On 14th January 2016, the third edition of Ferus Festival started at National Sawdust in Williamsburg, NYC. The festival focuses on the most interesting phenomena in contemporary music, dance and interdisciplinary projects, and aims at providing an incubation period for new projects.
Agata Zubel, the talented Polish composer and singer, was described in superlatives by Courtenay Casey, Director for Artistic Planning for National Sawdust:
I am an opera singer myself and I have a skilled ear. When I heard Agata’s CD of a live record, I thought that the way she uses her voice in such a dynamic, incredible and deep way was unearthly. It immediately got my attention.
Casey added that this was also visible in Zubel’s New York performance in May last year. She was convinced that the vocalist can sing anything, and that her musicality as well as sound selection are ‘genius’.
Wrocław-born singer presented her own composition Between during the festival opening night. The composition consists of pre-recorded electronic music that incorporates sounds such as whispers, breaths and recitation, alongside a live performance by Zubel and cello accompaniment. The performance is enriched with choreography presented by three dancers and a light show.
Zubel describes Between as an opera-ballet. She adds that she uses abstract language in her composition:
It may seem that I say and sing some words, but they do not really mean anything. There is no libretto, but in the music and words there are emotions and an attempt to convey a message which is not really there. I wanted to write a piece for singing, but about nothing. Dance is after all also a language. A non-literary one. Dancers tell a story with their bodies, but we do not understand it 100%. We have to add to it ourselves.
According to the composer, music, whether it has text (like songs and vocal music) or not, it is predominantly a carrier of emotions.
Between is a composition for voice and six-track tape. The audience is surrounded by all-encompassing sound. Each loudspeaker plays something different. It creates a kind of spatiality, intensified by the dancers’ presence.
The Polish artist was pleased with how her composition had been received in New York. She pointed out that National Sawdust is a place where strange, difficult and marginalised art has found its temple.
The musician was accompanied by Jeffrey Zeigler, cellist known for performing with Kronos Quartet and winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize. The choreography was created by Ashley ‘Robi’ Robicheaux.
The New York Times complemented the Polish artist with the following words:
The 37-year-old Ms. Zubel has, in a relatively short career so far, become one of Europe’s most accomplished and internationally successful contemporary classical composers and vocalists... She has been commissioned to write pieces for global festivals and orchestras from Seattle to Tel Aviv.
The newspaper emphasised the fact that the combination of being a composer and a vocalist is a rarity in classical contemporary music.
Third edition of the Ferus Festival will last till 17th January 2016. Zubel’s concert was organised with the support of the Polish Cultural Institute in New York.
On 19th January 2016, thanks to the support of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute’s Polska Music programme, a Californian audience will get to hear Chapter 13, Zubel’s composition for soprano and chamber ensemble, inspired by The Little Prince. It will premiere during the Contemporary Poland concert organised as part of the prestigious Green Umbrella cycle at the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Source: PAP, compiled by PW, translated by OK, 15 Jan 2016