Simon Steen-Andersen is in focus at the upcoming Festival Musica in Strasbourg: Five significant pieces performed by five different ensembles. Included in the programme is the new piece Walk the Walk which is premiered Sunday 13 September at Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin.
Photo: Étienne-Jules Marey, 1883
Walk the Walk is written for four performers, treadmills, objects, light and smoke and will be premiered by the Swiss percussion quartet Ensemble This | Ensemble That.
The starting point for the performance is the act of walking: One of the simplest actions that can take place on a theatre stage, but also inherently musical and inseparable from the notions of pulse, speed, rhythm, direction, synchronicity, and kinetic energy. Walking can define a space, carry semantics and expectations, and is not without reason a historically favourite theme of comedians on stage, film and TV, ranging from understatement to slapstick.
Inspired by the experimental settings and documentation of early movement researchers, Simon Steen-Andersen sets out to deconstruct the phenomenon of walking as theatrical and musical material in a virtuosic game of causality and stage mechanics.
Besides from the premiere in Berlin numerous performances of Walk the Walk are scheduled, including the Festival Musica in Strasbourg. Here the audience is treated to no less than five significant works by Simon Steen-Andersen.
Click here for a list of all scheduled performances of Walk the Walk.
*The premiere of Walk the Walk was first announced to be 10 September but postponed and now scheduled for 13 September.
Simon Steen-Andersen at Festival Musica Strasbourg
Simon Steen-Andersen: Run Time Error @opel
Performed by Ensemble Modern
18 September 20.30
Palais de la musique et des congrès - Hall Rhin, Strasbourg (FR)
Click to watch a video trailer
Simon Steen-Andersen: Piano Concerto
Performed by Basel Sinfonietta & Nicolas Hodges
19 September 20.30
Palais de la musique et des congrès - Hall Rhin, Strasbourg (FR)
Click to read the score
Simon Steen-Andersen: Inszenierte Nacht
Performed by Ensemble Ascolta
22 September 22.00
23 September 22.00
Théâtre National de Strasbourg (FR)
Click to watch a previous performance
Simon Steen-Andersen: Amid
Performed by Ensemble Intercontemporain
23 September 20.30
Cité de la musique et de la danse, Strasbourg (FR)
Click to read the score
Simon Steen-Andersen: Walk the Walk
Performed by Ensemble This | Ensemble That
2 October 20.30
3 October 18.30
Pôle Sud, Strasbourg (FR)