Inouk Demers (Kanada) Chambre, vue für Klavier und Film (UA) mit Filmemacherin Anna Geyer (U.S.A)
Shintaro Imai (Japan) Figure in Movement II für Klavier audio-visuelle Verarbeitungstechnik in Echtzeit(UA)
Oliver Schneller (Deutschland) Track & Field für Klavier und live-generiertes Video (UA)
Kotoka Suzuki (Japan/Kanada) Piano con moto für Klavier und Video (UA) mit Videokünstlerin Claudia Rohrmoser (Österreich) in Zusammenarbeit mit Rainer Kohlberger und Gerhard Daurer
  Heather O'Donnell (U.S.A.), Pianistin & Projektkonzeption

 

 

I. Idee

« Der Tag, an dem ein Komponist seine Gedanken in einer Schreibweise festhält, die dazu befähigt, den Klang und das Licht gleichermaßen zu notieren, wird uns näher an jene Vereinigung der Künste bringen, nach der wir seit jeher gestrebt haben… »

Vladimir Baranoff-Rossiné, 1925

 

Heather O'Donnell

 

Das Projekt Piano optophonique wendet sich einem Thema zu, das am Anfang des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts eine ganze Generation von Künstlern beschäftigt hat: die Suche nach einer Synthese der Sinneswahrnehmungen im künstlerischen Ausdruck durch Werke, die die Grenzen der jeweiligen Genres überwinden. Diese Suche wurde mit großem Idealismus und im festen Glauben an den Fortschritt der Künste betrieben und öffnete neue Möglichkeiten für transzendente und synästhetische Kunstkonzeptionen.

Alexander Scrijabin und Vladimir Baranoff-Rossiné wählten das Klavier als Instrument, um eine Synthese zwischen dem Hör- und Augensinn zu erreichen. Skrijabin sah für die Aufführung seines Promethée ein tastiera per luce, ein Farbenklavier, vor. Baranoff-Rossiné, Pionier der synästhetischen Bewegung, entwarf das piano optophonique. Hier wurde Licht durch eingefärbte, spiralförmig in sich kreisende Glasscheiben projeziert, die in farblicher und rhythmischer Bewegung die Musik in den visuellen Bereich hinein transponieren sollte. Mit ihrem spektrophonen Klavier wandten sich Zdenek Pesanek und Erwin Schulhoff dem Versuch zu, mit Hilfe des Films eine audio-visuelle Skulptur zu schaffen - eine Idee, die sich bis hin zu Christian Marclays Video Quartet (2002) und Pierre Huyghes Light Box (2002) verfolgen läßt.

Um neue Perspektiven einer Synthese von Klang und bewegtem Bild im digitalen Zeitalter aufzuspüren sollen vier Komponisten/Klangkünstler, eine Filmemacherin, und eine Videokünstlerin damit beauftragt werden, neue Werke zu schaffen, die jeweils das Klavier, die Interpretin (und die körperlichen und mechanischen Aktionen der Klangerzeugung) und das projezierte Bild miteinander in Verbindung setzen. Die einzige konzeptuelle Auflage bei diesem Projekt ist, die auditive und visuelle Ebene im Sinne von Baranoff-Rossiné von Anfang an bewußt als einheitliches Ganzes aufzufassen, anstatt sie als zwei voneinander unabhängige Domänen zu denken.

 

 

II. Projektbeschreibung

 

Inouk Demers/ Anna Geyer
Chambre, vue (2005/06) für Klavier und Film (UA)

"This is the investigation, detailed yet illusive, of a room. It is also a presentation whose subject and object are anonymous. The sounds form a surface, pointing to something just underneath, barely sensed. Visual images intertwined through the music suggest a fleeting presence, or perhaps absence, of the inhabitant - our pianist."
(Inouk Demers)

Assistant Set Designer      Tamara Zo Pollard
Assistant Director     Kathy McVey
Principal Characters     Christine Wilhelmy, Sandra Davis

Anna Geyer thanks:
Mrs. and Mr. Olmsted, for allowing us to shoot at the piano house,
Daniel Olmsted, Jim Austin, Eric Geyer, Aaron Ross, Tom Christopher

Inouk Demers thanks:
Matt Snyder, Sara Sumitani, Oliver Schneller.

