#freesolo - Premiere programme

#freesolo - Redefining the solo concerto

with recompositions from
Bach to Bartok

The genre of the classical solo concerto stands like no other for the relationship between competition and collaboration, as well as the process of negotiating different styles of leadership. The #freesolo programme tells its very own story - both in terms of musical structure and expression - of the development from autocracy to competition and anarchy to collaboration. Musically, this is realised using various improvisation techniques from solo to group improvisation as well as recompositions of classical solo concertos such as Antonín Dvořák's Cello Concerto, Johann Sebastian Bach's Doppelkonzert, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante and Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra.

#freesolo

Production

Team

artistic director
Lorenz Blaumer

composer in residence
Noam Sivan

co-composer Stegreif
Alistair Duncan

director
Tristan Braun

light design
Arnaud Poumarat

scenography
Johanna Meyer

directors assistant
Sarah Lucey

project management #freesolo
Immanuel de Gilde

production management #freesolo
Anna von Gehren

Premiere

September 28th, 2024

Composer in Residence

As composer in residence, the composer, pianist and improviser Noam Sivan devotes himself to the influences of improvisation on the composition of #freesolo together with Stegreif Orchestra. Together they examine the influences of improvisation on the composition of #freesolo. Different musicians from the orchestra present a variety of solos and thus remain true to the impromptu approach of rethinking the musical heritage of classical music through contemporary forms, radical recompositions, without music sheets, without a conductor and in a performative spatial concept.

Noam Sivan

Composer, pianist, improviser, conductor and educator Noam Sivan is a leading pioneer in the revival of improvisation in the world of classical music. He is Professor of Piano Improvisation at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart, where he founded and directs the Improvisation Ensemble, and in October 2020 opened a Master's programme in Artistic Piano Improvisation, one of the first of its kind in the world.

Over 50 of his compositions have been performed in North America, Europe and Asia, including operas, oratorios, orchestral and chamber works, vocal music, ballet and dance scores as well as full-length multimedia shows. These have been presented at venues including Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, the New York Philharmonic Biennial Festival, the Salle Cortot in Paris and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Noam Sivan is the composer in residence for the Stegreif Orchestra's #freesolo project in 2023/2024.

About the project series #freesolo

#freesolo deals with these forms of social coexistence and asks the question of how these guidelines are implemented in music today. In the field of tension between autocracy and democracy, the balance between action and reaction, between loud demands and careful listening is considered. To this end, Stegreif questions the solo concerto and the classical orchestral system regarding its contrasting forms of leadership. Here, improvisation takes a leading role and, through the development of individual solo to collaborative group improvisations, forms the musical means of this project. Therefore the solo concerto is tested for its suitability for improvisation.

Mehr Infos

Förder*innen

#freesolo ist die Abschlussproduktion eines zweijährigen Projekts, in dessen Rahmen an orchestralen Improvisationsformen und Techniken für Kollektive Kompositionsprozesse geforscht sowie neue Methoden der Vermittlung dieser Inhalte erprobt wurden. #freesolo wird im Rahmen des Programms Exzellente Orchesterlandschaft gefördert durch: Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien.

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