Three new tutorials of trumpeter Marco Blaauw on the cup mute, the wah-wah mute and filtering sounds for the trumpet.

The musicians of Ensemble Musikfabrik started to record tutorials in which they introduce their instrument and special playing techniques for composition students in the framework of Composer Collider. Find more tutorials here.

Within the framework of several workshops series with students and “Composer Collider“, a project especially for composition students, the musicians of Ensemble Musikfabrik prepare tutorials in which they introduce their instrument and explain special playing techniques.

Marco Blaauw recorded four new tutorials and talked in detail about the trumpet pitch range, microtones, mutes and straight mutes on the trumpet. Find more tutorials for different instruments here.

Composer Collider Europe – CCE is a series of transnational activities for composition students and alumni from three partner universities (Cologne, Thessaloniki, Den Haag) and interested amateurs. The program with the support of the European Union offers them the opportunity to work with professional composers, professors and the musicians of Ensemble Musikfabrik.

The work so far has been a unique experience for everybody. During phase 3 in Greece,  the composition students  Vladimir Guicheff Bogacz (Cologne), Petros Leivadas (Thessaloniki), Zesses Seglias (Thessaloniki) and Sara Zamboni (Den Haag) worked together with Ensemble Musikfabrik on their compositions and put up a great concert:

“After this experience, I got more and more motivation to pursue my composition research (…) the professional and human support I received from the ensemble has convinced me that this is how I should work, that I am on the good track, and I feel more mature in my decisions as a composer and even grown in the organization behind my own daily work schedule. I also realized I was ready for that and that it is possible that this is going to be my job.”
Sara Zamboni

“Having a first performance (and a private recording) is an important help in the process of correcting things and developing the piece (…) This is something new that Composer Collider Europe brings and in this sense, I feel lucky to have my piece performed already in the first concert.”
Zesses Seglias

“There are three main types of experience I can distinguish during these past phases of the Composer Collider Europe Project: Deeper human relations, an approach to a different society and increase of musical knowledge.”
Vladimir Guicheff Bogacz

“I am very much looking forward to continue this journey in the next years, to learn and to collaborate more with such amazing musicians and composers in such a wonderful environment.”
Petros Leivadas

You can read in more detail about the field reports on the CCE website here. We’re looking forward to phase 4 in April in Cologne with new compositions by Georgia Koumará (Cologne), Benjamin Grau (Cologne), Mihali Paleologou(Thessaloniki) and Julian Oliveira (Den Haag)!

For the first time in our workshop series “Composer Collider“, young composers were confronted with the task of writing for the Harry Partch instruments. Supported by the Adam Mickiewick institute three young Polish composers, Wojciech Błażejczyk, Szymon Stanislaw Strzelec and Kuba Krzewinski, had the chance of getting to know the beautiful and delicate instruments, develop their own approach to the Harry Partch sound cosmos and to work together with the conductor Christian Eggen and us, as a professional ensemble for contemporary music.

One result of the collective work was Kuba Krzewinskis piece Inside (2017).

The composer and sound installation artist has recently been working on performances, pieces and installations focussing on the sense of touch. In his piece developed during Composer Collider he was especially interested in „zooming into the point of time when two separate entities become so deeply united that they become one. The edges of bodies blur away, for an instant, they are inside one another.“Combining the Harry Partch instruments with sound objects he developed himself and calls “Ameublement de Musique”, he told us that the main challenge working with the Harry Partch instruments for him was „to enter the unique language of the Harry Partch ‘orchestra’ and try to learn it and speak it within a short amount of time.“ Inside can be described as a cosmos uniting the instruments of Harry Partch and Krzewinskis series of objects.

Concert – Ameublement de musique from Kuba Krzewiński on Vimeo.

 „Through colliding my objects / instruments with Partch’s chef-d’oeuvre, hidden qualities of both may be revealed.“

His favourite Partch instrument is the Marimba Eroica: “I see it as the most organic, physical instrument due to its uncanny low vibrations. There is no instrument like that throughout the traditional instrumentarium.“

Have a look below how you can help us to maintain the Harry Partch instruments and to give more composers the chance of getting to know and writing music for the Partch instrumentarium. We are grateful for any support!

Im Rahmen der Nachwuchsförderreihe Composer Collider werden Werke von Kompositionsstudierenden und – absolventen gemeinsam mit Ensemble Musikfabrik erarbeitet. In der Zusammenarbeit mit einem Profiensemble zeitgenössicher Musik und einem Dirigenten erhalten junge Komponisten so die Möglichkeit, ihre Kompositionsentwürfe zu erarbeiten und zu professionalisieren. Im Fokus steht hier die Beschäftigung mit der Spielpraxis der einzelnen Instrumente. Im intensiven Dialog mit den Musikern des Ensemble Musikfabrik können die Kompositionsstudierenden und – absolventen ihr kompositorisches Wissen erweitern – eine Erfahrung, die sie während ihrer gesamten künstlerischen Entwicklung begleiten kann.

In Video-Tutorials stellen die Musiker ausgewählte Spieltechniken ihrer Instrumente vor, die den Kompositionsstudierenden außerhalb der gemeinsamen Arbeitsphasen eine Hilfestellung bei der Erarbeitung ihrer Werke sein soll.