Instruments | Ensemble Musikfabrik

Brass Academy – Closing Concert

Mareike — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 14:31:18 +0000

Closing concert of the Virtual Brass Academy with 3-minute world premieres by the selected composers

Rodolfo Valente (*1979) – palavratrovão #2 – for brass quartet
Gregor Kulla – I stand and watch – for brass quartet
Bo Huang (*2001) – Virtuality or Reality – for brass quartet
Krõõt-Kärt Kaev (*1992) – UNDULATION – for trombone solo
Njabulo Phungula (*1993) – Points – for horn and trumpet
Armin Cservenák (*1995) – SPLIT I –for brass quartet

Stephen Mulligan (*1988) – Panic – for brass quartet
Nilufar Habibian (*1991) – State 2 – for trumpet and tuba
Dea Ahma (*2003) – Grans – for brass quartet
Emre Sener (*2001) – PEAK – for brass quartet
Zampia Betty Mavropoulou (*1991) – In Between – for brass quartet

Marie Nečasová (*1997) – Fluff Pebble – for tuba solo
Yalda Jahangiri (*1999) – A Metamorphosing Creature! – for trumpet, trombone and tuba
Camila Agosto (*1995) – Light Leak 1 – for horn and trombone
Hsin-Hua Wang (*1991) – Everything Everywhere All At Once – for brass quartett
Hyo Eun Ahn (*1993) – Sonic Meditation – for horn, trombone and tuba
Cem Güven (*1997) – Fictional Germinations II – for brass quartet

Christine Chapman, horn
Marco Blaauw, trumpet
Stephen Menotti, trombone
Maxime Morel, tuba

Biographies

Rodolfo Valente

Rodolfo Valente is a Brazilian composer who combines musical tradition with the exploration of new sounds. Drama, beauty and expression always play a central role in his music.

Gregor Kulla

Gregor Kulla (born 2000) is a composer, performance artist, writer and model. They studied composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and focused on sustainable art at the EU School of Participation. Kulla was honoured as Tartu Noor Kultuurikandja 2020 and has been teaching at the University of Tartu Viljandi since 2021. Kulla’s work focuses on gender studies, feminism, minority cultures and Eastern philosophies.

Bo Huang

Bo Huang is a composer from Changsha, China. Her works are performed worldwide. She has collaborated with renowned ensembles such as Ensemble Modern and Ensemble Musikfabrik and is a participant of the Lucerne Festival and ManiFeste Academy. She is currently studying composition at the Eastman School of Music.

Krõõt-Kärt Kaev

Krõõt-Kärt Kaev (1992) is an Estonian composer who lives in Hamburg. She studied composition at the Tallinn Music High School, Georg Otsa Music School and the Estonian Academy of Music (Galina Grigorjeva). She obtained her bachelor’s degree in instrumental and electroacoustic composition at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. She is currently continuing her master’s degree at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz with Prof. Franck Bedrossian.

Njabulo Phungula

Njabulo Phungula is a composer from Durban, South Africa. He graduated from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he studied with Jürgen Bräuninger and later with Clare Loveday. His music explores complex forms inspired by the concepts of time, memory and the creative process itself.

Ármin Cservenák

Ármin Cservenák is a Hungarian composer and conductor. After studying in Budapest, he continued his training at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz with Beat Furrer, Bernhard Lang and Georg Friedrich Haas. He is a scholarship holder of the Akademie Musiktheater Heute and won 3rd prize and the audience prize at the 76th Concours de Genève in 2022.

Stephen Mulligan

Stephen Mulligan comes from Baltimore, Maryland (USA), and began his musical career by studying the violin before embarking on a career as a conductor. During the pandemic, he expanded his focus to composition and graduated with a degree from Jörg Widmann at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin.

Nilufar Habibian

Nilufar Habibian is an award-winning Iranian-British composer and kanun player. She holds a BA in Music from Royal Holloway, University of London, and a Masters in Composition from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Anton Bruckner University. In 2023 her work ‘Az Nahayate Tariki’ was nominated for the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Chamber-Scale Composition Award.

Dea Ahma

Dea Ahma was born in 2003 and comes from Gjakova, Kosovo. She is currently studying composition in the bachelor’s programme at the University of Prishtina ‘Hasan Prishtina’ in the class of Drinor Zymberi.

Emre Şener

Emre Şener (born 2001) is an award-winning Turkish composer and conductor. He is co-founder and conductor of the London Contemporary Soloists. Şener studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and graduated with highest honours. From autumn 2024 he will begin his master’s degree at the Juilliard School.

