- Anna Korsun (UKR, 1986) Spleen (2019) chamber music for singing ensemble - 10’
Spleen is a hypnotic work for wind and string instruments, in which the instrumentalists enrich the soundscape by singing sustained notes. Mesmerizing!

- Marcel Reuter, (LU, 1973) Interludio (2007) for clarinet, cello and piano - 4’
In this trio, the cello takes very much a back seat compared with the other instruments. “In writing this piece I was thinking of Glenn Gould’s performance and of the ‘autumnal calm’ he more and more looked for in his performances towards the end of his life.” (United Instruments of Lucilin - Goldberg’s Ghost)

- Senay Uğurlu (TR, 1997) dep . R(i)e . viv . al . a . tion (2019) for ensemble - 7’
dep . R(i)e . viv . al . a . tion is an artificial word that was created as considering the phonetic features of both deprivation and revival words.

- Jose Luis Valdivia Arias (ES, 1994) Boyish (2022) for flute, clarinet, saxophone, violin, viola, cello, percussion and piano - 8’
In 2020 United Instruments of Lucilin premiered Valdivia’s work Boyish. A year later, the piece was reworked and presented during the International Festival of Music and Dance of Granada, Spain. For 33,7 the work will be extended one more time and presented in its final form.

- Roland Wiltgen (LU, 1957) Le Troglodyte musicien (2022) tape, acousmatic pieces/WP - 5’* 

*World Premiere

"Le Troglodyte musicien" is basically a spin-off from my most recent electroacoustic works on birdsong. 

Unlike the more meditative « Dreamgarden » series, this much more « composed » piece is about one single bird: "Troglodytes troglodytes" also known as "wren" or « Zaunkönig », whose song brings forth most of the material of the work. The purpose is to explore all the potential of the basic ideas expressed at the start by adding more and more variations and thus allowing the piece to grow in duration in the future.

With: Winnie Cheng (violin), Ingrid Schoenlaub (violoncello), Pierre Fourcade (violoncello), Henning Sieverts (contrabass), Païvi Kauffmann (flute), Max Mausen (clarinet), Jean-Marc Foltz (clarinet), Olivier Sliepen (saxophone), Andreas Mader (saxophone), Zala Kravos (piano), Louisa Marxen (percussion), Tom Goff (conductor)

Composers:

Anna Korsun - born in 1986 in Ukraine.

Anna Korsun is a composer, sound artist and performer. She combines in her creativity musical composition, installation, performance and sound art. She works for different formations: from solo to orchestra, including acoustic instruments, voice, electronics and sounding objects. She collaborates with visual arts, dance, theater and literature. Anna involves into her works both professional and amateur musicians, as well as non-musicians.

Anna Korsun studied composition in Kiev and Munich with Moritz Eggert. Besides an activity as an artist Anna performs contemporary music as vocalist/keyboard instruments, directs musical projects and teaches composition at Amsterdam Conservatory, as well as at international courses.

She participated at international festivals such as Eclat, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, ISCM, Warsaw Autumn, Festival Musica Strasbourg. She has worked with Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, SWR Vokalensemble, Ensemble Mosaik, Ascolta, Ensemble Modern, AskoSchönberg, Camerata Silesia, Silbersee, Bavarian Academy of Theater August Everding, Ludwik-Solski-Academy for performing arts in Krakow, LOH-Orchester, Thüringer Symphoniker. She was artist-in-residence at Villa Massimo in Rome, Residency for New Music Goethe Institute Canada, Academy Schloss Solitude, Cité internationale des arts in Paris and others. Anna was awarded Prize of Christoph-and-Stephan-Kaske-Foundation, Gaudeamus Award, Kunstpreis Berlin and Open Ear of Trillende Lucht Foundation.

Marcel Reuter - born in 1973 in Luxembourg

Marcel Reuter is a composer and pianist who focuses on chamber music, a genre that reflects his idea of music as an intimate medium of communication.

His musical studies led him to Belgium, where he studied piano and theory at the Royal Conservatories of Mons and Brussels (1992-1996). He has studied composition at the Vienna University of Music and besides he attended courses and masterclasses held by Alexander Mullenbach, Klaus Huber, Beat Furrer, Jonathan Harvey and Magnus Lindberg (IRCAM).

Marcel Reuter has held teaching positions at the University of Music in Vienna (2002-2007) and  the Conservatoire du Nord in Luxembourg (since 2007). He has  lectured at Music Academy Sarajevo, Musikhochschule Freiburg among others. He is a founding member of the Vienna-based international group of composers named Gegenklang.

His works have been performed at some major music festivals (Salzburger Festspiele, Wien modern, Aspekte Salzburg, Klangspuren Schwaz, Gaudeamus, Ars musica) as well as in Berlin (Konzerthaus, Deutsche Oper), Buenos Aires, Hongkong, London, Montreal, New York, Rome, Tokyo. They have been commissioned by institutions such as Luxembourg Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Netherlands Vocal Laboratorium, Lucilin, Quartet New Generation, KMVL. Marcel Reuter is a prize-winner of the EPTA-Cera-Competition for piano duos (1995).

Senay Uğurlu - born in 1997 in Turkey

Senay Uğurlu started playing piano at an early age. After her piano education at Ankara State Conservatory, she joined the Bilkent University Music Preparatory High School as a flutist, then got accepted to the Bilkent University Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, Theory and Composition department, where she obtained her bachelor’s degree. She currently studies composition with Onur Türkmen. She attended important workshops and festivals such as Impuls Academy, Klasik Keyifler – The Composer’s Cauldron, “Journey of Sound” Young Composers’ Festival and Computer Space, an international computer art forum. During these experiences, she had the opportunity to work with remarkable composers including Beat Furrer, Mark Andre, Mahir Cetiz, Dmitri Kourliandski, Isabel Mundry and Ken Ueno.

Jose Luis Valdivia Arias - born in 1994 in Granada, Spain

His 2019 chamber music piece Hyperconnected Fragmentations was premiered by Doelen Ensemble, at the Doelen in Rotterdam (Netherlands). In 2020 the ensemble United Instruments of Lucilin premiered his piece Boyish in Granada, Spain. B3: Brouwer trio premiered his first piano trio in 2018 in the religious music festival of Cuenca, Spain.

Valdivia studied at Tai School of Music and Arts before moving to Rotterdam to work with Robin de Raaff and Peter Jan Wagemans at Codarts. He is currently studying at the Royal College of Music in London with the composer Kenneth Hesketh.

Valdivia’s piece Gouache was premiered in 2018 by Ensemble Sonido extremo and was awarded the National prize for young composers SGAE/CNDM. The work has since been taken up by other orchestras, including the Jove Orchestra de la Generalitat and the Valencia Orchestra. 

- Cathy Van Eck (BE, 1979) Empty Chairs (2018) for three chairs, sensors, live electronics, three loudspeakers, one microphone and one performer - 8’

Empty Chairs stages three empty chairs, each with a loudspeaker attached. A system of live recorded sounds and electronic processing brings them to life. A performer interacts with the chairs by moving them, placing them in new formations, and trying out different positions. A microphone placed in the middle of the room is looking for utterances and reminiscences of people who once sat on those chairs. This piece was commissioned by iii.

- Catherine Kontz (LU, 1976) Snakes and Ladders (2018) for 2-8 players (musicians, dancers, non-musicians, suitable for adults or kids) - 10’

This game-score is derived from the classic Snakes and Ladders, a game in which players compete to be the first to reach the end tile. In this musical version, each performer takes on the role of a game-piece, and uses one or more musical instruments (including  voice), object(s), and/or their body to interpret the instructions on the board.

- Fátima Fonte (PT, 1983) The Sleep Collector (2022) for percussion, flute, violoncello - 10’ *

*World Premiere - Commissioned by United Instruments of Lucilin for the project 33,7 - Esch2022 European Capital of Culture, with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation

- Simon Steen-Andersen (DNK, 1976) Besides Beside (2003) for cello and percussion - 4’

Beside Besides is actually the ending of a longer piece, BESIDES, for three amplified and three damped instruments. In the global form as well as in the form of a fragment this piece is - among other things - a search for a new beginning. A few elements are contracting slowly moving in the direction of something that might become a music.

With: André Pons-Valdès (violin), Ingrid Schoenlaub (violoncello), Païvi Kauffmann (flute), Guy Frisch (percussion)

Composers

Cathy Van Eck - born in 1979 in Belgium 

Cathy van Eck is a composer, sound artist, and researcher in the arts and focuses on composing relationships between everyday objects, human performers, and sound. Her artistic work includes performances with live-electronics and installations with sound objects which she often designs herself. She is interested in setting her gestures into relationships with sounds, mainly by electronic means. The result could be called “performative sound art”, since it combines elements from performance art, electronic music, and visual arts. Her work transcends genres and is presented at occasions as diverse as experimental or electronic music concerts, open air festivals, sound art gallery venues, digital art events, or performance art festivals. She is a member of iii (instrument inventors initiative), an artist run, community platform supporting new interdisciplinary practices linking performance, technology and the human senses.

Cathy has a permanent teaching position at the Department for Sound Arts of the University of the Arts in Bern, Switzerland. She is a regular guest lecturer at other art and music universities. In her PhD-research Between Air and Electricity (supervisors Richard Barrett, Marcel Cobussen and Frans de Ruiter; accepted in 2013 by the University of Leiden, The Netherlands), she investigated the use of microphones and loudspeakers as musical instruments. Her book Between Air and Electricity – Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments has been published in 2017 and she writes regularly on www.microphonesandloudspeakers.com.

Catherine Kontz - Luxembourgish composer born in 1976

Her works explore nonlinear form, visual/spatial elements, and musical theatricality. Orchestral works include The Waves (Solistes Européens Luxembourg) and Fruitmarket (BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra), as well as the forthcoming 45-minute Voix des Terres Rouges for choir and large orchestra, commissioned by the Orchestre national de Metz as part of the European capital of Culture program for Esch2022. 

Catherine Kontz first studied piano at the Conservatoire in Luxembourg and later in London. In 2008, she received a Doctorate in Composition from Goldsmiths. Her research related Deleuzian theory to mime opera - via Lynchian cinema and Kabuki theatre - and culminated with the ground-breaking music theatre work, MiE.

She has worked extensively within the world of new opera: notable multimedia productions include Neige at Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg and The Philosophy Shop at Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts RADA, which she composed and directed, plus regular appearances at the Tête-à-Tête opera festival. 

In collaboration with Zoran Cvetkovic, Professor of Signal Processing, she is working on a collaborative project exploring the potential of audio technologies and human processes of intelligence. Her work has been performed internationally. Recently, a large-scale live promenade piece, Driwwer Drënner Drop, was performed by 100+ young musicians as part of Luxembourg Philharmonie’s Rainy Days Festival 2021.

Fleet Footing, a psycho-geographical sound-walk and collaboration with S.L. Grange, was shortlisted for the Quattropole Music Prize, as was 12 HOURS, an innovative marathon for voice and electronics, created for mezzo-soprano Rosie Middleton. Catherine Kontz is currently an artist-in-residence in the Department of Engineering at King’s College London. 

Fátima Fonte - born in 1983 in Portugal

In recent years she has been working intensely on staged music. One of her main works – the opera buffa “A Querela dos Grilos” (libretto by Tiago Schwäbl) – has been presented in numerous Portuguese theatres.

Fátima Fonte studied composition in Porto (ESMAE) and at the Conservatory of Music of Amsterdam, with Richard Ayres. Thanks to a scholarship from Fundação Oriente, she was able to study Hindustani Music in India. In 2017-18 she was a Young Composer Associate at Teatro Nacional São Carlos, collaborating with dancers, choreographers, singers and instrumentalists, besides premiering Era Uma Vez Eu-Alface, for narrator and Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa.

Performances of her music have been given by the Nieuw Ensemble (Concertgebouw Amsterdam / Den Bosh), Icarus Ensemble (Italy / Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival UK), Orkest de Ereprijs (Young Composers Meeting Apeldoorn / Gaudeaumus Music Week NL). In 2019 Orquestra Gulbenkian performed Breve Desassossego as part of the “Composing for voices” workshop, and Duo Tágide premiered Coração Acordeão (commissioned by Miso Music Portugal). Currently Fonte is a doctoral student at Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London).

Simon Steen-Andersen - born 1976 in Odder, Denmark

Steen-Andersen is working with a multidisciplinary approach to musical performance and the concert situation, resulting in works situated between the categories of music, performance, theatre, choreography and film.

Simon Steen-Andersen studied composition with Karl Aage Rasmussen, Mathias Spahlinger, Gabriel Valverde, and Bent Sørensen in Aarhus, Freiburg, Buenos Aires and Copenhagen between 1998 and 2006. He has been a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts since 2016 and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music since 2018. Since 2018 he is teaching composition and music theatre as professor at the University of the Arts Bern (HKB), Switzerland and as associate professor at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark.

Simon Steen-Andersen received numerous prizes, latest the Carl Prize 2020, the SWR Orchestra Prize 2019, the Mauricio Kagel Music Prize and the Siemens Composer’s‘ Prize 2017, the Carl Prize 2015, the Nordic Council Music Prize 2014, the SWR Orchestra Prize 2014, the Carl Nielsen Honorary Award and the Kunstpreis from Berlin Academy of the Arts 2013, the 1st Prize of International Rostrum of Composers and the DAAD Berlin Artist Residency 2010 and the Kranichsteiner Music Award 2008.

- Fausto Romitelli (IT, 1963-2004) Professor Bad Trip: Lessons I, II, III (1998) for 8 instrumentalists and electronics - 41’

Romitelli’s Professor Bad Trip (1998-2000) is inspired by the mescalinian works of Henri Michaux, Francis Bacon’s paintings and Gianluca Lerici’s comic strips. This ‘contemporary baroque’ music is deeply influenced by psychedelic rock from the 1970’s and 1980’s, by Jimmy Hendrix’ guitar and techno music.

With: André Pons-Valdès (violin), Danielle Hennicot (viola), Ingrid Schoenlaub (violoncello), Henning Sieverts (contrabass), Sophie Deshayes (flute), Max Mausen (clarinet), Pascal Meyer (piano), Guy Frisch (percussion), Miguel Moreira (e-guitar), André Feydy (trumpet) Cédric Fischer (electronics), Julien Leroy (conductor)

Composer

Fausto Romitelli - born in 1963 in Gorizia, Italy (✝2004)

Although his attention was directed to the principal European musical experiences (György Ligeti and Giacinto Scelsi, in particular), his main inspiration was drawn from French spectral music, in particular Hugues Dufourt and Gérard Grisey, to whom he dedicated the second piece of the cycle Domeniche alla periferia dell’Impero (1995-96, 2000). In EnTrance (1995-96) his writing encompasses the study of the voice, using a mantra from the Tibetan Book of the Dead: the resulting music is extremely compact, with a hypnotic and ritualistic flow, in which the sound, “like material to be forged”, is matched by a taste for technology and the search for new acoustic horizons. 