 

Ausschnittes aus Anna Geyers Film
"ARADAPTOR (I Feel So)"

Technik:
Beamer
4 Mikrofone
4 Lautsprecher
Mac G5 Computer

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Shintaro Imai
Figure in Movement II (2006) für Klavier, audio-visuelle Verarbeitungstechnik in Echtzeit(UA)

Skizze aus "Figure in Movement II", Imai

"This piece was composed for piano and real-time audio/visual processing technique. During the piece, the motion of the performer's hands will be captured by a digital video camera and sent to the computer. The video signal will be processed in real-time in various ways (programmed with Max/MSP/Jitter software), then projected to a screen. Additionally, elements from the piano and piano-based live-electronic sounds (such as spectrum, amplitude, attack etc.) will be sampeled and then applied to the visual image processing parameters. Thus, two very different components of piano performance, namely the physical and gestural movement of the hands on the keyboard, and the resulting sounds of the piano, are « modulated » by one another on the screen.
This piece was realized at the Sonology Department of Kunitachi College of Music in Japan and at the Electronic Music Studio of TU Berlin, supported by DAAD Berlin."
(Shintaro Imai)

 

 

Technik:
2 Mikrofone
1 Beamer
1 Leinwand
2 Mac G5
1 Digitalkamera
5.1 Tonsystem

 

 

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Oliver Schneller
Track & Field (2006)
Audio-visuelle Komposition für Klavier, vier Lautsprecher, Accessories und Videoprojektion

 

"In this world, there are two times. There is mechanical time and there is body time. The first is as rigid and metallic as a massive pendulum of iron that swings back and forth. The second squirms and wriggles like a bluefish in a bay. The first is unyielding, predetermined. The second makes up its mind as it goes along. […] This is a stretch of nerve fibers: seemingly continuous from a distance but disjointed close up, with microscopic gaps between fibers. Nervous action flows through one segment of time, abruptly stops, pauses, leaps through vacuum, and resumes in the neighboring segment. […] So tiny are the disconnections in time that the gaps between segments are practically imperceptible. After each restart of time, the new world looks just like the old."
- Alan Lightman, EINSTEIN'S DREAMS (1993)

 


Skizze aus "Track & Field" für Piano optophonique-Projekt, Oliver Schneller

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Kotoka Suzuki/Claudia Rohrmoser/Rainer Kohlberger/Gerhard Daurer
Piano con moto (2006) für Klavier und Video

"In fünf kontinuierlichen "Movements" für Klavier, Elektronik und Video erhält die Pianistin Kontrolle über ein visuelles System. Daten aus einer Echtzeit Audioanalyse aktivieren einzelne Linien auf der großflächigen Videoprojektion.
Im Lauf des Stückes erhält die Pianistin einerseits improvisatorischen Freiraum, andererseits übernimmt zuweilen das Video die Rolle einer Partitur, indem chiffrierte Anweisungen für rhythmische und melodische Motive im Bild erscheinen. Das Klangspektrum des Instruments wird durch elektronische Bearbeitung und mechanische Preparierung einzelner Register erweitert. Im Video spannt sich ein ästhetischer Bogen von synthetisch generierter Echtzeitgrafik hin zu typischen Motiven traditioneller Filmanimation, indem das mimetische Verhalten der Linien durch das Potential digitaler Bewegungssimulation bereichert und mit Stoptrickaufnahmen von gemalten Farbkompositionen kombiniert wird."
(Claudia Rohrmoser, Kotoka Suzuki)

Mit freundlicher Unterstützung des DAAD Berlin und des.

