Uraufführung — Maxim Kolomiiets: Mond und Steine, Werk für 5 Stimmen, Schlagzeug, Klavier und Harfe, 2022/23

Yiran Zhao : fú yóu, für 6 Vokalisten, 2023

SCHOLA HEIDELBERG | ensemble aisthesis

Leitung: Walter Nußbaum

Genau 25 Jahre nach der letzten Internationalen CHIME (Chinese Music Research Europe) – Konferenz in Heidelberg, Barbarian Pipes and Strings veranstaltete das Centrum für Asienwissenschaften und Transkulturelle Studien (CATS) gemeinsam mit dem Konfuzius Institut und der CHIME Foundation eine Konferenz, die Chinas musikalische Praktiken aus transkultureller Perspektive neu betrachtet. Wie gefährlich, fremdartig oder (un)authentisch bestimmte musikalische Stile oder Instrumente wohl sind, und wem sie “gehören”, sind durchaus relevante Fragen in einem Land, wo Melodien, Instrumente und Klänge von „anderswo“ seit jeher zum “typischen” Repertoire gehören. Kontroversen über Eigentums- und Urheberrechte an alten und neuen Volksliedern oder regionalen Opern und Klagen über Exotismus oder Selbstorientalismus spielen immer dann eine Rolle, wenn von unterschiedlicher Seite “Authentizität” beansprucht, angefochten oder neu verhandelt wird. 5 Konzerte, die „Chinas“ vielfältige musikalische Praktiken—von der Guqin über die Tabla, bis hin zur Morin Khuur, immer wieder neu reflektieren, begleiteten die Konferenz. Zu hören waren wandelbare Klangkörper—Instrumente und Melodien, die ihre Form und ihren Klang auf ihren musikalischen Reisen, u.a. entlang der Seidenstraße verändern; seltene, ephemere Klangtexturen als Spuren musikalischer Erinnerung im transkulturellen Dialog, und schließlich eine fulminante Intervention von WANG Ying zu Gustav Mahlers “Das Lied von der Erde” (1909), das als Ausnahmewerk in der Reihe der Sinfonien Gustav Mahlers, in der Tradition des musikalischen Exotismus steht. WANG stellt Mahlers Vertonung altchinesischer Lyrik in der Nachdichtung durch Hans Bethge eine Reihe von chinesischen Gegenwartsdichtern und ihre Erinnerungen an die Klänge chinesischen Protest-Rocks gegenüber und schließt so eine transkulturell gedachte „chinesische“ Reise um die Erde.

Begleitend zur 25. CHIME-Konferenz kann im Völkerkundemuseum vPST die Sonderausstellung „Klangkörper – Moving Instruments“ besucht werden. Die Ausstellung (Zeitraum: 03.10.2023 bis 18.02.2024) präsentiert nicht nur chinesische Instrumente der museumseigenen Sammlungen aus verschiedenen Epochen; sie ermöglicht den Besuchenden auch durch zahlreiche Klang- und Videobeispiele ein tiefes Eintauchen in die Welt der fernöstlichen Musik. Die Ausstellung bietet außerdem einen Einblick in einen ganz anderen Bereich der darstellenden Künste, den Opern- und Puppenbühnen, die eng mit den musikalischen Traditionen verknüpft sind.

English:

SELTENE ERDEN—MOND und STEINE—TRACES of MEMORY—EPHEMERA
October 2, 2023, 19.30, Aula der Alten Universität

ZHAO Yiran
蜉蝣
Fú yóu (2023)
For 6 vocalists
***
TRADITIONAL
汉宫秋月
Autumn moon over the Han Palace
For Guqin and Erhu
***
Maxim KOLOMIIETS
Mond und Steine (2023)
WORLD PREMIERE
Text: Serhij Zhadan
For soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor,
baritone, percussion, piano and harp

***BREAK***

Nalini VINAYAK
Memories in Raag Kirwani (2005)
For Zheng and Tabla
***
TRADITIONAL
月兒高 — The Moon is High
For Zheng
***
Chihchun Chi-sun LEE 李志純
Zheng Tu《箏途》 The Path of the Zheng (2004)
For Zheng
***
DENG Haiqiong 邓海瓊
Memory-Voyage (2023)
WORLD PREMIERE
For Zheng and Percussion

The moon in Chinese is 君 子 之 光 , “the wiseman’s light,” the sign of the pure and beautiful mind of the wise man. And thus the moon accompanies the wise man, reflected in water, even onhis longest journey. Watching the moon can thus help the wise man travel both through space and through time. Indeed, the moon never leaves the wise man alone, as Wang Wei rhymes. The moon, then, is the wise man’s friend and resonates with him and his music—and do not these words echo,almost exactly, Goethe’s formulations in An den Mond?