Fausto Romitelli graduated from the Conservatorio “Giuseppe Verdi” of Milan and subsequently took part in advanced courses at the Accademia Chigiana of Siena and the Scuola Civica of Milan. In 1991 he moved to Paris to join the “Cursus d’Informatique Musicale” at IRCAM, where he also collaborated as “compositeur en recherche” from 1993 to 1995. 

After a series of successes at international competitions in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Graz, Milan, Stockholm and Siena, Romitelli’s music was routinely played at the main international concert venues and festivals: Festival Musica, Festival Présences of Radio France, Ars Musica, Saisons of the Ircam-Intercontemporain, the Venice Biennale, and the Festival Milano Musica. His works were performed by ensembles and orchestras that included Ictus, L’Itinéraire, Court-Circuit, Intercontemporain, Musiques Nouvelles, ensemble recherche, Alter Ego, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, with commissions from institutions such as the French Ministry of Culture, Musiques Nouvelles, Ictus, la Musique et les Arts, Radio France, Ircam , the Gulbenkian Foundation, Milano Musica, L’Itinéraire and the Royaumont Foundation.

Struck down by a fatal illness, Fausto Romitelli died in Milan on 27 June 2004 at the age of 41. 

- Gast Waltzing (LU, 1956) First They Drug You (2022) for chamber orchestra and DJ electronics*

- Gast Waltzing (LU, 1956) Wings of Love (2022) for chamber orchestra and DJ electronics*

- Gast Waltzing (LU, 1956) Don’t shit where you eat! (2022) for chamber orchestra and DJ electronics*

- Gast Waltzing (LU, 1956) Is there any light? (2022) for chamber orchestra and DJ electronics*

- 25’

*Commissioned by the Ministry of Culture Luxembourg for United Instruments of Lucilin

Peace, drugs and love. A new style, composed by Gast Waltzing and Jean Jacques Mailliet. Their social statement of the dumbing down of humankind from the over stimulation of alarmist media and the deluge of speculative news. But Hope lives on. Jazz is dead, long live Jazz!

Electronic production: Jean-Jacques Mailliet

Orchestral Composition: Gast Waltzing

With: André Pons-Valdès (violin), Winnie Cheng (violin), Danielle Hennicot (viola), Pierre Fourcade (violoncello), Max Mausen (clarinet), Guy Frisch (percussion), Louisa Marxen (percussion), Julien Leroy (conductor), Jean-Jacques Mailliet (violin), Gast Waltzing (trumpet), (electronics)

Composer: Gast Waltzing - born in 1956 in Luxembourg

Gast’s great love is to create innovative musical project, mixing music genres and artists to create interesting musical combinations.

Gast Waltzing began his musical adventure at the age of 7 studying at the conservatories of Luxembourg, Brussels and Paris. He recorded numerous CD’s with his various jazz groups (Atmosphere, Life’s Circle, Largo), composed and produced film music for over 200 TV and feature films, was nominated for Best European Film Music Composer in 1989 and wrote symphonic arrangements for many artists, from the Scorpions to Amy McDonald to Gregory Porter (and many others). He won a Grammy in 2016 for his work with the great Angelique Kidjo on her CD “Sings”, blending her traditional African music and melodies with his Symphonic Orchestra arrangements.

Waltzing is Professor of Trumpet and head of the Jazz Department at the Conservatory of Luxembourg, having created the department in 1986. He works regularly with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, where he was named Assistant Pops Director in 2016. In recent years he has worked with many Symphonic Orchestras around the world (such as the Scottish Royal National Orchestra, The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, The Prague National Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Orchestre Lamoureux, among others) as a conductor, arranger, and also with his original compositions.

- Francesco Tristano (LU, 1981) piano 2.0 (2022) for piano and electronics - 40’

“Music is music”. This is what Alban Berg responded to George Gershwin in Paris during the spring of 1928, as to why there was no distinction between what we consider “educated” music and “popular” music.

Francesco Tristano has endorsed this quote over the last decade with his work; combining piano and synthesizer, between the scores of baroque masters, contemporary composers, and the latest production and sequencing tools.

Composer: Francesco Tristano - born in 1981 in Luxembourg

Francesco Tristano is a composer, performer and producer, working simultaneously in areas as disparate as they are complementary. Tristano tours the world performing baroque and contemporary repertoire; records dance tracks for electronic music labels whilst continuing with his ambitious project of recording all of Johann Sebastian Bach’s piano repertoire; and makes albums woven from his own personal stories in which he explores the sensibility and tonal richness of the piano.

His simultaneous fascination for Bach’s clean tones and the rhythmic pulse of techno; his interest in the complex study of noise, effects and timbres made by composers like Cage or Ligeti; and the need to explore his own imagination through albums such as Idiosynkrasia (2010) or the recent Tokyo Stories (2019), can be traced back to his time as a student at New York’s Juilliard School.

While at Juilliard, Francesco laid the groundwork of his ambitions as an interpreter of Bach’s music: he played and recorded the Piano Concertos with his ensemble The New Bach Players, as well as recording the Goldberg Variations (found on the small Accord label) on his own. Shortly after, he was signed by the French label Infiné, where he released his first records blending electronica and piano: Not for Piano (2007), where he created versions of techno anthems like Jeff Mills’ The Bells or Derrick May’s Strings of Life on the piano; Auricle Bio On (2008), where the piano is conceived as a sampler; and Idiosynkrasia (2010), in which he seamlessly joined his virtuosity on the keys and his programming prowess, refining his concept of “Piano 2.0,” where the instrument reaches a new textural iteration through the use of computers. 

Tristano’s big leap took place in 2011, when he was signed by Deutsche Grammophon, with whom he recorded three programmes inspired by his ascent as a concert pianist of international acclaim. The first one was Bach/Cage (2011) – an exploration of the sonic space where Johann Sebastian Bach and John Cage’s music co-existed despite a distance of three centuries: the punctuation of emotion, the search for unusual textures, the surprising quality of the serendipitous.

In 2017, Francesco Tristano began his collaboration with Sony Classical, focusing his efforts on releasing his own work in a new phase as a recording artist. While still touring the world both as a pianist and as an electronic artist, performing in concert halls as well as experimental and dance music festivals, he returned to the piano as a tool for creation in Piano Circle Songs (2017), a collection of songs that evoke his interest for French impressionist composers. In his most recent album, Tokyo Stories (2019), he pays homage to Japan and captures the atmospheres and experiences accumulated throughout the years visiting the country as an artist and submerging himself in its culture. 

And still, at the edge of the horizon, Francesco Tristano’s great life project, the one he will never abandon, continues to takes shape: to record Johann Sebastian’s Bach complete repertoire. As Berg said, “music is music”, and Bach will always be there because he was the only creator ever to transcend it.

In 2004, he won the first prize at the International piano competition for contemporary music in Orléans, France.

- Eliane Radigue (FR, 1932) L'île Re-sonante (2000) music for tape-based sounds (ARP 2500 synthesizer and Serge Modular on magnetic tape), electronic work - 55’

First ‘Île sonante’, then it became ‘re-sonante’, as an evidence from the process of elaboration, a return to analogical sound sources, after a long and failed attempt to convert them into MIDI and other digital formats. ‘Re-sonante’ also refers to the making of this piece, a very classical construction, in which the first part would be reflected in the central part, which would be like the mirror of a lake, from which the third part would emerge, both from its depths and reflection.

With: François Bonnet (sound projection)

Composer: Eliane Radigue - born in 1932 in Paris, France

From her Parisian childhood Eliane Radigue will keep the memory of a secret initiation into music, mediated by a prudent piano teacher. Then she will continue with the harp, with singing and composition. But it is through the contact with “musique concrète", alongside Pierre Schaeffer and later Pierre Henry, that Radigue's music will find its genuine path.
Over more than 50 years there will be three distinct periods, each of them marking a rupture while evoking in its own way an inspired exploration of thresholds, of spaces opening up in intervals, and of a dialogue between listening experience and inner experience, personal history and sensible memory.

The first period (1968–1971) is that of work on feedbacks and re-injections, an embryonic phase already signalling extreme preciseness as well as work on thresholds and threatened equilibriums. The second period, that of maturity, and spanning thirty years (1971–2001), is characterised by a fruitful production of electronic compositions, indelibly linking her music to the unique beats of the ARP 2500 synthesizer. This period also initiates the elaboration of long forms with subtle variations that blossom and resonate between the story carried by the music and the test of time necessary for its unfolding. The third period, still ongoing, is that of her acoustic works created in close collaboration with musician-accomplices coming from all horizons, bringing an additional relational dimension to a music which until then had been constructed solitarily.

Throughout her life, Éliane Radigue has developed a candid, demanding and inspiring body of work which today influences a whole new generation of musicians.

- Dance bal by Henning Sieverts (DE) - 90’ with a break

Colourful, lively and groovy - that's the new "Bal Contemporain" under the direction of the German composer and bassist Henning Sieverts.

Frank Zappa and David Bowie, Summertime and Mack the Knife - plus lots of new and original music by Henning Sieverts. You may dance!

With: André Pons-Valdès (violin), Danielle Hennicot (viola), Pierre Fourcade (violoncello), Henning Sieverts (contrabass), Jean-Marc Foltz (clarinet), Olivier Sliepen (saxophone), Pascal Meyer (piano), Guy Frisch (percussion), Stephany Ortega (voice) 

- Giulia Lorusso (IT, 1990) Organique (2022) for string trio - 10’*

*Commissioned by United Instruments of Lucilin for the project 33,7 - Esch2022 European Capital of Culture, with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation

- Tatsiana Zelianko (LU, 1980) Un songe austral (2021) for string quartet - 25’

Un songe austral, for string quartet and dancer, was commissioned by United Instruments of Lucilin with the support of Sacem and was premiered in Bergen, Norway during the Avgarde Festival in 2021. 

- Sonja Mutić (IT, 1984) brightness (2022) for string trio -10’ *

*Commissioned by United Instruments of Lucilin for the project 33,7 - Esch2022 European Capital of Culture, with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation

 With: André Pons-Valdès (violin), Winnie Cheng (violin), Danielle Hennicot (viola), Ingrid Schoenlaub (violoncello)

Composers

Giulia Lorusso - born in 1990 in Rome, Italy

 Giulia Lorusso studied piano and composition at the Conservatory “G. Verdi” of Milan where she obtained her bachelor under the supervision of Alessandro Solbiati. During the period spent in Milan she had the opportunity to collaborate with the “Piccoli Pomeriggi musicali” young orchestra for several orchestrations and transcriptions.

She attended master-classes and courses held by Pierluigi Billone, Salvatore Sciarrino, Stefano Gervasoni, Frédéric Durieux, Francesco Filidei and Dmitri Kourliandski. She currently lives in Paris where she’s attending a Master's dergee at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Frédéric Durieux and the Cursus 1 at IRCAM at the same time.

Her music has been performed in Italy and abroad by Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, Divertimento Ensemble, Quartetto Prometeo, Ensemble Nikel, during festivals as 47° Ferienkurse für neue musik in Darmstadt (2014), Impuls Academy 2015 in Graz (2015), Tzlil Meudcan Festival in Tel Aviv (2015), Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Itlay (2014), Firenze Suona Contemporanea in Florence (2014-2015), Festival Cinque Giornate in Milan (2013), Festival für junge zeitgenössische Musik Werke in Wien (2013), Tactus Forum for Young Composers in Bruxelles (2015) and others.

She is prize-winner in several composition competitions. She received a fellowship from the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage (Movin’up program) to support her project for the Cursus at IRCAM.

Tatsiana Zelianko - born in 1980 in Belarus

Tatsiana Zelianko received her Master’s Degree in Piano and Piano Accompaniment from the Belarusian State Academy of Music in Minsk. In 2008 she moved to Luxembourg where she studied composition with Alex Müllenbach at the Luxembourg Conservatory. Pursuing a strong interest in contemporary music she studied analysis, composition, counterpoint and computer music with Claude Lenners, composer and founder of the electronic music association Noise Watchers Unlimited.

She composes intensively in parallel with her activity as a pianist. Her compositions have been played at the Philharmonie Luxembourg and at the Luxembourg Conservatory. Her work “Air of Confluence” was commissioned by the new music Festival Rainy Days in 2013 in Luxembourg. In 2018 she received the PRIX ARTS ET LETTRES from Institut Grand-Ducal, Section Arts et Lettres.

Sonja Mutić - born in 1984 in Croatia and raised in Serbia

She works with sounds at thresholds of silence, harmony and noise, using minimal means to create textures of maximal expressive weight. She is interested in slowness, artistic self-exposure and vulnerability.

Sonja Mutić is a composer, performer and PhD candidate at Harvard University. She finished master studies at University of the Arts in Belgrade, postgraduate studies at Kunstuniversität Graz, and is currently a PhD candidate at Harvard University, studying with Chaya Czernowin and Hans Tutschku. 

Her music was performed by Klangforum Wien, Elision, Cairn, National Sawdust, Constellation Chor, Schallfeld, Ensemble for New Music Tallinn, Studio 6, Lucerne Festival Alumni, Orkest de Ereprijs, pre-art and Fractales amongst others, with performances at impuls festival, Lucerne Festival, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, International Rostrum of Composers, Festival ensemble(s), MusicOlomouc, impuls Minuten Konzerte, Culturescapes, LBO Songbook UnGalas, Echofluxx, mise-en, International Review of Composers.

She is the winner of the Adelbert W. Sprague Prize, Harvard University (2021, 2020), Hildegard Competition (2020), impuls prize (2019), Styria-Artist-in-Residence Graz (2018), Judith Lang Zaimont Prize (2017), Sigismund Toduţă (2017), Weimarer Frühjahrstage für zeitgenössische Musik (2016), Young Composers Meeting (2014), Künstlerhaus Boswil artist-in-residence (2014-15), pre–art (2013), Josip Slavenski (2011). 

- Carola Bauckholt (DE, 1959) Geräuschtöne (2003) for violin, violoncello and percussion - 13'

"And then I sit there and listen to different recordings of a seagull and try to re-note them: the rhythm and above all what grabs me about it, the horrible screeching, for example. The structures of animal voices are something completely different from our 'music'.” (Carola Bauckholt in conversation with Raoul Mörchen in 2008, broadcast by Deutschlandradio Kultur Berlin on 9.12.2008, translated by Jil Hamm for United Instruments of Lucilin)

James Dillon (UK, 1950) The acrobat (2022) for accordion, electric organ or keyboard, percussion - 10’ *

*Commissioned by United Instruments of Lucilin for the project 33,7 - Esch2022 European Capital of Culture, with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation

Against the quiet pedals and swells of the two keyboards, the percussionist takes on the virtuosic persona of 'the acrobat' as he juggles both impossibly soft dynamics, stretches of space and the 'subito' interruptions of freeze-frame pauses. Finally an accord!

