Performances between 2013 and 2014

The Music of Making Strange

20:00, Monday 14 January 2013
Cafe OTO (external link)
18-22 Ashwin St, Dalston
E8 3DL London
United Kingdom

Recent chamber music by Alex Hills much of which is an exploration of Viktor Shklovsky’s concept of Ostranenie, or art as “making strange”. Performers include Lucy Railton (external link), Aisha Orazbayeva, Serge Vuille, Roderick Chadwick and Natalie Raybould.

Off record

19:00, Sunday 17 February 2013
Berlin
Germany

Two new works derived from exact transcriptions of recordings.

Piano Transformed

Unerhörte Musik

20:30, Tuesday 19 February 2013
BKA Theater (external link)
Mehringdamm 34
Berlin
Germany

Four composers transform and extend the familiar piano sound in vastly different ways. Stefan Prins (external link) pits the instrument against its own virtual avatar while Newton Armstrong (external link) subtly expands its harmonies. Johannes Kriedler’s work uses audio and video playback as disruptive partners to the live performer, and Joanna Bailie (external link) creates new environments mediated by the piano.

Faust

The Well-Tempered Everyday: Vinterlydfestivalen

21:00, Friday 1 March 2013
Levinsalen, Norges musikkhøgskole (external link)
Slemdalsveien 11
0302 Oslo
Norway

Trond Reinholdtsen (external link) continues his ongoing project “The Norwegian Opra” with a work for Mark Knoop. Acknowledging the precedents of Marlowe, Goethe and Thomas Mann, Faust describes a Modernist-Faustian apocalypse leading to a decadent (but necessary) theatricalisation of the contemporary piano sonata. Only theory can help us now.

Changing the context

The Well-Tempered Everyday: Vinterlydfestivalen

16:00, Saturday 2 March 2013
Levinsalen, Norges musikkhøgskole (external link)
Slemdalsveien 11
0302 Oslo
Norway

Åpningskonsert

Borealis Festival

19:00, Wednesday 6 March 2013
Bir Avfallsenergi (external link)
Rådalen
Norway

Mark Knoop performs a Øyvind Torvund’s new work for harpsichord and electronics in the Borealis Festival (external link) opening concert.

Narayana’s Koeien

Letter Piece Company

15:00, Sunday 10 March 2013
Geel Cultural Centre
Geel
Belgium

The Letter Piece Company (external link) play an afternoon family concert at the Geel Cultural Centre.

New Propositions

Out Hear

20:00, Monday 18 March 2013
Kings Place Hall Two (external link)
90 York Way
N1 9AG London
United Kingdom

Plus Minus presents a concert of works tracing the ensemble’s unique range of interests — from alternative notions of music theatre through to the micro-investigation of sound and high-concept approaches to contemporary music-making. Two UK premières by Jennifer Walshe (external link) and Joanna Bailie (external link) sit alongside new pieces especially written for the group by Newton Armstrong (external link) and James Weeks (external link).

Faust

London Ear Festival

21:00, Saturday 23 March 2013
The Cello Factory
33-34 Cornwall Road
SE1 8JT London
United Kingdom

Trond Reinholdtsen (external link) continues his ongoing project “The Norwegian Opra” with a work for Mark Knoop. Acknowledging the precedents of Marlowe, Goethe and Thomas Mann, Faust describes a Modernist-Faustian apocalypse leading to a decadent (but necessary) theatricalisation of the contemporary piano sonata. Only theory can help us now.

brumaires

Leeds Contemporary Music Weekend

19:30, Saturday 20 April 2013
Clothworkers Centenary Hall (external link)
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT Leeds Yorkshire
United Kingdom

A programme of work for two pianos, percussion solo, and piano and percussion. Bartók’s major work is the main reference point for the concert, representing an interest in rethinking the percussive character of the piano by adding percussion to create an innovative sound world. Ferneyhough’s explosive work examines further ways of extending the sonata form to its expressive limits while Dillon (external link)’s idiosyncratic writing reflects his interests in a lyrical music derived from the piano resonances themselves. Zaldua (external link)’s work employs the full quartet to create highly colourful music performed as if by a singular instrument while Shlomowitz (external link)’ solo completes the large range of characters by examining the existential relationship between the performer and a hi-hat.

Ensemble: Ian Pace (external link), Mark Knoop, Nick Reed, Tenley Martin, Alistair Zaldua.

Songs about words

13:00, Monday 22 April 2013
Turner Sims (external link)
Salisbury Road
SO17 1BJ Southampton
United Kingdom

Renowned contemporary performers Juliet Fraser (external link) (soprano) and Mark Knoop (piano) present a programme of experimental song including works by Mauricio Kagel, Charles Ives, Laurence Crane, and the newly-commissioned cycle Songs about words and about the pleasure of misery by Matthew Shlomowitz (external link).

Songs about words

20:00, Thursday 25 April 2013
The Forge (external link)
3-7 Delancey St
NW1 7NL London
United Kingdom

Renowned contemporary performers Juliet Fraser (external link) (soprano) and Mark Knoop (piano) present a programme of experimental song including works by Mauricio Kagel, Charles Ives, Laurence Crane, and the newly-commissioned cycle Songs about words and about the pleasure of misery by Matthew Shlomowitz (external link).

brumaires

19:30, Saturday 27 April 2013
Great Hall, Goldsmiths University (external link)
Lewisham Way, New Cross
SE14 6NW London
United Kingdom

A programme of work for two pianos, percussion solo, and piano and percussion. Bartók’s major work is the main reference point for the concert, representing an interest in rethinking the percussive character of the piano by adding percussion to create an innovative sound world. Ferneyhough’s explosive work examines further ways of extending the sonata form to its expressive limits while Dillon (external link)’s idiosyncratic writing reflects his interests in a lyrical music derived from the piano resonances themselves. Zaldua (external link)’s work employs the full quartet to create highly colourful music performed as if by a singular instrument while Shlomowitz (external link)’ solo completes the large range of characters by examining the existential relationship between the performer and a hi-hat.

Ensemble: Ian Pace (external link), Mark Knoop, Nick Reed, Tenley Martin, Alistair Zaldua.

A to B

Plus-Minus at City

18:00, Tuesday 21 May 2013
Performance Space, City University (external link)
College Building, St John Street
EC1V 0HB London
United Kingdom

A concert exploring the possibilities created from interaction between live performance and digital technology. Steen­Andersen’s work turns a sonic microscope on the voice, amplifying and re-contextualising phonemes into musical phrases while Ablinger (external link) transcribes a the microvariations of a blank vinyl record for solo piano. Prins (external link) pits the live performer against a virtual avatar, blending the acoustic and digital together in a new reality. In Rodgers’ piece, a hands-on exploration of the sonic possibilities of percussion is captured and transformed by live sampling, the electronic processing enhancing and augmenting the live performance.

With Serge Vuille, percussion.

Please note 6:00pm start time!

Copies, casts, replicas

16:00, Friday 7 June 2013
Shaw Library (external link)
Old Building, London School of Economics
WC2A 2AE London
United Kingdom

As part of an LSE symposium discussing issues relating to copying and copyright, Mark Knoop presents a recital including recent works by Richard Beaudoin (external link).

Patterns

City Summer Sounds

19:00, Monday 24 June 2013
Performance Space, City University (external link)
College Building, St John Street
EC1V 0HB London
United Kingdom

Morton Feldman (external link)’s 1981 work Patterns in a Chromatic Field creates its own musical context, setting aside conceptions of rhythm and harmony to work instead with the raw materials of duration and pitch. Influenced by late Feldman, Georgia Rodgers’ new work for cello and electronics explores repetition as a means of achieving stillness, examining the interaction between sonic spaces.

With Séverine Ballon (external link), cello.

The Protagonists

Arnolfini

20:00, Friday 19 July 2013
Arnolfini (external link)
16 Narrow Quay
BS1 4QA Bristol
United Kingdom

As part of the opening weekend of Yorgos Sapountzis’s exhibition The Protagonists, Øyvind Torvund creates a work for diverse ensemble. For more information see the Arnolfini website (external link).

LCMF: New Complexity and Noise

London Contemporary Music Festival

19:30, Friday 2 August 2013
Bold Tendencies (external link)
Level 7, Multi Storey Car Park, 95a Rye Lane
SE15 9ST London
United Kingdom

LCMF2013 brings together music associated with the New Complexity school of composition and noise-based improvisation. Also featuring performances by Anthony Pateras, Steve Noble and Russell Haswell.

LCMF: Keyboard Breakdown

London Contemporary Music Festival

19:30, Sunday 4 August 2013
Bold Tendencies (external link)
Level 7, Multi Storey Car Park, 95a Rye Lane
SE15 9ST London
United Kingdom

As the final event of LCMF2013, Jane Chapman harpsichord, Leon Michener electric organ, and Mark Knoop piano, perform a condensed history of keyboard music from 1746–2012.

Harakiri

Plus-Minus Ensemble

TRANSIT Festival

16:00, Sunday 27 October 2013
Leuven STUK (external link)
Naamsestraat 96
B-3000 Leuven
Belgium

Plus-Minus Ensemble present Peter Ablinger (external link)’s settings of the voices of Jacques Brel, Forough Farrokzhad and Ilya Prigogine. New works by Guy De Bièvre (external link) and Bernhard Lang (external link) link with the ensemble’s experimental aesthetics. With his controversial Harakiri it seemed as if Nicolaus A. Huber was committing harakiri himself — since the very sparse composition didn’t satisfy the commissioning party, it was years before the piece had its premiere.

quasi a due

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

13:00, Wednesday 20 November 2013
Phipps Hall
University of Huddersfield, Queensgate
HD1 3DH Huddersfield Yorkshire
United Kingdom

Classic and recent experimental music for piano duet and two pianos, exploring activity and interactivity. Provoking, affecting, ignoring, subverting the norms of chamber music; actions unseen, but not unheard? Curiosity and surprise result from investigation — sounds the result of anomalous relationships.

Plus-Minus Ensemble

Kämmer Klang

20:00, Tuesday 26 November 2013
Cafe OTO (external link)
18-22 Ashwin St, Dalston
E8 3DL London
United Kingdom

Plus-Minus (external link) presents new works written for the the ensemble.

Environments

University of Huddersfield

19:30, Thursday 5 December 2013
St Paul’s Hall
Queensgate
HD1 2RD Huddersfield Yorkshire
United Kingdom

Mark Knoop presents music which challenges our conceptions of the listening environment.