05.05.10
Expect anything! … A chamber trio goes industrial, an accordion band plays Carl Nielsen, classical music turns into free jazz, electro-acoustic sounds fill the concert hall, and 50 violinists, who have never played the violin before, take part in a musical adventure involving a loom …
After 20 years and an abundance of prizewinning concerts, projects and collaborations to their name, the Danish ensemble Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen celebrate the many aspects of contemporary music in a festival that expands the scope of classical music.
From the 5th to the 12th of June, Athelas New Music Festival 2010 proudly presents 25 concerts and events featuring the best Danish and international artists at the Teater Republique in Copenhagen. Tickets from 70 to 160 Danish kr. Reduced price ticket for all concerts: 800 Danish kr. – save 450 kr. In addition, there are several events where admission is free. Concert duration is one hour – so there is time for more than one! Explore the world of contemporary music at the biggest festival of its kind in Denmark!
The festival has received generous support from Carl Nielsen og Anne Marie Carl Nielsens Legat, Statens Kunstråd, Kulturministeriet, Udenrigsministeriet, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through USArtist’s International in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Dansk Komponist Forenings Produktionspulje og KODAs nationale midler, Oticon Fonden, Wilhelm Hansen Fonden, Knud Højgaards Fond, Beckett-Fonden, SNYK, Københavns Kommunes Musikudvalg and Nationalbankens Jubilæumsfond.
> See Athelas New Music Festival programme book as a pdf
– an interactive, digital miniature opera
Saturday the 5th of June to Saturday the 12th of June.
Café Carl in the Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
An interactive, digital micro-opera, in which the free fall of the solitary audience member is accompanied by the operatic singing of Susanne Elmark and Joachim Knop …
Songs by Jeppe Aaakjær
Saturday the 5th of June 2010 – 7:00pm
The amphitheatre Østerfælled Torv, 2100 København Ø
The classic Danish songs with lyrics by poet Jeppe Aaakjær were made to be sung on a light summer night. The Copenhagen Girls’ Choir give an open air concert accompanied by excellent jazz musicans.
Pierre-André Valade conducts the Opening Concert of the Athelas New Music Festival 2010
Saturday the 5th of June 2010 – 7:30pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
György Ligeti, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, Carl Nielsen and Hans Abrahamsen do not upon first glance appear to share an obvious musical heritage. As composers they are indeed completely different, however, they converge in a shared will to see the past reflected in the present.
Who will be the winner of the Festival's unorthodox composers' competition?
Saturday the 5th of June 2010 – 10:00pm
Café Carl in the Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Who wins Carl’s Award for the best composition lasting only 4 to 6 minutes? Listen to the music and find out who the winner will be.
Fusion of classical and jazz
Saturday the 5th of June 2010 – 10:30 pm
Café Carl in the Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
The Trans-Atlantic improvisational collective NYNDK Jazz Collective mixes new classical music, jazz and free improvisation. Hear the improvisations of the quintet on music by Charles Ives, Edvard Grieg, Per Nørgård and Carl Nielsen.
Steve Reichs Minimalist masterpiece "Music for 18 Musicians"
Sunday the 6th of June 2010 – 7:00pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Steve Reichs legendary Music for 18 Musicians for the first time in Denmark – music which merges African rhythms, the hamonics of jazz and the refined structure of classical music in an irressistible, swinging and mesmerising fusion.
Experience the audiovisual interplay between music by Yusupov, Rasmussen and Fagerlund and projected images chosen by the composers.
Sunday the 6th of June 2010 – 9.00pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Three modern composers follow in Mussorgsky’s footsteps and find inspiration in the interplay between music and painting. While the music is playing, images are projected on to a screen.
Jazz standards performed by the Figura Ensemble and Tuva Semmingsen with sax player Peter Fuglsang.
Sunday the 6th of June 2010 – 10.15 pm
Café Carl in the Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
A jazz concert featuring Tuva Semmingsen? Yes, the renowned mezzo-soprano star of the Danish Royal Opera, loves to sing jazz, too. The Figura Ensemble invited the excellent jazz soloist Peter Fuglsang to participate.
The Ensemble MidtVest featuring Henrik Goldschmidt and members of The Middle East Peace Orchestra play Middle Eastern music.
Monday the 7th of June 2010 – 7:30pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Musicians with widely different backgrounds join forces to play Jewish and Arab music – in popular, classical and religious modes.
The Danish String Quartet and Andreas Borregaard play Nielsen and new music
Monday the 7th of June 2010 – 9:00pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Danish Carl Nielsen meets British Thomas Adès and Norwegian Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, when the internationally renowned Danish String Quartet strikes up.
Carl Nielsen and his Great-Grandchildren
Monday the 7th of June 2010 – 10.15pm
Café Carl in the Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
You won’t know what to expect – so expect anything! This is the mantra of Dygong for tonight’s concert of works for accordion by young composers of today and their great-grandfather Carl Nielsen.
From Hans Christian Andersen to Hawaii, from fairy tale to meditation – the amazing music of Per Nørgård.
