CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FROM THE ENDS OF THE SILK ROUTE
Recognized as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese music, Grammy Award-nominated musician Wu Man has carved out a career as a soloist, educator and composer giving her lute-like instrument – (which has a history of over 2,000 years in China) – a new role in both traditional and contemporary music. Having been brought up in the Pudong School of pipa playing, Wu Man is now recognized as an outstanding exponent of the traditional repertoire as well as a leading interpreter of contemporary pipa music by today’s most prominent composers. Wu Man’s efforts were recognized when she was named Musical America’s 2013 Instrumentalist of the Year, the first time this prestigious award has been bestowed on a player of a non-Western instrument.
Born in Hangzhou, China, Wu Man became the first recipient of a master’s degree in pipa at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Wu man moved to the U.S. in 1990 and currently resides in California.
Basel Rajoub is a saxophonist and composer-improviser who creates contemporary tradition-based music inspired by Middle Eastern rhythms and melodic modes as well as jazz. Born in Aleppo, Syria, he graduated from the Damascus High Institute of Music and is a winner of Radio Monte Carlo’s Moyen-Orient Music Award. Basel is a performing artist and an educator, active in a variety of contemporary music projects that bring together musicians from different parts of the Middle East, North Africa, and West Asia, and is the founder and leader of the Basel Rajoub ensemble. Basel lives in Geneva, Switzerland.
http://www.akdn.org/akmi/artists/basel-rajoub
Feras Charestan is a brilliant qanun virtuoso, who comes from the city of Al-Hasakeh, in the northeast of Syria, and studied qanun at the High Institute of Music in Damascus. He performs regularly as a qanun soloist with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra and the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra as well as in the bands Roubai Toueis and Woujouh Kenan. He currently lives in Stockholm, Sweden.
http://www.akdn.org/akmi/artists/feras-charestan
Andrea Piccioni was born in Rome, Italy, and is considered to be one of the greatest exponents of the art of frame drumming. He has developed an extraordinary capacity to move through various musical genres and styles, a true virtuoso He has re-elaborated the language of the Tamburello and various frame drums in a truly personal, virtuosic and expressive manner. Founder of the FRAME DRUMS ITALIA association, Piccioni tours widely with numerous projects and is an experienced teacher as well as the artistic director of FRAME DRUMS ITALIA International Festival.
http://www.akdn.org/akmi/artists/andrea-piccioni
HOMO MUSICUS AND MULTIPLE MODERNITIES
The photo ©by Ingrid Barrentine.
Ellen Dissanayake is an independent scholar, author, and lecturer whose writings about the arts synthesize many disciplines, including evolutionary biology, ethology, cognitive and developmental psychology, cultural and physical anthropology, neuroscience, and the history, theory, and practice of the various arts. Since 1991, she has presented over a hundred invited lectures to audiences in Europe, Australia, Argentina, Russia, and Bangladesh, as well as the United States and Canada.
She is the author of three books published by the University of Washington Press (What Is Art For?, Homo Aestheticus–translated into Chinese and Korean, and Art and Intimacy), as well as more than eighty scholarly and popular articles and book chapters. She currently resides in Seattle where she is an Affiliate Professor in the School of Music at the University of Washington.
Michael Tenzer is a professor of music at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Balinese Music and Gamelan Gong Kebyar: The Art of Twentieth Century Balinese Music, which received the 34th ASCAP Deems Taylor Award and the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Merriam Prize.
Tenzer’s compositions for chamber, solo and orchestral media have been performed in North America, Europe, and Asia. He received the Charles Ives Center award for his percussion quartet (1981), the DiLorenzo prize for the octet Daya (1985) for string quartet and clarinets, and the Morse Fellowship to complete his Symphony for Strings (1988). Tenzer’s music is available on New World, Canteloupe and Bali Stereo labels.
SPECIAL GUESTS: PERSPECTIVES
Bruce Arnold: An author, composer, educator and guitarist residing in New York City, Bruce Arnold has numerous CDs and DVDs to his credit, ranging from standard jazz repertoire to free improvisation to reinterpretations of classical music with the ensemble Spooky Actions. He has also written more than 60 music instruction books covering Guitar Pedagogy, Ear Training and Time Studies. Bruce currently teaches at Princeton University and has taught at New England Conservatory of Music, Dartmouth College, Berklee College of Music, New School University, and City College of New York and New York University.
Feliu Gasull: Feliu Gasull, a composer and guitarist enamored with the music and the sea, was born in Barcelona. His first music education was autodidactic. After guitar studies at the Conservatoire de musique de Genève he later studied composition at the Indiana University (USA). He has created music for various instrumental as well as choral ensembles, symphonic pieces, chamber music, theatrical works, dance and film. He is also active as a soloist performing his own works. Presently, he combines performance and composition in his teaching at the l’Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya.
