Johan Svensson
Progetto Positano 2021:
Liisa Hirsch & Chris Swithinbank
Progetto Positano is a scholarship for young composers that was established by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation in cooperation with ensemble mosaik in 2017: Every year, two scholarship holders are invited to live and work for a month at the Casa Orfeo of the Wilhelm Kempff Cultural Foundation in Positano on Italy's Amalfi Coast. Following the stay, ensemble mosaik will present the works of the respective scholarship holders in a double portrait concert in Berlin.
Even during his lifetime, the pianist and composer Wilhelm Kempff (1895-1991) was particularly interested in promoting young talent, and he had the Casa Orfeo built in Positano in southern Italy for his Beethoven interpretation courses.
The scholarship holders are appointed annually by ensemble mosaik in consultation with the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. An application is not possible.
The first scholarship holder was Johan Svensson in 2017, followed by Óscar Escudero, Andreas Eduardo Frank, Julia Mihály and Manuel Rodríguez-Valenzuela, Wojtek Blecharz, Sara Glojnarić, Liisa Hirsch and Chris Swithinbank
Further information:
progettopositano.org
Concert
Many thanks to Liisa Hirsch, Chris Swithinbank, Enno Poppe and the ensemble mosaik for an inspiring Progetto Positano portrait concert 2021!
Photos: Kai Bienert
Programme
LIISA HIRSCH
Cloud Tones (2015) for viola and piano
Dynamics of Contact (2017/21) for string trio (WP)
Soluted Harmonics (2021) for ensemble (WP)
Glides (2014/21) for flute, clarinet, saxophone, piano, violin, viola and cello
CHRIS SWITHINBANK
this line comes from the past (2019/21) for ensemble
irrelevant noise [subsection (1)(ab)(ii)] for clarinet, viola, cello and electronics (WP)
union|haze (2016) for ensemble
Liisa Hirsch has written for orchestra, different ensembles and choir, she has also created music for theatre and film. The main characteristic of her music is sensitivity concerning timbre and focused attention to the sound, as well as purity of form and research-oriented approach towards composition. Microtonal reflection can also be observed in her work. Lately, she has been seeking to further the means of concentrated listening.
She has played keyboards, synthesizers and electronics in different collectives focused on free improvisation or indie music. Also she has sung in vocal ensemble Heinavanker, Tallinn Music High School Chamber Choir and Tallinn University Chamber Choir.
Hirsch has worked in Tallinn Music High School as a teacher of free improvisation (2007–2009) and lecturer in Tallinn University (2011). From 2011 to 2013, she worked as the music director of Estonian Drama Theatre.
Hirsch has studied piano in Tallinn Music High School in Laine Mets’s class, where she also attended the composition lessons with Mati Kuulberg and Timo Steiner and learned improvisation with Taavi Kerikmäe. In 2009, she graduated from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in composition under Toivo Tulev, and improved her skills in piano with Prof. Ivari Ilja, electronic music with Margo Kõlar and improvisation with Prof. Anto Pett. In 2015, she obtained a master’s degree in composition at the The Royal Conservatory of The Hague under the guidance of Peter Adriaansz and Cornelis de Bondt.
In 2006, Liisa Hirsch participated in the international workshop for young composers in Dundaga, Latvia. In 2008 she took part in Rafael Reina’s master course of South Indian rhythmics. In the same year, she performed at the Moers Festival in Germany. Additionally, she has attended course of Action Theater (tutors Ruth Zaporah, Sabine von der Tann, Sten Rudström) and corporeal mime (tutor Elke Luyten).
Her music has been played at several festivals including Mata Festival, ISCM World Music Days, Gaudeamus Muziek Week, Átlátszó Hang Újzenei Fesztivál, Ostrava New Music Days, Young Euro Classic, Estonian Music Days, Afekt, Musica Sacra Festival and International Arts Festival in St.Petersburg. Hirsch has worked together with S.E.M. Ensemble (New York), Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Figura Ensemble (Denmark), THReNSeMBLe ensemble (Hungary), Elblag Chamber Orchestra, Estonian National Male Choir, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and others.
