6 composition commissions for Soundscape East Asia

ensemble unitedberlin, Germany

Over the past few years a Far Eastern flavor has impacted Berlin’s tonal landscape thanks to professional musicians from China, Japan and Korea coming to Berlin and since then enriching the city’s music scene. The ensemble unitedberlin has been collaborating for a long while now with some of these musicians as soloists. Some of these soloists also went on to form the AsianArt Ensemble – in so doing realizing something here in Berlin that would be virtually inconceivable for them in their homelands: namely working together and learning from each other beyond national and cultural differences. Another ensemble, the Ensemble IIIZ+ (kayagûm, koto, guzheng and Korean percussion), has devoted itself to the performance of traditional and contemporary music for stringed instruments. 
At Festival Soundscape East Asia, which involves all three ensembles, ensemble unitedberlin wishes to explore and present tonal possibilities through new line-ups, both in Euro-Asian constellations and in tonal blends from Asia.
With the support of the Siemens Music Foundation the six composers Fang Man from China, Keiko Harada and Naoyuki Manabe from Japan, Il-Ryun Chung from Korea, Sandeep Bhagwati from India/Canada and Oliver Schneller from Germany were commissioned to write pieces that the ensembles will bring together on stage. All composers will be offered the chance to take part in workshops with the ensemble musicians beforehand so that the key features of the Asian instruments can be conveyed to them.

February 9, 2013
Villa Elisabeth, Berlin

Further Information:
www.unitedberlin.de