Musik      Kotoka Suzuki
Video und Animation      Claudia Rohrmoser
Echtzeitgrafik      Rainer Kohlberger
Audio und Video Processing      Gerhard Daurer

 

 

Technik:
3 Mikrofone
1 oder 2 Beamer
1 oder 2 Mac G5
1 Digitalkamera (mit Monitor für die Pianistin)

von "Kreisen Project", Rohrmoser/Suzuki (2004)

 

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Uraufführung:

Ultraschall Festival (DeutschlandRadio), Berlin
25/26 Januar 2007

  


Mit freundlicher Unterstützung des   


und     



Studio für Elektronische Musik an der TU Berlin, Berliner Künstlerinnenprogramm

mehr kommt bald. . .

 

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Kontakt:

Heather O'Donnell

tel: ++49(0)30 243 77044
email: h_odonnell at yahoo dot com

 

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Bios

 

 

 

 



Inouk Demers is a Canadian composer and guitarist currently living in Los Angeles. His works have been played throughout Europe and North America; broadcast on Canadian and European radio; honoured at festivals (Ars Musica, Cervantino Festival, June in Buffalo, Domaine Forget, Darmstadt, Voix Nouvelles, Schloss Solitude); and recorded (Ummus/Amberola and Atma labels). Awards include first prize and the Serge Garant prize at Forum 96 (hosted by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne), several SOCAN prizes, and the Robert Fleming prize (1998) from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Recent events: In 2002 Charles Dutoit selects Chaque Note for performance by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. In 2004, publication of a contribution to the Transonic Forum in die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, and performance of Djenoun by Peter Veale and Jürgen Ruck at the Darmstadt Festival (Germany). In 2005, premiere of Universal Field, commissioned by the San Diego Symphony (USA), and of Contemporary Canadian Art by Toca Voca (Canada) The recording of Lo que vendra by the NEM on ATMA receives the Opus Award for best contemporary music recording of the year. Upcoming commissions with Heather O'Donnell (Germany) and Andrew Infanti (France).

His works have been played by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, Continuum Ensemble, Instant Donné (France), Cygnus Ensemble (USA), SurPlus Ensemble, 175 East, Toca Loca, Julie-Anne Derome, Louise Marcotte, Jürgen Ruck, Peter Veale, and the San Diego, Princeton, and Montreal Symphonies.

He has studied privately with Louis Andriessen, Paul Lanksy, and Roger Reynolds; in master classes with Brian Ferneyhough, Jonathan Harvey, Helmut Lachenmann, Richard Barrett, Steve Takasugi, and Chaya Czernowin.

Inouk's website

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Anna Geyer is an award winning experimental filmmaker and writer. Her films have screened in many festivals both domestically and internationally. Cameraless, non-representational work has been the emphasis of her recent efforts, although she frequently describes her work as, "experimental with a narrative bent". Her written work has appeared in Gargoyle, The Underwood Review, Wasted Space and Centipede. She is presently employed freelance at The Saul Zaentz Film Center, a post-production sound for film facility in Berkeley. She teaches at Solano College as well.

Her most recent film ARAPADAPTOR (I Feel So) screened at many festivals, toured extensively with the Mad Cat Women's Festival 2003 touring program and Kinetica 4 (through the IOTA center). It received awards as Best Experimental Film at the Utah Short Film and Video Festival, and an honorable mention at the Humboldt International Short Film Festival. To produce ARAPADAPTOR she applied her flashlight and laser, ala Man Ray to the caterpillars, cicadas and seeds found in Chinese medicinal herb tea. Much of the original footage was further manipulated - painted tinted and/or bleached.

At present Anna continues her experiments with this style of filmmaking. As source material she utilizes primarily springs, or spring-like scrap metal shavings generated by giant lathes.

Anna's website

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Shintaro Imai (1974) was born in Nagano, Japan. He studied composition and computer music with Takayuki Rai, Erik Oña and Cort Lippe at the Sonology Department of Kunitachi College of Music. After completing his post graduate study in Tokyo, he was invited to attend the Course of Composition and Computer Music at IRCAM (Paris) where he studied composition with Philippe Hurel. Between 2002 and 2003 he was the recipient of a grant from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs, and worked as a guest composer at ZKM Institute for Music and Acoustics in Karlsruhe, Germany. In 2004, he was artist-in-residence at the DAAD Berlin, and worked as a guest composer at the Electronic Music Studio TU Berlin.

