Irène Zandel
Progetto Positano 2022:
Laura Bowler & Kaj Duncan David
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, Chris Swithinbank, Laura Bowler and Kaj Duncan David.
Further information:
progettopositano.org
Concert
Many thanks to Laura Bowler, Kaj Duncan David, Enno Poppe and ensemble mosaik for an inspiring Progetto Positano portrait concert 2022!
Photos: Kai Bienert
Programme
LAURA BOWLER
Wicked Problems for voice and ensemble (new version)
Isolated Sounds for voice and ensemble
KAJ DUNCAN DAVID
Some pieces for violin, keyboard and lights (2016)
micro .· micro : micro .·:: micro .:·.: (2017) for snare, ewi, oboe, violin, electronics, light, video
formula for escaping the logic of the trap (2017) for speaker, flute, oboe/ewi, clarinet, keyboard, light and video
LAURA BOWLER, described as „a triple threat composer-performer-provocatrice“ (The Arts Desk), is a composer, singer and artistic director specializing in theater, multidisciplinary works and opera. She has received commissions worldwide from ensembles and orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, ROH2, Opera Holland Park, The Opera Group, Manchester Camerata, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Quatuor Bozzini (Canada), Ensemble Phace (Austria), Ensemble Linea (France), and Omega Ensemble (Australia). Laura Bowler studied at the RNCM and the Sibelius Academy (Finland) at the Royal Academy of Music (England). She also completed a Masters in Theatre Directing at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She is currently a lecturer in composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Northern College of Music.
KAJ DUNCAN DAVID is a Berlin-based experimental music composer. Many of his pieces are audiovisual and explore creative relationships between sound and light in concert situations. His research-led practice increasingly addresses themes at the intersection of speculative theories of mind and matter, anthropology, and science fiction. In addition to classical concert formats, he has developed hybrid works for theater/music/opera/installation and explored electronic music. Between 2006 and 2016 he studied at Goldsmiths College (London) and at the music academies of Aarhus and Dresden. His mentors included Simon Steen-Andersen and Manos Tsangaris. In 2019 he was a fellow of the Junge Akademie at the Akademie der Künste Berlin.
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).
