First Taiwanese electroacoustic harp showcase, Taipei National Concert Hall, April 2nd

來源：Harpblog

Intrigued by the poster above? Your Camac sleuths were kindly emailed a translation have cracked the language barrier to reveal an even more intriguing concert. On April 2nd, 2012, at 7:30 PM in the Taipei National Concert Hall, Isabelle Perrin, Shannon Cheih and friends will perform the following programme:

Bernard Andrès: Elégie pour la mort d'un berger (Harp/ Multimedia Photography)

Pierrick Houdy: Sonate

Chung-Kun Hung: Pensée (Harp Solo/ Interactive Multimedia)

Sergiu Natra: Cantosonate (World Premiere)

Shi-Wei Luo: Things Hoped For, Things Unseen (World Premiere - Solo Harp/ Electronic Music/ Interactive Multimedia)

Bernard Andrès: Parvis (Harp Duet /Dancer/ Multimedia)


INTERVAL


Maciej Malecki: Concertino in Old Style for Two Harps and Orchestra

Elzbieta Sikora: "South Shore": Concertino for Blue Harp and Orchestra

Multimedia Artists: Martin Jarmick, Yung-Ta Chang, Chien-Jung Chen

Choreographer: I-Shan WuDancer: Wan-Luen Yu

Stage Design: Mung-Chao Wang

Conductor: Li-Ping Cheng

and

the Chamber Philharmonic Taipei


After the concert, on April 4th, there will be a harp day organised together with the Taiwan Harp Association. There will be a masterclass with Isabelle, a harp exhibition, and Jakez will give a lecture about Camac harps and a jazz harp workshop. Jakez will also give an impromptu performance, with pop singer Paige Su.

Sikora's "South Shore" is the first concertino for blue harp and orchestra. It was jointly commissioned by Camac Harps and the Polish Harp Society, and the premiere took place as part of the second Katowice International Harp Festival, with Isabelle Perrin and the New Music Orchestra, conducted by Szymon Bywalec. The concertino's title refers to the shores of Lake Michigan: Sikora composed the work during a residency at the University of Chicago. Because the blue harp can be amplified, and the harp can thus simply become loud enough, the dialogue between the solo harp and the orchestra can at long last take place on a truly equal footing. The colourful play between harp and orchestra is particularly explored in the opening Allegretto, where Sikora lays out the entire work's musical material. The solo instrument begins with a short, two-note motif, which develops and builds up; similarly, the orchestra begins with some soft shadowy backing, that soon grows into a strong partner in the musical dialogue. The second movement, Lento Possibile, explores different ways of producing sounds on the solo blue harp, before the final, very rhythmic Vivo showcases the harp's virtuosity. Read more about the premiere in the Spring / Summer 2008 edition of Harpseasons.

A crucial benchmark for a new work is how often, or even whether, it is performed again. It can be especially tricky to get a harp concerto re-performed because of the financial and logistical issues involved with an orchestra, and it is fantastic to witness "South Shore" passing the test. In fact, the Taipei concert will be its third performance: Isabelle also played it with the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jerzy Maksymiuk, at the Gdansk contemporary music festival in 2009.

What is particularly interesting about the upcoming concert in Taiwan is that it is a multimedia event, with video and photo displays. It is also a concert for human rights, organised in association with the Taiwan Human Rights Association and the Judicial Reform Foundation, and with "La vie sans frontières" as its theme.

Shannon Cheih, who recently organised the amazing harp marathon in Taipei Grand Central on Christmas Eve, has masterminded the whole event together with her company Pink Moon Music Theatre. "The idea to do a concert for human rights came first, it was something Isabelle and I discussed when she was giving masterclasses in Taipei last year. Isabelle proposed the Sikora Concertino, and to commission a new work by Sergiu Natra.
It happens to be the first time the electroacoustic harp is really being showcased in Taiwan, so I decided to involve technology in the whole concert. For example, the opening piece, Andrès's Elegie pour la mort d'un berger, will be accompanied by a big-screendisplay of photos by the distinguished Japanese-American human rights photographer Toshi Kazama.
There will be a second world premiere, by Taiwanese composer Shih-Wei Luo. He is currently studying in Seattle and collaborating with the interactive multimedia artist Martin Jarmick there. So they will create a performance improvisation together. We are also involving dancers, during Andrès's harp duet, Parvis. I love to work with artists from different disciplines, to get to know different ways of creativity."