Reports

THE EUROPEAN MusMA ATELIER
for contemporary composers and performers

Announcement : JUNE 27 –30

This year each of the composers has been commissioned by their respective festival to compose a piece for piano in the frame of “Liszt and Landscape” ; pieces which will be performed at each festival by renown pianists. The full list of the composers and their commissioned compositions is as follows:

Works commissioned by Festival Emilia Romagna | IT, Festival Estoril | PT, BEMUS / Jugoconcert | RS, Flanders Festival/KlaraFestival |BE, Hungarofest |HU,  Ljubljana Festival | SI, Festival Internacional de Musica y Danza de Granada | ES, Ankara International Music Festival | TR, Brno Festival | CZ and Wratislavia Cantans | PL.

Mehmet Can Özer presented his project “Aşure" in Brno International Music Festival in the Expositionof New Music.
The project has different aspects such as composition, improvisation, software and hardware development, ethnomusicology, sociology, interaction between human and computer and the most important cultural exchange.
This time he involved the visual artist Max Hattler  [http://www.maxhattler.com/] : a tremendous combination !

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) invited EU delegates to join them for an enjoyable evening in the majestic halls of the Concert Noble in Brussels on Wednesday, January 26. The EBU has an impressive archive and wanted to introduce the delegates to the problems surrounding copyright and the broadcast of the archived material. MusMA is a good example of an actor in the world of culture who uses the powerful communication tool of radio stations and therefore also considers the smooth transfer of the material as a necessity. MusMA was given the chance to fill the evening with a programme of contemporary music.

Raina Konstantinova, EBU Radio Director, warmly welcomed the guests and ushered in the evening. Pierre-Yves Tribolet, Head of Euroradio/Classics, then took the floor to illustrate EBU's Facts and Figures on classical music. General Manager of Flanders Festival Brussels Jan Briers, as the driving force behind the project, offered an introduction to MusMA, a collaboration between 10 European broadcasting festivals and the EBU to give contemporary music a gentle nudge forward. The Belgian MusMA composer for 2011, Thomas Smetryns, was given the last word. MusMA then treated the guests to four contemporary compositions, including one by Smetryns, performed by the Spectra Ensemble.

The European Broadcast Union was established in 1950 and includes among its members no less than 50 classical radio stations. Every year, more than 3,500 concerts are offered up over the Euroradio satellite network. On average, every concert is broadcast in 8 countries and reach an audience of about 1.7 million. Every day, 17 million people listen to a concert offered by the public radio broadcasters, 2,000 of these concerts fall within the category of classical music, and 700 within that of contemporary music. In addition to the 3,500 concerts offered every year, there are 200 special live events produced by the radio stations. Moreover, the EBU members have 75 radio ensembles (symphonic orchestras, choirs, big bands) under their wings.

MusMA(Music Masters on Air: European Broadcasting Festival), Flanders Festival Brussels's latest project, gives selected young composers from ten different European countries the opportunity to have their compositions performed on the festival stages in participating countries. It is a collaboration within the European Festival Association (EFA) and with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Every participating festival presents a composer who is awarded a commission. The composition must be framed within an artistic theme and meet well-defined requirements. This year the composition is to be a 5-minute piano piece on the theme of 'Landscape and Liszt'. The compositions are compiled and the programme then travels from festival to festival to be performed by the local musicians in the host country. The participating countries are Belgium (Festival van Vlaanderen Internationaal Brussel-Europa vzw.), Spain (Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada), Slovenia (Festival Ljubljana), Poland (Miedzynarodowy International Festival Wratislavia Cantans), Czech (Brno International Music Festival), Portugal (Associação Internacional de Musica da Costa do Estoril), Turkey (SEVDA-CENAP and Music Foundation), Hungary (HungaroFEST), Serbia (BEMUS) and Italy (Emilia Romagna Festival).

MusMAis a wonderful example of a player in the world of culture that uses the power of communication of radio stations. Thus MusMA was given the chance to fill the evening with a musical presentation of a composition performed by the Spectra Ensemble that, as mentioned above, is a work by MusMA's 2011 Belgian composer, Thomas Smetryns. The radio functions as a fundamental bridge between the contemporary composer in his or her specific playing field and the living room of the average European citizen. The collaboration with the EBU is an essential element in the creation of an ebullient European musical tale. The radio stations that support the 10 European festival are involved in the selection of the composers to maximise the name of the new composers. All the radio stations have moreover more than five interpretations from the same contemporary piece, through which a tremendously interesting database exists with material for radio programmes on contemporary music. Because the MusMA events are spread over various countries and, in time, the radio stations function as a virtual stage for a genuine European Broadcasting Festival.

MusMA composer 2010 | Bart Vanhecke - Comme un flocon de neige (mp3) by musma.musicmastersonair2

Discover his work through following audio sample...

MusMA Composer 2010 | Slavomir Horinka - Chaire [2005] by musma.musicmastersonair2

On Thursday, 16 September, Polish contemporary composer Marcin Markowicz and the Lutoslawski Quartet Wroclaw performed Markowicz’s compositions in a Late Night concert of the KlaraFestival in Bozar.  
 
Markowicz has been concert master for the Witold Lutoslawski Philharmonic and Artistic Director for the Ensemble International Chamber Music Festival. He is a skilled violinist with a strong desire to compose pieces for his instrument, in spite of having no formal training in composition. One of his compositions received an award of distinction at the Panufnik Composers Competition in Krakow and his compositions have been performed at festivals in Poland, Germany, the Netherlands and the US.
 
Marcin Markowicz’s compositions are framed in known musical formats and tinted with an interesting rhythmical dynamic and as such within easy reach of any listener; From the moment the ensemble struck their first note in the intimate surroundings of the lounge, the audience was absorbed. The composer himself was playing in the quartet and the interaction between the four musicians was delightful while drawing the crowd into their close circle.
 
The following day, Markowicz and the Belgian composer Thomas Smetryns met for a panel discussion moderated by Maarten Beirens. An lively dialogue of the composers’ backgrounds ensued and sources of inspiration were tabled for discussion. The two composers showed how they have very distinct inspirations and reasons for composing; While Marcin Markowicz believed that once he’d written his score, he could let it go and allow others to interpret it in the way they felt best, Smetryns preferred to write specifically for musicians with whom he could interact in the composition development.
 
In short, panel ánd performance: a remarkable encounter !

On July 28, the Slovenian Festival Ljubljana presented a MusMA concert performed by Spanish Ensemble Residencias. Prior to the concert, there was an introduction to the pieces and the ideas underlying the music to help guide the audience. Central to the programme was Miguel Gálvez-Taroncher’s Del dolor doblegado o 12 epidodios y un poema de Cortázar, which was a MusMA commission. The programme also included abrilliant piece composed by the Spanish composer Jesús Torres (1965) called Manantial de luz, the Trío nº 3 by the Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra (1953) and a piece by the Cuban composer Louis Aguirre (1968) Oddúa. In brief, Spanish and South-American music of the 20th and 21stcentury.