Martyna Kosecka (PL, 1989) Weightlessness (2021) for flute(s), bass clarinet, violin, cello and piano - 7’

Premiere: 20.11.2021, Neimënster, rainy days festival, Luxembourg

"Weightlessness" for chamber ensemble is inspired by the works of Stanisław Lem and celebrates the centenary of his birth in 2021. The piece takes up the theme of weightlessness and specific thinking about the relationship between the pressures described in music - ‘heaviness of composed sound’ and their dispersion in the acoustic space.

Diana Rotaru (RO, 1981) Some reeds and some air moving them (2019) for accordion - 9’

The piece was commissioned by and dedicated to Klemen Leben. It was funded by DocMus, Sibelius Academy of Uniarts Helsinki and premiered on April 16th 2019 in Helsinki.

With: André Pons-Valdès (violin), Wanru (violin) Nora Braun (violoncello) Pierre Fourcade (violoncello), Jean-Marc Foltz (clarinet), Païvi Kauffmann (flute), Frin Wolter (accordion), (clarinet), Zala Kravos (piano), Pascal Meyer (piano) Guy Frisch (percussions), Julien Leroy (conductor) 

Composers:

Carola Bauckholt - born in 1959 in Krefeld, Germany

A central theme of Bauckholt's work is the examination of the phenomena of perception and understanding. Her compositions often blur the boundaries between visual arts, musical theater and concert music. She is especially fond of using noisy sounds, which are often produced by unconventional means (such as extended instrumental techniques or bringing everyday objects to the concert hall). It is important to note that these noises are not just part of some kind of a predetermined compositional structure, but rather they are carefully studied and left free to unfold and develop at their own pace lending the compositions their own unique rhythm.

About: After working at the Theater am Marienplatz (TAM), Krefeld for several years, she studied composition at the Musikhochschule Köln (1978 - 1984). She founded the Thürmchen Verlag (music publisher) along with Caspar Johannes Walter in 1985, and six years later they founded the Thürmchen Ensemble.

In 2013 she was elected member of Akademie der Künste in Berlin. As of 2021 she is the director of the music section. In 2015, she was appointed professor of composition with focus on contemporary music theatre at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz, Austria. In 2020, she was elected member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts.

She has received numerous residencies and prizes such as the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Scholarship from the city of Cologne (1986), a residency at the Villa Massimo in Rome (1997). She was selected to represent Germany at the World Music Days in Mexico City 1992, Copenhagen 1996, Seoul 1997 and in Zurich 2004. She was awarded the German Composers Prize from the GEMA in the category of experimental music in 2010. She received the "Best Sound Design Award" at the London International Animation Festival 2019 for "The Flounder". In 2021 she was invited to a residency at the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles. 

James Dillon - born in 1950 in Glasgow, Scotland

Many of Dillon’s compositions are grouped into cycles: Nine Rivers, which spans eighteen years, is a set of nine pieces that explores relationships between flow and turbulence. Notable among his other cycles are The book of Elements for piano and three books of duets titled Traumwerk Book. Anthropology, created for the Orchestre de Paris, also includes multiple pieces.

Dillon’s catalogue also includes a major stage work, Philomela, for which he wrote his own libretto, inspired by Ovid and Sophocles. Dillon was also selected by BBC Television and the Arts Council of England to compose Temp’est for the series Sound of Film.

James Dillon began his musical career playing traditional Scottish bagpipe and in a rock band. His studies included art and design at the University of Glasgow, and the music of Northern India at Keele University. He then traveled to London to study music, acoustics, and linguistics. He is primarily self-trained as a composer.

After winning First Prize in the competition of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 1978, Dillon’s reputation grew rapidly. In 1986, he was invited to be a guest lecturer at the State University of New York, taught composition at Goldsmiths, University of London, and participated in the IRCAM’s summer seminar.

He taught at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for ten consecutive years and as co-composer-in-residence with Brian Ferneyhough in Royaumont in 1996. In 2007, he started teaching composition at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, where he is now professor emeritus.

Among his multiple awards and honors, James Dillon was named “musician of the year” by the London Sunday Times in 1989, was an International Distinguished Fellow of New York University in 2001-2002, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Huddersfield in 2003. 

Martyna Kosecka - born in 1989 in Gdynia, Poland

Martyna is passionate about interweaving acoustic and electronic sounds. In her compositions, she explores every sound detail through the magnifying glass, focusing on the timbral qualities of pitch, microscopic sound abilities, and microtonal deviations.

Through her music, she wants to draw a metaphor for occurrences, accidents, and issues significant in everyday life. Gender equality, cultural legacy, respecting nature and environment are some of the topics that she engages her listener with. In her opinion, each composition is an independent short story that exists in a series of chapters in our book of life. She writes what is to follow.

Martyna Kosecka is a composer, conductor, performer, experimentalist and researcher in new music. She studied composition and conducting at the Music Academy in Kraków and at the Music Academy in Katowice. She is a winner of 5-Minute Opera Competition, organized by Music Biennale Zagreb in Croatia in 2015, resulting in a full-length opera “Klotho. The threat of the Tales”, which opened the 29th MBZ in 2017. 

In 2013, together with Iranian composer Idin Samimi Mofakham, she co-founded Spectro Centre for New Music, specializing in workshops on modern music and organizing concerts. Their commun efforts helped to run the annual International Contemporary Music Festival in Tehran, of which she is artistic co-director. 

She is a winner of Swiss EKLEKTO Ensemble call for proposals in 2015. She is a second prize holder at IV National Krzysztof Penderecki Composition Competition in 2017. She also is one of the laureates taking part in CECIA Project, organized by ZKM in Karlsruhe in 2019. Since 2018 her compositions are published by Donemus Holland. 

Diana Rotaru - born in 1981 in Bucharest, Romania

She has written chamber and orchestral music but also chamber opera and soundtracks for multimedia or dance shows and short films. Her music explores different expressive directions, from hypnagogia or pre-oneiric aesthetics, feminine psyche, humor or imaginary folklore.

Diana Rotaru is a composition teacher at the National University of Music in Bucharest. where she previously obtained a PhD in Composition while studying with Ştefan Niculescu and Dan Dediu. She also studied with Frédéric Durieux at the CNSMD in Paris. Summer courses include Acanthes in Metz, Voix Nouvelles-Royaumont and the International Bartok Seminary in Szombathely, Hungary. She worked with Jonathan Harvey, Savatore Sciarrino, Brian Ferneyhough and Michael Jarrell. In September 2018 she was invited to be an assistant professor to Toshio Hosokawa at the Takefu International Music Festival in Japan. She is an active promoter of new music in Romania, as the main coordinator of the Romanian Music Information Center (CIMRO). Since 2019 she is President of the ISCM Romanian Section and Artistic Director of the MERIDIAN new music festival. She was the Artistic Director of the SonoMania new music ensemble between 2012-2021.

Diana Rotaru has won numerous prizes, among which the Romanian Academy’s George Enescu Award, the ISCM-IAMIC Young Composer Award, the Irino Prize and the George Enescu Prize ex-aequo. Her works have been commissioned by Ensemble XXI (Dijon), Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Pärlor för svin, Ernst von Siemens Foundation, Takefu International Music Festival. She was a resident at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (autumn 2007), on a George Enescu grant from the Romanian Cultural Institute. At the invitation of Ensemble TaG, she she was an Artist-in-Residence at Villa Sträuli, Winterthur (Switzerland) in April 2011. In 2015 she was Artist-in-Residence in Vienna, with a grant offered by the Austrian Federal Chancellery & KulturKontakt Vienna.

- Francesca Verunelli (IT, 1979) Wo.man sitting at the piano (2019) flute solo - 13’

“It is not human hands that touch the keys in Francesca Verunelli's ‘Wo/man sitting at the piano’, but an ingeniously programmed automaton. Many composers have been fascinated by the ‘player piano’ - an instrument like this leaves even the most skilful pianist's fingers far behind. Verunelli calls it ‘electronic music without electronic sound’. In contrast, she puts a human virtuoso on the flute. The contrast could hardly be greater, and yet the two worlds seem to merge.” (Muziekcentrum De Bijloke, translated by Jil Hamm for United Instruments of Lucilin)

- Clara Iannotta (IT, 1983) dead wasps in the jam-jar (i) (2014-2015) for violin and electronics - 3’

Dead wasps in the jam jar (i) is one of four pieces commissioned by violinist Yuki Numata Resnick to nestle amongst the movements of J.S. Bach’s Partita no. 1 for solo violin. 

Iannotta’s piece focuses on the Double to the Corrente, replacing Bach’s running scales with glissandos retaining elements of his rhythmic proportions and directions. Over this loosely Bachian framework is draped a range of noise effects, created in particular by different bow pressures and circular paperclips attached to the instrument’s strings. In this way, dead wasps sounds little like Bach while hinting at his phrasing and melodic contours: his music’s skeletal structure.

- Yang Song (CN, 1985) Poem (2016) for prepared piano and computer  - 9’

This "Poem for Piano and Computer" is inspired by an ancient Chinese plucked instrument, the Guqin. The electronic part of this piece was created using recordings of original piano samples. While some sound material of the electronic part and the original instrument sound similar, some are modified and manipulated by adding sounds from the Guqin’s musical character such as glissando and pizzicato. At times, the computer part relies on and amplifies the piano part, and sometimes has its own independent "voice". The piece aims to portray the traditional sound acoustic of the Guqin, as if to establish an atmosphere that exists in a poetry dialogue between the piano and the computer.

- Genoël Von Lilienstern (DE, 1979) KOER (2022) for viola and electronics - 15’

Premiered in May 2022 at Philharmonie de Luxembourg

With: André Pons-Valdès (violon), Danielle Hennicot (viola), Sophie Deshayes (flute), Pascal Meyer (piano), (electronics)

Composers: Francesca Verunelli - born in 1979 in Pietrasanta, Italy

About: Francesca Verunelli studied composition and piano at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence where she earned both diplomas summa cum laude. She concluded her studies in composition at the Accademia Santa Cecilia. After moving to Paris she attended IRCAM’s training in Composition and Computer Music. She holds a PhD from PSL University (Paris Sciences & Lettres). In 2010 at La Biennale di Venezia, she was awarded the “Leone d’argento” prize.

She has been composer in residence at Ircam, at GMEM of Marseille, at Casa de Velasquez (Madrid – 2015/2016) and at Villa Médicis (Académie de France à Rome – 2016/17). In 2020 she was awarded the prestigious Siemens Composer’s Prize. She received commissions from important musical institutions and festivals. During the summer of 2021 she has been composer in residence at Festival des Quators du Luberon, where the Béla Quartet premiered her work “Unfolding II”.

Upcoming premieres also include “Accord, chord and tune” for accordion and orchestra, written for Krassimir Sterev and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (2022/23), “In margine” for string orchestra written for Ensemble Resonanz (May 2022), In “bianco e nero” for Ircam Espro reopening (june 2022), “Tune and retune II” for SWR Orchestra (Donaueschinger Musiktage 2023), “In my beginning is my end” for Sigma Ensemble commissioned by Luxembourg Philharmonic (May 2022), and “Songs and Voices” a one-hour long piece for voices and ensemble co-commissioned by Neue Vocalsolisten, GMEM, Ircam and Venice Biennale to be premiered in February 2024.

Clara Iannotta - born in 1983 in Rome, Italy

Clara Iannotta is particularly interested in music as an existential, physical experience.

• 2014-2018 PhD and Master’s degree in composition at Harvard University (USA) with Chaya Czernowin

• 2010-2012 Master’s degree at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris (CNSMDP), in the class of Frédéric Durieux

• 2010-2011 IRCAM – Cursus 1

• 2006-2010 Bachelors at the Conservatoire of Milan (Italy), in the class of Alessandro Solbiati

• 2009-2012 Workshops: Summer Composition Residency at Harvard University (with Chaya Czernowin, Steven Takasugi and Hans Tutschku) § Royaumont Voix Nouvelles (with Brian Ferneyhough, Mark Andre and Héctor Parra) § International Academy of Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (with Franck Bedrossian and Pierluigi Billone).

Her music is commissioned and performed by renowned ensembles, soloists, and orchestras.

Since 2014, Iannotta has been the artistic director of the Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik. Her music is published by Edition Peters. Clara Iannotta has been a fellow of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD in 2013, Villa Médicis (Académie de France à Rome) in 2018–19, and the recipient of several prizes including the Ernst von Siemens Composers’ Prize and Hindemith-Preis 2018, Una Vita nella Musica Giovani 2019, Premio Abbiati 2021, Bestenliste der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics’ Award) for her three portrait albums A Failed Entertainment, Earthing, and Moult.

Yang Song - born in 1985 in Inner Mongolia, China

Her contemporary works, the diverse genres such as orchestral music, chamber music, electronic music, theater music and dance dramas encompass her own music culture with the music of other cultures.

After completing her bachelor's degree in musicology at Inner Mongolia University, she completed a master's degree in composition theory from 2009 to 2012 at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. In 2018 she finished studying composition at the Central Conservatory of Music as doctor candidate by Professor Guoping Jia. In 2019 she graduated  at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg in Germany where she attended Professor Johannes Schöllhorn's concert exam master class. She attended “Cursus de Composition et d’Informatique Musicale 2020/21” in IRCAM Paris, by Thierry De May. Now she works as post-doctor at the Central Conservatory of Music, and having doctorate of systematic musicology in Cologne University.

In 2015, she received a scholarship from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and a DAAD scholarship in 2018. In 2019, her Ensemble piece „Chant de l'océan“ got the 2nd Prize of the Franz-Josef-Reinl-Stiftung „Reinl-Preis 2019“ in Austria; Orchestra piece „Déjà-vu” won the Théodore-Gouvy-Preis ; the commissioned string quartet piece „Scattered Views“ was performed by the Arditti Quartet  at the Korean Tongyeong International Music Festival. In 2018 she was selected for the Gyeonggi Korean Orchestra International Musical Work Contest, and won the international Goethe-Preis of the “Asian Composers Showcase 2018" in South Korea. In 2017 she has received commision from the Young Artist Project of the Shanghai International Art Festival and was awarded the 3rd prize in the Vareler Composition Prize in Germany. 

Genoël von Lilienstern - born in 1979 in Monschau, Germany

Genoël von Lilienstern is working across the fields of instrumental composition, music-theatre and installations, with settings ranging from orchestra pieces with vintage synthesizers, feature-length music theatres to chamber and solo music. His work explores connections between ai-powered collage techniques and structural processes. 

