DEAR AUDIENCE,
Welcome to KOMPFEST – a new festival for new chamber music! After two years of preparation, it’s time to present music so fresh it hasn’t even met an audience until now. 12 commissions – 12 premières!
How does new chamber music sound in 2015? What does it want to communicate? RANK, the Swedish Association of Promoters of Contemporary Music, wanted answers to these questions. We asked our member associations throughout Sweden, från Luleå in the north to Malmö in the south, for help: if you would commission a new piece of music by a Swedish composer, who would you choose? And which ensemble?
Chamber music has been part of the musical scene since the Middle Ages when small ensembles began performing in the homes of rich people. The composers explored new styles and forms, which have survived and become part of our cultural heritage. But music doesn’t stand still. The composers of today don’t write yesterday’s music. They use other methods of expressions, techniques and instruments.
At KOMPFEST, all the 12 commissioned pieces are performed by some of our most interesting musicians and ensembles. The scores do not always look like they did in the times of Bach and Beethoven. Sometimes the violin has been replaced by an electric guitar, a computer or an Indian harmonium. Instead of musicians on stage, there might be eight speakers or a super-8-projector. New chamber music – that’s how it sounds!
KOMPFEST has free admission. Every piece will be played twice, with a talk with the composer inbetween. Does it sound the same on a second hearing, or do you experience the music in a different way?
Together with Music i Syd and all the composers, musicians and promoters, we are lookinig forward to a unique and exciting festival.
See you at Palladium April 17-18!
Sven Rånlund, Managing Director, RANK
Peter Lyne, Chairman, RANK
Peter Wilgotsson, Manager Classical Music, Jazz, International Exchange, Musik i Syd