April 2024

100 CYMBALS – RYOJI IKEDA

📅 Sunday 7th of April – 8pm
📍 Hellerau, Dresden, Germany

©HenriVogt

With 100 cymbals, Ryoji Ikeda dives us into the abyss of vibration. A unique listening experience.
Created in 2019 at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in the sumptuous hall designed by architect Frank Gehry, 100 Cymbals is as much a stage performance as an audiovisual installation. Ryoji Ikeda highlights the rich potential of cymbals by following the thin line between noise and harmonic resonance. The seemingly rudimentary instrument, a convex disc made of an alloy of copper, brass and bronze, which is more commonly used to accentuate certain times of the measure, is transformed into a powerful polyphonic resource. The different modes of playing, more or less conventional, maintain a fusional – almost choral – sound and allow harmonic strata and other acoustic results to emerge within a process that a simple line could represent: an infinite crescendo, leading from an almost imperceptible murmur to the brilliance of the final fortississimo.

Program :
John Cage / Ryoji Ikeda But what about the noise of crumpling paper (1985 / 2021) 
Ryoji Ikeda 100 cymbals (2019)

🎫 Info and booking here

POETICA – CHAYA CZERNOWIN

📅 Friday 12th of April – 8pm
📍 Hellerau, Dresden, Germany

In cooperation with IRCAM Paris, Chaya Czernowin is developing Poetica, a multi-channel composition for percussion, string instruments and voice, which will be premiered in HELLERAU on 12 April by Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Steven Schick.

Poetica is the first part of the VENA cycle, consisting of Unhistoric Acts (2nd panel for string quartet and choir of 24 mixed voices – Donaueschingen 2021) and Immaterial (3rd panel for voice – Eclat Festival 2022). In this piece, which spans the entire evening, Chaya Czernowin builds a three-level palace in our listening, where we explore the power of our perception through memory. The foundation of this palace of memory is the relationship between the soloist, the four percussionists and the string trio activated by the soloist through electronics.

More infos about the program here
🎫 Info and booking here

EGAL = EXPÉRIENCE D’ÉCOUTE GLOBALE
(Global listening experience)

📅 Tuesday 16th of April – 8pm
📍 Théâtre de Hautepierre, Strasbourg


In the form of a “listening laboratory”, an experiment was carried out at Musica in 2019 aimed at sharing different musical pieces – with a visual, corporeal or vibratory dimension – between deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing people.

The aim was to raise public awareness of listening in all its forms, and particularly non-cochlear listening, in order to better deconstruct stereotypes and apprehensions about sound perception.
This sensory journey, inspired and nourished by deaf culture, now takes the form of a concert-experience. Firstly offered as a school event in Strasbourg in spring 2024, the project will then go on tour in France and abroad. It will continue to develop through encounters with artists and audiences, pursuing the logic of commissioning creators from all horizons to build up a repertoire of accessible works.

More infos about the program here

CARTE BLANCHE FOR THE MUSICA FESTIVAL

📅 Saturday 27th of April – 8pm
📍 Le Lieu Unique, Nantes

© Jésus s.Baptista

The frontiers of listening


Founded in 1983, Strasbourg’s Musica festival has established itself as Europe’s major crossroads for musical creation. Musica’s trademark? It’s all about mixing musical registers on the same level of experience, deconstructing formats and genres, from instrumental ensemble music to electronic music and performance.

For this carte blanche, Musica is inviting musicians, composers and spectators to cross the boundaries of listening together. Les Percussions de Strasbourg and the lovemusic collective will be taking over Le Lieu Unique to present a panorama of today’s musical creation. Through an original scenography, a whole programme of contemporary pieces resonates in concert or, on the contrary, invites you to stretch out your ears in a set-up that encourages both wandering and experimentation. Including works by Iannis Xenakis, Marina Rosenfeld, Alexander Schubert, Thierry De Mey, Frederic Rzewski, Philip Venables and Francesco Filidei.

🎫 Info and booking here