For her music to theatre plays, Hirsch has twice received the Estonian Theatre Annual Award: in 2010 for the best original music for drama (Night of Souls) and in 2013 for the best original music or musical design for drama (Iceland’s Bell, Three Sisters, New Electric Ballroom). In 2015, her work Brautigan Circles for voices and large ensemble was selected as the winning piece at the young composers‘ meeting in Apeldoorn organised by Dutch ensemble Orkest de Erenprijs. Ascending… Descending for string orchestra achieved the 5th place at the International Rostrum for Composers in 2015 and the new composition award Au-tasu by LHV Bank in 2016. Her orchestral work Mechanics of Flying won the European Composer Award at the festival Young Euro Classic in Berlin. In 2017, Liisa Hirsch was given the Heino Eller Music Prize.
Chris Swithinbank:
In my music I hope to open up doors to worlds that might otherwise not exist, drawing together material contexts for human performers that are resistant and require collaborative effort. I am interested in working with unstable and contingent situations that both demand response and afford freedom to those involved. For example, my string quartet union–seam asks performers to share an instrument, at times producing a single sound through communal action, staging an intimate responsiveness to one another and their instrument’s resonance.
I recently graduated from the doctoral programme at Harvard University (USA) where my dissertation committee included Profs. Chaya Czernowin, Vijay Iyer, and Hans Tutschku. I previously studied on the ‘Cursus 1’ programme at IRCAM (France), supported by an Entente Cordiale Scholarship, and at the University of Manchester (UK) where I received Bachelors and Masters degrees in music and composition, studying with Ricardo Climent. Other important musical encounters have included discussions with Pierluigi Billone, Michael Pisaro, Rebecca Saunders, Steven Kazuo Takasugi, and Jennifer Walshe and work with the musicians of the JACK Quartet, ensemble mosaik, soundinitiative, Talea Ensemble, Trio Atem, and Yarn/Wire, amongst many others.
In addition to my compositional work, I have worked as a teaching assistant to Profs. Claire Chase, Chaya Czernowin, George Lewis, and Hans Tutschku, covering improvised and experimental music, studio composition, and collaborative creative practice. I developed a suite of pedagogical tools for teaching creative audio programming and have worked regularly as a technical assistant to the composer Clara Iannotta. Fall 2018 saw the publication of a special issue of CR: The New Centennial Review on music and critical theory, co-edited with philosopher Irving Goh.
ensemble mosaik
Kristjana Helgadottir – flute, Simon Strasser – oboe, Christian Vogel – clarinet, Martin Losert – saxophone, Roland Neffe – percussion, Ernst Surberg – piano, Chatschatur Kanajan – violin, Sarah Saviet – violin, Karen Lorenz – viola, Mathis Mayr – cello, Niklas Seidl – cello, Arne Vierck – sound, Enno Poppe – conductor
Since its foundation in 1997, ensemble mosaik has developed into a renowned ensemble for contemporary music as a particularly versatile and experimental formation. Its members are distinguished not only by their instrumental skills, but also by their creative individuality and love of experimentation. In many years of collaboration, they have created a distinguished ensemble that demonstrates openness to a wide variety of contemporary music concepts at the highest artistic level. The ensemble’s activities are characterised by close collaboration with composers of the young and younger generation and the integration of digital media in the areas of composition, interpretation and presentation. The preferred approach is an egalitarian working method in exchange with all actors involved in a concert project. By opening up working processes, creativity is bundled and intensified. ensemble mosaik has been working continuously with many composers for years, thus enabling music to be developed over long periods of time in a collaborative process. A particular focus of the artistic work is the exploration of new approaches to performance practice, for example by incorporating scenic and visual elements, and the testing of new concert formats that reflect on individual works in the context of an overall context, focus on current trends and test new perspectives. In cooperation with artists from other disciplines or musical genres, the concerts themselves become experimental arrangements. The Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation has a long-standing and trusting relationship with ensemble mosaik, which will be expanded into a multi-year cooperation with the new Progetto Positano grant.
Johan Svensson
Casa Orfeo in Positano in Southern Italy’s Campania region was built by the pianist and composer Wilhelm Kempff (1895–1991).
