DARA's first review at The Wire Magazine, by Peter Margasak
DARA String Festival presents a wide variety of innovative multi-genre music for string instruments, ranging from early contemporary to experimental and freely improvised. DARA transcends genre boundaries, uniting highly renowned international artists from diverse musical backgrounds, in a series of encounters to inspire new thoughts and ideas towards the advancement of individual and collective artistic work. In the longer term DARA aims to present guest editions in collaboration
with different partners/curators internationally and expand into electroacoustic and staged multi-media concert performances.
The second edition of the festival presents the world premiers of Catherine Lamb / 'descensus trio', Frances Marie-Uitti / 'This' for solo cello, Lucy Railton / new work for solo cello and electronics and Biliana Voutchkova / 'Words I’d have never known' for string sextet, alongside improvisations by the artists and works by Carola Bauckholt, Jonathan Harvey, Alvin Lucier, Anna Korsun, Yannis Xenakis, Giacinto Scelsi, Sabine Vogel, Georg Katzer and Luigi Nono. The program this year includes electro-acoustic and site specific works.
You are warmly invited to DARA 2020!
with different partners/curators internationally and expand into electroacoustic and staged multi-media concert performances.
The second edition of the festival presents the world premiers of Catherine Lamb / 'descensus trio', Frances Marie-Uitti / 'This' for solo cello, Lucy Railton / new work for solo cello and electronics and Biliana Voutchkova / 'Words I’d have never known' for string sextet, alongside improvisations by the artists and works by Carola Bauckholt, Jonathan Harvey, Alvin Lucier, Anna Korsun, Yannis Xenakis, Giacinto Scelsi, Sabine Vogel, Georg Katzer and Luigi Nono. The program this year includes electro-acoustic and site specific works.
You are warmly invited to DARA 2020!
Artists
Akiko Ahrendt - violinist, composer-performer, improviser (Germany)
Catherine Lamb - composer, violist (USA / Germany)
Yodfat Miron - violist, performer (Israel / Germany)
Lucy Railton - cellist, composer, electronic musician (Great Britain / Germany)
Frances - Marie Uitti — cellist, composer, improvisor (USA / Holland)
Biliana Voutchkova - violinist, composer-performer, improviser (Bulgaria / Germany)
The festival is kindly supported by INM/Initiative Neue Musik Berlin
Program
August 22, 19:00 - 23:00
BIG ROOM
Georg Katzer Kette / Miron
Alvin Lucier Music for cello and one or more amplified vases / Railton
Duo improvisation / Uitti, Voutchkova (WP/UA)
Luigi Nono "Hay que Caminar" Soñando / Ahrendt, Voutchkova
Jonathan Harvey Curve with Plateau / Uitti
Anna Korsun Sottilissime / Miron, Railton, Voutchkova
SMALL ROOM
Iannis Xenakis Embellie / Miron
Sabine Vogel Amod episodes / Voutchkova
Electro-acoustic improvisation / Ahrendt (WP/UA)
Frances-Marie Uitti This / Uitti (WP/UA)
Duo improvisation / Ahrendt, Voutchkova (WP/UA)
Giacinto Scelsi Ygghur / Uitti
August 23, 19:00 - 23:00
BIG ROOM
Catherine Lamb descensus trio / Lamb, Railton, Voutchkova (WP/UA)
Carola Bauckholt Doppelbelichtung für Violine und Zuspiel / Ahrendt
Lucy Railton New work / Railton (WP/UA)
Biliana Voutchkova Words I’d have never known / Ahrendt, Lamb, Miron, Railton, Uitti, Voutchkova (WP/UA)
SMALL ROOM
Electro-acoustic improvisation / Ahrendt (WP/UA)
Iannis Xenakis Embellie / Miron
Frances-Marie Uitti This / Uitti (WP/UA)
Giacinto Scelsi Ygghur / Uitti
Solo Improvisation / Voutchkova (WP/UA)
Duo improvisation / Uitti, Voutchkova (WP/UA)
FB Event
https://www.facebook.com/events/1373550239702090/
Media partners
Digital in Berlin, INM/Filed Notes, TAZ Berlin
Collage and graphic design © Boriana Pandova
Flyer photos from top left © Karel Šuster, Cristina Marx, Camille Blake, Sabine Hilscher, Philip Frowein, Svetlana Selezneva
Festival photos © Cristina Marx
Artists biographies
Akiko Ahrendt
Akiko Ahrendt studied violin and new music in Berlin, Frankfurt and Budapest, since 2016 media arts at the KHM in Cologne. As a soloist and in ensembles she plays the violin mainly in an experimental, space-related or freely improvised way. She also uses her voice and electric/electronic extensions therefore. Akiko Ahrendt took part in the International Ensemble Modern Academy. She is a member of Contrechamps in Geneva, Ensemble Garage in Cologne and the Rundfunktanzorchester Ehrenfeld. She also performs in her own formations radikal translation, PRAESENZ, TONTRÆGER and the Trio „orange Gruppe“.
https://sabineakiko.net/
Catherine Lamb
The Berlin based Catherine Lamb is an internationally active composer and violist exploring the interaction of elemental tonality and their summation of shapes, the long introduction form, points of phenomenological expansions, and the architecture of the liminal. Catherine is the recipient of the Ernst von Siemens Composition Award 2020, Grant for Artists by the American Foundation for Contemporary Arts 2018, and a fellowship from Akademie Schloss Solitude 2016.
https://sacredrealism.org/catlamb/
Yodfat Miron
The violist and performance artist Yodfat Miron was born into an Israeli-Yemeni family of musicians. She was a multiple scholarship holder of the America Israel Foundation and played as solo viola in the West Eastern Divan Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim. After completing her instrumental studies in Tel Aviv and Berlin, she founded the Miron-Quartett in 2003. Since 2013 she has been a permanent member of the Berlin based Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, in the framework of which she was able to develop as a crossover artist between acting and instrumental performance. In 2016 she embodied Joseph Beuys in Tom Patchett's and Georg Nussbaumer's play “Jeder Hase ein Künstler. Eine Beuys Fabel”. In 2017 and 2018 she appeared as Theodor W. Adorno in Clara Gervais's melodrama „Über den Fetischcharakter in der Musik und die Regression des Hörens”. She recently acted and performed in the premiere of Ulrike Ruf's innovative concert production "Viola Solo" (Berlin, January 2020).
https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/de/berliner-festspiele/programm/bfs-kuenstler/bfs_kuenstler_detail_58658.html
Lucy Railton
Emerging from a long-term engagement with contemporary music the British, Berlin based musician Lucy Railton is active as both a performer in new music and improvisation, and writes her own music for cello, electronics and field recordings, releasing solo records on the labels Editions Mego/GRM and Modern Love, and in collaboration with Peter Zinovieff on PAN. She has been involved in countless projects over years, most recently on those lead by Rhodri Davies, Kit Downes, Blank Forms, Beatrice Dillon and Kali Malone and as a member of the Ever Present Orchestra, focusing specifically on the work of Alvin Lucier, Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva and the Harmonic Space Ensemble helmed by Berlin's Just Intonation composers. Originally from London, she established the 10 year long series Kammer Klang at Cafe Oto and co-founded the London Contemporary Music Festival in 2013. Residencies include EMS, Sweden and Dark Ecologies/Sonic Acts Norway and commissions by Somerset House, London and INA GRM, Paris.
http://lucyrailton.com/
Frances-Marie Uitti
Composer and cellist Frances-Marie Uitti is known for her performances of contemporary classical music, recently praised by the Guardian as "the world's most influential avant-garde cellist.” She is the dedicatee of close to 100 composers including Jonathan Harvey, Louis Andriessen, Giacinto Scelsi, György Kurtág, and has closely collaborated / recorded with Scelsi, Nono, Xenakis and Cage.
Frances has invented a radically extended technique using two bows simultaneously in one hand, being the first to transform the cello into a 4 part chordal instrument. She has also invented resonators, and designed electric instruments including her stringless "12 string" double bridged cello at CNMAT, University of California, Berkeley. Published by Contemporary Music Review, Cambridge University Press, Granta, and Arcana among others, she has given master classes for composers and string players worldwide (Yale, Stanford, Juilliard, and Harvard among many others) and teaches advanced students privately.
http://uitti.org/
Biliana Voutchkova
See the "About" page
Akiko Ahrendt
Akiko Ahrendt studied violin and new music in Berlin, Frankfurt and Budapest, since 2016 media arts at the KHM in Cologne. As a soloist and in ensembles she plays the violin mainly in an experimental, space-related or freely improvised way. She also uses her voice and electric/electronic extensions therefore. Akiko Ahrendt took part in the International Ensemble Modern Academy. She is a member of Contrechamps in Geneva, Ensemble Garage in Cologne and the Rundfunktanzorchester Ehrenfeld. She also performs in her own formations radikal translation, PRAESENZ, TONTRÆGER and the Trio „orange Gruppe“.
https://sabineakiko.net/
Catherine Lamb
The Berlin based Catherine Lamb is an internationally active composer and violist exploring the interaction of elemental tonality and their summation of shapes, the long introduction form, points of phenomenological expansions, and the architecture of the liminal. Catherine is the recipient of the Ernst von Siemens Composition Award 2020, Grant for Artists by the American Foundation for Contemporary Arts 2018, and a fellowship from Akademie Schloss Solitude 2016.
https://sacredrealism.org/catlamb/
Yodfat Miron
The violist and performance artist Yodfat Miron was born into an Israeli-Yemeni family of musicians. She was a multiple scholarship holder of the America Israel Foundation and played as solo viola in the West Eastern Divan Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim. After completing her instrumental studies in Tel Aviv and Berlin, she founded the Miron-Quartett in 2003. Since 2013 she has been a permanent member of the Berlin based Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, in the framework of which she was able to develop as a crossover artist between acting and instrumental performance. In 2016 she embodied Joseph Beuys in Tom Patchett's and Georg Nussbaumer's play “Jeder Hase ein Künstler. Eine Beuys Fabel”. In 2017 and 2018 she appeared as Theodor W. Adorno in Clara Gervais's melodrama „Über den Fetischcharakter in der Musik und die Regression des Hörens”. She recently acted and performed in the premiere of Ulrike Ruf's innovative concert production "Viola Solo" (Berlin, January 2020).
https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/de/berliner-festspiele/programm/bfs-kuenstler/bfs_kuenstler_detail_58658.html
Lucy Railton
Emerging from a long-term engagement with contemporary music the British, Berlin based musician Lucy Railton is active as both a performer in new music and improvisation, and writes her own music for cello, electronics and field recordings, releasing solo records on the labels Editions Mego/GRM and Modern Love, and in collaboration with Peter Zinovieff on PAN. She has been involved in countless projects over years, most recently on those lead by Rhodri Davies, Kit Downes, Blank Forms, Beatrice Dillon and Kali Malone and as a member of the Ever Present Orchestra, focusing specifically on the work of Alvin Lucier, Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva and the Harmonic Space Ensemble helmed by Berlin's Just Intonation composers. Originally from London, she established the 10 year long series Kammer Klang at Cafe Oto and co-founded the London Contemporary Music Festival in 2013. Residencies include EMS, Sweden and Dark Ecologies/Sonic Acts Norway and commissions by Somerset House, London and INA GRM, Paris.
http://lucyrailton.com/
Frances-Marie Uitti
Composer and cellist Frances-Marie Uitti is known for her performances of contemporary classical music, recently praised by the Guardian as "the world's most influential avant-garde cellist.” She is the dedicatee of close to 100 composers including Jonathan Harvey, Louis Andriessen, Giacinto Scelsi, György Kurtág, and has closely collaborated / recorded with Scelsi, Nono, Xenakis and Cage.
Frances has invented a radically extended technique using two bows simultaneously in one hand, being the first to transform the cello into a 4 part chordal instrument. She has also invented resonators, and designed electric instruments including her stringless "12 string" double bridged cello at CNMAT, University of California, Berkeley. Published by Contemporary Music Review, Cambridge University Press, Granta, and Arcana among others, she has given master classes for composers and string players worldwide (Yale, Stanford, Juilliard, and Harvard among many others) and teaches advanced students privately.
http://uitti.org/
Biliana Voutchkova
See the "About" page
COVID - 19 ALERT
In accordance with the COVID - 19 regulations DARA will present a new long length concert-installation format with limited audience attending at different time slots. The program will be repeated twice and will take place simultaneously in two different spaces. Starting times are at 19:00 and 21:00, but audience rotation can happen at any time. There will be a comfortable outdoor waiting area where drinks and small foods will be provided.
Stay well!
In accordance with the COVID - 19 regulations DARA will present a new long length concert-installation format with limited audience attending at different time slots. The program will be repeated twice and will take place simultaneously in two different spaces. Starting times are at 19:00 and 21:00, but audience rotation can happen at any time. There will be a comfortable outdoor waiting area where drinks and small foods will be provided.
Stay well!