Genoël von Lilienstern studied composition in Bremen, Berlin and The Hague. His mentors were Younghi Pagh-Paan, Hanspeter Kyburz and Klarenz Barlow. He also studied at the Ensemble Modern Academy and was a Fellow of the UdK graduate school. He was invited as a guest lecturer to Stanford University, California Institute of the Arts and gave a masterclass at Novalis festival Zagreb. He was a lecturer for sound design at UdK Berlin and for site-specific composition at Hochschule für Künste Bremen (HfK).

His compositions have been performed internationally by numerous ensembles and he received comissions by many festivals. His installations including robots and drones were shown in the Berliner Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) and at Ring.Award Graz.

Genoël von Lilienstern received numerous prizes and grants, such as the Villa Aurora residency Los Angeles (2017), grant for sound art and composition of Berlin city (2017), Herrenhaus Edenkoben residency (2014), Cité Internationale des Art Paris (2014), Gargonza Arts Award (2012), UdK graduate school grant (2012-2014) and Tokyo Wondersite (2011).

- Francisco Alvarado (CL, 1984) dejar aparecer (2019) for seven instruments and electronics - 20’

“Dejar aparecer” (letting appear) is an experience or an attempt to let the musical material live so that from itself new possibilities open up. In a way, it is a way of composing that operates from intuition and which then seeks to create a coherence, a form.

- Mirela Ivičević (HR, 1980) Subsonically Yours (2021) for ensemble - 10’

“Composition means reassembling something, especially nowadays. There are only a few unknown sounds left. All the more important is what you do with the existing sounds. Collage is often my weapon of choice, because I am personally most interested in how very different materials can coexist without losing anything of their nature, of their essence, without having to substantially soften or hide them.” (taken from an interview by Shilla Strelka, Austrian Music Export)

- Raphaël Languillat (MAGHREB, 1989) crucifixion (perugino) (2015) for chamber ensemble - 15’

Languillat wrote this composition after seeing Pietro Perugino’s painting of the crucifixion of Christ from 1496. While the influence of the painting is quite obvious – as can be seen by the placement of the musicians on stage in three duos like Perugino’s triptych – the composition itself focuses on visual and aesthetic questions, as Languillat explains: “How can one represent such suffering in such a peaceful scene? What is a landscape in music? What can a Renaissance fresco mean to us in the twenty-first century? And how can I reinterpret Perugino’s masterpiece in my music?” (GAUDEAMUS)

With: Winnie Cheng (violin), Renata Van der Vyver (viola), Pierre Fourcade (violoncello), Sophie Deshayes (flute), Max Mausen (clarinet), Cathy Krier (piano), Louisa Marxen (percussion), Frin Wolter (accordion), André Feydy (trumpet), Julien Leroy (conductor), (electronics) 

Composers:

Francisco Alvarado - born in 1984 in Santiago de Chile, Chile

Alvarado’s work focuses on the exploration of timbre, as the result of the analysis, manipulation and instrumentation of complex sounds, which - varied and transformed in time - attempt to create a poetical perception, within a musical discourse. The integration of the performing space and the performers' body as perceptual parameters, the use of live electronics as an extension of the instrument sonorities or the exploration of possible relationships between the written score and improvisation are important aspects of his music.

Francisco Alvarado studied composition at the Universidad Católica de Chile, then with Stefano Gervasoni at the Paris Conservatory. The encounter with Gervasoni, as well as other composers, such as Alberto Posadas, Philippe Manoury, Yan Maresz, Hèctor Parra or Brian Ferneyhough, were very important to forge a personal language and an original musical project. Alvarado attended the Cursus 1 & 2 at IRCAM in Paris between 2013 and 2015.

He collaborates with artists of his generation, conceiving new projects that gather common questions, including Florentin Ginot, Standardmodell, Achtung, the TNS school of theatre, Angèle Chemin, Marie-Claudine Papadopoulos, Violaine Debever, the Maja Ensemble or the C Barré ensemble.

Francisco Alvarado won the Musica Festival Academy’s prize and the CDMC prize at the INJUVE academy in Madrid. His works have been commissioned by the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication de France, the Royaumont Fondation, the Diotima String Quartet, the Conservatoire de Musique et de Danse de Paris, the Festival Messiaen, the Ensemble Lucilin, the ensemble C Barré and the Musica Festival at Strasbourg. He was artist in residence at the Camargo Foundation in 2017 and at the SWR ExpermientalStudio and GMEM Marseille in 2019/2020.

Mirela Ivicevic - born in 1989 in Split, Croatia

Her work focuses mainly on exploration of reflective and subversive potential of sound, using bits and pieces of reality, abducted from their natural environment into a surreal acoustic world, resulting mostly in the patchwork of abruptly exchanging, hyperactive structures, distorted occurrences of post-yugoslavian reality, blocks of noise and traces of trip / hop? pop? 

Mirela Ivicevic finished master studies in composition at the Music Academy Zagreb, postgraduate studies in Media composition at the MDW and postgraduate course in composition with Beat Furrer at the Kunstuniversität Graz. 

Since 2010 she is co-curator and producer of Dani Nove Glazbe Split, festival of contemporary music and related art forms in Split, Croatia. She is co-founder and member of Black Page Orchestra, viennese ensemble for radical and uncompromising music of current times.

Raphaël Languillat - born in 1989 in Casablanca, Morocco

Raphaël Languillat is a composer and multimedia artist oscillating between meditative stillness and explosive textures. His musical works merge acoustic instruments and electronic sounds in carefully crafted compositions, located at the intersection of spectral, drone and noise music. Working as a freelance filmmaker, he has a great interest in visual components, especially with art history, paintings and the “photographic” (still and moving images), integrating the later more and more in his newer works.

Raphaël Languillat studied at the Kunsthochschule in Mainz, the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany and the Université de Reims & Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Reims, France.

He has taken part in the academies of Festival Manifeste IRCAM and the festival Voix Nouvelles Royaumont. He is a 1st Prize winner at Prix Saint Christophe du Jeune Compositeur, the Young Composers Meeting YCM 2016 in the Netherlands and the Walter Witte Viola-Stiftung Kompositionswettbewerb in Germany.

More recently he has been nominated for the Gaudeamus Award 2018 in the Netherlands and the 2019 EU-Projekt DYCE in Italy. In 2020-21 he received a scholarship from the Mozart Stiftung von 1838 and from HAP Hessenweit for the period 2022-24, both in Frankfurt/Main.

- Playlist curated by Pascal Meyer (LU, 1979)

“While searching for hints on contemporary classical music from Cabo Verde, Senegal or Cameroon, I quickly realized I was on the wrong track. One cannot apply western criteria of what contemporary music represents here and apply them onto countries and regions that have completely different historical and cultural backgrounds.

There had to be other kinds of new music from Irak, Afghanistan, India and the Philippines, but who created them and where to find it? 

The key was to find artists that create music out of their performance practice.  

That’s when I hit the gold mine: the website syrphe.com created by Cedrik Fermont (also known as C-drík Fermont or Kirdec); a platform that focuses on music in the field of electronic music, noise, avant-garde, contemporary classical, electro-acoustic, industrial, experimental, sound art (...) specially from Africa and Asia but not exclusively.  

The playlist I created for this event, is an eclectic mix of all these fascinating musics I discovered through hours of listening to artists from Algeria, Syria, Vietnam, Egypt, Iran and many more nationalities that represent the many different communities of the vibrant city of Esch/Alzette.“

COW Shift Z (PT, 1998) Biljimeiri Vai na Romaria - Cassandra Romeira (2022) live-set - 60’

“Biljimeiri Vai na Romaria - Cassandra Romeira” is a live-set created by COW Shift Z in collaboration with Cassandra (her alter-ego). 

Cassandra lives in the smallest Microstate in the World, with only 18 square meters - Biljimeiri. Keeping in mind that she is the only inhabitant, this raises many questions, such as: “How is the culture of Biljimeiri?”, “Does the culture only depend on Cassandra?” and “How is she reinventing the culture in Biljimeiri?”
This live-set will bring the newest sounds from Biljimeiri, its idiomatic expressions, and Cassandra’s attitude and temperament.

Composer:

COW Shift Z - born in 1998 in Aveiro, Portugal

COW Shift Z is a composer and performer of electronic music. Her practice as a composer focuses on integrating different music genres in her artistic language. The electronic dance music gives her the common ground to express her inner worlds and tell the stories with a free and experimental mindset. She recently met Cassandra (her alter-ego) in the middle of a compositional journey and immediately decided to join forces to create together. Cassandra lives in the smallest micro-state in the World with only 18 square meters - Biljimeiri. 

We can listen to their collaboration in COW Shift Z’s EP “Funeral for the Selves”, “Biljimeiri Anthem” for the utopa organ and electronics and recent live-sets.

- Stefan Prins (BE, 1979) Inhibition Space #3 (2022) for percussion, saxophone and electronics  -10’ *

*Commissioned by United Instruments of Lucilin for the project 33,7 - Esch2022 European Capital of Culture, with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation

The Sixth Mass Extinction, which we are currently experiencing on Earth, is driven by human-induced feedback loops. One is between human activity and its ecological consequences. Another is within the ecosystem itself, where crossing a tipping point has set into motion an uncontrollable series of events that exponentially feed back into each other.  

- Patrick Muller (LU, 1978) dérivée (2021) for saxophone, viola and electronics - 12’

Sound performance presented at the Luxembourg pavilion of the EXPO2020DUBAI world exhibition.

The performance DÉRIVÉE blurs the borders between acoustic and digital sound generation, between poetry reading and music concert. The pieces are thematically based on poems by Anna Leader, Nico Helminger and Tom Nisse – poems that inspire the musicians' improvisation.

- Roby Steinmetzer (LU, 1960) Miroir d’eau (2012) for viola and electronics - 6’

Miroir d'eau is a very impressionistic music, inspired by the lights of Istanbul reflected in the waters of the Bosphorus. The viola is processed electronically in real time by passing the different components of the spectrum through an echo effect, where the delay time, number and amplitude of repetitions are set differently for each component. The auditory effect produced in this way is somewhat comparable to the reflection of an image on water. The repetitive play of the waves translates into a visual movement of dissolution and crystallization, the image distorting itself according to the oscillations and vibrations of the water surface.

- Patrick Muller (LU, 1978) dérivée (2021) for percussion, saxophone and electronics - 12’

The computer is used as a musical sound processing tool, only processing in realtime – no prepared sounds, no playback, no automation. 

- Jug Marković (RS, 1987) rusty rose (2021) for flute, cello, percussion  and electronics - 7’

The electronics in rusty rose are based on the manipulation of two audio files: a recording of Danilo Kiš’s poem Đubrište recited by vocal artist Thea Soti and barely recognizable particles of the madrigal Lamento della Ninfa by Claudio Monteverdi. The two files and their stretched bits merge into each other with different cross-synthesis techniques and mutate in the frequency domain.

The acoustic instrumental part is devoid of any grand soloistic gestures and its idea is to never take precedence and full attention over the electronics, but to merge into it subtly and intimately, as well as to imperceptibly underline the timbre and melancholic harmony of the rusty rose.

- Igor C Silva (PT, 1989) Numb (2015) for baritone sax and electronics - 7’

We’re staring too long at screens, scratching our retinas and distorting perception.

 - Stefan Prins (BE, 1979) Inhibition Space #3 *

*World Premiere - Commissioned by United Instruments of Lucilin for the project 33,7 - Esch2022 European Capital of Culture, with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation

In the series of compositions called Inhibition Space, instruments are augmented electronically with tiny microphones, its amplified sounds fed into loudspeaker placed just besides them, or transducers placed upon them. This creates a similar situation of (acoustic) feedback, which the musicians can manipulate at best, but never fully control. Opening a key of the instrument even slightly, might have dramatic sonic consequences in this fragile equilibirium. With the help of a digital system however, they can find ways to alter their musical behaviour, habits and reflexes sufficiently, to create a symbiosis between the human agent and its sonic environment.

- Patrick Muller (LU, 1978) dérivée (2021) for percussion, viola and electronics - 12’

With: Danielle Hennicot (viola), Ingrid Schoenlaub (violoncello), Sophie Deshayes (flute), Olivier Sliepen (saxophone), Guy Frisch (percussion), Patrick Muller (live digital audio processing), Roby Steinmetzer (live electronics)

Composers:

 Stefan Prins - born in 1979 in Kortrijk, Belgium

In his compositional work Prins seeks to critique received convention, to break the framework of the usual, and dispose of aesthetic axioms. He envisions a musical art form beyond the safe confines of the »scene«, wherein the connection to the larger cultural discourse has gotten lost. A central precondition for the making of a new music with a future is the role of the aware, critical observer, one who is prepared to exploit the technologies and mechanisms of the prefabricated media with a view to their possibilities for new music. 

After graduating as an engineer, Stefan Prins studied piano and went on to study composition at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp, Belgium, graduating magna cum laude. Concurrently, he studied “Technology in Music“ at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels,“Sonology“ at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, as well as “Philosophy of Culture” & “Philosophy of Technology” at the University of Antwerp. In 2017 he obtained a PhD in composition at Harvard University.

He regularly teaches workshops and masterclasses in festivals and is guest-professor Composition at the Hochschule für Künste Bern in the department of Theatre Musical, and appointed Professor of Composition and Director of the Hybrid Music Lab at the Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria Von Weber” Dresden.

He received several important international awards, such as the “Berliner Kunstpreis für Musik”, “ISCM Young Composer Award”, and “Kranichsteiner Musikpreis für Komposition”. In 2014 he became laureate of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for the Sciences and Arts in the Class of the Arts.

In 2012 the “Union of Belgian Music Journalists” elected him "Young Belgian Musician of the Year". Stefan Prins is artistic co-director of the Nadar Ensemble, and was one of the founders of the long-standing trio for improvised music “collectief reFLEXible" and the band “Ministry of Bad Decisions”.

Roby Steinmetzer - born in 1960 in Luxembourg

Roby Steinmetzer has primarily composed electroacoustic works as well as mixed works for instruments with real-time computer sound processing.

Roby Steinmetzer studied piano and music theory at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg and the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles. He also learned computer music, mainly on his own, but also during training courses at Ircam in Paris. He has produced music for dance/theatre performances, created sound installations, interactive pieces and videos. In order to make the general public aware of the use of new technologies for contemporary music, he has initiated activities/associations and has given public lectures as well as workshops for children and adults on the theme of music and computers. He teaches piano and computer music at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg and has been President of the Fédération Luxembourgeoise des Auteurs et Compositeurs (FLAC) for the last 3 years where he has been committed to promote the profession of composer in Luxembourg.

