Opening & Closing
Details on the artists of the opening and closing concerts of Classical:NEXT 2013.
Opening
The inaugural event, to be held on Wednesday, 29 May, will welcome the delegates with an excellent Austrian-flavoured musical evening. The venue will be the columned hall at MAK Vienna with its exceptional atmospherical location, perfect for enjoying the spectacle of the show and fostering new contacts directly after.
With:
Photo: Harald HoffmannDaniel Hope (UK/Austria)
keynote speaker
The innovative violinist Daniel Hope will hold a keynote at the Classical:NEXT opening event.
Photo: Benjamin SchmidBenjamin Schmid (Austria)
Benjamin Schmid: violin
Violinist Benjamin Schmid was born in Vienna and grew up in Salzburg. He has performed on many of the world’s major stages with renowned orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic and Concertgebouw Orchestra. Schmid combines an unusually broad range of classical repertoire and jazz improvisation. He is a professor of violin at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and gives masterclasses in Berne. He has recorded about 40 CDs, which have received various awards. At Classical:NEXT, Schmid will perform Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber’s Passacaglia in G minor for solo violin, plus a composition of his own inspired by Biber.
Photo: Moritz WustingerChorus Sine Nomine (Austria)
Johannes Hiemetsberger: director
Chorus Sine Nomine: a capella
Marie-Christiane Nishimwe: solo soprano
Founded in 1991 by Johannes Hiemetsberger, Chorus Sine Nomine ranks as one of Austria’s leading vocal ensembles. The choir has won prizes at many eminent choir competitions, issued several CDs, launched several unconventional a cappella concert projects and regularly commissions works from composers such as Wolfgang Sauseng and J Peter Koene. Chorus Sine Nomine has a wide-ranging repertoire and has collaborated with orchestras such as Camerata Salzburg, the Wiener Sinfoniker, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, L’Orfeo Barockorchester and Ensemble Sarband.
www.chorussinenomine.at
Danubia Saxophon Quartett (Austria)
Harald Müller: soprano saxophone
Alfred Reiter: alto saxophone
Barbara Schickbichler: tenor saxophone
Peter Girstmair: baritone saxophone
The Danubia Saxophon Quartett aims to find the perfect balance between the French school and the Viennese style, with a repertoire ranging from the earliest saxophone music to transcriptions of works from the classical, Romantic and Baroque periods. The four members of the group all play regularly with internationally renowned orchestras. The group has released with the Austrian label Pro Cultura. For Classical:NEXT 2013, the quartet will perform the world premiere of a special opening fanfare commissioned in association with the Austrian Composer Society, the International Society of Contemporary Music’s Austrian division and Music Austria.
Photo: Oliver Topfensemble Phace (Austria)
Ensemble Phace is one of Austria’s most innovative and versatile contemporary music ensembles. In addition to playing contemporary chamber music, the group has been involved with everything from music theatre productions to multidisciplinary projects and has commissioned and premiered more than 200 compositions. In 2010, the group launched Phace X, a series of projects that blur the boundaries between contemporary music, performance, electronics, and audiovisual installations. The ensemble has appeared at Wien Modern, the Salzburg Festival, the Berliner Festspiele and Ultraschall Berlin amongst others.
www.phace.at
Closing
On the afternoon of Saturday, 1 June, cello player Peter Gregson and Gabriel Prokofiev, the grandson of the illustrious Russian composer and founder of the independent record label “Nonclassical”, will bring Classical:NEXT to a close. The venue for this concert and some final networking will be the "Vortragssaal" at MAK.
Featuring:
Photo: Kevin Leightonnonclassical Presents: Cello multitracks
Peter Gregson: cello (live and recorded)
Gabriel Prokofiev: electronics
Gabriel Prokofiev , label founder and – just like his famous grandfather – composer, will bid farewell to the Classical:NEXT delegates with cello player Peter Gregson. They will present their collaborative project Cello Multitracks, a suite of movements that is full of contrasts and features overdubbed cello tracks on multiple speakers and one cello, played by Gregson, with Gabriel Prokofiev on electronics.
The closing event will focus on a theme running through our conference and showcase programme: the exploration of possible ways forward for classical music. With his compositions, Nonclassical club nights and record label releases, Gabriel Prokofiev is showing us the way down one potential path. While his club-compatible approach might seem at first glance to be simply a current trend, he is actually continuing the ancient tradition of mixing the popular with the ‘serious’.