Spring/Summer 2007
Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab
September 2007 |
In April/May 2007 Van der Aa was a featured composer at the Tura New Music Festival in Perth, Australia. Among his works performed were the Here trilogy, Auburn, Just Before, Quadrivial and the film Passage. He also gave the keynote address on After Life.
On 1 June Deutsche Oper Berlin organised a lecture about Van der Aa's opera After Life, Passage and Wake were also performed.
Van der Aa took part in the Lincoln Center Theater Director's Lab, an intensive course in stage direction, in June 2007. Workshop leaders included Richard Eyre, Ron van Lieu and Michael Miller. Participants explored themes such as 'playwrights and actors' and 'the director as collaborative leader'.
World premiere of "Mask"
musikFabrik
May 2007 |
MusikFabrik and the ASKO Ensemble performed the European premieres of Mask, a new work for ensemble and soundtrack. The work was commissioned by Kunststiftung NRW, Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst and Casa da Música, Porto.
In Mask, musical layers are covered and revealed. Overtone 'masks' in the soundtrack transform the colour of the notes in the instrumental ensemble, shifting the sound texture. The musical layers within the ensemble and soundtrack overlap one another; sudden interruptions rip a hole in the texture, revealing previously concealed layers.
MusikFabrik gave a successful first performance at Broadcasting Hall in Cologne on Feb. 11. Additional performances of Mask included the Ars Musica Festival in Brussels (musikFabrik) and the Netherlands premiere (ASKO Ensemble). Future performances include
the Venice Biennale in October (musikFabrik) and the Portugese premiere (Remix ensemble) in June 2008.
- read more about Mask »
ABC Classic FM broadcast "Here"
WASO New Music Ensemble
August 2007 |
On Wednesday August 8th the Australian radio station ABC Classic FM will broadcast Here [in circles] and Here [to be found]. Recorded earlier this year in the Art Gallery of Western Australia during the TURA New Music Festival.
The broadcast starts at 8.00 pm; 'In Performance' with Simon Healy.
WASO New Music Ensemble. Merlyn Quaife, soprano. Brett Dean, conductor
(Australian Premiere performances)
- read more about the Here Trilogy »
"Imprint" CD release
CD cover 'about baroque'January 2007 | Michel van der Aa's virtuosic work Imprint, part of the Siemens Arts Program's project ‘About Baroque’, has been released on compact disc by Harmonia Mundi. The Freiburger Barokorchester, led by Gottfried von der Goltz, performed the compositions on this live recording made during the Holland Festival 2006.
Imprint takes Baroque articulation, stylistic conventions and virtuosity and develops them into full-blown modern Concerto Grosso. Monothematic material, maniacally repeated, becomes a virtuoso gesture. This material, introduced by the solo violin, spreads like wildfire through the rest of the orchestra, flung back and forth between instrumental groups.
"...a rhythmically taut, effective demonstration of collective virtuosity..."
— Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
- read more about Imprint »
World premiere of "After Life"
Roderick Williams
October 2006 |
Michel van der Aa's new opera After Life was successfully performed on 2 June as the opening feature of the Holland Festival 2006. The premiere in the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ was the first in a series of six sold-out performances. After Life, performed by an international cast and the Asko Ensemble conducted by Otto Tausk, was a co-production of De Nederlandse Opera and Holland Festival.
The innovative aspect of After Life is its use of film images and sampled soundtracks as an essential element of the score. Staging, film and music are seamlessly interwoven, intensifying Kore-Eda's moving libretto. In addition to composing the music, Van der Aa wrote and directed the film segments and is also stage director for the production.
Audiences and the international press were unanimously enthusiastic. The inclusion of filmed monologues as a crucial element garnered special praise, producing 'a theatrical unity of unparalleled success' (de Telegraaf).