Patrick Muller - born in 1978 in Schiltigheim, France

Patrick Muller is a multimedia creative, developing art installations, interactive exhibits, and media spaces. He writes concepts, creates artistic content, and manages projects; in the arts sector, and on behalf of agencies and clients from the industry. 

Patrick Muller studied in Cologne, Liverpool and Berlin:

• MA sound art and sonic brand communication at the University of Arts (UdK) in Berlin with Prof. Karl Bartos (Kraftwerk), Prof. Sam Auinger, Prof. Dr. Martin Supper, Prof. Robert Henke (Monolake, Ableton)

• BA music composition and music production at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) in Liverpool, UK

Jug Marković - born in 1987 in Belgrade, Serbia

Marković tends to approach music in a deliberately intuitive way and in his music he tries to refrain from strict and rigid premeditated concepts and formalistic systems. He is particularly interested in stylistic heterogeneity, hybridity of genres and exploring / recontextualizing manners and sound gestures that have historically been charged with certain meaning and connotation. He is passionate about electronic music and its immense potential to juggle with genres and expectations. 

Jug Marković holds a MA degree in composition from University of Arts in Belgrade and is also a graduate of archaeology from the University of Belgrade. He completed the IRCAM Cursus for composition and computer music and is now active both in the fields of acoustic, electro-acoustic and electronic music. He also performs his own piano music. 

Jug’s music was performed during ManiFeste, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Biennale Nemo, Time of Music, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, New Music Dublin, by Ensemble Intercontemporain, Divertimento Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, Diotima Quartet, TANA Quartet, Latvian Radio Choir, United Instruments of Lucilin, Chamber Choir Ireland, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic and RTS Symphony Orchestra. 

He is the winner of ISCM Young Composers Award 2019 and recipient of Stevan Mokranjac Award 2019. He was also awarded prizes at New Classics Competition of Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Gubaidulina Competition and EnsembleFestival Competition. He was a composer in residence at Cite des Arts in Paris, Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon and Snape Maltings in UK where he was mentored by Michael Finnissy.  Marković’s most recent projects include commissions by Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and Ensemble Studio 6.  He is currently under commission by IRCAM as well as Divertimento Ensemble. 

Igor C Silva - born in 1989 in Porto, Portugal

Igor C Silva is a composer devoted to electronics and new media music, creating projects where performers, computers and many noisy and psychedelic things happen on stage, creating a multi-sensorial experience.

Igor C Silva graduated in composition at Escola Superior de Música, Artes e Espetáculo (ESMAE) in 2011, and finished a Master’s Degree in Composition and Music Theory in 2013. In 2017 Silva finished a Master Degree in live-electronics at Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

Igor C Silva is currently a PhD candidate at VUB (Brussels) and Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, where he also teaches the Live Electronics Course.

He regularly collaborates with soloists ensembles and jazz groups, devoting part of his musical and composing activity to improvisation and interactive performances with electronics and multimedia tools.

His work “Plastic Air” was awarded a distinction at the 65th International Rostrum of Composers in Hungary (2018).

He is a 1st Prize winner at both the Areon Flutes Commissioning Prize 2018 (USA) and the 1st International Electroacustic and Intermedial Composition Competition "eviMus" with "Numb" for baritone saxophone and electronics, in Germany (2017).

He is a winner of the Residency Prix CIME 2017, in Russia (2017) and a finalist of the Switch~Ensemble Commissioning Prize in New York (2017).

The "II Concurso Internacional de Composição / Jorge Peixinho awarded him a 1st Prize for his work "Blood Ink" for small ensemble and electronics in 2015.

He has joined residency programs at Casa da Música (2012), Miso Muisic Studios (2015) and Drumming GP (2018/19).

- Francesco Tristano (LU, 1981) Remix 33,7 - 33,7’

Francesco Tristano rearranges the musical cartography to obtain a 33.7 minute work that will be performed live as the closing set of the festival.

With: Francesco Tristano (piano, live electronics), Olivier Sliepen (saxophone), Pascal Meyer (piano), Guy Frisch (percussion)

Composer: Francesco Tristano - born in 1981 in Luxembourg

Francesco Tristano is a composer, performer and producer, working simultaneously in areas as disparate as they are complementary. Tristano tours the world performing baroque and contemporary repertoire; records dance tracks for electronic music labels whilst continuing with his ambitious project of recording all of Johann Sebastian Bach’s piano repertoire; and makes albums woven from his own personal stories in which he explores the sensibility and tonal richness of the piano.

His simultaneous fascination for Bach’s clean tones and the rhythmic pulse of techno; his interest in the complex study of noise, effects and timbres made by composers like Cage or Ligeti; and the need to explore his own imagination through albums such as Idiosynkrasia (2010) or the recent Tokyo Stories (2019), can be traced back to his time as a student at New York’s Juilliard School.

While at Juilliard, Francesco laid the groundwork of his ambitions as an interpreter of Bach’s music: he played and recorded the Piano Concertos with his ensemble The New Bach Players, as well as recording the Goldberg Variations (found on the small Accord label) on his own. Shortly after, he was signed by the French label Infiné, where he released his first records blending electronica and piano: Not for Piano (2007), where he created versions of techno anthems like Jeff Mills’ The Bells or Derrick May’s Strings of Life on the piano; Auricle Bio On (2008), where the piano is conceived as a sampler; and Idiosynkrasia (2010), in which he seamlessly joined his virtuosity on the keys and his programming prowess, refining his concept of “Piano 2.0,” where the instrument reaches a new textural iteration through the use of computers. 

Tristano’s big leap took place in 2011, when he was signed by Deutsche Grammophon, with whom he recorded three programmes inspired by his ascent as a concert pianist of international acclaim. The first one was Bach/Cage (2011) – an exploration of the sonic space where Johann Sebastian Bach and John Cage’s music co-existed despite a distance of three centuries: the punctuation of emotion, the search for unusual textures, the surprising quality of the serendipitous.

In 2017, Francesco Tristano began his collaboration with Sony Classical, focusing his efforts on releasing his own work in a new phase as a recording artist. While still touring the world both as a pianist and as an electronic artist, performing in concert halls as well as experimental and dance music festivals, he returned to the piano as a tool for creation in Piano Circle Songs (2017), a collection of songs that evoke his interest for French impressionist composers. In his most recent album, Tokyo Stories (2019), he pays homage to Japan and captures the atmospheres and experiences accumulated throughout the years visiting the country as an artist and submerging himself in its culture. 

And still, at the edge of the horizon, Francesco Tristano’s great life project, the one he will never abandon, continues to takes shape: to record Johann Sebastian’s Bach complete repertoire. As Berg said, “music is music”, and Bach will always be there because he was the only creator ever to transcend it. 

In 2004, he won the first prize at the International piano competition for contemporary music in Orléans, France.

- Camille Kerger (LU, 1957) Treibsand (2022) for viola and saxophone - 10’*

Seen superficially, quicksand appears in nature as a solid, load-bearing surface, which, however, can very quickly take on unimagined other forms. Camille Kerger wanted to achieve something similar in his music. By "letting go" while composing, he tried to explore and use new spaces and possibilities. Nevertheless, the overall impression of great formal unity should always be given.

*Commissioned by United Instruments of Lucilin for the project 33,7 - Esch2022 European Capital of Culture

- Georges Aperghis (GR, 1945) Récitations 2, from the «  quatres récitations pour violoncelle »(1980) cello solo - 5’

Aperghis’s work is notably characterized by a questioning about languages and the meaning. His compositions, wether instrumental, vocal or for stage, explore the borders of the intelligible, he likes to create twisted tracks which allow him to keep active the listener (stories emerge but are suddenly refuted)

- Florent Caron Darras (FR, 1986) Rives (2020) for clarinet, saxophone, violin, cello - 12’

Commissioned by Ensemble Ars Nova

Rives, pour ces lieux qui sont autant de points de contact entre le mobile et l’immobile.

Florent Caron Darras a voulu travailler dans ces courtes pièces quatre situations comme en micro-paysages: à matériaux réduits, feignant l’immobilisme, pourtant assurément portés dans un temps, conduits vers un devenir.

- Philippe Manoury (FR, 1952) Sul Ciacona (2022) for string trio - 7’ *

*Commissioned by United Instruments of Lucilin for the project 33,7 - Esch2022 European Capital of Culture, with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation

"Sul Ciacona" is a development for string trio of "Quasi una ciacona" for solo viola, written for Danielle Hennicot. Originally it was a stage music for Philippe Manoury’s opera "Kein Licht" which was premiered by the ensemble United Instruments of Lucilin in 2017. I took most of the musical material from this piece for viola, but often modified it to fit the polyphonic writing of the trio. It consists of a kind of "Passacaglia" followed by a series of variations, each with its own musical character.

With: André Pons-Valdès (violin), Winnie Cheng (violin), Danielle Hennicot (viola), Ingrid Schoenlaub (violoncello), Max Mausen (clarinet), Olivier Sliepen (saxophone)

Composers: 

Camille Kerger - born in 1957 in Luxembourg

Camille Kerger thrives on collaborative work in all forms: creating and performing music, encouraging musicians of all backgrounds and genres to join together, working with refugees and their hosts, and exploring Luxembourg with others on bicycle and by foot.

Compositions include: “Melusina”, chamber opera (1995), “Il Signor Drago”, opera for children (1995), “Rinderwahn”, opera (1999), “Ein Mond aus kochender Milch”, opera (2003) and “Altars of Light”, for choir and orchestra (2000), which was awarded first prize at the French competition L’an 1000.

In Camille Kerger’s hometown, the local music society had a spare trombone. As an 8-year-old Luxembourger, he embarked on a rich musical life that included playing, singing, composing and teaching. He studied at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg, Conservatoire de Metz, the Musikhochschule in Mannheim and the Musikhochschule in Düsseldorf.

He has been a member of the Luxembourg Society for the Propagation of Music and the Luxembourg Society for Contemporary Music (1983-2011). He is a founding member of the Théâtre National du Luxembourg (1996-2006) and was director of the Institut Europeen de Chant Choral (INECC) from 2004 to 2018.

Georges Aperghis - born in 1945 in Athens, Greece

George Aperghis’ work is notably characterized by a questioning about languages and their meaning. His compositions, whether instrumental, vocal or for stage, explore the borders of the intelligible; he likes to create twisted tracks that keep the listener attentive. Aperghis’ music is not strictly linked to any dominant musical aesthetics of the contemporary musical creation but tries to dialogue with other forms of art by being extremely  open-minded to others. He innovates by including electronics, video, machines, automatons or robots to his performances. Aperghis likes to think of interpreters as being entirely part of the creative process. They are comedians, instrumentalists or vocalists. Since the 90’s he shared new artistic collaborations with dance companies and the visual arts. Many reputed european contemporary music ensembles have developed a working relationship with Aperghis through numerous commissions.

Essentially self-taught, Georges Aperghis discovered music by listening to the radio and through piano lessons with a family friend. He discovered serialism through the Domaine Musical, along with the musique concrète of Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, and the research of Iannis Xenakis, whose work inspired Aperghis’ own early works. By 1970, however, the composer had begun working on his own, much freer language. Georges Aperghis was awarded the Mauricio Kagel Music Prize 2011, the Venice Biennale Golden Lion in 2015, and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Contemporary Music in 2016.

Florent Caron Darras - born in 1986 in Niigata Shi, Japan

Equally sensitive to electronic and traditional music (notably Georgian, Iranian and Japanese music), Florent Caron Darras writes music that questions sonic models, harmony, ornaments, and attacks, inspired even in his titles by the relationships between humans, environment and technology.

It is with Gregorian singing and classical percussions that Florent C. Darras began his musical career. After his Master degree in research on contemporary Japanese music at Paris-Sorbonne, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris (Cnsmdp) where his work was awarded with two Master degrees and four prizes in Composition (Stefano Gervasoni and Luis Naón's classes), Improvisation, Analysis (first class honour prize), and Aesthetics (first prize with congratulations for an essay about music and soundscape). 

After his studies, he started teaching at the Université catholique de l'Ouest and pursued research on Gregorian polyphony. He was selected to follow the Cursus program on composition and computer music at IRCAM. In 2019, he entered the Ph.D program SACRe of Université PSL, within the École Normale Supérieure doctoral school.

Florent C. Darras worked with numerous french ensembles (Intercontemporain, 2e2m, Court-Circuit, Sillages, etc.) and collaborated with conductors such as Matthias Pintscher, David Reiland, Léo Warynski, Jean Deroyer and Simon Proust. His music has been played on french radio stations and performed at venues such as Philharmonie de Paris, the Tokyo Philharmony Bunka Kaikan, Studio 104, and during festivals like ManiFeste, Présences, the Milano universal exhibitio and the festival Mixtur in Barcelona. He is supported by the Fondation de France, the Meyer Foundation, and the Sacem.

Philippe Manoury - born in 1952 in Tulle, France

The real-time interaction between acoustic instruments and computer-generated sounds is a topic that continues to influence Philippe Manoury’s artistic work and theoretical texts – not only in smaller works or compositions featuring electronics, but also with large orchestras. He constructs a sound laboratory where new interactive possibilities are tested, expanding music theatre as a form.

His oeuvre is comprised of many pieces for orchestra, string quartet, piano, and various instruments with electronics, as well as 5 operas. To cite some recent works, in Trilogie Köln, a large-scale spatial-orchestral project written for François-Xavier Roth and the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, he focused on rethinking the orchestra for new concert halls. In September 2021, Daniel Barenboim commissioned and premiered Das wohlpräparierte Klavier, a large piece for piano and live electronics, at the Boulez Saal in Berlin. In June 2022, Philippe Manoury celebrated his 70th birthday, which was and will be honoured with numerous concerts throughout the year.

Philippe Manoury is regarded as one of the most important French composers as well as a forerunner in the field of live electronics. At the age of 19, his works were already being performed at major festivals for new music. His compositional interest in mathematical models brought him to the Paris Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) where he worked on MAX-MSP, a programming language for interactive live electronics.

He is professor emeritus of the University of California San Diego where he taught composition from 2004 to 2012. In 2013, he was named Professor of Composition at the Académie Supérieure de la Haute École des Arts du Rhin in Strasbourg. From 2015 to 2018 he founded his own academy for young composers during Musica Festival (Strasbourg). In 2017 he was also a given the “Chaire Annuelle de Création Artistique” at Collège de France.

Philippe Manoury has received numerous awards. In 2014, he was named Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. He is a member of the honorary committee of the French-German Fund for Contemporary Music/Impuls Neue Musik. In 2015, he was elected as a member of the Berlin Akademie der Künste.

