here.here | Social Virtuosity with Eva-Maria Houben

ewaeckerle
Thu, 26 Jan 2023 16:44:24 +0000
Events, Latest News, Other, Artur Vidal, bookRoom, David Grundy, Dominic Lash, Emmanuelle Waeckerle, Eva-Maria Houben, here.here concert series, social virtuosity, UCA

Sunday 26th Feb 2023, at 7.30pm

Live from London IKLECTIK
Buy tickets here – £11.50 Advance / £13 OTD – Students Concs £7 adv. / £8 OTD

With Lara Agar (violin), Angharad Davies (violin), Isidora Edwards (cello), Finn Froome-Lewis (cello), Eva Maria Houben (piano), Dominic Lash (double bass), Hannah Marshall (cello), Artur Vidal (saxophone)

Programme
3 new works written by Eva-Maria Houben for Artur Vidal, Dominic Lash and their friends.

dreaming legends – for saxophone (2019) for Artur Vidal
loose ties – originally for saxophone and piano (2022) for Artur Vidal and friends
the green that is almost a yellow – for strings (2022) for Dominic Lash and friends

followed by a discussion led by David Grundy and Emmanuelle Waeckerlé

Social virtuosity, a term coined by legendary vocalist and founder of FIG (Feminist Improvising Group) Maggie Nicols to denote the capacity for effective interpersonal interaction through music making, is what we are focusing on for the three concerts of this 5th season curated by Emmanuelle Waeckerlé.

Our guest for this concert is composer, pianist and organist Eva-Maria Houben (DE) the author of Musical Practice as a Form of Life: How Making Music Can be Meaningful and Real (Music and Sound Culture, 2019) in which she dwells on a practice of music which is relational and social. We have chosen three new works of hers that have all been written for and addressed to two of her UK based friends – Artur Vidal and Dominic Lash. Three works that leave ample scope for personal interpretation and mutual agency between players, listeners, and the work.

dreaming legends – for saxophone (2019)
with Artur Vidal (saxophone)

“The score tells a certain story: “I had a dream – and I am still dreaming. we are all saints, living in the heaven on earth – full of awe, full of wonder; full of love, full of friendship.” – concluding with a quotation: “a dream you dream alone is only a dream, but a dream we dream together is reality.” (Yoko Ono). The saxophone becomes a voice, telling us that a solo piece can become a narration, an invitation, a scream, a laughter, a hug, a gentle gesture. In Musical Practice a solo player is never alone, opening up the performance space for the world and for everyday life.” (Eva-Maria Houben)

loose ties – originally for saxophone and piano (2022)
With Eva Maria Houben (piano), Artur Vidal (saxophone)

“The Musical Practice in this duo: both performers play for themselves, living in their own spaces, in their own times. They bring into being different forms of interaction – not a mere addition of two activities but a mutual interfusion. Maybe the piano sometimes gives shelter to the wind instrument, protecting the free unfolding of its sounds.” (Eva-Maria Houben)

the green that is almost a yellow – for strings (2022
With Lara Agar (violin), Angharad Davies (violin), Isidora Edwards (cello), Finn Froome-Lewis (cello), Dominic Lash (double bass), Hannah Marshall (cello)

For Erik Carlson, Greg Stuart, Matt Kline, Damon Smith, Dominic Lash, Max Maxelon, Koen Nutters, Johnny Chang, Jordan Dykstra, Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme Rodrigues, Eberhard Maldfeld, Laura Cetilia, Morgan Evans-Weiler – and other friends playing strings.
“Again, the score tells a story inviting to the Musical Practice of the piece: “a magician leads us on a path into silence, reminding us of the enchantment that nature throws over those who fall under its charms. a tune might arise whose magic consists in this, that it does not know anything and not tell anything. reflections and reverberations…” (Eva Maria Houben)

here.here social virtuosity with Eva-Maria Houben Press Release

Eva-Maria Houben also played at St James Garlickhythe (EC4V 2AF) on Friday 24th February 2023. All good things come in threes with EM Houben (organ), Huw Morgan (piano/organ), Artur Vidal (alto saxophone). (link)

If you want to find out more about Eva-Maria Houben and her musical practice

Together on the way, an interview by David Grundy for VAN magazine
The quiet life of Eva-Maria Houben’s music, a review of her commission for HCMF 2021
Interview with Eva-Maria Houben by Irene Kurke, neue music leben 2020

This is the 12th iteration of the here.here concerts series after after Concept ventriloquy | Cage, Ellis, Oliveros, Reage (May 2022), Space ventriloquy | Mike McEvoy, Plangency, Sea of Cables (March 2022), Seamus Cater & Alexander J. Ellis (February 2022), Parkinson Saunders (May 2021), Voice & Electronics with Sadd, Moore, Waeckerlé and Ziv (April 2021), Greg Caffrey (IE, March 2021), Marie Cécile Reber (CH, Feb 2020), Gildas Quartet (UK, Oct 2019), Marcus Kaiser (DE, May 2019), Stefan Thut (CH, April 2019), Jessica Aslan and Emma Lloyd (UK, March 2019).

here.here concert series
A collaboration between bookRoom and the Audio Research Cluster at UCA Farnham, led by Emmanuelle Waeckerlé and Harry Whalley, around their common research in extended, textual, visual, gestural and object scores and ways to integrate or experience technology in text / music / film / performances. The project is supported by UCA research fund.