American Immersion: Clemens Gadenstätter

In May 2015 the Talea Ensemble presents the third installment of its annual American Immersion series, this year featuring Austrian-born composer Clemens Gadenstätter. As in past years, the series offers American audiences an in-depth introduction to an important new voice in contemporary composition through chamber and large ensemble programs, in-concert discussions, and open rehearsals. Likewise, the musicians of the Talea Ensemble have the opportunity to work directly with the composer, learning firsthand his unique musical language and delving deeply into a world of new techniques and modes of expression. This year’s residency features the U.S. premiere of Gadenstätter’s bersten/platzen (Paramyth 4) for cello and piano and the JACK Quartet performing his haeuten (Paramyth 1) for string quartet. The project culminates in the world premiere of les derniers cris for ensemble, and the U.S. premieres of Semantical Investigations II and les cris des lumières, for ensemble and light.
On the subject of his Semantical Investigations, the composer writes:

For some time, I have been developing music from the sounds and acoustic events that accompany and define our everyday lives. I engage with the way our mode of listening is shaped by our experience and surroundings, and seek to create a music that deals transformatively with this contingency. At present I am working primarily with sound objects that can act as “signals” in the acoustic realm: from warning signals (sirens, etc.) and acoustic commands (an alarm clock going off, etc.) to social signals, indicators of specific, highly codified social situations (sound objects belonging to thematic complexes such as “church,” “nature,” etc.) and formalized gestures. The loaded nature of the way we hear such sounds demands compositional techniques that break through this codification of listening. Music should reveal the code, which thus remains in effect, but simultaneously negate it; it should change and dissolve the modes of perception that accompany the objects and the contexts in which they are embedded, and thus also transform their meaning into a different form and a different content through an altered way of listening.
– Clemens Gadenstätter
About the composer
Clemens Gadenstätter’s work revolves around the semantic aspects of sounds. Born in Zell am See, Austria in 1966, he studied composition with Erich Urbanner and Helmut Lachenmann and flute at the Music University in Vienna.
Gadenstätter has composed commissioned pieces for the Musikbiennale Berlin, the Südwestrundfunk Baden-Baden (Donaueschinger Musiktage 2001, 2005, 2012), Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart, Konzerthaus Berlin, Musik der Jahrhunderte – Stuttgart, Wien Modern, Austrian National Broadcaster ORF, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Recherche, the Salzburger Festival, and Ensemble Modern among others. He has collaborated with a host of orchestras such as RSO – Wien, SWR Orchestra Freiburg and Baden Baden, Hilversum Kamerorkest, RSB Berlin, Philharmonie de Luxemnburg; Ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, ASAMISIMASA – Oslo, L’Instant Donné Paris, Ensemble Recherche, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Ensemble Ascolta Stuttgart, Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart, Phase Contemporary Wien, Trio Accanto Freiburg; and soloists and conductors including Peter Eötvös, Peter Rundel, Arturo Tamayo, Beat Furrer, Pascal Rophe, Johannes Kalitzke, Ernst Kovacic, Marcus Weiss, and Florian Müller.
His interest lies not only in the sounds of new music, but more generally, all sounds that shape the human hearing experience: noises from everyday life, entertainment, music, and even sounds from advertisement or movies.
iNSIDE Out Chamber Music
Thursday, May 21, 2015 7:30 PM
Austrian Cultural Forum
11 East 52nd Street
New York, NY
FREE admission, Tickets at acfny.org
moved by (2014)
bersten/platzen (Paramyth 4) (2012) *US Premiere
haeuten (Paramyth 1) (2012)
*in-concert discussion with Clemens Gadenstätter
JACK Quartet
Yuki Numata Resnick, violin
Chris Gross, cello
Stephen Gosling, piano
Works For Ensemble
Thursday, May 28, 2015 8:00 PM
Bohemian National Hall
321 East 73rd St.
New York, NY
FREE admission, Tickets at acfny.org
les derniers cris: for ensemble (2015) *World Premiere
les cris des lumières: for ensemble and light (2014) *US Premiere
Semantical Investigations II: for 11 instruments (2008) *US Premiere
James Baker, conductor
Open Dress Rehearsal
Bohemian National Hall
321 East 73rd St.
New York, NY
May 28, 2015 2:00-6:00 PM
E-mail for Seat Reservations: talea@taleaensemble.org
Presented by the Austrian Cultural Forum
With the friendly support of: