Rebecca Dawson is the new director at Edition·S, and as such is enjoying getting to know the many composers we publish and represent. She was attracted to join Edition·S by the tangible aesthetic diversity within its catalogue, and also by the strong presence of sound art, which is an art form not traditionally associated with an art music publisher. Also, her (barely concealed) love of Denmark, its culture and its truly collaborative spirit meant that the chance to work at Edition·S was far too good to refuse!
Rebecca is also, of course, enjoying the very important task of getting to know the catalogue. Developing a deep understanding of the works, and what drives the composers and sound artists to create them, is a crucial part of being able to expose them to a wider, and international audience. She and her colleagues are doing this continually, not least thanks to a wide array of performances.
Here she tells us what she is most excited by over the next few months:
• Naturally, I'm really looking forward to the PULSAR Festival, with the very special guests Ensemble Intercontemporain and Bruno Mantovani. As well as performing a brand new work by Nicolai Worsaae, we will also hear EIC perform Simon Steen-Andersen's Praesens - only days after the announcement that he will be awarded the prestigious Carl Nielsen Prize! Anyone who has had the privilege of hearing EIC live, as I have at the BBC Proms, knows how thrilling this experience is: to play on the word "pulsar", it's really like witnessing an élite group of musicians who somehow share the same pulse, the same heartbeat. Definitely not to be missed!
• As part of the same festival, I'm also extremely curious to hear what has been billed as "low tech music" with works by Jexper Holmen and Lars Kynde, as well as a chamber concert including music by Kasper Rofelt and Martin Stauning.
• My international travel plans aren't yet fixed, but if I could clone myself and be in lots of different cities over the coming weeks, I would definitely want to visit Berlin and Luzern for the performances later this month of works by Simon Steen-Andersen (in Berlin he will be presented with his award by the Akademie der Künste), and then Dresden, Cologne and Paris for performances of works by Søren Hyldgaard, Steingrimur Rohloff, and Simon Steen-Andersen again. (NB: if you are lucky enough to be in one of these cities, do take a look at the dates on our performance calendar.)
• I definitely don't want to miss the event on May 4 at the Black Diamond, when, as part of the Danish Composers' Society's centenary celebrations, SCENATET will perform Burning by Niels Rønsholdt, and Run Time Error by Simon Steen-Andersen. Then, a few days later I will be taking the train up to Aarhus for the SPOR Festival, where I'm delighted to see that both the Aarhus Sinfonietta, and SCENATET again, will be performing more by Rønsholdt and Steen-Andersen, as well as Christian Winther Christensen's Six Preludes.
• Later in May, and back in Copenhagen, I can look forward to attending as much as I can of the Athelas New Music Festival, which looks like it will be very interesting indeed. (Somehow, I will also have to be in Vienna around the same dates, on Edition·S business, but I am certain I can go to Vienna fuelled by some excellent, original new music, thanks to our composers Christian Winther Christensen and Rune Glerup being artistic directors for Athelas...)