Van der Aa has put together a whimsical collage of transparent layers, part documentary film, part philosophy, part feel-good fantasy narrative. [...] Van der Aa, stage director and mastermind as well as composer, pushes the boundaries of all of his media. This is the Gesamtkunst of the future. [***** FIVE STARS]
- Shirley Apthorp, Financial Times, 7 juni 2006
Van der Aa's skill at combining film and operatic action is breathtaking [...] Van der Aa has already established himself as the forerunner of a new generation of composers who thinks in video as well as in audio terms [...] After Life is a masterpiece.
- Erik Voermans, Het Parool, 3 juni 2006
The film, as well the opera, is characterised by a media-specific type of reflection, by subtle, intelligent irony [...] Michel van der Aa's music, especially After Life, is particularly impressive for not suppressing its emotional quality [...] Especially fascinating at the Amsterdam premiere was the seamless interlocking of all the expressive elements. For once, video footage was not used as a simple visual addition, but rather as a tantamount element of composition, along with the music and stage action.
Gerhard Rohde, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 07.06.2006
It's the meshing of that plot with the documentary elements that proves so teasingly effective [...] four interviewees are seen on video encountering the operatic characters, their touching stories seem to infuse the fantasy with something much more directly emotional. [...] Van der Aa's ensemble writing is dominated by richly detailed string textures and enriched by electronic transformations. Michel van der Aa is the hottest property in Dutch music at the moment.
- Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 8 June 2006
After Life is an enthralling piece of music theatre
- Frits van der Waa, de Volkskrant, 6 juni 2006
Van der Aa has created with After Life a spectacular new world of opera.
- Peter van der Lint, Trouw, 5 juni 2006
This is the way of 21st-century opera
- Jochem Valkenburg, NRC Handelsblad, 3 june 2006
- read more about After Life »
Michel van der Aa wins Paul Hindemith Prize 2006
Maaike Aarts in 'Memo' July 2006 | Michel van der Aa has been awarded the 2006 Paul Hindemith Prize. The Hindemith Prize, worth 20,000 euros, was awarded during a gala concert on 28 July 2006 at Reinbek Castle, near Hamburg. The programme, performed by Maaike Aarts (violin), Benjamin Kobler (piano) and Clare Gallagher (sound technique), included Van der Aa's Just Before and Memo.
The Paul Hindemith Prize, one of the most prestigious international prizes for composers of new music, has been awarded annually since 1990 by the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival with financial support from the Hindemith Foundation and the Rudolf and Erika Koch Foundation, Walter and Käthe Busche Foundation and Gerhard Trede Foundation.
- download press release (PDF, English)
- download press release (PDF, German)
"Second Self" at Melbourne festival
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
May 2006 | The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will perform Van der Aa's orchestral work Second Self as part of the commemoration of 400 years of bilateral relations between Australia and the Netherlands. The concert will take place on May 15 during the Metropolis Festival in Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre and will be conducted by Brett Dean.
Second Self was released on the Col Legno CD label. The piece was selected from the premieres featured at the Donaueschingen Musiktage 2004 and added to the festival's 2004 compilation CD.
- order CD via Col Legno website »
- read more about Second Self »
Musical portrait at Holland Festival
Michel van der Aa
May 2006 | The Holland Festival will feature composer Michel van der Aa in a two-week musical portrait, with four key works being performed in venues throughout Amsterdam. In addition to the world premiere of After Life, the ASKO/Schönberg Ensemble will perform the complete Here Trilogy in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw on June 6 and the chamber opera One returns to Amsterdam for its final performances after a successful eleven-country tour. Michel van der Aa's most recent work, Imprint, will receive its Netherlands premiere on June 3 in the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, performed by the renowned Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.
- download flyer of Van der Aa's work in the Holland Festival (PDF)
- visit the Holland Festival website »
Michel van der Aa wins Charlotte Köhler Prize
July 2005 | Michel van der Aa has been awarded one of the Charlotte Köhler Prizes 2005. The Charlotte Köhler Prize is an annual award granted by the Prins Bernhard Culture Funds to three artists in the field of theatre. Michel van der Aa received the prize in recognition of his directing work and for the interdisciplinary nature of his oeuvre. The prize, which includes a cash award of €20,000, was presented at the official awards ceremony on 28 June in the Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam.
download press release (Dutch) »
Michel van der Aa wins Siemens Grant
January
2005 | In February 2005 the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation announced that Michel van der Aa will receive one of the foundation’s Composer Grants. The prize, worth 30.000 euros, was presented at the official awards ceremony during the Münchner Kammerspielen on 3 June 2005. To mark the occasion, pianist Benjamin Kobler performed Just Before.
download press release (pdf, German) »
Siemens website »
Performances at the Netherlands Music Days
Joe Bendavid in PassageDecember
2004 | Two works of Michel van der Aa were performed during this years Netherlands Music Days.