This concert sets out to present distant sounds, as they set off on multiple journeys, engaging them in several multilayered dialogues to echo with each other on many different planes. Not unlike “rare earths,” these distant sounds, even though in fact rather common, appear completely dispersed, rare, not concentrated—and even if so, by chance, they are almost impossible to distin- guish, to isolate, to trace.

The (rare earth) musical elements in this concert stem from many different times and places. And yet, not unlike Wang Wei and Goethe, theycontain specific elements and moments of repetition—they speak of ephemerality, the vicissitudes and changes, the movement, the voyages of life—and they revert to a set of specific reverberating metaphors, not only the moon, but also gentle as well as cold winds, and snow. They speak in a melancholy tone of loneliness and stillness, of loss and fear, but they also appreciate and remember the beauty of the (fleeting) moment. They offer dialogues between distinct but parallel sets of voices—a harp and the Chinese Guzheng, two baritones, percussion and Tabla. These distant yet complementary sonic articulations open our eyes for the importance of seeing what one does not always see. They convey the importance of looking closely, of looking twice, even three times, of listening attentively, of feeling things out. They help sustain moments of loneliness, of emptiness, they give us hope—as in that German evening song “Der Mond ist aufgegangen”:

Seht ihr den Mond dort stehen?
Er ist nur halb zu sehen
Und ist doch rund und schön!
So sind wohl manche Sachen,
Die wir getrost belachen,
Weil unsere Augen sie nicht sehn.
Do you see the moon up there?
You can only see half of it,
all the same, it is round and beautiful.
And indeed this goes for many things
that we laugh at without hesitation,
just because our eyes don’t see them.

Yiran Zhao (*1988, CN) is a composer, performer, and sound artist based in Berlin. Her works focus on various modes of expression incorporating both musical and performative elements, lighting, visual arts, and other media. With great interest in the physicality of performance, since she came to Europe she has been working extensively with the human body and objects as compositional material.

Zhao studied composition in CCOM Beijing, HMDK Stuttgart, and the Musik-Akademie Basel; and also scenic composition in ABPU Linz, where she also taught. Within the framework of the KUNSTWELTEN from the AdK Berlin, she led workshops for students of various age-groups in Bitterfeld-Wolfen in 2018 and 2019. She has worked with numerous artistic groups and festivals in Europe, Asia, and North America; including Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Recherche, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Ensemble Garage, Ensemble Phace, ensemble this ensemble that, the Philharmonia Chorus Stuttgart, SPOR Festival for Contemporary Music and Sound Århus, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, Festival Internacional Zaragoza Contemporánea, ZEIT RÄUME Basel Biennale für neue Musik und Architektur, WIEN MODERN, Progressive Art HA-SS Fest Armenia, and many others.

She is supported by Ernst von Siemens Stiftung as composer-in-residence and concert curator for the “Forum of Younger Composers 2016” at the Bavarian Academy of Arts. She is recipient of the INITIAL Special Grant from Akademie der Künste (AdK) Berlin 2021, Berlin-Basel fellowship of HGK Basel & AdK Berlin in Atelier Mondial 2019, Berlin fellowship of AdK Berlin 2017, Karlsruhe Composition Competition 2015, stipend of the Hochschule für Musik Basel 2014, the Deutschlandstipendium 2013/14, the State Stipend China 2010, Prizewinner of “Yanhuang” Composition Competition China 2010, Con Tempo Young Chamber Music Competition China 2009, the Ensemble Recherche Composition Competition 2008.