As well as composing purely instrumental pieces, he has developed a real-time algorithmic sound-generating system by means of extended granular sampling techniques, which he called "Sound Creature". His music is related to the organization of microscopic movements of noise inherent in any given natural sound.

He was awarded a "Residence Prize" at the 26th International Electroacoustic Music Competition Bourges in 1999, and invited to be composer-in-residence at the Swiss Center for Computer Music in Zurich in December 2000. His awards include the First Prize and "Special Prize for Young Composer" at MUSICA NOVA 2000 International Electroacoustic Music Competition in the Czech Republic, and "EARPLAY Composers Prize" at EARPLAY 2001 Composers Competition in USA. His works have also been selected and performed at numerous international festivals and conferences including International Computer Music Conference 1999 in Beijing and ISCM World Music Days 2002 in Hong-Kong.

Shintaro's website

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Rainer Kohlberger was born 1982 in Linz, Austria. Currently he is finishing his MultiMediaArt-studies in Salzburg. He focuses on the collaborative implementation of interactive video works, installations, films and web projects.

Rainer's website

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American pianist Heather O'Donnell has been described as "a thoroughly excellent pianist that captivates with a strong charisma, differentiated touch cultivation, and rapturous musicality." (Neues Deutschland). The Village Voice wrote: "American expatriate pianist Heather O'Donnell gave as fiery a performance of Ives's Concord Sonata as I've ever heard." She has performed extensively throughout America and Europe with recent festival appearances at MaerzMusik Berlin, Festival Agora Paris, the Alternativa Festival Moscow, AmerKlavier Festival Chicago, Peterhof Festival St. Petersburg, Indaba Festival South Africa, the Chopin Festival New York, Eclat Festival Stuttgart, and Tanglewood Festival. She has given solo recitals in such diverse cities as Amman, Krakow, Abu Dhabi, Paris, Moscow, New York, and Berlin, and appeared as a soloist with the St. Petersburg State Symphony, the Romanian State Philharmonic in Ploiesti, the DalSegno Chamber Orchestra, and the Harvard Orchestra.

With a strong commitment to and admiration for contemporary music, Heather O'Donnell has collaborated with many composers, giving premieres of music by Luciano Berio, Walter Zimmermann, John Adams, Bernhard Lang, and James Tenney. She is the dedicatee of works by Michael Finnissy, Frederic Rzewski, Oliver Schneller, George Flynn, and Sidney Corbett, that she also premiered. She has been featured on Deutschland Radio, Radio France, and Deutsche Welle Television and given lectures and masterclasses at Columbia University and Mannes College of Music (New York), DePaul University (Chicago), New England Conservatory (Boston), and Rhodes University (South Africa). Heather O'Donnell was the first prize winner and the recipient of the Gaudeamus prize in the Fifth Krzysztof Penderecki International Competition in Krakow, Poland. CD projects for 2005 include new recordings on Mode Records and Wergo.

Heather O'Donnell was born in New York and began piano lessons at the age of five. Her most influential teachers were Stephen Drury and Peter Serkin. She also worked closely with Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen, Emanuel Ax, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. O'Donnell took several courses in Philosophy and Literature at the New School for Social Research and Columbia University, and was the teaching assistant of philosopher Paul Edwards at the New School.

Heather's website

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Claudia Rohrmoser was born in 1977 in Salzburg, Austria. She studied Multimedia Arts at FH Salzburg and Experimental Media Design at University of Arts Berlin. Rohrmoser lives and works as motion graphics designer and postproduction operator in Berlin; she teaches experimental animation and motion analysis at FH Salzburg. She works on documentaries, animation shorts and artistic projects in collaboration several artists, with concentration on the Visualisation of Music. Member of VJ collective Renegadez. Rohrmoser received the 30th Bourges International Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art Competition Prize-Multimedia, together with the Composer Kotoka Suzuki (2003, France). Her latest project is a documentary about Indigenes in Brazil.