Masterclass avec David Rosenboom, Travis Preston, Eric Vautrin et Jean-Luc Therminarias
Comédie de Caen/THéâtre d’Hérouville
24 05 2011
©Tristan Jeanne-Valès
David Rosenboom: David Rosenboom is a composer-performer, inter-disciplinary artist, author and educator, who over five decades has explored the spontaneous evolution of musical forms, multidisciplinary composition and performance, unique languages for improvisation, cross-cultural collaborations, performance art and literature, interactive multi-media and new instrument technologies, art-science research and philosophy, and extended musical interface with the human nervous system. His wide-ranging work is broadly distributed and presented around the world. He holds the Richard Seaver Distinguished Chair in Music at California Institute of the Arts where he has been Dean of The Herb Alpert School of Music since 1990. Rosenboom is a Yamaha Artist.
http://www.davidrosenboom.com/
PERFORMER-COMPOSERS AT THE HEM
Alberto Bocini was born in Prato, Italy. He received his diploma at “Conservatorio L. Cherubini” in Florence, and continued his studies under the guidance of M° F. Petracchi. After being Principal Double Bass of a number of International Orchestras (La Scala in Milan; Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome; London Symphony Orchestra in London) he is now Principal Double Bass in Florence, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino – Teatro Comunale di Firenze.
As a soloist he has performed in Europe, United States, Canada, South America, Japan, and he has done recordings for Nippon/DENON, Velut Luna and NBB records. Since 2003 he is part of “The Bass Gang”, a successful double bass quartet that has performed at Tokyo Suntory Hall, with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, among others. He is lecturer at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole (Italy) and at the HEM in Geneva.
https://www.hesge.ch/hem/annuaire/alberto-bocini
Pianist, composer and organist, Raphaël Gogniat did his theoretical and instrumental studies in the classes of Guy Bovet, Jean-Jaques Dünki, Daniel Glaus, Roland Moser, Pierre Sublet, grunts Eugen Frichknecht and Alfred Schweizer. He principally attended Hautes Ecoles de Musique and Art of Bern as well as the Music Academy of Basel which awarded him six first prizes with congratulations. His training was highlighted by a first prize in improvisation in Kassel including numerous concerts in Europe and Asia.
Raphael Gogniat has been a lecturer at the HEM in Geneva since 2005. Inspired by piano literature, in 2015 he created « Fondation pour le piano » which bears his name. The purpose of the foundation is to promote keyboard music; even more so, it endeavors to reveal all its wealth and diversity through numerous activities.
Golfam Khayam: Golfam Khayam has evolved an international career as a performer-composer-improviser accomplished through integration of her native Persian musical background within contemporary music framework. Khayam has appeared extensively as a performer-composer in prestigious music festivals (Copenhagen Guitar Festival, Basel Culturescapes Festival, Aalborg International Guitar Festival, et al.) and she has been guest lecturer at the University of Art in Tehran and a research assistant at the Haute Ecole de musique de Genève. Golfam’s Khayam’s newest duo recording with clarinetist Mona Matbou Riahi “Narrante” was released on ECM Records in spring of 2016.
Luzern, den 19.03.2016
Copyright: Elena Schwarz/ Priska Ketterer
Swiss and Australian conductor Elena Schwarz studied at the Geneva University of Music in the class of Laurent Gay and specialized in contemporary performance with Arturo Tamayo at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana. Elena Schwarz is recipient of the 1st prize at the 2014 “Princess Astrid” Competition with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra (Norway) and the 2nd prize at the 2015 Jorma Panula Competition in Vaasa (Finland).
Upcoming engagements include debuts with the Orchestre Pasdeloup, Lausanne Sinfonietta and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. Elena Schwarz regularly collaborates with artists of other musical traditions, out of personal interest and in the belief that this exchange is of prime importance in today’s multi-cultural world.
Rafael de la Vega is a composer-performer, lutenist and Baroque basso continuo player. His fascination with the African harp has led him to an in-depth study of West African music as practiced on kora and marimba as well as many performances with African griot ensembles situated in Geneva and France. His combined work in both African and Early Music has resulted in a very personal and original practice in his performance and composition.
In 2014 his piece Chak-Ek, a contemporary perception of Mexican pre-Hispanic mysticism was selected for the Angers International Film Festival. Rafael has being playing figured bass all over Europe with Mercure Future, Gabriel Garrido, Fratres et Alraqis. Presently, he is doing his Master’s degree of Lute at the Department of Early Music at HEM in Geneva.
MULTIPLE MODERNITIES: PANORAMA
“Gilbert Biberian is one of the most innovative performers and composers working in the field of the guitar today. His concerts are greeted with much acclaim for their high quality of artistry and musical energy” were words said by the late and lamented Colin Cooper.
Keenly aware of the importance of creating a new body of work for the guitar, Gilbert Biberian has stimulated much original composition and along with his own works he has enriched the repertoire of the instrument for all time. In addition to his solo work, Gilbert is the founder and conductor of THE OMEGA PLAYERS, a guitar ensemble devoted to creating a contemporary repertoire for the group. He was also the founding member of The Omega Guitar Quartet.
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Mike Fletcher performs throughout the UK and Europe. As a nominee for the ECHO Rising Stars 2014/2015 programme he has recently appeared at the Barbican Centre as part of the London Jazz Festival, Hamburg’s Laiezhalle and the CBSO Centre in Birmingham.