Maxim (Maksym) Kolomiiets was born in 1981 in Kyiv. He graduated from the National Music Academy of Ukraine as an oboist (2005) and as a composer (2009) and from the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln as a composer (class of Johannes Schöllhorn, 2016). He took part in International Young Composers Academy in Tchaikovsky city (2013), and reading sessions by Ensemble MusikFabrik. He is the winner of the national competitions Gradus ad Parnassum (Kyiv, 2000), Step to the Left (Saint Petersburg, 2012), Skoryk Competition (Lviv, 2021) and III Prize on Varele Komponistenpreis (Oldenburg, 2015).Maxim Kolomiiets is the author of two operas. One of them was presented in a concert version in October 2020 by the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Luigi Gaggero as conductor.His music has been performed at the international festivals (selection): MATA-Festival (New York), Summe New Music Courses in Darmstadt (Darmstadt), New Talents (Cologne), Donaueschinge Musiktage, Warsaw Autumn (Warsaw), World Music Days (Leuven), Other Space (Moscow), Gogolfest (Kyiv), Contrasts (Lviv), Randfestspiele (Zepernick), Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival (New York).Among the performers of his music are Ensemble MusikFabrik (Cologne), Haydn-Orchester (Bolzano), Arditti Quartett, Amaryllis Quartett (Hamburg), Ascolta (Stuttgart), KlangForum Heidelberg, notabu.ensemble (Düsseldorf), Latenze Ensemble (Basel), Lions Gate Trio (U.S. und Europe), Neo Quartet (Gdansk), Ukho Ensemble (Kyiv), the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (Kyiv), Kyiv Chamber Orchestra (Kyiv), Ensemble Nostri Temporis (Kyiv), Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (Moscow), Ian Pace (London), Helen Bledsoe (Cologne), Hayk Melikyan (Yerevan). Maxim Kolomieets took part as the performer in many Ukrainian and foreign festivals and master courses: historically informed performance with Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and contemporary music with Ensemble Recherché (2007, 2008), Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt (2010), impuls academy (Graz, 2011), Per suonare l’oboe (Freiburg, 2011), Montepulciano (Italy, 2015) as an oboist, a composer and a conductor. He is the co-founder of the contemporary music ensemble Ensemble Nostri Temporis (2007), the founder of the baroque music ensemble Luna Ensemble (2014) and music curator at the Gogolfest (Kyiv) in the year 2017.

Chihchun Chi-Sun LEE 李志純 – Taiwanese-American composer Chihchun Chi-Sun LEE’s works were described as “eye-openingly, befittingly, complex, but rather arresting to hear” by Boston Globe, “exploring a variety of offbeat textures and unusual techniques” by Gramophone and “eastern techniques blended with sophisticated modern writing style” by “Amadeus” Il mensile della grande musica. The winner of the 1st Biennial Brandenburg Symphony International Composition Competition in Germany and 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, is originally from Kaohsiung, Taiwan.  She has received numerous honors; these include commissions from the Boston Symphony Orchestra (the 1st Taiwanese and the 4th Asian composer), Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University (2018 & 2001), Barlow Endowment, the Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra (NSO), National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra (NTSO), National Orchestra of Korea (NOK) and Taiwan National Chinese Orchestra, Theodore Front Prize from International Alliance for Women in Music, ISCM/ League of Composers Competition, International Festival of Women Composers Composition Prize, Florida Individual Artist Fellowship, Gugak Fellowship, and the Golden Melody Awards nomination for “best composer” (2019 & 2009) and “Best Crossover Music Album Award” (2022). She was the 1st Taiwanese/Asian composer to serve as a composer-in-residence at NeoArte Syntezator Sztuki, Poland in 2022 with a portrait concert. In 2017, Lee is honored with Alumni Achievement Award in Music in Recognition of Outstanding Contribution to Music at Ohio University’s 100th anniversary of music department.

Dai Xiaolian 戴曉蓮is Professor of guqin in the Department of Chinese Music at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She notably studied the guqin under the tutelage of her great-uncle, the renowned master Zhang Ziqian 张子谦from the Guangling School, then absorbing the best from various schools of teaching. She has recorded and published multiple CDs and teaching DVDs, and edited and published the several textbooks, contributing significantly to both the popularization and professional training of guqin music. A few years ago, she has set up the Lingran 泠然Ensemble, which successfully staged the “Guqin Whispering Concert” Series both in China and overseas, receiving much acclaim.

Chia-Ling Chang, born in Taipei in 1994, is a musicologist and a musician of Liuqin and Zhongruan. She completed her bachelor’s degree at the National Taiwan University of Arts, where she studied Liuqin with Tsui-Ping Cheng, and received her master’s degree from the Institute for Musicology at the University of Leipzig. In her career, she worked as a Zhongruan musician in the Taoyuan Chinese Orchestra and has been a member of the Taipei Liuqin Ensemble since 2009. Chang also has a great passion for music theory, composition and music arrangement. She has previously been taught by Chih-Hsuan Liu, Ju-Chi Chen, Wen-Ching Su in composition, Dr. Chu-Wei Liu in music aesthetics and analysis, and Dr. Wei-Han Lee in music history. Currently, she works as the spokesperson of general music director in the Theater of Freiburg. Furthermore, she is devoted herself to the PhD of Musicology at the University of Bonn and often invited as a soloist for different formal occasions.

ChenTeng 陈腾is a PhD music candidate at the University of Southampton. She was awarded a master’s degree in music at King’s College London. Teng is also a young contemporary erhu player, who graduated from Shanghai Conservatory in 2017. In 2019, she cooperated with London Symphony Orchestra in a series of concerts: East meets West, held at LSO St Luke’s, London. She was an External advisor of Erhu performance for the Performance as Research module at Goldsmith, University of London.