- Eugénio Rodrigues (PT, 1961) Mata Hari (1992) for string quartet - 12′

First Prize in the Washington International Competition 1994

“… with the strongest impact was Eugénio Rodrigues' 'Mata Hari' for string quartet… It opened simply, with a long series of harmonized drones like a bagpipe, then grew in complexity–notably in its intricate, powerful dance rhythms–to represent the character of the World War I spy and femme fatale.” (The Washington Post - Washington, DC December 17, 1994)

- Diana Soh (SG, 1984) Sssh (part one) (2018) for string quartet - 5’

The three letters “s” in the title refers to silence, solicitation and saturation - 3 portraits of an artist as a young mother.

- Carlos Azevedo, Filipe Vieira, Dimitris Andrikopoulos, Nuno Peixoto, Pedro Santos, Telmo Marques, Ângela Da Ponte - Miniature / Miniature 2 / String Quartet N1 / Segment 1 / kõtəˈʀɐnju / Sketch fragment / Charamba (2017) for string quartet - 14’

The "Eight Miniatures for String Quartet" were commissioned by Harmos festival to seven composers, all teaching at ESMAE's Composition Area. This enables the promotion of contemporary music creation, performance and the dissemination of contemporary music through the festival, promoting at the same time the work of our composers and anveiling the work of excellency that continues to be carried out in Portugal, the Music Department of ESMAE and Porto's Polytechnic.

With: Winnie Cheng (violin), Wanru Cheng (violin), Renata Van der Vyver (viola), Pierre Fourcade (violoncello)

Composer: Eugénio Rodrigues - born in 1961 in Lousã, Portugal

Eugénio Rodrigues pursued his musical studies in the US (Western Connecticut with Richard Moryl and Howard Rovics, Yale University with Martin Bresnick, Duke University with Scott Lindroth) and in the Netherlands (The Hague Conservatory with Louis Andriessen).

Eugénio Rodrigues is a Portuguese composer of new music. His music has been performed and commissioned by the Portuguese National Ballet, American Dance Festival, Arditti Quartet, Ciompi Quartet, Chicago Ensemble, Dale Warland Singers, Ives Chamber Orchestra, Minneapolis Vocal Consort, New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, ISCM World Music Days, Schola Cantorum of Oxford, Ricercare Choir, Lacerda Quartet, Expo ’98, Cistermúsica and Gulbenkian Foundation. He was awarded First Prize in the 1994 Washington International Competition for Composers for his string quartet Mata Hari. 

Diana Soh - born in 1984 in Singapore

Her musical interest is currently directed at exploring performance interactivity as well as obtaining specific sound colours from the intimate collaboration with performers. She has collaborated with many ensembles such as Arditti Quartet, Ensemble Court Circuit, Ensemble Multilatérale, Athelas Sinfonietta and Klangforum Wien among many others.

Upcoming projects include a site-specific work for Les Métaboles, E-Mex Ensemble, and for Trio K/D/M, Elise Chauvin (singer), and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Ensemble Court-Circuit.

She received her first musical training in piano, voice and composition in Singapore. An alumnus of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, the University at Buffalo and IRCAM, she has received numerous commissions for orchestral, choral, ensemble and electronic works from prestigious institutions, festivals and ensembles internationally.

Her works have also been broadcast on Deutschlandfunk (Cologne Radio), ORF (Austrian TV/Radio) Danish Broadcasting Corporation, BBC Radio 3 and France Musique identifying her as “a composer to follow”.

She has spent 2 years at IRCAM for a specialised course in computer music and new technologies and was Composer-in-Residence for 2 years (2012 & 2013) at the National Center for Creation - La Muse en Circuit in partnership with Conservatoire d’Ivry sur Seine and Festival Extension. This concluded with a one-hour monographic concert on her works during the 2013 Festival Extension. She was the recipient of the 2015 NAC Young Artist Award and the impuls composition competition. 

- Alexander Müllenbach (LU, 1949) Capriccio (1994) violin solo - 4’

The Capriccio (per Niccolò Paganini) was written in 1994 at the instigation of the Russian violinist Elena Denissova, who ordered the work for a CD project with Capriccios by living composers. 

Already during the first meeting, I heard in my inner self how the piece began to develop out of the beginning of Paganini's Capriccio N° 13 in A minor (...). The composition process was  really quick; in just  one day, (...) the piece was finished. Several violinists subsequently played the Capriccio, including Benjamin Schmid and the famous Ruggiero Ricci, who learned it by heart at the age of 80. The day before he left Europe for good to settle in California, he played it for me . I  was amazed and delighted by the highly virtuosic, agile interpretation. Ricci then recorded it on CD a few days later in America. (Etablissement public Salle de Concerts, translated by Jil Hamm for United instruments of Lucilin)

-  5’Claude Lenners (LU, 1956) Zenit (1990) for flute, violin and saxophone - 5’

Zenit was written  in 1990 during Claude Lenners' stay at the Villa Medici in Rome. The nervous writing, the juxtaposition of voices and the proximity of the tessituras create a kind of tension between the three instruments (flute, violin and saxophone) and  finally reach  the  “Zenit”.

- Marco Pütz (LU, 1958) Salome’s Dance (2012) for Eb Alto Saxophone and violin - 6’

Dedicated to Mélina Zéléniuc

Luxembourg premiere on 27th October 2013, Bourglinster Festival: “It evoked the different aspects of Salome's seductive dance; the play was ingenious, its dialogues full of freshness charmed by their fantasy” (Hilda van Heel 30.10.2013, translated by Jil Hamm for United Instruments of Lucilin)

- Alexander Müllenbach (LU, 1949) Gesang des schwarzen Vogels (2002) clarinet solo - 3’

The song signifies a kind of contrast to Messiaen's phrase "Abîmes des oiseaux”. The Black bird is a bird of doom and terror. The form is a kind of ritornello, where the opening theme returns several times in an obsessive manner. Great dynamic, figural and ambitorial contrasts characterise the sound.

- Anne Castex (FR, 1993) De l’un à l’autre (2019) for flute, clarinet and saxophone (2019) - 5‘

D’un son

De l’unique au complexe

Du seul au multiple

De l’uni au bariolé 

De l’entente au démêlé 

De l’un détente à l’un tension 

De l’autre brumeux à l’autre distinct

Aux autres  

- Garth Knox (IRL, 1956) No pitch, no Problem (2018) violin solo - 3’

No pitch, no problem is a study in noise. How to enjoy sounds without worrying about ‘right’ notes and ‘wrong’ ones, and how to give them meaning.

With: André Pons-Valdès (violin), Winnie Cheng (violin), Sophie Deshayes (flute), Max Mausen (clarinet), Olivier Sliepen (saxophone)

Composers

Alexander Müllenbach - born in 1949 in Luxembourg

As a solo pianist, chamber musician, song accompanist and occasionally as a conductor, he has been successful in concerts throughout Europe, Russia, Asia and overseas.In Alexander Müllenbach's work, French elements - such as pieces by the composers Olivier Messiaen and Henri Dutilleux - come together with the craft and ethics of the German Paul Hindemith and influences of the Viennese School.

Tonality, atonality, dodecaphony, serial and post-serial technique, ... function as a compositional basis in the play with contrasts and unpredictability, with dramatic eruptions and minimalist-lyrical structures, which are ultimately brought together to form an expressive unity. 

He found his way to music at an early age. After studies in Metz and at the Paris Conservatoire, which he completed in 1969 as the best in the piano department, his path led him to Salzburg to the Mozarteum. After returning to Luxembourg, he taught composition at the Luxembourg Conservatoire from 1982 onwards; a whole generation of Luxembourg composers have studied with him. In parallel, he led a well-known composition class at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, which later also included composition. In 2013, together with violinist Claude Krier and others, he founded Musicpublishers eV, which promotes the publication of works by Luxembourg composers. Today he lives and works in Salzburg.

Prizes & Residences include the Erster Kompositionspreis des ORF Salzburg (1980), the Bernhard Paumgartner-Medaille (1981) and the Großer Lions-Preis des Herzogtums Luxemburg (1985).

Claude Lenners - born in 1956 in Luxembourg

Claude Lenners is composer of orchestral, chamber and vocal works and he is active as a promoter of new music. The titles of his pieces often originate in literature. A title is a borrowed idea, a challenge, a reinterpretation, a source of inspiration as well as an elective affinity. While he is composing, he likes to keep in mind the personality of the musicians he writes for. Another characteristic of his work is the advanced research in the domain of phrasing, inspired by his studies of the phonetic phenomena of spoken language.

Claude Lenners studied music and musicology at Université des Sciences Humaines in Luxembourg and Strasbourg. He composed for various ensembles and many soloists have performed his works.

Collaborations include dancer Guillaume Weis, stage manager Frank Hoffmann (Music Theatre TNL), Manuel Cano Lopez (HoMo XeRoX / Opera commissioned by Opera Tours and Dutilleux Prize Foundation).

Since 1992, he teaches analysis, composition and computer music at the Luxembourg Conservatory. In 1999, he founded of the electronic music association Noise Watchers Unlimited  and was artistic director of the new music festival Rainy Days in 2000-2005.

His honors include a scholarship to stay at the Villa Medici in Rome (1989-91), First Prize in the Henri Dutilleux Competition (1991), a scholarship to attend Darmstadt (1992), the First International Irino Prize for Chamber Music (Tokyo 1993), and the Lions Prize (Luxembourg section 1997).

Marco Pütz - born in 1958 in Luxembourg

Since 1987 he has composed more than 70 works, primarily for wind instruments and for Symphonic Wind Band, but also one musical for children, a string quartet, several compositions for chamber/symphonic orchestra and a number of educational pieces.

Marco Pütz studied music (saxophone, chamber music, harmony, counterpoint, conducting) in Luxembourg-City, Brussels and Liège (Belgium). He has taught saxophone, chamber music and instrumentation for nearly 40 years at the Conservatory of Luxembourg. He is a founding member of the Luxembourg Saxophone Quartet (1982-2006) and has played with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. International reputation came in 1995 when he was awarded the first prize at the International Clarinet Association Composition Contest (Atlanta, USA) with his Quatuor pour clarinettes.

His works have been published by numerous publishers, such as DE HASKE/HAL LEONARD, H.LEMOINE, SEMPRE PIU EDITIONS and EDITION PETERS and recordings of his compositions have been released on Antes/Bella Musica (D), Bronsheim (NL), Amos (CH), Mirasound (NL), Mark Records (USA), GIA-Records (USA), Albany Records (USA), Doyen Records (GB). The music of Marco Pütz has been performed all throughout Europe, but also in Russia, USA, Canada, Australia and Asia. 

In 2012 he was a finalist at the ITEA-Composition Contest with his compositions Five open-ended pieces and Chapters of Life/Tuba Concerto. In June 2017 the ‘Plaquette d’Honneur‘ of the UGDA (Union Grand-Duc Adolphe, Luxembourg) was awarded to him for his international achievements in wind band music. In October 2017, Marco received the prestigious ‘BUMA International Brass Award‘(NL) as an acknowledgment for his compositions, especially for wind/fanfare orchestra.

Anne Castex - born in 1993 in Saint Gaudens, France

During her Master's degree in Musicology, Anne Castex became interested in contemporary music and the creative process, and led her to try her hand at composition. In 2016, she started taking lessons in instrumental and electro-acoustic composition at the Toulouse Conservatory with Bertrand Dubedout, and became fascinated by this mode of expression. She obtained her Diploma of Musical Studies with honours in June 2019.

She is currently studying contemporary composition at the CNSMD of Lyon in the class of Michele Tadini and Martin Matalon. In 2022, she obtained her Bachelor's degree in mixed music with honours.

Garth Knox - born in 1956 in Dublin, Ireland 

IIn 1998 he started to concentrate on his solo career and has given premieres, including pieces which were especially written for him. He also collaborates regularly in theatre and dance projects, and has written and performed a one-man show for children.

He has recently become a pioneer of the viola d’amore, exploring its possibilities in new music, with and without electronics, and is in the process of creating new repertoire for this instrument.

Being the youngest of four children who all played string instruments, he was encouraged to take up the viola and quickly decided to make this his career. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London where he won several prizes for viola and for chamber music. He played with most of the leading groups in London in a mixture of all repertoires, from baroque to contemporary music.

In 1983 he was invited to become a member of the Ensemble InterContemporain in Paris, which involved regular solo playing, including concertos directed by Pierre Boulez, and chamber music, touring widely and playing in international festivals.

In 1990 Garth Knox joined the Arditti String Quartet, which led him to play in all the major concert halls of the world, working closely with and giving first performances of pieces by most of today’s leading composers.

Garth Knox now gives recitals, concertos and chamber music concerts all over Europe, the USA and Japan. He is also an active composer, and his «Viola Spaces », the first phase of an on-going series of concert studies for strings (published in 2010 by Schott) combines ground-breaking innovation in string technique with joyous pleasure in the act of music making.

Garth Knox is Visiting Professor of viola at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

- Miguel Moreira (PT, 1982) Without Warnings (2022) improvisations for electric guitar and prepared guitar - 30’

When we find ourselves in a situation without warning we have to think for ourselves by drawing on the experience, knowledge, memory and intuition we have acquired throughout life. Without warnings is an improvisation that celebrates these concepts around the electric guitar and prepared guitar.

Miguel Moreira has been warned many times about the limits of his instrument through effects pedals and has incorporated for example continuous sounds, glissandos and extreme octaves into his playing over the last decade to overcome some of the obvious limitations of the guitar in a journey into his psychedelic universe and a musical imaginary that crosses jazz and contemporary music. All "Without Warnings".

Composer: Miguel Moreira - born in 1982 in Porto, Portugal

Aesthetics: Miguel Moreira is currently one of the most prominent guitarists of the Portuguese jazz scene. He is recognized for his creativity and original guitar approach using electronics and extended techniques.

Miguel studied at the Porto jazz school, where he later became a teacher during the period of his graduation in jazz guitar. He studied classical percussion at the music school of Espinho and graduated in Performance Jazz Guitar at E.S.M.A.E.

In 2012 Miguel formed "Câmbio", a sextet with whom he recorded his first album as a leader and composer. The project was premiered at the New Jazz Values Cycle at Casa da Música in Oporto. In 2019 he was invited as a composer and principal soloist to play with the Orquestra de jazz de Espinho. In 2021 he collaborated as a performer and composer with Drumming G.P. with the piece "Voltaic Drumming" for guitar and 3 percussionists.

He has collaborated in recordings and concerts with musicians such as Orquestra de jazz de Matosinhos, Mário Santos Quartet, Carlos Azevedo Quartet, Orquestra de jazz de Espinho, with Seamus Blake, Richard Bona, Salgueirinha, Sérgio Godinho, Maria Rita, M.A.U Trio, João Mortágua, M.A.P. feturing Chris Cheek, Wolfgang Mitterer with Remix Ensemble, Igor C Silva, United Instruments of Lucilin and Drumming G.P. 