Claudia's website

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Born in Cologne, Oliver Schneller (1966) studied history, political science, and musicology at the University of Bonn. From 1990-91 he worked for the Goethe Institute in Kathmandu, Nepal on a project to support and sustain indigenous music culture. In 1994 he moved to the USA, first studying composition at the New England Conservatory in Boston, then at Columbia University New York where he received his doctoral degree in 2002 as a student of Tristan Murail. At the City University of New York, he developed and expanded the CUNY Computer Music Studio. From 2000-01 he lived in Paris as a participant of the cursus annuel de composition et d'informatique at IRCAM/Centre Pompidou.

Oliver Schneller was recently awarded a fellowship at the Deutsche Akademie Villa Massimo in Rome for 2006-07. His music has been performed at international festivals including Festival Agora Paris, Musica Strasbourg, Maerzmusik Berlin, Tremplins Paris, Wintermusic Berlin, Alternativa Moscow, the International Computer Music Conferences(ICMC) in Singapore and Göteborg, Indaba South Africa, Tanglewood Music Festival, as well as at the "Frankfurt 2000" concerts of the Ensemble Modern and the "Millenium Stage Series" at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.

Also active as a saxophonist, Schneller played with ensembles such as the George Russell Big Band, the Gustav Mahler Youth Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, and with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra as a soloist in Tan Dun's Red Forcast. He's also worked with various jazz and improvisation ensembles in Cologne, Amsterdam, Boston and New York.

Oliver Schneller currently lives in Berlin where he teaches a seminar on "Acoustics and Psychoacoustics for Composers" at the University of the Arts (UdK). In 2004 he was the artistic director of the "Tracing Migrations" Festival, featuring the works of contemporary composers from Arab countries, as well as a project on Eastern and Western concepts of beauty involving composers Toshio Hosokawa and Helmut Lachenmann at Berlin's House of World Cultures. Future projects include a work for orchestra and electronics commissioned by the SWR and a new piece for the Ictus ensemble.

Oliver's website

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Kotoka Suzuki, was born in Japan and raised in Canada. She is a composer focusing on both multimedia and instrumental practices. She received a B.M. degree in composition from Indiana University (1994) and a D.M.A. degree in composition at Stanford University (1999), where she studied with Jonathan Harvey.

Her works have been featured internationally by performers such as Arditti String Quartet, Continuum, Ensemble Moderne (NEM), and Earplay Ensemble, at numerous festivals such as Tribune Canadienne MusMix , Bourges International Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art Festival (France), Made In Canada Festival of Canadian Music, Inventionen (Germany), Music at the Anthology (US), Ultraschall (Germany), Computer Music Days at SCM (Hong Kong), International Computer Music Conference (Cuba/Singapore), Pan Music Festival (Korea), and Pacific Music Festival (US).

Among the awards she received include 30th Bourges International Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art Competition Prize-Multimedia (France), DAAD Artist in Resident Berlin (Germany), Robert Flemming Prize from Canada Council for the Arts, Musica Nova International Electroacoustic Music Competition Honor Prize (Czech), and Gerald Oshita Fellowship Award from Djerassi Resident Artists Program. She has also received commissions from sources such as Sender Freies Berlin Radio (Germany), NEM, Continuum, DAAD, Music at the Anthology, and Technical University of Berlin Electronic Studio (Germany).

She is increasingly engaged in collaborative multimedia production works, where performance space is taken beyond a regular concert setting. Currently, she is producing her second collaborative work with Claudia Rohrmoser (DAAD and Technical University of Berlin commission) for interactive video and sound installation, in which participants can manipulate both sound and images in a three dimensional environment. She is an Assistant Professor of Composition at University of Chicago.

Kotoka's website





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