Nalini Vinayak, a well-known professional Sitarist and Tabla player from India hails from a family of composers and musicians dating back to early 1900. Blessed by her grandmother Sri. Andavan Pichai, a saint and composer, www.andavanpichai.com , Nalini has carved a niche for herself in the field of music, as a performer, composer, Ensemble Director and teacher. Nalini received her training in Carnatic classical music at a very young age from her her mother and Guru Smt. Kamakshi Kuppuswamy, a renowned Carnatic music vocalist who has performed worldwide. Nalini spent several years learning Hindustani Classical Music on the Sitar in the Indian tradition of the Guru Shishya Parampara under the tutelage of Pandit Janardan Mitta (disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar) of the Maihar Gharana.  Her passion and love for rhythm drew her towards the Tabla and she received intense training under Sri. Srinivasa Rao of the Delhi Gharana. The combined knowledge of the Carnatic tradition from her mother and Hindustani tradition from her sitar Guru gave her an added edge compared to others in fusing the two styles. Nalini’s artistry and command over melody and rhythm have rendered her style and compositions unique. Nalini was the only female Sitar player to have been invited to perform Saint Thyagaraja’s Kritis at the Thyagaraja Aradhanai at Thiruvaiyaru in 1987.  She has performed in premiere music platforms like the Music Academy, Narada Gana Sabha, Mylapore Fine Arts, Indian Fine Arts, Bharat Kalachar, Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha, Nungambakam Cultural Academy, Tansen Thyagaraja Festivals, ICCR and Rasika Ranjini Sabha. She has performed extensively in Chennai, New Delhi, Kerala, Hyderabad and Madurai and has been a seasoned performer in the prestigious December music festival in Chennai. Nalini was a frequent performer for the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Government of India. She was commissioned specially to perform for Ms. Pupul Jayakar, Cultural Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Government of India in 1988.  Nalini’s Carnatic music concert and Hindustani music concert on Sitar have been archived by ICCR. She has performed jugalbandhi concerts with Narmada Gopalakrishnan (daughter of Violin Vidwan M.S. Gopalakrishnan), Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi (daughter of Violin Vidwan Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman) and with Veena player B Kannan.  She has released with Magnasound recording company (now owned by Sony) a full Carnatic music on sitar album “Samarpana” and a jugalbandhi album “Nada Sangama” in 1989.

SCHOLA HEIDELBERG – Virtuosity coupled with versatility. Both individually and collectively, the vocal soloists of the SCHOLA HEIDELBERG are equally at home with widely differing styles and vocal techniques, all the way up to microtonal intonation and vocal and respiratory noise. Under the artistic directorship of their founder Walter Nußbaum, works from the 16th/17th and the 20th/21st centuries meet head-on, often with astounding results. A new interpretive culture materializes from an intensive concern with historically informed performance and contemporary music. The ensemble’s extensive repertoire is the fruit of close collaboration with leading present-day composers. Much noted are the commissions for new works deriving from projects like Heimathen and Prinzhorn. SCHOLA HEIDELBERG performs in its home city, all over Germany and at international festivals like the Salzburg Festival, Milano Musica, the Lucerne Festival, the Biennale in Venedig, the Biennale Salzburg and the Festival d’automne in Paris. The Schola has successful cooperative partnerships with the Ensemble Modern, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, and the Gürzenich Orchestra.
SCHOLA HEIDELBERG‘s CD recordings of vocal compositions from the 20th/21st centuries have received several international awards.

ensemble aisthesis – A sensory understanding of new sound worlds. The ensemble aisthesis focuses on contemporary music from the 20th/21st centuries. Its Greek-inspired name reflects the bid for all-encompassing perception. Under the artistic direction of founder Nußbaum, the instrumentalists (up to 20 in number) have steadily built up an extensive repertoire ranging from modern classics like Schoenberg, Webern, Boulez, Stockhausen, and Lachenmann to forward-looking Romantic works by Wagner or Mahler. Commissions invariably take shape in close conjunction with the composers. Close collaboration with the SCHOLA HEIDELBERG has resulted in concert formats like Prinzhorn or Heimathen and the CD Nuits – weiß wie Lilien (“Nights – White as Lilies”). The ensemble aisthesis performs regularly in Heidelberg and has been invited to festivals like musica viva Munich, the Zurich Festival, the Romanische Nacht in Cologne, the Tongyeong International Music Festival in South Korea, the Kasseler Musiktage or the Basel Music Forum. One much-noted recording by the ensemble is LEIBOWITZ – COMPOSITEUR, issued to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth. It contains a representative cross-section of René Leibowitz’ works, impressively documenting his impact on the musical world.