As a composer, I occasionally show a certain predilection for idiosyncratic combinations of instruments. This applies, for example, to my four-part duo cycle At the Forest Verge for guitar and marimba, which will be premiered on Wednesday, March 6, 7:30 pm, in a faculty concert at Ljubljana Academy of Music. Many thanks to percussionist Petra Vidmar and guitarist Izidor Erazem Grafenauer for staging my music in Slovenia for the first time!
Events
(En)chanting Child
Today my adorable daughter sang her first vocal solo in a christmas concert with the Berlin Girls Choir as she performed the song »Schläft ein Lied in allen Dingen« at Lindenkirche Berlin. Many thanks to Eleni Irakleous, Stelios Chatziktoris, and Sabine Wüsthoff for presenting such a beautiful and inspiring programme!
Berlin Medtner Festival
Thrilled to announce the first International Nikolai Medtner Festival medtner classics, taking place at various venues in Berlin during next week, October 29 to November 3, 2018. I am particularly honoured to contribute some introductory notes to the opening and closing concerts, and to appear as both performer and scholar in a lecture recital on Thursday, November 1, 6 pm, at Villa Oppenheim. I will be presenting my thoughts on Medtner’s Sonata-Elegy, Op. 11 No. 2, and also join a panel discussion to debate the composer’s Berlin period with acclaimed musicologists and historians. After that, I will share the stage with fabulous soprano Anna Hofmann for a performance of the rarely-heard Sonata-Vocalise, Op. 41 No. 1. Please refer to the International Medtner Society for the full programme and line-up. All events are free of charge, and everybody is cordially invited!
Fugues in Sonatas
I was lucky enough to receive a wild card for participation in the 18th annual conference of the German Society for Music Theory (GMTH), being held the following weekend at Bremen University of the Arts, and focusing on counterpoint as a central paradigm of music analysis and theoretical teaching. If you happen to be around, I’d be inexpressibly delighted to have your company for my paper presentation »Fugal Writing in Sonatas«, taking place on Saturday, 6 October, 4:30 pm, in room 1.01. I will discuss intersections of the fugue and sonata principles in the music of Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Myaskovsky, Szymanowski, and Hindemith.
A Little Song
Looking forward to the Berlin-Brandenburgian first performance of my composition »Lyric Diptych« for two female voices and piano, included in a fascinating recital programme presented by Anne-Sophie Balg, Caroline Seibt, and Marina Mitrovski of Trio 2achtundachtzig, on Sunday, 23 September, 5 pm, in the Protestant Church Kleinmachnow. Folk songs and adaptations are awaiting you, among them my rendering of Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach‘s »Ein kleines Lied«. The venue is just around the corner from Berlin. Catch a bus and drop by!