Compositons by Monthati Masebe, Marina Lukashevich, Shasha Chen, Feliz Anne Reyes Macahis, Du Yun
Compositions by Dilay Doğanay, Aida Shirazi, Bushra El-Turk, Mirela Ivičević, Brigitta Muntendorf
True to the theme ‘No excuses anymore I+II’, ten of the most exciting womxn composers of our time will conquer the programme with stimulating works on 8 and 9 June 2024. The concerts will be performed by Klangforum Wien in Radiokulturhaus.
Experience works by Monthati Masebe (composer, researcher and pioneer of non-binary representation from South Africa), Marina Lukashevich (composer and sound engineer from Belarus), Shasha Chen (composer, multimedia artist and performer from China), Feliz Anne Reyes Macahis (Philippine composer) as well as the New York-based Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun (composer, performer, activist from Shanghai, China.) Further highlights in the programme include Dilay Doğanay (composer from Izmir, Turkey), Aida Shirazi (Iranian composer and performer of (electro-)acoustic music), Bushra El-Turk (British-Lebanese composer for concert, theatre, film and live art performances), Mirela Ivičević (composer from Split, Croatia and co-founder of the Black Page Orchestra) and Brigitta Muntendorf (German-Austrian composer at the interface of analogue-digital forms of expression).
8 June, 7.30pm NO EXCUSES ANYMORE I Programme
Monthati Masebe
MERARO
Innovation and Tradition. Meeting as equals instead of a eurocentric viewpoint. South African indigenous sounds blend with electronic music in Monthati Masebe’s works. As a gender rights activist, Masebe uses her works to address patriarchal norms in her home and to question colonial hierarchies. In Meraro, she demands that the Western instruments adapt to the soundscape of indigenous bowstrings. Her music is described as uprooting, eerie and transcendental. With her orchestration of traditional African instruments and research into inclusive notations, Masebe opens up new perspectives of a decolonial music practice.Marina Lukashevich
LULLABY
Since the 2020 political crisis in Belarus, Marina Lukashevich’s works have been deeply entangled with documentary art. With Lullaby, she has designed a documentary sound installation for light and fourteen audio speakers. The body and the voice as a site of war are at the centre of the work.
Sha Sha Chen
401 BLOWS (UA)
The world premiere of 401 BLOWS lets composer, multi-media artist and performer ShaSha Chen address violence against girls and women that aims to smother disobedience vis-a-vis authorities. 401 blows structure the composition; objects of punishment and castigation, intimidation and traumatisation serve for sound resonance. The focus is the relationship between perpetrator and victim. To what extent does violence become an indelible part of their identity? How does violence connect and separate people? Is it even possible to overcome the experience of violence?Feliz Anne Reyes Macahis
TÍNIG
TíNIG (Voice) is a confrontation with human dignity and alienation. Setting out from Philippine epic song in the context of contemporary music, Feliz Anne Reyes Macahis has created a revision of her work for wind instruments, drums, accordion and strings.
Du Yun
WHERE WE LOST OUR SHADOWSWhere We Lost Our Shadows is a piece for orchestra, video and soloists that addresses human migration as a question of permanent movement and exodus that recurs over the course of history and passes on collective as well as individual traumas from generation to generation.
9 June, 7.30pm NO EXCUSES ANYMORE II Programme
Dilay Doğanay
LULLABY(E)The disastrous consequences of the most recent earthquake in Turkey touched a deep nerve even with those who were not directly affected by the disaster. The Ìzmir-born composer processes this fateful event in Lullaby(e) for drums, piano, accordion, violin, cello, double bass and tape. The title refers to a final lullaby in the face of the catastrophe as it is closing in.
Aida Shirazi
CRYSTALLINE TREES
Crystalline Trees is inspired by the poem Winter by Iranian poet Mehdi Akhavān-Sāless. In his poem, Akhavān uses winter as a metaphor to describe the dark and suppressive political climate in 1950s Iran. Crystalline Trees for flute, bass clarinet, drums, piano, violin, viola and cello responds to the final verses of Akhavān’s poem and reflects on the relationship between interior and exterior darkness.Bushra El-Turk
MURMURATIONS
The beauty of synchronicity and a high degree of inexorability are the basic theme of Murmurations. Gestures of Japanese rituals with their penetrative static harmonies and dynamics inspire the composition. The entire piece revolves around grace notes on the note of C, the melody of which is the core melody of a violin transcription of an Arab Taqsim (an Arab form of modal improvisation).Mirela Ivicevic
CASE BLACK
Mirela Ivicevic describes her music as Sonic Fiction; she sounds out the subversive potential of sound by placing tonal and media (side) products of daily life in a new context. Case Black for ensemble and electronics addresses the consequences of the Balkan wars. ‘To me, music is not fleeing from but interacting with the world. If need be, a battle. Even when I use sound to create a “new” world, its purpose is to address the real world in one way or another.’Brigitta Muntendorf
NEKROPOLIS
NEKROPOLIS addresses the question of origins and the end of physical existence. The piece is a chapter from the trans-digital musical theatre MELENCOLIA – a show against the complacency of the universe that was premiered at the Bregenzer Festspiele in 2022. In NEKROPOLIS, the live ensemble plays with the virtual Ney-anbān soloist Saeid Shanbehzadeh who is not physically present. A double bass solo for electric bass, musical saw and ensemble forms the beginning and end. The musical vision of a transcultural encounter is set out: the traditional Western pitch spaces, the pitch space of traditional Persian musical system Dastgāh and electronics combine to let a musical hybrid emerge.
Composers* Du Yun, Bushra El-Turk, Shasha Chen, Dilay Doğanay, Mirela Ivičević, Marina Lukashevich, Monthati Masebe, Brigitta Muntendorf, Feliz Anne Reyes Macahis, Aida Shirazi
Musical direction Katharina Wincor Ensemble Klangforum Wien Violin Annette Bik, Gunde Jäch-Micko, Sophie Schafleitner Viola Chihiro Ono Violoncello Leo Morello Contrabass Evan Hulbert Percussion Igor Gross, Alex Lipowski, Adam Weisman Flute Gregory Chalier (bass, piccolo), Marina Iglesias (piccolo, alto, bass) Bass clarinette Hugo Queirós Oboe Markus Deuter Saxophone (Alto) Gerald Preinfalk Bassoon, Contrabassoon James Aylward Horn Christoph Walder Trumpet Anders Nyqvist Trombone Ivo Nilsson (bass) Harp Tina Žerdin Piano Johannes Piirto (piano, synthesizer), Florian Müller E-Guitar Francesco Palmieri Accordeon Georgios Lolas Sampling Florian Müller Sound engineer Peter Böhm
Jury Jana Beckmann, Barbora Horáková Joly, Sofia Jernberg, Sophie Schafleitner, meLê yamomo (In case of a close relationship between a jury member and an applicant composer, the jury member abstained from voting.)
A project by Wiener Festwochen In Cooperation with Arnold Schönberg Center, ORF Radiokulturhaus, Ö1
Concept Jana Beckmann Project collaboration Michael Isenberg Event design summit Nora Refaeil