Together with percussionist Miquel Bernat, they toured in Europe with dance company Companhia Paulo Ribeiro in “A Festa da Insignificância”. 

Miguel was a resident artist at the Guimarães Jazz Festival in 2019, where he premiered and recorded in a live concert his most recent album “The Darkness of The Unknown”. It was  acclaimed by Portuguese critics with five stars and as one of the best albums of the year 2020.

- Playlist by Pascal Meyer  (LU, 1979)

“ While searching for hints on contemporary classical music from Cabo Verde, Senegal or Cameroon, I quickly realized I was on the wrong track. One cannot apply western criteria of what contemporary music represents here and apply them onto countries and regions that have completely different historical and cultural backgrounds. There had to be other kinds of new music from Irak, Afghanistan, India and the Philippines, but who created them and where to find it? The key was to find artists that create music out of their performance practice.  

That’s when I hit the gold mine: the website syrphe.com created by Cedrik Fermont (also known as C-drík Fermont or Kirdec); a platform that focuses on music in the field of electronic music, noise, avant-garde, contemporary classical, electro-acoustic, industrial, experimental, sound art (...) specially from Africa and Asia but not exclusively.  

The playlist I created for this event, is an eclectic mix of all these fascinating musics I discovered through hours of listening to artists from Algeria, Syria, Vietnam, Egypt, Iran and many more nationalities that represent the many different communities of the vibrant city of Esch/Alzette. “

Texte: © Pascal Meyer

- Mirela Ivicevic (HR, 1980) SELFLOVE I (2017) tape / acousmatic pieces - 5,5’

Made from *Her absence filled the world* for string orchestra (2017)

- Ângela Da Ponte (PT, 1984) Homenagem Subconsciente (2015) stereo fixed medium - 7,5’

“Translated as Subconscious Hommage this work explores the juxtaposition and interaction of various elements that are currently my interest of research: the use of traditional activities/songs from S.Miguel Island (the Azores) and its integration in electroacoustic context. The material explored in this piece is a mixed of field recordings of festivities in my homeland (the Azores), studio processed based sounds and analog synthesis. The main concept behind this piece is the one of framing stories (similar to 1001 Arabian Nights) where the main story unfolds different little stories with different characters.” - Ângela Da Ponte

- Fátima Fonte (PT, 1983) Claro-escuro (2008) tape / acousmatic pieces, for electronics - 6’

“This piece has departed from an audio format considered “less sophisticated” - the general midi – with the goal of creating several variables to give it a more personal and characteristic sonority. The title comes from the subtleties and variations that exist within a black and white tool.” - Fátima Fonte

- Annette Vande Gorne (BE, 1946) Bois (1986) acousmatic pieces - 12’

Bois, whose writing is based on proliferation and 'shuffling' [a SYTER sound processing technique], is part of a more general research on nature as a model, a very old functioning of the human mind brought up to date in the context of computer modelling (in computer graphics for example).

Mirela Ivicevic - born in 1989 in Split, Croatia

Her work focuses mainly on exploration of reflective and subversive potential of sound, using bits and pieces of reality, abducted from their natural environment into a surreal acoustic world, resulting mostly in the patchwork of abruptly exchanging, hyperactive structures, distorted occurrences of post-yugoslavian reality, blocks of noise and traces of trip / hop? pop? 

 Mirela Ivicevic finished master studies in composition at the Music Academy Zagreb, postgraduate studies in Media composition at the MDW and postgraduate course in composition with Beat Furrer at the Kunstuniversität Graz. Since 2010 she is co-curator and producer of Dani Nove Glazbe Split, festival of contemporary music and related art forms in Split, Croatia. She is co-founder and member of Black Page Orchestra, viennese ensemble for radical and uncompromising music of current times.

Ângela Da Ponte - Portuguese composer born in 1984

Ângela Da Ponte holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham (UK). She is a composer and teacher currently living in Porto, Portugal. Her music has been regularly performed in Portugal by Remix Ensemble, Sond-Ar’te Electric Ensemble, among others, as well internationally with BEAST (Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre, UK), Orchestre National d’Île de France, in Mexico (Festival Visiones Sonoras 2016), Poland (Audiokineza), Colombia (BLAST), U.S.A with the Oregon Symphony, Vertixe Sonora Ensemble (Spain) and Ensemble New Babylon (Germany).In 2011, she was appointed as the Young Composer in Residence 2011 at Casa da Música (Oporto), writing for Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto and Remix Ensemble.

Fátima Fonte - born in 1983 in Portugal

In recent years she has been working intensely on staged music. One of her main works – the opera buffa “A Querela dos Grilos” (libretto by Tiago Schwäbl) – has been presented in numerous Portuguese theatres.

Fátima Fonte studied composition in Porto (ESMAE) and at the Conservatory of Music of Amsterdam, with Richard Ayres. Thanks to a scholarship from Fundação Oriente, she was able to study Hindustani Music in India. In 2017-18 she was a Young Composer Associate at Teatro Nacional São Carlos, collaborating with dancers, choreographers, singers and instrumentalists, besides premiering Era Uma Vez Eu-Alface, for narrator and Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa.

Performances of her music have been given by the Nieuw Ensemble (Concertgebouw Amsterdam / Den Bosh), Icarus Ensemble (Italy / Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival UK), Orkest de Ereprijs (Young Composers Meeting Apeldoorn / Gaudeaumus Music Week NL).

In 2019 Orquestra Gulbenkian performed Breve Desassossego as part of the “Composing for voices” workshop, and Duo Tágide premiered Coração Acordeão (commissioned by Miso Music Portugal).

Currently Fonte is a doctoral student at Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London).

Roland Wiltgen - born in 1957 in Differdange, Luxembourg

 He wrote various chamber, piano, and choir music, several pieces for Brass-Band (e.g. "Red Earth" the test-piece for the European Championship 1995), 3 pieces for symphonic wind band, 2 works for organ, brass wind ensemble, clarinet sextett and pedagogical works. His interest in electronics and computer technologies have brought forth some compositions using that medium.

He started his musical training at the Conservatory of Esch-sur–Alzette while at the same time pursuing his classical secondary school education. Next steps were the Metz Conservatoire de musique in Metz, the Paris Ecole Normale de Musique and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris

In 1983 he became a professor for harmony, counterpoint and musical analysis at the Conservatory of Esch-sur-Alzette. Since 1981 he has produced some 70 works, many of which have been commissioned and performed by famous musicians. Having always played an active part in the consultative bodies of Sacem Luxembourg, he became a founding member and the first president of the Fédération Luxembourgeoise des Auteurs et Compositeurs (FLAC) in 2014.

Annette Vande Gorne - born in 1946 in Charleroi, Belgium

Her current work focuses on various energetic and kinesthetic archetypes. Nature and the physical world are models for an abstract and expressive musical language. She is passionate about two other fields of research: the various relationships to word, sound, and meaning provided by electroacoustic technology, and the composition of space seen as the fifth musical parameter and its relationship to the other four parameters and the archetypes being used. Her work falls essentially in the acousmatic category.

Following her classical studies at the Royal Conservatories of Mons and of Brussels, and her studies with Jean Absil, Annette Vande Gorne chanced upon acousmatics when on a training position in France. Instantly convinced, by the works of François Bayle and Pierre Henry, of the revolutionary nature of this art form (disruption of perception, renewal of composition through spectromorphological writing and listening conduction, historical importance of the movement), she took a few training positions to grab its basics, then studied musicology (ULB, Brussels) and electroacoustic composition with Guy Reibel and Pierre Schaeffer at the Conservatoire national supérieur in Paris.

-  Igor C Silva (PT, 1989) I’m bored at home (2020) multimedia project for flexible trio, electronics and video - 5’

Commissioned by Philharmonie Luxembourg and performed by United Instruments of Lucilin

Projection of the video

Igor C Silva - born in 1989 in Porto, Portugal

Igor C Silva is a composer devoted to electronics and new media music, creating projects where performers, computers and many noisy and psychedelic things happen on stage, creating a multi-sensorial experience.

Igor C Silva graduated in composition at Escola Superior de Música, Artes e Espetáculo (ESMAE) in 2011, and finished a Master’s Degree in Composition and Music Theory in 2013. In 2017 Silva finished a Master Degree in live-electronics at Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Igor C Silva is currently a PhD candidate at VUB (Brussels) and Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, where he also teaches the Live Electronics Course.

He regularly collaborates with soloists ensembles and jazz groups, devoting part of his musical and composing activity to improvisation and interactive performances with electronics and multimedia tools. His work “Plastic Air” was awarded a distinction at the 65th International Rostrum of Composers in Hungary (2018).

He is a 1st Prize winner at both the Areon Flutes Commissioning Prize 2018 (USA) and the 1st International Electroacustic and Intermedial Composition Competition "eviMus" with "Numb" for baritone saxophone and electronics, in Germany (2017).

He is a winner of the Residency Prix CIME 2017, in Russia (2017) and a finalist of the Switch~Ensemble Commissioning Prize in New York (2017).

The "II Concurso Internacional de Composição / Jorge Peixinho awarded him a 1st Prize for his work "Blood Ink" for small ensemble and electronics in 2015.

He has joined residency programs at Casa da Música (2012), Miso Muisic Studios (2015) and Drumming GP (2018/19).

- Katalin Ladik (EX-YU, 1942) Phonopoetica (1976) phonetic interpretation of visual poetry - 15’

Katalin Ladiks work is based on a mix of genres (electronic, non-music and sound-poetry) and its style is experimental, including spoken word.

Phonopoetica, published in 1976 in Belgrade, features vocal interpretations of visual poems by experimental poets.

Genre: Electronic, Non-Music, Sound Poetry

Style: Spoken Word, Experimental

Composer: Katalin Ladik - born in 1942 in Novi Sad/Újvidék, former Yugoslavia, now Serbia

Katalin Ladik is a poet who employs various means of expression. She makes collages, photography, sings, acts in the theatre and on film, practices performance art as well as writing novels and poetry. She performs and exhibits her work at prominent international venues and art events including the documenta 14 in 2017. 

Ladik studied at the Economic High School of Novi Sad (1961-63), then joined the Dramski Studio [Drama Studio] acting school in Novi Sad (1964-66). Between 1961 and 1963 she worked as a bank assistant. During this time she began to write poetry. From 1963 to 1977 she worked for Radio Novi Sad. She joined the newly established Novi Sad Theatre in 1974, becoming a member of its permanent ensemble in 1977 and working there until 1992. In 1992 she emigrated to Hungary. She primarily acted in dramatic roles. Over the years, she also played major and minor roles in various TV films and movies. She led the poetry sections of literary magazines Élet és Irodalom (1993-94) and Cigányfúró (1994-99). Between 1993 and 1998 she taught at Hangár musical and theatrical education center.

Katalin Ladik received numerous awards, such as the Kassák Lajos Award (1991), the Mediawave Parallel Culture Award (2003), the National Award for Culture of the Republic of Serbia (2009), the Laurel Wreath Award of Hungary (2012) and the prestigious Lennon Ono Grant for Peace in 2016, together with Olafur Eliasson, Anish Kapoor and Ai Weiwei.

- Filippo Zapponi (IT, 1976) ReCoding Cloud (2022) for youtuber/soloist and ensemble, recorded and broadcast on screen in the form of YouTube videos - 40’ *

*World Premiere - Commissioned by United Instruments of Lucilin for the project 33,7 - Esch2022 European Capital of Culture

A cycle of seven compositions/performances 

ReCoding Cloud is a cycle of seven compositions/performances for soloist/youtuber and ensemble, recorded and broadcast on screen in the form of YouTube videos. The videos are gathered on the YouTube channel ReCoding Cloud. The cycle is based on hybridisation, the creation of genetically modified musical organisms, fakes, (concealed) parody, double coding and re-coding. It is up to the listener/viewer to decode the compositions correctly, to grasp the hidden references, not to stop at appearances and not to be fooled by fakes.

With: André Pons-Valdès (violin), Winnie Cheng (violin), Danielle Hennicot (viola), Jean Philippe Martignoni (violoncelle), Païvi Kauffmann (flute), Max Mausen (clarinet), Léna Kollmeier (piano), Guy Frisch (percussion), Danilo Vicari (e-guitar), Marco Fabricci (e-bass), Serge Kakudji (voice)

Composer: Filippo Zapponi - born in 1976 in Milan, Italy

Filippo Zapponi collaborates with many ensembles, soloists and festivals and has undertaken many musical projects with pedagogical purposes. He began composing as a child and at the age of seventeen he entered the classes of Ivan Fedele and Giorgio Colombo Taccani at the Civica Scuola di Musica di Milano and at the Sezione di Musica Contemporanea, in Milan. In 1997, he was enrolled in Ivan Fedele's class at the Como Conservatory of Music “Giuseppe Verdi” and graduated with honours in 2000. Since 1997 he was also a student of Ivan Fedele at the Conservatoire National de Région de Strasbourg (France) where he graduated in 2001. In 1999-2001 he was Ivan Fedele's assistant and he worked at Luciano Berio's Centro Tempo Reale, in Florence.

In 2001, he studied at the Session de composition du programme “Voix nouvelles” at the Fondation Royaumont, near Paris. In 2002, he was again Ferneyhough's student at the Centre Acanthes (Avignon, France).

Selected twice by the Ircam Reading Panel, he attended the Stage d'été (2006) and the Cursus I (2008-09) at Ircam (Paris) where he specialized in new technologies for music.

From 2004 to 2007, he studied composition and analysis in Kürten, near Cologne (Germany). In 2007, he graduated with honours in Musicology from the University of Strasbourg. Athique I, for flute and piano, was the winner of the Counterpoint-Italy International Composition Competition 2018. In 2015, Filippo Zapponi was awarded the first prize at the prestigious 6th International Composition Competition “Festival Pablo Casals” in Prades. In 2014, he was selected, out of more than 600 composers, at the International Composition Competition « Feeding Music – Compositions From the World for Italian Pavilion Expo Milano 2015 » for a new commission for ensemble and electronics which was featured twice at Expo Milano 2015.

- Albena Petrovic (LU, 1965) The dark (2016) instrumental opera - 60’

Petrovic’s first opera The dark was premiered at Casemates-Luxembourg in June 2016 by the United Instruments of Lucilin and Donatienne Michel-Dansac.

With: André Pons-Valdès (violin), Danielle Hennicot (viola), Ingrid Schoenlaub (violoncello), Sophie Deshayes (flute), Olivier Sliepen (saxophone), Pascal Meyer (piano), Guy Frisch (percussion), Donatienne Michel-Dansac (soprano)

Composer: Albena Petrovic - born in 1965 in Sofia, Bulgaria

Since 1996, Albena has lived and worked in Luxembourg. There she perfected her skills in contemporary composition, analysis and computer music with Mr. Claude Lenners, adopting and developing a style strongly influenced by his "Culte de la Recherche". More than six hundred works in different musical genres are created by her pen.

