MUSIC CURRENT 2024: Nadar Ensemble - Light Music

Nadar Ensemble, photo by Wim Heirbaut.

Nadar: Pieter Matthynssens, cello, artistic director; Elisa Medinilla, keyboard; Thomas Moore, trombone, conductor; Wannes Gonnissen, sound; Stefan Prins, artistic director; Veerle Vervoort, production; Robin Goossens, business manager

Nadar Ensemble (Belgium) return to Music Current Festival with a programme centred on light (and darkness). In Drie, Serge Verstockt switches off all visual stimuli to clear the path for primal instinctive listening. Through the lighting and blowing out of matches, a surprising and tactile sound sculpture emerges. Simon Steen-Andersen, with his arrangement of Schlummert ein from Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantata ‘Ich habe genuch‘, literally extinguishes the light and movingly depicts Bach’s ‘lullaby of eternal sleep’. In Light Music by Thierry De Mey (also known from Musique de table), a soloist connected to Wi-Fi sensors seems to ‘paint’ light and sound, as if conjuring sound from the darkness.

As part of Music Current 2024, the Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland is delighted to host a mixer with the exciting New Music ensemble Nadar. This informal event is an excellent opportunity for early-career composers and sound artists to meet the ensemble and find out more about the Nadar’s international summer school held biennially in Antwerp, Belgium. Find out more about this event.

Programme

Serge Verstockt - DRIE – first movement (for 1 conductor, 2 soloists, and 12–20 amateur players surrounding the audience) 12'
Simon Steen-Andersen - Schlummert Ein (for cello, trombone, and keyboard) 17'
Thierry De Mey - Light Music (for conductor and technician) 22'

Tickets

€16/14. Booking available via Music Current and Project Arts Centre, click here.