Johan Svensson
Progetto Positano 2023:
Maja Bosnić & Georgia Koumará
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. In 2023 Georgia Koumará and Maja Bosnić received the residency.
Further information:
progettopositano.org
Concert
Many thanks to Maja Bosnić, Georgia Koumará, Enno Poppe and ensemble mosaik for an inspiring Progetto Positano portrait concert 2023!
Photos: Kai Bienert
Programme
Georgia Koumará
Delineated in black and white, caught or scattered, the letters dance „Im Vox-Haus“ (2021) for three keyboards
I wonder if I should start accessing pleasure a whole lot (2022) for flute, viola, cello, drum set, performer, synthesizer, theremin and electronics
Maja Bosnić
The Upgrade (2017) for a group of musicians on their phones and video
\com.app.data (2018): ever-changing piece for group of musicians with phone apps
Best of fibres (2022) for amplified ensemble
((mno.go)) (2021) for flute, saxophone,viola, cello, piano, percussion, video and electronics
Georgia Koumará, born in Thessaloniki, studied Composition (M.Mus.) in Thessaloniki (A.U.TH) and Cologne (HfMT) with Johannes Schöllhorn, Michael Beil and Michalis Lapidakis , Music Theory with Kostas Siembis and Piano with Lenio Liatsou and Lilia Vaseiliadou.
In her music she is interested in exploring the relationships that occur between conceptual, perceptual and actual measurable time, as it is formulated thought different ontological interpretations, from the process of performance and listening. Thus, by creating, developing and combining different sonic processes, she strives to achieve continuous flux and energy and intricate multi layered textures.
Since 2017 co-founder and composer of Kollektiv3:6Koeln, a collective ensemble with an unusual consistency of 6 musicians and 4 composers. Kollektiv3:6Koeln specialised in contemporary experimental music co-creations through communicative procedures. Emphasising in exploring alternative concert places and multifarious concert experience for its audience. Her music is published by Edition Plante. Since 2014 She lives and works in Cologne.
Maja Bosnić is a composer and performer from Belgrade. She is drawn to impossible missions, absurd solutions, limited material, playfulness, uncertain outcomes, audience participation, treating instruments as ready-made objects of expression, and treating real-life objects as musical instruments. She obtained a PhD degree in music composition at Goldsmiths, University of London (UK), supervised by prof. Roger Redgate, and is currently working as Assistant Lecturer in Composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. She writes pieces for solo, chamber, ensemble, and orchestra performances, as well as, projects for electronics, multi-media, and interactive settings with audience participation.
Her works have been performed around Europe with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, Secretariat for Culture of the City of Belgrade, Goethe-Institut, Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, the Austrian Ministry of Culture and European Cultural Foundation. She was awarded third prize at the international composition competition New Music Generation in Kazahstan 2020, honorable mention at the Thailand New Music and Arts Symposium, scholarships, and annual grants by the Ministry of Youth of the Republic of Serbia, Donaueschinger Muziktage 2014, and Delian New Music Academy in 2019. Since 2010, she has been leading various projects and workshops in Zabuna – New Music Association in Belgrade.
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).
