KLANG Copenhagen Avantgarde Music Festival (press photo)
The annual Klang festival is Denmark's largest festival for contemporary music, and the 10th anniversary is celebrated with a concert- and event programme announced to be bigger and more diverse than ever before.
Jexper Homen’s opera 'De mørkeblå lillakvinder i villakvartererne' will be premiered and performed 4 times at Klang Festival. The libretto is written by Jesper Lützhøft, and the story revolves around an erratic protagonist constantly causing disasters around her, while the music is as Holmen describes it: "...strictly homophonic and extreme."
Works by James Black appear in various unusual formats throughout the festival. One of them is a world premiere on a boat. The composer describes his new work 'POSY (a pageant)' as "a nice ritual with singing and dancing, sound baths, keyboards and a marching band..."
At the anniversary concert Athelas Sinfonietta and Esbjerg Ensemble join forces and on the programme for that concert are Li-Ying Wu's 'Ritornelle' and Rune Glerup's 'Piano Concerto'.
Li-Ying Wu is also featured in a concert presenting a collaboration between the renowned SWR Experimentalstudio and The Girl Choir of Frederiksberg Parish.
Ensemble Krumbuktus will premiere a new piece by Mette Nielsen, and the British pianist Rolf Hind will premiere a piece by Martin Stauning. Another and rather extensive piano premiere is that of Niels Rønsholdt's 'Archive of Emotions and Experiences' a dystopian epos set in a post apocalyptic future. The performance by Lenio Liatsou is stretched out over the course of two nights.
Last but not least the successful collaboration between Klang Festival and Edition·S continues in 2019 with workshops and a concert based on the series Educate·S - new music written for young music school students.
Find the full festival programme here.