Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2014
l-r: Dr Philip Thomas, Reader in Music from the University of Huddersfield, pictured with American experimentalist Christian Wolff.
Mon, 17 Nov 2014 15:58:00 GMT
Commencing Friday November 21 to Sunday November 30
- 37 World Premieres and 79 UK Premieres in ten days
- Birthday tributes to Christian Wolff, Evan Parker, Arditti Quartet
- James Dillon is Composer in Residence
- Music theatre works by Salvatore Sciarrino, Simon Steen-Andersen and Christopher Fox
- Apartment House juxtaposes Brian Eno and Tom Phillips
- The Hepworth Wakefield becomes newest Festival venue
The 37th edition of Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (hcmf//) – one of Europe’s leading celebrations of new and experimental music – takes place from Friday November 21 to Sunday November 30. Audiences can hear 37 World Premieres and 79 UK Premieres in an immensely diverse programme taking in contemporary classical music, improvisation, electronica, multi-media and much more.
Highlights of the 2014 programme include birthday tributes to the prolific and highly individual American experimentalist Christian Wolff to mark his 80th birthday, to master saxophonist/improviser Evan Parker – irrepressible in his 70th year – and to the Arditti Quartet, who first appeared at the Festival in 1982, this year celebrating their 40th anniversary.
Internationally-acclaimed Scottish composer James Dillon (pictured left), who has created some of the most inventive and thrillingly expressive music of our time, is this year’s Composer in Residence. Dillon’s music is showcased in four concerts devoted entirely to his work (November 23, 29, 30), including two world premieres, and is performed by some of Britain’s leading ensembles – the London Sinfonietta, BBC Singers, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Arditti Quartet.
Music-theatre
Pictured: Composer Professor Liza Lim and conductor Karina Canellakis (left) courtesy of Andrew Lamberson for Wall Street Journal
There’s a particularly strong music-theatre strand running through the Festival programme in 2014, with a new production of Salvatore Sciarrino’s meditation on reality, madness and illusion, Lohengrin (November 21), a new chamber opera, Buenos Aires, by Danish composer Simon Steen-Andersen(November 23) and Christopher Fox’s Widerstehen (November 25), an opera for the composer’s resistance-fighter aunt Elisabeth von Thadden, who was executed by the Nazis.
Women composers feature strongly. Two programmes feature work by the fine UK-based Australian composer Liza Lim(November 23, 29), while seminal progressive rock group Henry Cow (November 22) reform to pay tribute to former member, composer and musician Lindsay Cooper who died in 2013. Bruce Brubaker’s solo piano programme Monk Music (November 28) distils the directness and purity of American experimentalist Meredith Monk.
Other notable performances include Apartment House’s new take on Brian Eno’s Another Green World, set against a work of melodic beauty by Eno’s former teacher, the eminent artist Tom Phillips (November 28). A complete performance of American experimentalist Michael Gordon’s hypnotic concert-length Timber (November 22) for multiple wooden Simantras – traditionally a Greek liturgical percussion instrument, but in effect a series of graduated wooden planks – offers the audience a unique and immersive aural experience.
Rising stars
New voices are the lifeblood of hcmf// and, for 2014, the Festival has commissioned important new works from Manchester-based composer Larry Goves(November 22) and rising stars Alexander Schubert from Germany (November 28) and Chilean guitarist and composer Pedro Álvarez(November 22) (pictured right).
hcmf// shorts continues to support professional development. On Free Monday (November 24) concerts featuring talented up-and-coming performers and composers alternate with performances from some of the finest musicians working in contemporary music today and run continuously throughout the day.
hcmf// will also showcase work by 12 of the freshest and most original composers emerging from higher education through the Sound and Music/NMC Recordings Next Wave programme (November 22), while Montreal-based Quatuor Bozzini celebrates the 10th edition of their unique Composer’s Kitchen project, presenting new string quartets by emerging composers from Canada and the UK (November 25, 26, 28).
New venues
This year audiences will be able to experience some of the Festival’s most experimental programmes in two new venues. On Sunday, November 23 hcmf// invades the various galleries of The Hepworth Wakefield as well as their new space, The Calder, for two afternoon happenings by edges ensemble and Evan Parker (pictured left) respectively, while Huddersfield’s latest arts space at Bates Mill, The Loft,comes into its own for Catalan sound artist Carlos Casas’ multi-media installation Avalanche which runs throughout the Festival.
Ensembles appearing at the 2014 Festival come from the four corners of Europe and beyond, including three Norwegian ensembles – BIT20, asamisimasa and Cikada Ensemble, and ensemble recherche – and Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart from Germany. Groups making their Festival debuts are Ostravská banda from the Czech Republic, CrossingLines from Catalonia and our own Aurora Orchestra. UK groups include regular Festival visitors the London Sinfonietta, BBC Singers, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestraand Huddersfield-basededges ensemble. The Festival also welcomes two specially-formed super-groups, Evan Parker’s collective of instrumentalists and improvisers, convened specifically for Twelve for Twelve Musicians, and the legendary musicians of Henry Cow/Music for Films/News From Babel/Oh Moscow, who have come together to pay tribute to composer Lindsay Cooper.
Learning and Participation
hcmf//’s Learning & Participation programme offers year-round accessible, creative and inspirational experiences to increasingly varied audiences and participants. Momentum, led by music and health practitioner Georgina Aasgaard, focuses on working with homeless people, refugees and asylum seekers in the Huddersfield area. On the Festival’s final morning (November 30), vocalist Supriya Nagarajan and sound artist Duncan Chapman lead a free creative workshop on sharing and learning about lullabies from across the world, entitled Halaradum Songs.
