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Oscar Bianchi: Plenty for two. Eine idiosynkratische Allianz

Plenitude, gorgeous plentifulness, generosity.
Throughout the more exhaustive corpus of the ensemble, two instruments radiate a spectacular identitarian latitude. The magnanimity of formants, color, and spectrum, speak plenty about such musical and existential “largesse.” Historically they came a long way, yes, to be able to deploy such an arsenal of poetry and entrancement. But here, they are neither soloists nor “concertanti”; they are nautic propellers, in force and symbols. They are both screed and content of their abodes. The endless resources of those two enable larger discourses about introspection, speculation, jubilation, and transcendence. The joy of nurturing them, within their idiosyncratic alliance, comes from a simple realization that idioms are not cages, just departures and that what is possible still lays ahead.
Oscar Bianchi

 

Biography

Oscar Bianchi

Oscar Bianchi owes his first music excitements and endeavors to performing with music bands of ample stylistic latitudes during his teenage years. Having then engaged in a decade + of intense and turbulent academic training (Milan Conservatory, IRCAM, Columbia University) and resided in several countries, his vision and intellectual sensibility got incessantly challenged. His outputs have ranged from small to large forms, staged and concert music, instrumental and vocal. A possible common denominator throughout them, an obsession for “otherness” and “inwardness” and a fair disturbance with own « déjà-vu.»

 

Throughout his latest two concertos, « 6 db » for six double basses (2021), and « Étoile » for electric guitar (2020), along with a renewed pact within the orchestra, Oscar Bianchi sought a new form of instrumental dignity. Awards include first prices at Gaudeamus, UNESCO (Rostrum), Music Theatre NOW, the german critics’ award, and residencies in Berlin (DAAD), Warsaw (U-jazdowski), Venice (Centro Tedesco Studi Veneziani), Florida (ACA). Very engaged academically, Oscar Bianchi is a regular at masterclasses in the US, Europe, and Russia. Between Berlin and Switzerland, he’s a proud father of a small daughter and the founder and director of the International Young Composers Academy in Ticino.

Oscar Bianchi
© Astrid Ackermann
Work Information

Annesley Black: Tolerance Stacks II

„Tolerance Stacks“ are calculations that determine the amount of deviation that mechanical parts can tolerate before the machine fails.

 

In TOLERANCE STACKS II, the „machine“ is the piece. A soloist quintet with analog electroacoustic instruments enters into dialogue with the large ensemble, pushing all parameters-harmony, sound quality, tempo, rhythm, the role of soloists and ensemble, and the perception of transitional states-to the limits of their tolerance. The singer sings texts by two contrasting personalities, the inventor Thomas Edison and the inventor and poet Charles Cros.

 

In TOLERANCE STACKS II, Annesley Black explored the tension between man and machine and the enormous potential of transferring characteristic properties of electroacoustic instruments to „classical“ instruments.

 

Sounds on the verge of breaking unite to create unique moments that express an unsentimental celebration of what is passing and cannot be reconstructed….an act of resistance to reducing unpredictable sensory experiences to preconceived parametric abstractions.
Annesley Black

Biography

Annesley Black

Annesley Black (*1979 in Ottawa, CA) is a Canadian composer living in Frankfurt, Germany. Her list of works spans a wide variety of genres, concert formats and media – from solo works, chamber music, ensemble and orchestral works to electro-acoustic compositions, live-electronics, mixed-media installations and experimental improvisation. She has worked with numerous renowned artists from a wide range of artistic disciplines and explores an unusual breadth of innovative themes and concepts. With their complex compositional structures, her compositions exhibit an expressive and independent musical language.

Annesley Black
© privat
Biography

Bruce Collins

Biography

Florentin Ginot

Biography

Juliet Fraser

Biography

Ulrich Löffler

Biography

Joao Pacheco

Biography

Hannah Weirich

Biography

Rie Watanabe

Biography

Ensemble Musikfabrik

Ever since its formation in 1990, Ensemble Musikfabrik has had the reputation of being one of the leading ensembles for contemporary music. Following the literal meaning of its name, Ensemble Musikfabrik is particularly dedicated to artistic innovation. New, unknown, and often personally commissioned works in unusual media are typical of their productions. The results of their extensive work, usually taking place in close collaboration with the composers, are presented by the Cologne-based international soloist ensemble in up to 80 concerts a year in both Germany and abroad, at Festivals, in their own series “Musikfabrik in WDR” and in regular radio recordings and CD productions.

 

Ensemble Musikfabrik is supported by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Foto: Frederike Wetzels
Biography

Clement Power

Clement Power (*1980) studied at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music, then held assistant conductorships with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Ensemble Intercontemporain. He frequently works with leading new-music ensembles including Klangforum Wien, Musikfabrik and Contrechamps. He has recently conducted the Philharmonia, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, RSO Stuttgart, Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Ictus Ensemble, Collegium Novum Zürich, and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. He has been the guest of festivals including Lucerne Festival, Salzburg Biennale, Darmstadt, Wien Modern, Acht Brücken, Aldeburgh, IRCAM Agora, amongst many others. Power has given over two hundred world premieres, including works by Georg Friedrich Haas, Péter Eötvös, Benedict Mason, and new commissions for the instruments of Harry Partch. Opera premieres include Hèctor ParraHypermusic Prologue (EIC / Liceu), Wolfgang Mitterer Marta (Opéra de Lille), and Liza Lim Tree of Codes (Musikfabrik / Cologne Opera).

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