She started to play the piano at the age of ten and was already composing at eleven. Albena Petrovic created her first public work in 1979 at the age of 14, for the International Children's Assembly. After completing her general and musical studies at Ecole Nationale de Musique «P.Pipkov», she continued her studies in composition, conducting and music writing at the Académie Nationale de Musique « Pancho Vladiguérov » in Sofia. Albena holds the position of musicologist and Music Manager for the International Festival "Apollonia", and at the National Music Agency in Sofia. 

In 2007 Albena Petrovic represented the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg as a member of the jury of the International Composition Competition "Valentino Bucchi" in Rome, Italy. In 2009, she became the founding President of the Concours International de Composition "ARTISTES EN HERBE" Luxembourg, organised under the Haut patronage du Ministère de la Culture.

His Royal Highness Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg awarded her the Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the nomination CHEVALIER in 2013.

In 2019 the CD THE VOYAGER under the label Solo.musica.de was nominated in 3 categories for the Opus Klassik.de prize and won a promotional tour of 8 concerts in the most prestigious venues in Luxembourg, Sofia, Vienna, Barcelona, Reus and Hamburg.

Recent projects include the release of her music on CD: “Crystal Dream” with pianist Romain Nosbaum and “Bridges of Love” with pianist Plamena Mangova. Her opera “The Dark”, written for Lucilin, has brought her to foreign festivals in Bulgaria, Spain and Italy.

Nigji Sanges (LU, 1984) Finis Terrae (2022) Live Cinema - 82’ *

*Co-commissioned by CAPE (Centre des Arts Pluriels D’Ettelbruck) and United Instruments of Lucilin for the project 33,7 - Esch2022 European Capital of Culture

In collaboration with the composer Nigji Sanges, United Instruments of Lucilin will accompany Jean Epstein’s silent film Finis Terrae (1929, 82 min). The film documents the life of four fishermen who hunt down the only plant resource, seaweed, in the Ouessant archipelago. The audience can discover how the music composed by the Italian-Luxembourgish Nigji Sanges accompanies the completely isolated men in summer.

With: André Pons-Valdès (violin), Danielle Hennicot (viola), Sophie Deshayes (flute), Guy Frisch (percussion), Frin Wolter (accordion)

Composer: Nigji Sanges - born in 1984 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Nigji Sanges studied compostition, film composition and orchestration at the Conservatoires Nationaux Supérieurs de Musique de Paris and Lyon and at the Royal College of Music in London. She also holds a Master's degree in music administration and management from the University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), and is a laureate of the Fondations Banque Populaire, Meyer and Tarrazi Foundations and the Centre international Nadia et Lili Boulanger.

She wrote music for the Orchestre National Avignon-Provence, the Orchestre des Pays de la Loire, the Orchestre régional de Basse-Normandie, the vocal ensemble Les Métaboles. Upcoming commissions include works for the Hamburg Opera, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Kammerata Luxembourg and the ensemble United Instruments of Lucilin as well as for soloists Alexandra Soumm, David Kadouch, Vassilena Serafimova and the Hanson Quartet.

Other works include music for cinema (Birds of America, MK2/Arte Cinéma, 2021), television (Modigliani et ses secrets, Arte) and for theatre (Olivier Dhénin, Paysage dans l'oubli, Villa Saïgon Residency in Vietnam, 2022).

Igor C Silva (PT, 1989) All Limits (2022) sound and light installation - continuous installation with live performances at the above mentioned times *

Constraints are set

We try to relate to a strange space

We're stuck in there

The damage is done

We try to cope with loss information

We anticipate

The code is changed

 *Premiere of a new multimedia performance/installation, performed and commissioned by United Instruments of Lucilin.

Igor C Silva - Concept, Music, Light

Luka Batista - Technical artist (sensors, lighting and sound)

Mad Trix - Light Technician 

With: Miguel Moreira (electric guitar), Pascal Mayer (keyboard), Henning Sieverts (electric bass), Guy Frisch (percussion)

Igor C Silva - born in 1989 in Porto, Portugal

Igor C Silva is a composer devoted to electronics and new media music, creating projects where performers, computers and many noisy and psychedelic things happen on stage, creating a multi-sensorial experience.

Igor C Silva graduated in composition at Escola Superior de Música, Artes e Espetáculo (ESMAE) in 2011, and finished a Master’s Degree in Composition and Music Theory in 2013. In 2017 Silva finished a Master Degree in live-electronics at Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Igor C Silva is currently a PhD candidate at VUB (Brussels) and Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, where he also teaches the Live Electronics Course.

He regularly collaborates with soloists ensembles and jazz groups, devoting part of his musical and composing activity to improvisation and interactive performances with electronics and multimedia tools.

His work “Plastic Air” was awarded a distinction at the 65th International Rostrum of Composers in Hungary (2018).

He is a 1st Prize winner at both the Areon Flutes Commissioning Prize 2018 (USA) and the 1st International Electroacustic and Intermedial Composition Competition "eviMus" with "Numb" for baritone saxophone and electronics, in Germany (2017).

He is a winner of the Residency Prix CIME 2017, in Russia (2017) and a finalist of the Switch~Ensemble Commissioning Prize in New York (2017).

The "II Concurso Internacional de Composição / Jorge Peixinho awarded him a 1st Prize for his work "Blood Ink" for small ensemble and electronics in 2015.

He has joined residency programs at Casa da Música (2012), Miso Muisic Studios (2015) and Drumming GP (2018/19).

François Sarhan (FR, 1972) Lino Gris (2022) - 25’ *

*World Premiere - Commissioned by United Instruments of Lucilin for the project 33,7 - Esch2022 European Capital of Culture

Performance for 5 musicians and soloists

In French language

With: André Pons-Valdès (violin), Danielle Hennicot (viola), Ingrid Schoenlaub (violoncello), Olivier Sliepen (saxophone), Frin Wolter (accordion)

François Sarhan - born in 1972 in Rouen, France

François Sarhan is a composer, director and visual artist. He has performed in Asia, Africa, America and Europe. He likes to create music theatre and multimedia works in which he performs himself. His recent collaboration with William Kentridge on “Telegrams from the Nose”, was presented more than 30 times during major festivals and in venues all over Europe. 

He has directed his own work since 2008. Recent projects include a film and music theatre work called “Lachez tout !” with the Red Note Ensemble, a compilation of the texts from his Encyclopedia to be published by JM Place, and a large exhibition organized by Chambord Castle in France. He also directed a feature film with Ensemble Mosaik called ABERWASISTABERMUSIK in 2021.

François Sarhan studied composition with Brian Ferneyhough, Jonathan Harvey, Magnus Lindberg, Philippe Manoury, Tristan Murail and Guy Reibel. Besides his music studies, he also followed Jacques Roubaud’s seminars on compared poetics at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris. He graduated from the Conservatoire National de Paris in 1995. Subsequently he attended masterclasses in Szombathely (Hungary) with Brian Ferneyhough and Marco Stroppa and joined the courses of IRCAM. He then graduated from the CNSMD de Paris in analysis and composition.

His works have been presented at Musica, Donaueschingen, Wittener Musik Tagen, Ars Musica, Holland Festival, and Maerzmusik. He has been commissioned by Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Recherche, Ictus Ensemble, Ensemble Intercontemporain, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radiofrance and Lucilin Ensemble.

Sarhan taught at IRCAM between 1998 and 2002, and at the Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg since 1999. Since 2015 he teaches composition at the UdK (Berlin) and has been a guest teacher at the Musikhochschule in Dresden and the Darmstadt Ferien Kurse.

Pascal Schumacher (LU, 1979) CTRL Variations (2009) multi-media project - 60’

“Is it a love story? Undoubtedly. Is it a play about the strange relationship between people and their computers? Likewise (after all, among other things, quite a few annoying spam mails are given musical honours in it). Is it experimental literature? Certainly, at least in part, because one of the actors from the Oulipo circle of authors around Raymond Queneau and Georges Perec is involved in it. Is it film music for an abstract film with letters instead of actors? In a way, that too (as Pascal Schumacher says? "Film music is cooler to write than other music anyway."). When jazz musician and composer Pascal Schumacher, typographer Michel Welfringer and writer Ian Monk join forces to write variations on CTRL (control? the control key? the sounds C, T, R and L? the letters?) for the ensemble United Instruments of Lucilin, a kind of controlled loss of control is preprogrammed.” 

(Philharmonie Luxembourg 2009, translated by Jil Hamm for United Instruments of Lucilin)

With: Léo Belthoise (violin), Sophie Urhausen (viola), Jean Philippe Martignoni (violoncelle), Sophie Deshayes (flute), Max Mausen (clarinet), Pascal Meyer (piano), Guy Frisch (percussion), Pit Brosius (conductor)

Composer: Pascal Schumacher - born in 1979 in Luxembourg

Aesthetics: He played with many exciting musicians such as Francesco Tristano, Bachar Mar-Khalifé, Jef Neve, Kenny Barron & Magic Malik. He wrote music for theater and film and led a jazz quartet. His music mixes emotional classical music with minimal electronic sounds, although Schumacher himself considers each classification obsolete. To him, music is a single, limitless playground. 

2018 marked a new beginning for Pascal Schumacher, who upon the invitation to play at Jazz & The City Festival In Salzburg, started to develop his own solo material. This eventually culminated in his debut solo album, SOL, released on Neue Meister in 2020 followed by another album called LUNA in 2022. Despite the contrasts, SOL and LUNA aren’t in any way antagonistic to each other, much on the contrary, their duality feels wholly complementary, expressing a natural musical progression much like daytime gently feeds into the night.

About: Pascal Schumacher studied classical percussion, jazz vibraphone and musicology at music conservatories in Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Brussels and The Hague. He holds a Master’s Degree in musicology from the Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg, and another in music with a focus on jazz vibraphone from the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague. 

Pascal is a Yamaha Artist and a Professor for Jazz and Classical Percussion at the Conservatoire de Musique de Luxembourg. He is the Artistic Director of the innovative 'Reset' Music Festival at Abbaye Neimenster and an Ambassador for SOS Children's Villages International - Luxembourg.

He has won many awards, including the Belgian Django d’Or (2005), Music:LX (2012), ECHO Jazz (2012), JTI Trier Jazz (2014), was selected for the Rising Stars program organized by the European Concert Hall Organization (2009 / 10) and appeared as soloist in ECHO Klassik 2017 awarded project Überbach.

Elsa Biston (FR, 1978) Prendre corps (2020) installation for vibrating object device - 60’

"At the beginning, the eye is taken up by the beauty of the objects, the play of light and vibration, the ear follows the gaze, lagging a little behind... Little by little, however, the gaze gives way: the character-objects become so familiar to us in their physical characteristics, their materiality, their ability to vibrate, to murmur, to sing, that they become a part of us. (...)

When "Prendre corps" ends, we are no longer quite the same: our eyes seek out the character-objects that have become silent, while our whole being vibrates, from head to toe. "Prendre corps" certainly takes us far away, and draws a sound "cartography" like no other! (Anne Montaron for Hémisphere Son, on the occasion of the creation of the performance version at the theatre in Vanves, translated by Jil Hamm for United Instruments of Lucilin)

Elsa Biston - Conception, composition

Stéfane Perraud - Collaboration artistique

Composer: Elsa Biston - born in 1978 in Lyon, France

Elsa Biston is a composer of electroacoustic and instrumental music.

She has written for the ensemble l'Instant Donné, for the Spat'sonore, as well as music for shows and installations. Her electroacoustic works have been broadcast by the festival Présences (Radio France), Futura, Elektra Music, Scrime, etc. With the Trafic collective, she initiates projects with inhabitants of the districts of haut-Montreuil, in which she develops music together with the composer Alvaro Martinez that expresses the singularities of each person, questioning the relationship to culture and transmission. Together with the group spat'sonore, she creates "scrolling scores" that allows groups that do not read musicsheet, to perform together.

Elsa Biston studied clarinet at the Conservatoire National de Région in Lyon (France). She also attended classes at a preparatory school in order to prepare for entrance examinations to the French Grandes Ecoles in Sciences. Elsa Biston also received a “Sound Director Diploma”  at the Primus Center in Strasbourg (France).

She works as a sound engineer and musical assistant in contemporary music (IRCAM, GRAME, la Kitchen, l’Instant Donné, Zellig, Sphota, B. Carat…). She studied electroacoustic music with Gino Favotti and Philippe Leroux. She received a Diploma in Musical Studies (Electroacoustic composition) at the Ecole Nationale de Musique in Blanc-Mesnil in 2006.

She is also an artistic director for recordings of classical and contemporary music for Radio France.

She is the winner of the Elektramusic listeners’ prize 2008 for her work « Muance ».

- Roby Steinmetzer (LU, 1960) Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne (2008) interactive sound installation

The spectator actively participates in the work of art: Through a video camera connected to a computer, their movements and gestures are captured and analysed.

The symphonic poem "Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne" by Franz Liszt, the basic material of the installation, is treated by the process of sound granulation, which consists of breaking down the sound into "grains" of a duration of typically 10-50 milliseconds. The parameters resulting from the optical capture and its analysis decide which grains are played, at what speed, how many times and in which direction.

The visitor is thus faced with a rather radical reinterpretation of Liszt's work, with the possibility, indeed the duty, to intervene in the creative process. Similar to a conductor, he/she initiates, controls, and imposes his/her rhythm on the piece through the transcription of his/her gestures.

The resulting sounds can be quite remote  from the original work. Sometimes poetic, sometimes brilliant or resonant, they characterise what is heard on the mountain: the association of the "chant de la nature au cri du genre humain", extract from "Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne" by Victor Hugo, in "Les Feuilles d'automne”. (Taken from Roby Steinmetzer, translated by Jil Hamm for United Instruments of Lucilin)

Composer: Roby Steinmetzer - born in 1960 in Luxembourg

Roby Steinmetzer has primarily composed electroacoustic works as well as mixed works for instruments with real-time computer sound processing.

Roby Steinmetzer studied piano and music theory at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg and the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles. He also learned computer music, mainly on his own, but also during training courses at Ircam in Paris.

He has produced music for dance/theatre performances, created sound installations, interactive pieces and videos. In order to make the general public aware of the use of new technologies for contemporary music, he has initiated activities/associations and has given public lectures as well as workshops for children and adults on the theme of music and computers. He teaches piano and computer music at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg and has been President of the Fédération Luxembourgeoise des Auteurs et Compositeurs (FLAC) for the last 3 years where he has been committed to promote the profession of composer in Luxembourg.