Organization

Music Biennale Zagreb

Singer

Soprano

Johanna Vargas

Susanne Leitz-Lorey

Mezzo-soprano

Truike van der Poel

Tenor

Martin Nagy

Baritone

Guillermo Anzorena

Bass

Andreas Fischer

Others

Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart

Balkan Affairs

Zagreb

Croatia

Public

Concert

Approved

Balkan Affairs: Concert Various

BALKAN AFFAIRS is a biennial project that aims to open space for the development of young composers from the region indicated by the title, encouraging them to exchange ideas and mutual understanding of their own cultural similarities, but also differences. Namely, the war that led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia, which by the way is the fundamental preoccupation of all compositions, together with the challenges of transition, created unequal conditions for composers living in different countries of the Balkan region. Although they were just at the beginning of their lives at the time when it took place, these six composers (as well as many others) who come from all over the Balkans - from Slovenia to the Republic of North Macedonia - are still deeply affected by its consequences today. In addition, it is difficult to emphasize enough how much the current situation with the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine contributed to the unfavorable parameters. This project therefore seeks to provide equal working conditions for all six composers, along the way wanting to encourage the reconnection of the region through a more contemporary, inclusive purgatory. Cooperation with the world-renowned European ensemble Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, also a co-producer of the project, will surely help them in this endeavor.

In view of the above, it is the composer's memories - whether they were just outlines or coherent stories - as well as a highly critical perception, freer precisely because of the lack of memory, conscious participation and implicit understanding of (pre)war events, that are key to the construction of their musical worlds. With the voice as a symbol of personality, resistance, weakness and strength, the composers will try to explore the consequences of war, sometimes in conjunction with electronics (live) and video projections, sometimes in the manner of electroacoustics, and sometimes completely without the use of electronics. Various performance techniques will be included: from traditional singing to hyperbolized breathing and screams.

The six performers of the ensemble Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart during the experiments in which the composers will also participate will try to get along with their multiple approaches and at the same time take into account their individual life experience, not only their compositional experience. Finally, reflections on the duality of war roles and events, refugees, violence, profiteering, inflation, statistics, power in the time of globalization and overall restless human history will reveal the voice through the text and its immanent expressiveness, devoid of the legality of language.

English

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