Tuesday the 8th of June 2010 – 4:00pm
Café Carl in the Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
A wondrous musical fairy tale issued on CD and DVD by Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen and TV-Glad. Meet the composer and join in the celebration of this remarkable release.
Ancient Danish peasant culture and modern installation art is interwoven in Suzanne Bocanegra's Rerememberer (all the threads).
Tuesday the 8th of June 2010 – 7:00pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Suzanne Bocanegra‘s “Rerememberer (all the threads)” is a translation of an old Danish peasant fabric into a performance, scored for amplified weaver, accordionist, fifty violinists who have never played violin before – and more!
Music between innocence and experience
Tuesday the 8th of June 2010 – 9:00pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
The Danish composers Carl Nielsen and Per Nørgård both wrote significant works for strings in their youth. Now the music of these two masters can be heard together, and the innocence of youth is juxtaposed with the experience and maturity of a whole new work by Nørgård.
The Alpha Trio plays Abrahamsen, Nielsen, Ruders – and Alpha
Tuesday the 8th of June 2010 – 10.15pm
Café Carl in the Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Metamorphosis means change, transformation, reshaping, conversion – and and this is what happens to the music when the Alpha Trio plays Hans Abrahamsen, Poul Ruders, Swedish traditional music, Jewish klezmer and improvisations on a theme by Carl Nielsen.
The radiant chamber music of Carl Nielsen
Wednesday the 9th of June 2010 – 7:30pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Carl Nielsen’s masterly Quintet for Winds and beautiful new arrangements of his pieces for oboe and for piano – performed by the formidable Diamond Ensemble.
New music by Peter Bruun, David Lang and Per Nørgård
Wednesday the 9th of June 2010 – 9:00pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Letters to the sea from Peter Bruun, a visit at the dentist’s with David Lang, and a whole new work for percussion by Per Nørgård. The Esbjerg Ensemble plays modern music with infectious enthusiasm.
The legendary New York ensemble for the first time in Denmark
Thursday the 10th of June 2010 – 7:00pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Bang on a Can are famous for their innovative and explosive concerts which play to full houses in their native new York. Now at last, the legendary composers’ collective and their band of all-star musicians make their Danish debut!
Hans Abrahamsen's musical reflections on snow, performed by Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen with Pierre-André Valade conducting.
Thursday the 10th of June 2010 – 9:00pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
“Snow was always a big inspiration for me. There is the silence, the way snow transforms landscapes, the unique atmosphere. So Schnee has become a series of meditations on different aspects of snow,” says composer Hans Abrahamsen
Soprano Signe Asmussen sings modern cabaret songs
Thursday the 10th of June 2010 – 10:15pm
Café Carl at the Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
The Figura Ensemble met the composer Derek Bermel in a café in New York and immediately wanted to collaborate with him. In his Cabaret Songs, modern classical music merge with cabaret and jazz idioms. The remarkable versatility of Mezzo-Soprano Signe Asmussen make her the ideal interpreter.
The Århus Sinfonietta with the added sounds of toys, tape and Chinese fireworks
Friday the 11th of June 2010 – 7:30pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Toys, tape and Chinese sounds are on tonight’s programme, as the Århus Sinfonietta presents what is truly a display of musical fireworks featuring composers and musical inspirations from several continents.
Annie Gosfield transforms factory sounds in to music
Friday the 11th of June – 9:00pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
The American composer Annie Gosfield’s EWA7 is a musical machine. The composer has sampled sounds from machines and factories in an industrial area in Germany and transformed them into rhythms, sounds and tunes, accompanied by electric guitar and percussion.
Mini-concert with the PACE Percussion Trio & Thomas Agergaard
Friday the 11th of June 2010 – 10:15pm
Café Carl in the Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Experience the music from the PACE Percussion Trio & Thomas Agergaard’s eagerly awaited CD/DVD
Denmark's leading ensemble in the field of electro-acoustic music
Saturday the 12th of June 2010 – 7:00pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Contemporánea goes to sound extremes in electro-acoustic works. Anything goes in the meeting between acoustic and electronic instruments.
Brian Eno's 'Music for Airports' and Terry Riley's 'In C'
performed by three all-star ensembles
Saturday the 12th of June 2010 – 9.00pm
Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Bang on a Can All-Stars, Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen and the Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir join forces to perform two Minimalist milestones.
Who will be the winner of the Festival's unorthodox composers' competition?
Saturday the 12th of June 2010 – 10:00pm
Café Carl in the Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
Who wins Carl’s Award for the best composition lasting only 4 to 6 minutes? Listen to the music and find out who the winner will be.
Figura accompanies mezzo-soprano Helene Gjerris in seductive cabaret songs of the 1930es
Saturday the 12th of June 2010 – 11:15pm
Café Carl in the Teater Republique, Østerfælled Torv 37, 2100 København Ø
As an interpreter of classic German cabaret songs, Helene Gjerris matches the star quality of Marlene Dietrich, Lotte Lenya and Zarah Leander!