Tuesday 14 – Friday 17 May 2013
Austrian Cultural Forum London
This admirable undertaking promotes the exchanges between young composers from the two countries, and Ireland, too. Paul Driver (Sunday Times)
Soundings, initiated by the Austrian Cultural Forum London in 2004, presents and profiles young composers and artists from the United Kingdom and Austria in workshops, symposia and performance. Each and every year has inspired and created many exciting artistic collaborations, projects and commissions, many of which are ongoing.
It is a unique musical project bringing together composers and musicians from two very different musical backgrounds and working environments. It offers a rare opportunity to meet some of today’s leading composers from Austria and the UK, watch them at work and hear their latest compositions – many receiving their UK premiere – performed by some of the finest musicians working in new music.
With multiple premières, collaborations and broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and profiles on Austrian ORF television, Soundings has also travelled in concert to Vienna, Venice, Bayreuth, and Oslip Mühle (Austria). Former participants have continued to develop their relationship through commissions and performances at renowned festivals such as Wien Modern, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival as well as the 2013 City of London Festival.
This year’s Soundings brings together six new faces: Austrian composers Belma Beslic Gál, Peter Jakober and Veronika Mayer as well as UK composers Charlie Usher, Hannah Kendall and Ryan Latimer. Their works will be rehearsed in workshops open to the public and performed in two evening concerts by musicians including the renowned Fidelio Trio (Darragh Morgan, violin; Robin Michael, cello; Mary Dullea, piano and curator), Austrian Duo Soufflé (Doris Nicoletti, flute and Theresia Schmidinger, clarinet), soprano Charmian Bedford and violist Reiad Chibah.
A fascinating highlight of this year’s programme will be composer portrait sessions with Piers Hellawell, Professor of composition at Queen’s University Belfast. Piers will discuss and unravel with the participating composers, trends in their recent work as well as the works to be performed in the 2 concerts. Last year’s initiative the ‘Soundings Academy’ is continued, this time with young composers rather than musicians, who will observe at close hand the week’s events and have a workshop opportunity with the performers on a new work. A round table discussion will examine the role of festivals in the performance and promotion of contemporary music and panellists include Cheltenham Festival Music Director Meurig Bowen and Hanna Crepaz, artistic director at Osterfestival in Tirol, Austria TBC. The week of events is curated by pianist Mary Dullea.
This exceptional week of interaction and creativity has become a key event
in the music calendar of the UK.
Soundings 2013 Programme
Evening Concerts
Wednesday 15 May, 7pm
Hannah Kendall Incident, soprano and piano
Belma Beslic-Gál flut, bass flute and electronics
Charlie Usher The Euphrates Dominates the Scene, clarinet, violin, cello and piano
Veronika Mayer UTA. Songs in Japanese , soprano flute and viola
Peter Jakober Weit Beisammen , flute, clarinet and electronics
Ryan Latimer Chloe, solo violin
Ryan Latimer Song for Summer, voice, flute, clarinet, violin and cello
Thursday 16 May, 7pm
Belma Beslic-Gál Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður, cello and electronics
Ryan Latimer Trio, viola, clarinet and piano
Ryan Latimer Uncomfortable Music, violin and piano
Charlie Usher Syria as it is, piccolo, clarinet and cello
Veronika Mayer New work, flute, clarinet and piano
Peter Jakober Fur Zwei, piano trio
Hannah Kendall Vera, clarinet, violin, viola and cello
Round table discussion
Thursday 16 May, 5:30 pm
Composer interviews and presentations lead by Piers Hellawell
Wednesday and Thursday 10.30am – 1pm
Daily rehearsals open to the public
Tuesday to Thursday, 10.30am – 6pm.
For more information visit www.acflondon.org/music/soundings
For press enquiries please contact Vanessa Fewster press@acflondon.org
Venue:
Austrian Cultural Forum London
28 Rutland Gate
London SW7 1PQ
www.acflondon.org