TICKET SALES START 26.08.2022 10:00
With Lichtbogen, Kaija Saariaho delivered one of the key works of the 1980s. In this programme you’ll hear her musical ‘aurora borealis‘ shimmering as it always has, but now in the company of two new, 21st-century answers to it by festival composer Daan Janssens and Serge Verstockt. Verstockt, along with ChampdAction, was an important champion of Saariaho’s music in Flanders, long before she became the celebrated opera composer she is today. In that sense, Verstockt’s Nymphéas digitales will be a look back at his own career, which has spanned four decades.
Program
Kaija Saariaho: Lichtbogen
Daan Janssens: (...sans rien dire...)
[break 30']
Serge Verstockt: Les Nymphéas digitales
Composers
Daan Janssens
Daan Janssens (1983) studied composition with Frank Nuyts, Godfried-Willem Raes and Filip Rathé at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent, where he has been teaching composition and orchestration himself since 2016. Throughout the years, he has worked with renowned national and international ensembles as well as soloists, and has built up an intense collaboration with LOD muziektheater. He is currently working on his third opera, Brodeck, after a novel by Philippe Claudel, again in collaboration with Fabrice Murgia and commissioned by LOD (2021-2023).
Website Daan Janssens
Kaija Saariaho
Kaija Saariaho (1952) is a prominent Finnish composer. Inspired by the spectralists, she developed her own method for creating harmonic structures, as well as detailed notation using harmonics and microtonality. First composing mainly for orchestra, Saariaho later also turned to opera, with outstanding success. Two features have marked her whole career: a close association with individual artists and a concern to use music as a crucial form of communication.
Website Kaija Saariaho
Serge Verstockt
Serge Verstockt (1957) is a strong advocate and proponent of computer-aided composition. He studied a.o. sound engineering, image and sound editing, and clarinet. At Joris Delaet’s SEM studio (Studio voor Experimentele Muziek) he came into contact with electronic sound manipulation. In 1988 he founded the ensemble Champ d'Action (now ChampdAction), which has since performed (and continues to perform) a great deal of contemporary Flemish music.
Website Serge Verstockt
Performers
ChampdAction
ChampdAction is an international development and production platform for innovative and idiosyncratic (experimental) music makers and sound artists active in Flanders. For development and creations, the platform enters local and international collaborations with ensembles, performers, scientists, technicians and artists from different art disciplines and cultures.
Website ChampdAction
HERMESensemble
HERMESensemble (BE) explores the borderlines of contemporary music and art. The ensemble realizes crossovers with early music, jazz, pop, non-Western music and electronic art. Productions transcend the traditional concert form through synergies with theatre, dance, visual arts, video, film and multimedia. Experiment and encounter are the starting points of each project.
Website HERMESensemble
Manhattan
Kolonel Begaultlaan 21
3000
Leuven
Parking
De Manhattan is gelegen aan de Vaart Leuven-Mechelen.
Met de auto: parking Vaartkom
Bus
De Manhattan is gelegen aan de Vaart Leuven-Mechelen.
Te voet: 20 min van het station
Met de fiets: fietssnelweg F8 en F3
Met het openbaar vervoer: met de buitenringbus 600 tot Engels plein
Not on time?
Late-comers will not be admitted to the concert.