9/2024, rehearsals for Adventurous Sounds, CPMDT
Geneva
Adventurous Sounds/Form &
Farben, 3/2024
Ensemble ö!/UMS'nJIPLeuk, Zürich, Basel, Chur
"The most entertaining event at Forum Wallis
2023 was ‘Adventurous Sounds’, a concert
billed as being “New Music for and with
children” as part of a project aimed at
introducing contemporary music to young
people, which also extends to in-school
activities.
One
of the most hilarious compositions i’ve ever
heard, Motoharu Kawashima‘s Das Lachenmann,
which i’d seen Javier Hagen and Ulrike
Mayer-Spohn perform at Forum Wallis back in
2019, began the concert, preceded on this
occasion by an equally funny session where
the audience was taught to sing several
isolated bars from the score, which were
projected onto the wall. It was fantastic to
see an audience of predominately young
people engaging with new music as both
listeners and, briefly, performers, and
clearly having an absolute blast.
The
majority of the concert involved students
from the Musikschule Konservatorium Zürich,
all playing various recorders, who took part
in a number of pieces alongside Hagen,
Mayer-Spohn and members of the dissonArt
ensemble.
Particularly
effective was Agnes Dorwarth‘s Nachtvögel;
Gezwitscher; Nachtkrapp, a textural work
made up of birdsong-like behaviours,
concluding in a lovely chorus of modulating
pitches. Dorwarth’s Kopfnuss-Trio was an
even stronger, the three players using their
headjoints to create something akin to a
tribal chant, in a close unison peppered
with rhythmic cries and glissandi. Two of
the students turned Franz Müller-Busch‘s Der
Streit into a brief but compelling argument,
while another student, Sara Weinmann, gave a
strong performance of Dorwarth’s Artikulator
1, channelling a range of emotions into
sound in different ways, from disruptions
and interruptions to the work’s flow to
violent vocal eruptions, in a
nicely-controlled melding of musical,
non-musical and meta-musical ideas.
The
concert ended with an expanded version of
Sancho’s Dream by UMS ‘n JIP (Hagen and
Mayer-Spohn’s joint nom de guerre), the
original of which was part of the duo’s
opera Sancho, which i experienced in 2020.
In this new form it was utterly mesmerising,
living up to its title by creating a dreamy,
soft texture environment developing into
what seemed to be accelerating Shepard
tones."
Works performed by UMS ´n JIP: UMS 'n JIP - from: Sancho (electropop opera), 2019, Scene V Motoharu Kawashima - Das Lachenmann IV, 2017
MusiMatrix (Eersteklasconcerten) is an interactive journey of experience confronting >4000 children in their first year of school with classical or contemporary composed music and its interpreters. These ‘first class concerts’ break down the borders between listening, active experience and performing together. The format was awarded a European YEAH! Award in 2015. From the jury report: “MusiMatrix is a unique, immersive experience for first grade students to become familiar with the sounds and process of contemporary music. The project epitomises the very essence of creating and playing music. All communication takes place via music, sound and movement. This is an ideal example of contemporary music mediation that relies on the motivation and activity of a young audience as well as the musicians – without reducing the artistic quality. Excellently done!” MusiMatrix/Eersteklasconcerten 2020 introduces you to three quirky contemporary music duos: Jasper & Jasper (B), Duobaan (B) and UMS 'n JIP (CH, performing works by Motoharu Kawashima/Das Lachenmann IV and excerpts from UMS 'n JIP´s acclaimed electropop opera Sancho). MusiMatrix 2020 is created within the project 'Sounds Now' co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. The project ‘Sounds Now’ has been selected as a large-scale European collaboration project for Creative Europe. Musica Impulse Centre for Music Belgium will lead Sounds Now, as project leader, together with: Wilde Westen (BE), Festival van Vlaanderen (BE), SNYK National Centre for Contemporary Music and Sound Art in Denmark (DK), SPOR Festival (DK), Viitasaaren Kesäakatemia ry (FI), Stichting November Music (NL), Stiftelsen Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival (NO), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK) and Ariona Hellas AE (GR).
EINER
EN BARRIOS INFORMALES
contemporary opera as a participative and
sustainable experience
LA NOCHE DE LA BESTIA Musiktheater für Stimmen (Kinder und
Jugendliche), Blockflöten und Elektronik,
2018, UA
FNOBA
II. FESTIVAL NUEVA OPERA BUENOS AIRES
2018
Musik: UMS 'n JIP
Libretto: Javier Walpen, in Zusammenarbeit mit
den Kindern und Jugendlichen der Villa Lugano
Buenos Aires
Regie: Pablo Maritano
Schauspiel/Coaching: Teresa Floriach
Blockflöten/Coaching: Elpidio Ceballos
Produktion: Luciana Rico (FNOBA), Ignacio
Llobera (FNOBA), Miguel Galperin (FNOBA),
Gonzalo Aguilar (IVC), Mixtli Cano Moreno
(IVC)
Adventurous Sounds/Five for
Kids, Pfiffikus Oberwallis, 10/2013