Artist in residence at Utrecht Early Music Festival

I’m very happy and honoured to be artist in residence at this year’s Utrecht Early Music Festival, one of the biggest and most renowned early music festivals in the world. This edition with the title “Let’s Talk!” will be all about rhetorics in music and arts, a very wide topic that has always interested me. It includes different kinds of analysis, the structure and dramaturgy of a composition, musical language and style, the means and surroundings of the composer, but also the way musicians interpret, “feel” and perform pieces from the past, and the way they present them to their audience. Also improvisation and creating things on the spot, one of the most important elements in music for me, can be seen as a part of the rhetorics theme.

I was offered to organise three concerts of my choice that could be connected to this very inspiring theme, which allowed me to show three different kinds of ensemble playing I like the most: being a soloist in front of a small orchestra, being the first violin of a consort (although I like to play middle voices too!!) and performing as a duo with a harpsichord.

Here’s an overview of my activities during the festival, all on various locations in Utrecht (The Netherlands):

29 august, 15h, with Ensemble Odyssee: Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos II, IV and the reconstructed violin concerto in d-minor after early versions of BWV 1052.

31 august, 11h, with Johannes Keller (harpsichord): an early 17th programme around Sweelinck, Byrd and Schop with diminutions, improvisations on songs and arrangements of harpsichord solo works.

2 september, 15h, with Ensemble Il Profondo: late 17th century virtuosic consort music by Weichlein and Biber with two violins, two altos, cello and organ.

28, 30, 31 august, 2, 4 september, 12h30: small performances of violin solo works (partly improvised) in the Let’s Talkshow hosted by Frits van Oostrom

4 september, 20h: a Schütz programme with Gli Angeli Genève (this concert is not a part of my residency).

1, 3 september: jury member of the International Van Wassenaar Concours, a chamber music competition.

For more information please visit the homepage of FOMU, or a more detailed overview of my activities.