The composers Tadeusz Wielecki, Jarosław Siwiński, Paweł Hendrich and Piotr Roemer will work with China Conservatory of Music’s Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra, discovering traditional Chinese music and instruments and exploring ways to incorporate them into their compositions. During their visit, they will also work with Conservatory lecturers and give master classes to the students.
The Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra, established by 11 musicians, has a penchant for establishing bridges between traditional music theory and modern innovation, between classical aesthetics and the more personality-based contemprary arts. They aim to balance tradition with the development of a national music in China.
Additionally, the Beijing Modern Music Festival takes place between the 18th and 24th of May, featuring works by composers Krzysztof Wołka and Tadeusz Wielecki.
Tadeusz Wielicki, Director of the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music since 1999, focuses as a double-bass player on his contemporary solo repertoire and has performed in Europe, Asia and the U.S. At the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid in April 2012, his new work A thread is woven …IV for double bass and ensemble received its first performance, with the composer as soloist.
Jarosław Siwinski, a graduate of the Music Academy in Warsaw who has participated in composer workshops (including those with Hanna Kulenty, Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki, Michael Nyman, Louis Andriessen and Tristan Murail), in music festivals (including ISCM World Music Days in Warsaw and Seoul, Warsaw Autumn and Musica Polonica Nova), concerts and happenings. He has worked closely with Viktor Lois and Yin Peet (Container Man project), Azorro Group, Frederick Rzewski, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Musiekgroup De Ereprijs.
Paweł Hendrich is a graduate of the Wrocław Academy of Music and the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. He was been included in the four-year programme in 2007 for 13 composers run by the European Krzysztof Penderecki Music Centre. In 2010 he became a member of the Academy of Young Scholars and Artists. His works have been performed at festivals including the Warsaw Autumn, Musica Polonica Nova and Musica Electronica Nova in Wrocław, Musica Viva in Munich, Audio Art in Cracow and Warsaw, Suså Festival in Næstved, Denmark, and at concerts in Poland, Germany, Austria and Slovakia.
Piotr Roemer, a violinist of the Con Passione Małopolska Chamber Orchestra and the youngest of the four composers graduated, with distinction from the Chopin Secondary School of Music in Kraków. He is the winner of the Call for Sounds Composition Competition (Warsaw Autumn 2009) and has presented his music at such festivals as the Warsaw Autumn International Contemporary Music Festival, the Audio Art Festival in Krakow, the Sound Screen Festival in Bydgoszcz, the 5th Wawel Royal Castle at Dusk Summer Music Festival in Krakow and the concerts of students of the Academy of Music in Krakow.
Established in 1964, the China Conservatory of Music teaches primarily, traditional Chinese music and traditional Chinese musical instruments. The Conservatory has exchange programs with music institutions in various areas and countries, including Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, the U.S., France and Germany. Each year, the Conservatory invites over ten scholars and musicians to give lectures and masterclasses, and regularly sends its own professors and students abroad to teach and perform.
Sources: press materials, China Conservatory of Music website
Author: MJ 09.05.2013