Composition Commissions issued to Francisco Concha, Manuel Contreras and Miguel Farías

Ensamble Contemporaneo UC, Santiago, Chile

 

Combining New Music in Chile with international ideas about the music scene – is the goal pursued by Ensamble Contemporaneo UC (ECUC) already for 20 years now. Their new project is also dedicated to this goal. With the support of the EvS Music Foundation the ECUC is issuing composition commissions to three acclaimed young Chilean composers who are to channel their international experiences into the Chilean music scene. The composers are Francisco Concha (*1981), Manuel Contreras (*1977) and Miguel Farías (*1983).

Francisco Concha is planning a cycle of micro works for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano. His work consists of various monologs for each instrument. Each character tells their own story but the relationship between all instruments remains in the dark. No real interaction occurs between them. The work is based on the idea of isolation that is of great importance for the composer. Here Concha draws parallels to the individual in their relationship with society. He frequently picks up on these themes in his works. Manuel Contrera’s composition is related to the poetry trip and poem Amereida that already in its title links the discovery of America with Aeneas’s Latin epic. This is a collection of texts, commentaries, letters and drawings by the first American chroniclers. The material forms the basis for Contreras’ purely instrumental composition. Over the past few years Miguel Farías has explored in great depth the meaning of the human voice as a purely expressive musical instrument. The voice means sound and music but it also conveys semiotic and semantic signs that Farías uses in different locations and situations. In his new work Voz de Fuego he explores three aspects of the use of voice in the ritualistic field – in this case he is devoted to recorded voices of the Selk’nam, an indigenous people in Tierra del Fuego that lived there until the first half of the 20^th century.

 

November 2018
Festival MusicAhora, La Serena, Chile

December 2018
Teatro Regional del Bio Bio, Concepción, Chile

 

Further information:
ensamblecontemporaneouc.cl