Progetto Positano 2021

Portraitkonzert Liisa Hirsch & Chris Swithinbank

Since 2017, ensemble mosaik has been running the Progetto Positano scholarship programme in cooperation with the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and the Wilhelm Kempff Cultural Foundation. Every year, two young composers are invited to live and work for a month at Casa Orfeo in Positano, Italy. In addition, ensemble mosaik presents the works of the scholarship holders at a portrait concert in Berlin.
In 2021, the Estonian composer Liisa Hirsch and the Luxembourgian-US-American composer Chris Swithinbank will receive the scholarship. The concert is a showcase of the work of these two very different voices. Hirsch's meticulous sound research meets Swithinbank's approach to collective compositional processes.

LIISA HIRSCH has written for orchestra, different ensembles and choir, she has also created music for theatre and film. The main characteristic of her music is sensitivity concerning timbre and focused attention to the sound, as well as purity of form and research-oriented approach towards composition. Microtonal reflection can also be observed in her work. Lately, she has been seeking to further the means of concentrated listening.
She has played keyboards, synthesizers and electronics in different collectives focused on free improvisation or indie music. Also she has sung in vocal ensemble Heinavanker, Tallinn Music High School Chamber Choir and Tallinn University Chamber Choir.

CHRIS SWITHINBANK says of his work: ”In my music I hope to open up doors to worlds that might otherwise not exist, drawing together material contexts for human performers that are resistant and require collaborative effort. I am interested in working with unstable and contingent situations that both demand response and afford freedom to those involved. For example, my string quartet union–seam asks performers to share an instrument, at times producing a single sound through communal action, staging an intimate responsiveness to one another and their instrument’s resonance.“

The Progetto Positano now looks back on four scholarship years, which have led to fruitful, steady and trusting collaborations between ensemble mosaik and extremely exciting young artists. So far, the following have received the scholarship: Wojtek Blecharz, Óscar Escudero, Andreas Eduardo Frank, Sara Glojnarić, Julia Mihály, Manuel Rodríguez Valenzuela, and Johan Svensson.

• Liisa Hirsch: »Glides-Negatif« für ensemble (2014/21)
• Liisa Hirsch: »Dynamics of Contact« für Streichtrio (2017/21)
• Liisa Hirsch: »Cloud Tones« für Viola und Klavier (2015/17)
• Liisa Hirsch: »Neues Werk« für Ensemble (2021, UA)
• Chris Swithinbank: »this line comes from the past« für zwölf Instrumente und Dirigent (2018)
• Chris Swithinbank: »union|haze« für Ensemble (2016)
• Chris Swithinbank: »Neues Werk« für Ensemble (2021, UA)

ensemble mosaik

Enno Poppe, Leitung
Bettina Junge, Flöte
Simon Strasser, Oboe
Christian Vogel, Klarinette
Martin Losert, Saxofon
Roland Neffe, Schlagzeug
Ernst Surberg, Klavier
Chatschatur Kanajan, Violine
Karen Lorenz, Viola
Niklas Seidl, Cello
Arne Vierck, Klangregie

Das Konzert stellt Liisa Hirschs akribische Klangforschung Chris Swithinbanks Ansatz kollektiver Kompositionsprozesse gegenüber. Beide sind 2021 Stipendiat*innen des Progetto Positano von ensemble mosaik und Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung.