Plug & Play multimedia concert performance as part of the Territory festival
The starting point of the Plug & Play multimedia performance concert is an attempt to answer the question of what music can be written today, at the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century. The transversal theme of the programme is an interdisciplinary quest, a work at the intersection of sound, visual and performative practices, bringing together works by authors from the Old and New Worlds, Russian and Western authors. The vector of movement is set by Alexander Schubert's F1 - the calling card of one of the main protagonists of the modern German music scene and the brightest representative of the generation of composers of the post-Internet art era. The dialogue of mediums continues in the Orbital by Dutchman Yannis Kyriakides – a work for instrumental ensemble and video, recorded by the author on the ring road in Amsterdam during Lockdown 2020 - and in A Cow in the Backyard by Elena Rykova (Russia, USA), for ensemble and multi-channel animation. The finale of the evening will feature last year's score by the laureate of the Aksenov Family Foundation's Russian Music 2.0 programme
ALEXANDER SHUBERT F1 (2016)
Each of the works by the leader of the new German musical wave, Alexander Schubert, is a carefully constructed mini-performance in which the composer-conceptualist simultaneously acts as director, scene designer and playwright, while the performers need to display remarkable acting skills.
F1 for instrumental ensemble, video and two performers Schubert begins with an ironic deconstruction of the ritual of an academic music concert to then immerse the audience in a shaky, dreamlike atmosphere reminiscent of David Lynch films.
YANNIS KYRIAKIDES, ORBITAL (2020)
A Greek Cypriot living in the Netherlands, Yannis Kyriakides is not only a composer but also a multimedia artist whose work has been featured twice, in 2011 and 2017, in the main project of the Venice Biennale. In one of his latest works, the meditative Orbital for video and ensemble, Kyriakides reflects on the radical slowdown in the usual rhythm of life that humanity faced last quarantined spring.
ELENA RYKOVA, MARIA KOROL, A COW IN THE BACKYARD (2020)
A graduate of the Moscow Conservatory and Harvard University, Elena Rykova consistently explores the theme of boundaries between sound, visual and plastic arts. Many of her works would look much more organic in museums and galleries than on a concert stage, and the play A Cow in the Backyard (2020) was even created in collaboration with the artist Maria Korol.
ALEXEY SYSOEV, DON`T WHISTLE, MASHA! (2020)
The performers wear virtual reality glasses, they are accompanied by an orchestra of electromechanical objects and motors, and the whole thing looks like a showcase rave party. Don't Whistle, Masha! - is more than just a musical piece: it is a performance piece, all the components of which - dance, light, video - are subordinated to a musical logic.
The future of music is not born in its mainstream, but in its frontier, marginal areas
MOSCOW CONTEMPORARY MUSIC ENSEMBLE
The Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble is an independent professional ensemble that unites leading Russian music experts in the field of contemporary performing arts. Created in 1990 by composer Yuri Kasparov with the direct participation of Russian avant-garde leader Edison Denisov, the MCME became the first Russian ensemble aimed at promoting music of the 20th and 21st centuries and supporting contemporary composers. On its account there are more than 1000 Russian and world premieres, projects in 85 cities of the Russian Federation and 30 countries.