Zampia Betty Mavropoulou

Zampia Betty Mavropoulou is a Greek composer who lives in Hanover. She completed her diploma in classical guitar in Greece and is currently studying composition at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. She studies instrumental composition with Aaron Cassidy and Niklos Drelas and electronic composition with Joachim Heintz.

Marie Nečasová

Marie Nečasová lives in Prague, Czech Republic. She studied composition in Prague, Linz and Lyon and is continuing her studies in Vienna. She also studied music publishing, book graphics and early music. In her compositions, she pursues a ‘visual’ approach and combines sound textures with voices and melodies – watercolour abstractions with graphic lines.

Yalda Jahangiri

Yalda Jahangiri (born 1999) studied music at the University of Tehran. She discovered her passion for contemporary composition during her studies. She is currently studying composition with Maurizio Azzan in order to further develop her artistic voice.

Camila Agosto

Camila Agosto is an electroacoustic composer, interdisciplinary artist and educator based in New York City. Her work is inspired by concepts such as memory, perception and psychoacoustic experiences. In 2023, she received the Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin and is a Deutsche Bank Fellow in Music Composition. She is currently completing her doctoral studies at Columbia University.

Hsin-Hua Wang

Hsin-Hua Wang is an award-winning Taiwanese composer, pianist and author based in Los Angeles. She was nominated for Best Film Score at the 2023 New Jersey Web Fest and received the 2021 Special Achievement in Music for Animation award from The American Prize. She holds an MFA degree in Composition from CalArts and a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design from National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan.

Hyo Eun (Heather) Ahn

Hyo Eun (Heather) Ahn is a South Korean composer currently living in Baltimore. Ahn studies at the Peabody Institute with Oscar Bettison and Felipe Lara and has previously earned degrees from the Peabody Institute and Ewha Women’s University.

Cem Güven

Cem Güven (born 1997) is a Turkish composer from Istanbul. He graduated from the Juilliard School and the Royal Academy of Music and is currently studying for a doctorate at Columbia University on a scholarship. Güven is nominated for the Gaudeamus Award 2024 and has won numerous international prizes. His works have been performed by renowned orchestras and ensembles.

The Instrument Building | Harry Partch Project | Part 2

Redakteur 1 — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 13:47:08 +0000

Ensemble musikFabrik dedicates itself to one of the most original artists and musicians of the 20th century, American composer Harry Partch (1901-1974). As a ground-breaking precursor to further performances in Germany and Europe, Heiner Goebbels, Artistic Director of the Ruhrtriennale, will direct the European première of Partch’s late masterwork, “Delusion of the Fury – A Ritual of Dream and Delusion” (1965-66) at the 2013 Ruhrtriennale. It is on this occasion, that the entire ensemble of instruments will have been completely reconstructed and learned by the members of Ensemble musikFabrik.

Kamera & Schnitt | Valerij Lisac | www.klanghafen.de

Übersetzung | Richard Haynes

Eine Produktion der Ruhrtriennale in Koproduktion mit dem Ensemble musikFabrik, dem Holland Festival und dem Lincoln Center Festival.

Der Bau der Instrumente und deren Einstudierung für Harry Partchs “Delusion of the Fury” wurde gefördert durch die Kulturstiftung des Bundes und die Kunststiftung NRW.

Mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Rudolf Augstein Stiftung und des Vereins der Freunde und Förderer der Ruhrtriennale e.V.

The characteristics of doublebell instruments

Redakteur 1 — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 08:00:50 +0000

LTR: Bruce Collings, Christine Chapman, Melvyn Poore and Marco Blaauw

Ensemble musikFabrik is the only ensemble that owns a complete set of doublebell brass instruments. Marco Blaauw (trumpet), Christine Chapman (horn), Bruce Collings (trombone) and Melvyn Poore (tuba) illuminate the characteristics of these exceptional instruments in the following interview:

How did the conception of doublebell instruments come about? Who had the idea?

Bruce Collings: The doublebell was initially Marco’s idea and he has been trying to talk us into having doublebell instruments made for some time. With the exception of the plunger and in part the wawa mute, or harmon as it is sometimes called, it has never been possible to create really fast color changes. Through the desire to play these techniques the idea came of having a second bell.

