindal, Mårten Falk, My Hellgren, CCP, Mimitabu, the Royal Philharmonics, the Symphony Orchestras in Gothenburg, Malmö and Norrköping, Musica Vitae, KammarensembleN and the University of Illinois. He has also made music for dance pieces and short films. In 2004 Lars and poet Fredrik Nyberg formed the text/sound duo MonoMono. Today the cellist My Hellgren is also part of the group.
Ylva Q. Arkvik has a thorough musical background, yet still the path to composition was far from straight. She worked as a ballet accompanist, read musicology at Uppsala University, and after graduating as a cantor went on to study music teaching at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. It was herer where she also studied composition, earning her diploma in 2000. Arkvik has written pieces for most orchestral settings, including electroacoustic music, chamber and orchestral music, opera and theatre music. What inspires her is the synthesis of different forms of expression, which has led to collaborations with artists from very diverse fields, such as sculpture, dance and poetry. She has also written several solo works for specific musicians, as well as pieces uniting instrumentalists with electronics. She wrote a chamber opera, Solitario, with poet Eva Runefelt, and an emotionally charged mini-opera Du får inte gå! with author Eva Ström based on the events of 9/11. Ylva Q. Arkvik has a thorough musical background, yet still the path to composition was far from straight. She worked as a ballet accompanist, read musicology at Uppsala University, and after graduating as a cantor went on to study music teaching at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. It was herer where she also studied composition, earning her diploma in 2000. Arkvik has written pieces for most orchestral settings, including electroacoustic music, chamber and orchestral music, opera and theatre music. What inspires her is the synthesis of different forms of expression, which has led to collaborations with artists from very diverse fields, such as sculpture, dance and poetry. She has also written several solo works for specific musicians, as well as pieces uniting instrumentalists with electronics. She wrote a chamber opera, Solitario, with poet Eva Runefelt, and an emotionally charged mini-opera Du får inte gå! with author Eva Ström based on the events of 9/11. Her music is often harsh, even passionately intense at times, but is mostly mournfully restrained and steeped in a kind of fantastical, abrasive melodic tincture. Pieces exemplifying these traits include Tid läggs som tunt papper över beröringarna, Que for saxophone quartet and Skarpa, vassa for solo violin. Unlike many of her generation, Arkvik does not imbue her music with stylistic fusions, bur remains firmly rooted in the modernist tradition with an intensely concentrated mode of expression. (Tony Lundman)
Considered as guitarist with unique artistry, musical approach and mastery on his instrument, George Vassilev was born in Bulgaria in 1966. He started his guitar studies with Lijuben Haralambiev in Varna. In 1987 he continued his development at the Kiev Conservatory in Ukraine with N. Mikhailenko. Later he graduated "concert degree" classes from the Geneva Conservatory in Switzerland with Maria Livia Sao-Marcos, then with Ingolf Olsen at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. G. Vassilev has been awarded first prizes in several prestigious international competitions, such as: 1988- First prize at the International Guitar Competition "Silesian Guitar Autumn", Tychy, Poland lll 1991- First prize at the International Guitar Competition "Città di Alessandria", Alessandria, Italy lll 1992- First prize at the International Competition for Musical Performers "Maria Canals de Barcelona" , Barcelona, Spain lll 1992/ 1994- Second prize and the prize of the audience (1992) at the International Guitar Competition "Francisco Tàrrega", Benicasim, Spain lll 1995- Second prize at the International Guitar Competition "Jacinto e Inocencio Guerrero" in Madrid, Spain (First prize has been not awarded)lll 1995- First prize at the International Competition for Musical Performers (CIEM), Geneva, Switzerland. George Vassilev has performed in prestigious music venues worldwide, including the St-Peterburg’s Hermitage, Opera House, Sydney, Royal Festival Hall, London, Victoria Hall, Geneva, New Opera House, Copenhagen, The Arts Centre, Melbourne, Waterfront Hall, Belfast among others. As a soloist, G. Vassilev has been invited to collaborate with concerts managers such as The Springboard Concert Trust, LACCS and IMG Artists in U.K., "Georg Horthagel's Konzertdirektion" in Germany and has performed with orchestras, such as the National Symphony Orchestra of Italy, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the St. Petersburg Hermitage Chamber Orchestra, the Sofia State Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Danish Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and others. While pursuing his solo activities he has always found great inspiration in chamber music through different variety of genres - from renaissance and baroque to tango, jazz and electroacoustic music. His eclectic personality and cosmopolitan artistic interests involved him in projects, which constantly cross stylistic borders, exploring new horizons and relations between music, sound, images, lights, movements or dance. George Vassilev is often sought after for collaboration as a chamber musician as well. He has given concerts throughout Europe, Brazil, the United States and Australia with many world-renowned musicians, such as Michel Tirabosco, James Crabb, Richard Toghetti, Christophe Fellay, Ejnar Kanding, Brigitte Fournier, André Ducret, Stéphane Chapuis, Emmanuel Pahud and others. Recording is an activity for which George Vassilev shows particular interest. Apart for Radio broadcast and TV, he often takes part in studio projects with modern or experimental music. His has released 12 CD’s (2 solo), distributed by companies such as Fidesson, Artlab, Swiss Radio International, Switzerland, Mega Sofia, Bulgaria, IMUK, Denmark, MHR, Australia or by his own label GV Records. His solo guitar release “George Vassilev, guitar recital” as well as Piazzolla’s quintets project «Tango Jam», recorded with James Crabb, Richard Tognetti and the members of the ACO in Sydney, are highly acclaimed by the specialists. George Vassilev lead the guitar class for superior and post graduate studies at the Conservatory of Lausanne, Campus of Sion (HEMU), Switzerland. http://www.georgevassilev.com/
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