On 10 December Second Self received its Dutch premiere in Utrecht from the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under Ed Spanjaard. Van der Aa's fascination with creating sonic doubles is at
the heart of this new work for
orchestra and soundtrack. Commissioned by the SWR and the FST, the score
was unveiled at the Donaueschingen Music Days on 15 October with the SWR
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Roland Kluttig. The
piece received great public and critical acclaim.
“sophisticated shadow plays"
— Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Perfect and emotionally balanced…emotion and superior technique exactly form the grandiose combination that rules in Van der Aa’s composing…virtuosic use of electronics…a work full of fantasy that always sounds apparent and striking but also always surprises."
— Telegraaf
“Fresh music that carefully balances the electronic and acoustically produced sounds "
— Trouw
That same evening the film Passage received its world premiere. Passage is a short film written and directed by Michel van der Aa. It is the final film Van der Aa made at the New York Film Academy during his film directing studies in 2002.“One of the highlights of the Netherlands Music Days"
— Volkskrant
read more about Second Self »
read more about Passage »
Matthijs Vermeulen Price for One
December
2004 | Michel van der Aa has received the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize 2004 for his chamber opera One. The prestigious Dutch composition prize, which amounts to EUR 7,500, is awarded every year for a significant new musical work.
One, composed in 2002 for soprano, video and sound track, was premiered on 12 January 2003 by Barbara Hannigan in the Amsterdam Frascati Theatre and has since been performed in various cities across the Netherlands and at festivals in Zagreb, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, Cracow, Oslo and Budapest. As in van der Aa’s other works, the subject matter is the confrontation with, and alienation of, one’s own existence. Projected images and electronic sounds add emphasis to the stage performance of the protagonist, while recorded tracks and live elements play against each other in virtuoso fashion. Five elderly women relate an elemental and existential incident in their lives. The protagonist of the opera turns out to have played a key role in each of the incidents. Gradually the nature of the relationship between her and the older women becomes apparent, while a moving portrait rises of a woman who has completely lost her own identity.
The Matthijs Vermeulen Prize was given to Michel van der Aa on 10 December 2004 in the Utrecht music centre ‘Vredenburg’. To mark the occasion, the violinist Maaike Aarts performed his composition Memo (2003) for violin and portable cassette player.
Michel van der Aa featured in TV program Vrije Geluiden
December
2004 | VPRO Television aired a one hour documentary about the
work of Michel van der Aa. The program includes excerpts of Memo,
Here [in circles], One and Passage in
performances by Maaike Aarts, the ASKO Ensemble and Barbara Hannigan. There
is a streaming video of the documentary on the Vrije Geluiden website.
visit the Vrije Geluiden website (Dutch) »
watch the episode (streaming video) »
Here Trilogy premiered at Berlin Festival
Barbara Hannigan,
photo Marco BorggreveOctober
2004 | Michel van der Aa travelled to Berlin last month for the
first complete performance of his Here trilogy,
a 60-minute cycle of works for soprano, chamber orchestra and soundtrack
built up between 2001 and 2003. The performers at the successful Berlin Festival
performance were soprano Barbara Hannigan and the combined forces of the
Asko Ensemble and Schoenberg Ensemble conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw. A further
complete performance is scheduled for Ars Musica in Brussels on 4 March conducted
by Etienne Siebens, while the constituent works in the Trilogy continue to
enjoy active independent lives.