Marco Blaauw: In my career as a soloist and ensemble player mainly performing contemporary music, I felt a strong need to enhance my trumpet. Somehow the trumpet

didn’t seem complete: new repertoire often uses quarter-tones and fast mute changes. Gradually I developed the idea of a trumpet that could do both easily: a quarter-tone, doublebell trumpet.

What tonal possibilities open up with a doublebell instrument?

Bruce Collings: Two separate bells allow fast changes between Almost any kind of mute and the open horn, or between two different mutes, with even a relatively seamless mixing and crossover of the two sounds.

Marco Blaauw: The 4th valve is for playing quarter-tones. In Combination with alternative fingerings on the other three valves, you can play even smaller microtonal steps. The 4th valve can also be used in a half-valve (hv) position. It makes the sound unstable, rather jazzy, fragile and soft, like a heavily muted trumpet.

Christine Chapman: One option that stands out on the horn from the other doublebell instruments’ color palette, is the “direct” horn sound when the second bell is swung towards the audience. Muted or open, the contrast between the traditional indirect sound and the sudden shift to a more brilliant, cutting color is wonderful.

Melvyn Poore: It is great to have the possibility of using a larger number of different mutes: the tubist normally works with one mute and that’s it. Now I can use a range of mutes in the second bell which is a bass trombone bell.

Are doublebell instruments widely spread and popular? What role has the Ensemble musikFabrik in this case?

Bruce Collings: In the beginning to the middle of the 20th century there were some doublebell instruments made. So far as I know, my doublebell trombone is the only one in the world which has the full range of the trombone on both bells. I could even stick another bell in the F valve and have three bells, although with certain range limitations.

Marco Blaauw: Many composers were inspired by the new possibilities. New repertoire has been written for my instrument: solo works, chamber music, works using electronics, and solos with ensemble and orchestra! Peter Eötvös was the first composer interested, even before the instrument was actually built. Christine Chapman: No, doublebelled brass instruments are not widely used and popular – yet! Marco has been running around with his trumpet for years now, so obviously everybody loves and wants the trumpet, but I’ve only had my horn since last fall, Melvyn’s euphonium is just a few months old and Bruce got his trombone in the mail maybe 3 1/2 weeks ago!

Christine Chapman | DOUBLE HORN, DOUBLE BELL: QUADRUPLE THE FUN!

Redakteur 1 — Tue, 22 May 2012 09:03:07 +0000

Für einen Workshop in Sachen “Doublebell horn” ist Christine Chapman zu Gast in der Instrumentenwerkstatt von Gottfried Büchel. Die Hornistin zeigt auf, welche meisterliche Feinarbeit und Genauigkeit geleistet werden muss, damit der spezifische Klang des Instruments seine Zuhörer begeistern kann.

CD-Stix, Kartoffelschneider und Telefonklavier…

Redakteur 1 — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:43:38 +0000

CD-Stix, Kartoffelschneider und Telefonklavier: hat das etwas mit Schlagzeug zu tun?
Ich zeige hier ein paar ungewohnte Spielweisen einer Pedalpauke.
Die Pauke ist für mich eins der vielseitigeren Fellinstrumente, ich kann, bedingt durch das Pedalsystem und die relativ grosse Ausschwingzeit, lang andauernde Klänge produzieren, die in ihrer Tonhöhe, Intensität, Klangfarbe, Obertonspektrum und Dynamik veränderbar sind. Die Pauke ist auch als Resonator für kleinere Instrumente verwendbar, die auf das Paukenfell aufgelegt werden. (Kartoffelschneider)

(Haar-)Bürsten statt Drumstix – Flummis statt Drumstix:

Redakteur 1 — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:52:58 +0000

Am Drumset bzw. auf Trommeln und anderen Schlaginstrumenten Klänge erzeugen, die nicht kurz und perkussiv sind. Durch die Wahl dieser Anschlagsmittel habe ich die Möglichkeit, Sounds in ihrem Verlauf zu modulieren und zu transformieren.

Ideengeber war u.a. der Komponist Sven-Ingo Koch, der in einigen seiner Kompositionen (bes. “Der Durchbohrte” für Drumset solo und Ensemble) das akustische Phänomen des “Knisterns” untersucht und bearbeitet hat. Für die Komposition “Tongue of the Invisible” von Liza Lim wiederum habe ich ein Set aus Trommeln zusammengestellt, das sich im Vergleich zu herkömmlichen Drumsets durch einen relativ langen Nachklang auszeichnet. Die Klänge können daher sehr homogen miteinander verschmelzen. Sie hören und sehen hier eine kurze Demonstrationen dieser Klangwelt.