Mike works predominantly in the fields of jazz and improvised music, with his primary interest being in balancing composition with improvisation. In 2013, Mike was chosen by BBC Radio 3 to tour on lead alto with the European Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Ann-Sofi Søderqvist.
http://www.mikefletchermusic.com.
Miguel Angel Crozzoli was born in 1984 in south Argentina. He is an Italian-Argentinian Saxophonist, Composer and Cultural Manager specialized in creative art.
He studied music at the in 2004 (EMBA) and later made the jazz master program at Manuel de Falla Superior Conservatory. Having recorded six albums as a leader, he is also the founder and Director General of Creatividad en Movimiento, a non-profit organization focused on the sustainable development of the creative arts.
Mirvahid Radfar was born in 1983 in Hamedan, Iran. He started playing the tanbour and daff on a self-taught basis from the age of six. In 1999 Radfar founded the Hamedani Meftoon Tanbour Ensemble which until now has been performing mostly his own music. In 2009, he established Maktabe Tanbour Bastan. The concept of this school is to develop further the idea of the instrument’s ritualistic nature to promote of a musical synthesis based on traditional musical elements
Mirvahid Radfar has devised a unique new technique for the tanbour, which is fundamentally different from the Kurdish traditional style. He is also the designer and an inventor of a new instrument “Andouh” (meaning: grief)- an instrument which is complimentary to tanbour with more possibilities in terms range, dynamic, and colours. He has released two solo albums titled “Phenix” and “Gardeshe Jaam”.
From the experimental music scene in New York to performing early music with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra acclaimed guitarist/composer Anthony Garcia is a unique voice in the Australian guitar scene. Performing throughout Australia, China, Thailand, Japan, Mexico and the United States both as a soloist and in collaboration with creative artists across range of fields Garcia’s ever-evolving musical landscape embraces diverse cultural connections and contemporary experimentation.
In 2015 Garcia established Sounds Across Oceans, an organisation dedicated to researching and promoting intercultural collaboration, stylistic experimentation and new modes of practice in music education.
Boran Mert’s talent was recognized early when, at age 18, he won the first prize at the national competition for young bağlama virtuosos. Having completed studies at the music college, he continued his studies of bağlama and traditional Turkish music at the Istanbul Technical University (ITU) in the class of renowned master Kurt Irfan, while at the same time attending studies at the Composition Department.
Through years of studying and exploring diverse artistic horizons, he has developed a very personal style, blending structure and sonorities in composition and improvisation which defy an easy classification. Very active as a performer and soloist, he is often called to create music for theatre and film.
First-prize winner in thirteen international competitions, Brazilian Aliéksey Vianna has been featured in prestigious venues of over thirty countries throughout the world. In chamber music and Jazz settings, he has performed with musicians as diverse as Paul McCandless, Peter Erskine, Tracy Silverman, Felix Renggli, Petri Sakari Artaria Quartet, and Pierre Boulez. Since 2005, he has released four records in labels such as Guitar Solo Publications (USA) and TCB – Montreaux Jazz Label (Switzerland).
Aliéksey holds a BA degree from the San Francisco Conservatory (class of David Tanenbaum) and two MAs (classical guitar and jazz) from the Musik-Akademie Basel (with Pablo Marquez and Wolfgang Muthspiel respectively). He currently studies for a PhD in the docARTES program of the Orpheus Institute under the supervision of Dusan Bogdanovic.
DISCIPLINE CROSSINGS
Mauro Basilio is a multi-instrumentalist composer and performer involved in jazz improvisation, early and contemporary and world music. Mainly a cellist, he plays also guitar, percussions, oud, beatbox, electronics and other early instruments.
Of Italian origin, settled in Paris, he collaborates with many theatre, circus and dance companies (Oposito, Académie Fratellini, L’Envolée Cirque…). In 2011 he gave birth to his world-jazz project “Imaginary Africa” for electric cello, electronics and other artists. Meanwhile he plays free jazz with Healing Orchestra, the Italian singer Mara Redeghieri Ensemble Galinverna, and many others.
The stage actor and director Massimo Finelli obtained Master’s degree in sociology at Federico II University in Naples and Master’s in management and marketing of cultural events at La Sapienza University in Rome.
Massimo Finelli’s work involves theatrical, video, multimedia and educational projects, among which are – Il Catalogo at Teatro Stabile d’Innovazione Gallera Toledo (2014-2016), recent Pentaclavio workshops and intensive courses in vocal technique in Naples and Trieste (2015), direction of I Ciechi produced at the TACT Trieste festival in 2016 and his newest project Audiomachia di uno schizofrenico to be premiered later this year.
Formed under the guide of L. Matarazzo, A. Gilardino and D. Bogdanovic, Duilio Meucci performs as a soloist and in chamber formation in various musical festivals throughout Italy. In 2013 he obtained an M.A. degree in guitar performance at the HEM in Geneva.
In October 2010 Guitart label produced his first solo CD “Generations”, based on the works of three composer-guitarists of different generations: Angelo Gilardino, Dusan Bogdanovic, and Oscar Bellomo and in April 2016, the Brilliant Classics released his second CD presenting music by Claude Bolling, that includes his famous Concerto for Guitar and Jazz Piano Trio.