Progetto Positano
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. In 2020, Wojtek Blecharz and Sara Glojnarić received the residency. In 2021, Liisa Hirsch and Chris Swithinbank. The 2022 fellows, Laura Bowler and Kaj Duncan David, will present themselves on 30 November 2022 at the Kesselhaus in the Kulturfabrik in Berlin.
Further information:
progettopositano.org
Concert
30 November 2022 / 8 pm
Kesselhaus in the Kulturbrauerei, Berlin
Laura Bowler
Wicked Problems for ensemble and voice (new version)
FFF (2017) for vocalist and 8-piece ensemble with electronics and video
Kaj Duncan David
micro .- micro : micro .-:: micro .:-.: (2017) for snare, ewi, oboe, violin, electronics, light, video
Some pieces for violin, keyboard and lights (2016) for snare, ewi, oboe, violin, electronics, lights, video
formula for escaping the logic of the trap (2017) for speaker, flute, oboe/ewi, clarinet, keyboard, light and video
ensemble mosaik
Enno Poppe, conductor
Kristjana Helgadottir, flute
Simon Strasser, oboe
Christian Vogel, clarinet
Nathan Plante, trumpet
Roland Neffe, percussion
Ernst Surberg, piano
Khachatur Kanajan, violin
Mathis Mayr, cello
Caleb Salgado, double bass
Arne Vierck, sound direction
Eckehard Güther, video
Martin Lau, narrator
Laura Bowler, voice
Requests for press tickets please contact presse@ensemble-mosaik.de.
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.
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.
