Commissions to Georges Aperghis, Annesley Black, Dahae Boo, Elnaz Seyedi & Eric Wubbels

In two to three hundred years, there will only be a few animal species left on earth. The human habitat will also have become scarce. Just in time, a small group of geneticists, musicians and zoologists will come together to counteract the extinction and prepare for survival beyond the boundaries of species. It will take several generations (and some failed experiments with fatal outcomes) before a creature is finally born that, based on the human genome, has characteristics of butterfly, harp and deep-sea crab and can be crossed with numerous mammalian, aquatic and aerial species.

This creature, which forms the prototype of a new taxonomy under the name Lepidopstoria, will be able to survive in many environments, but will prefer to stay on two legs on land. Through reproduction and gene improvisation, Lepidopstoria will evolve over the millennia and eventually develop such a diverse genome that it will be impossible to assign it to a genus either phenotypically or genotypically. A few specimens of Lepidopstoria will also have elements of trees and grasses in their genome; because the songs of these particular specimens are community-promoting and therefore essential for survival, they will have a special status.

Anticipating and joyfully preparing for these imminent changes, Trio Accanto, which has been making music for thirty years, is taking the first steps towards cross-species coexistence. As another endangered species, it is making a new start and entering into a pact of solidarity with other endangered species in order to prepare itself and other people for symbiosis with the fauna by making music with The Last of Their Kin(d). The trio steps in to help species that no longer exist or only exist in very small numbers and creates a musical alliance of endangered and future species in preparation for the great symbiosis.

Trio Accanto commissions 10 composers (of a species that is itself not without danger) to each create a work that musically addresses an endangered species. The Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation is making the commissions to Georges Aperghis, Annesley Black, Dahae Boo, Elnaz Seyedi and Eric Wubbels possible.

Further information:
trio-accanto.com

Dates

October 18, 2025
Rainy Days Festival, Luxembourg

November 20, 2025
Transit Festival, Leuven

April 10, 2026
Acht Brücken Festival, Cologne

February 2026
Gare du Nord, Basel

February 2026
Ultraschall Festival, Berlin