The Here trilogy opens with Here [enclosed] for chamber orchestra and soundtrack, and a question is posed immediately by the presence on stage of a black plexiglass cabin the size of a telephone booth. This object is mirrored musically by a process of containment in which the soundtrack hems in the sounds of the orchestral instruments. The climax comes with the eventual disclosure of the cabin's contents, a female deus ex machina. The soprano assumes centre stage in Here [in circles], searching for identity as she records herself and the ensemble in real time. Her rewinding, fast forwarding, and playing back of the tape generates a tense feeling of cyclical imprisonment that is only partly relieved by her final schizophrenic duetting with herself on tape. In the closing work, Here [to be found], the orchestral music is absorbed into the soundtrack, and the soprano searches for points of connection with the 'real' and 'shadow' world surrounding her.
“Michel van der Aa writes music that is similar in its effect to photography...music as an art of time is detached from time itself, and sounds become snapshots of a process. Potential developments are immediately blocked by interruptions, flashbacks, unexpected repetitions. The doubling of music through an electronic shadow, through the particles which were recorded and played back as insertions into the live music, creates a kind of multiple exposure...the impression of the music is strong and emotionally draining."
— Berliner Zeitung
“Michel van der Aa translates his subject matter in a remarkable manner - separation, paralysis, isolation, fracture...he suggests with snapping noises, sudden breaks and unexpected flashbacks an unstable control of reality that increasingly shows signs of cracking."
— Der Tagesspiegel
read more about the Here Trilogy »
Michel van der Aa signs with Boosey & Hawkes
April
2004 | Michel van der Aa has signed a new exclusive publishing contract
with Boosey & Hawkes. All future works by Van der Aa will be published
by Boosey & Hawkes while his oeuvre prior to 2001 remains with Donemus
MGN.
download press release (pdf) »
read more about Boosey & Hawkes »
U.S. premiere of Oog in LA Philharmonic New Music series
April
2004 | Van der Aa: Oog for cello and soundtrack (U.S.
premiere). The Green Umbrella: "Solos Night", Los Angeles Philharmonic New
Music Group, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, California, Monday, November
3, 2003
Bruce Hodges (musicweb):
"Who would have imagined that an evening of moderately daunting contemporary
music would summon a crowd of what appeared to be some 1,200 people in the new
Walt Disney Concert Hall? A cynical companion suggested that since many of the
more easy-to-approach evenings were sold out, some people just wanted to see
the inside of the building. (No doubt this is true.) But if the audience were
composed primarily of just the curious, then the curious were a remarkably well-behaved
and attentive bunch during a concert that was perhaps not the easiest for new
music novices to assimilate.
I confess that only one work really grabbed me by the shirt collar: the opening
Oog, by Dutch composer Michel van der Aa, given a smashing performance by Peter
Stumpf. With the cello "in an almost masochistic fight with the tape," Stumpf
piled on many extended techniques (e.g., thumping the base of the instrument)
to produce a completely engaging dialogue with the electronic soundtrack. And
as in the Reich at the end of the evening, the electronics sounded terrific
in the room."
read full
review »
read more about Oog »
Memo, sneak preview
March
2004 | Memo, a brand new composition
for violin solo has just been completed. The violinist records herself/himself
with a small cassette recorder and ends up playing a intens duet with the
recorded material.
Memo is dedicated to violinist Maaike Aarts. The world premiere is March 2005 in the Brussels Ars Musica festival.
download audio preview (mp3, 3.1MB)
read more about Memo »
One performed in Berlin and Paris
November
2003 | The chamber opera One received
great public and critical acclaim after its performances on the Berliner
Festspiele and Festival d'Automne a Paris.
“Mastery of the deviation. With its absence of person psychology the piece spreads its aura over generations, since it reflects its secrets with the clarity of a mirror.”
— Der Tagespiegel, Sybill Mahlke, 12 Oct 2003
“It is also a true composition where all is determined starting from strict musical elements: rhythm, timbre and harmony. In service of a possible philosophical reflexion between Rimbaldism (I am another) and Buddhism.”
— Le Monde, Pierre Gervasoni, 20 Oct 2003