Isles & Rivers
OUTERNATIONAL
What does the art of music that embraces its multiple, hybrid influences in exile and diaspora sound like? How do we dissolve ideas of the familiar and the foreign through listening? How do concert programs reflect an open society in its polyphony? The program ‘Isles & Rivers’ winds its way musically along borders that are solidifying and dissolving. It tells the story of music as the eternal story of migration – and approaches the island as a real utopia… The audience is invited to leave and re-enter the river at different shores – at times the program is wildly turbulent, at others quiet.
The compositions of the ensemble soloists, who have grown together like a family for this project, revolve around the sea, driven by wandering rhythms and melodies: Sokratis Sinopoulos is one of Greece’s greatest lyra virtuosos, Keyvan and Bijan Chemirani have developed their own unique way of playing Persian percussion, which flows into their pieces. Yannis Kyriakides, who also performs on stage as a live electronic musician, dedicates his piece ‘Knowing Nothing’ to the philosopher Metrodorus of the island of Chios. The line-up put together for this program also presents another piece by Kyriakides: ‘The Island Remained Silent’. It is based on eight texts about a narrator’s first encounter with an island and tells of the Mediterranean as a space of refugee experience. The project has already thrilled audiences in Berlin, Hamburg, Greece and Luxembourg – and the journey continues!
Please note: This concert will be taking place in the Zentralwerk. Tickets can be bought at the box office. Only cash payment is possible.
Duration: ca. 1 h 30 min
Little Dialog
How does art music sound when it embraces hybrid influences in exile and diaspora? How do we dissolve notions of the familiar and the foreign through listening? Outer-national is a European concert series dedicated to trans-traditional music, bringing together musicians from diverse traditions. The concerts are based on artistic research into performance practice and contextualization. The goal is to create new spaces for outstanding artists beyond the mainstream. Each concert is accompanied by a digital feature series in VAN magazine.
Elisa Erkelenz is a freelance curator, dramaturge and author in the field of classical, contemporary and trans-traditional music. After years at Ensemble Resonanz as a dramaturge and deputy director, she founded the artistic research organisation Outernational in 2019, which is dedicated to transtraditional, contemporary music and its discourses in concerts and listening sessions in Berlin and Europe as well as in its own magazine (VAN Outernational). Together with violinist David-Maria Gramse, she curates and hosts the podcast “Des Pudels Kern”. As a freelance dramaturge and curator, she works for various theatres and festivals, from the Elbphilharmonie to the Donaueschinger Musiktage and Deutschlandfunk.
The composer and lutenist Andreas Arend combines historical and contemporary elements in his works. He regularly plays together with Nils Mönkemeyer and Veronika Skuplik, and also performs in ensembles such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. His most recent collaboration was “Ballads within a dream” (2020, DHM), a composed set of old English folk songs.
Violinist Rebecca Beyer is a founding member of the soloist ensemble Kaleidoskop and also plays regularly with Ensemble Resonanz and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. She performs at renowned jazz festivals with her Piazzolla band Tangologia. Beyer is a prizewinner of the Ibolyka Gyarfas Competition in Berlin.
Patrick Sepec studied violoncello and baroque cello in Basel and viola da gamba in Weimar. He performs with leading ensembles of historical performance practice such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and Anima Eterna Brugge under conductors such as René Jacobs and Philippe Herreweghe. As a continuo cellist, he regularly plays with Ivor Bolton (including the Bavarian State Opera, Covent Garden, Teatro Real), since 2013 with Les Musiciens du Louvre (Marc Minkowski) and since 2017 with Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco (Cecilia Bartoli). He can be heard on several recordings with the ensemble Les Cornets Noirs, which received the International Classical Music Award in 2013.
Bijan Chemirani is a virtuoso on the zarb and tombak. In his work, he mixes musical traditions and cultures, with a particular affinity to traditional Iranian percussion music. He has worked with musicians such as Jean-Guihen Queyra and Sylvain Luc as well as Sting and Ross Daly. He also plays in groups such as Oneira and LPC Trio as well as with his father and brother in Trio Chemirani.
The musician Keyvan Chemirani plays a variety of percussion instruments and combines musical traditions ranging from early classical and baroque to contemporary music and jazz. He collaborates with artists such as Sylvain Luc and Didier Lockwood and plays in ensembles such as the Kudsi Erguner Ensemble, Ross Daly Ensemble and with his father and brother in the Trio Chemirani.
Violinist David-Maria Gramse plays on modern and historical instruments in various ensembles and chamber orchestras such as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble under Thomas Hengelbrock and the Parisian orchestra Le Cercle de l’Harmonie. Gramse has been a member of the Ensemble Resonanz in Hamburg since 2011.
Giorgi Kiknadze, born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1982 and living in Germany since 1991, began piano lessons at the age of 6 and later cello lessons, before studying jazz double bass at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre. During his studies, he gradually established himself in the Hamburg jazz scene, whether in well-known bands or his own projects.
The repertoire of the award-winning composer and sound artist Yannis Kyriakides includes numerous music theatre, audiovisual installations and instrumental works. In 2020, he received the Johan Wagenaar Prize for his complete works. He is the founder of the record label “Unsounds”, a member of the ensemble Maze and teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.
Sokratis Sinopoulos is a master of the lyre and his work crosses genre boundaries between jazz, classical music, Greek folk music and the soundscape of the Eastern Mediterranean. He has worked with numerous musicians such as Ross Daly, Eleni Karaindrou, Charles Lloyd and Jean Guihen Queyras. In 2010 he founded the Sokratis Sinopoulos Quartet.
Sokratis Sinopoulos: Lyre
Keyvan and Bijan Chemirani: Zarb
Saz Yannis Kyriakides: Live-Elektronics
David-Maria Gramse: Violin
Rebecca Beyer: Violin
Patrick Sepec: Cello
Giorgi Kiknadze: Double Bass
Andreas Arend: Theorbo
Elisa Erkelenz: Curation and Dramaturgy
In cooperation with the ZENTRALWERK e.V.
