Season 2015 | 16
MusicNOW Den Haag | 10 and 14 March
Richard Barrett - abglanzbeladen/auseinandergeschrieben (1992/96)
Alexandros Gkonis - The Bare Essentials (2016)
David Azaglo - Mereba (2016)
Paolo Griffin - Glasz (2016)
Richard Barrett - inward (1994/95)
Jesse Broekman - narrow, numerous II-VI (2016)
Aftab Darvishi - Shhh... (2016)
Celia Swart - Brooklyn Statue (2016)
John Zorn - Cat O'Nine Tails (1988)
In March 2015 Oerknal partnered with The Royal Conservatory of The Hague to present a series of composer readings for students of the composition department. In two days Oerknal workshopped twenty short pieces and began the process of forging a working relationship with the next generation of new music in The Hague. “MusicNOW Den Haag” presents five new pieces by five of the composers Oerknal worked with in the course of these readings: David Azaglo, Aftab Darvishi, Alexandros Gkonis, Paolo Griffin, and Celia Swart.
We supplement these pieces with a new work by Dutch composer Jesse Broekman – an incredibly unique creative voice who brings his diverse backgrounds in philosophy, technology, and music to bear in the creation of what he terms “musical geofiction” – as well as two selections from Richard Barrett's evening length work Opening of the Mouth: abglanzbeladen/auseinandergeschrieben (roughly translated "laden with splendor/written asunder") – a melodically and texturally rich percussion solo – and inward, a duet for flute and percussion. We end the concert with John Zorn's Cat O'Nine Tails, an outlandish string quartet that the composer describes as "Looney Tunes meets S&M".