into...

Compositional Approaches to Istanbul, Dubai, Johannesburg, and Pearl River Delta

11 Oct 2008
11 Oct 2009

The new music project by the Ensemble Modern and Siemens Arts Program is an attempt to musically fathom the essence of a city. More than half the world's population has lived in cities since 2006. Its promising allures have always set people in motion, whether their motives were the hope of satisfying longings, the quest for economic and/or social success, or the pursuit of personal happiness. At the same time, every city continually undergoes inner transformation. Though no city is ever the same today as it was yesterday, each nonetheless maintains its essential identity. But what actually constitutes a city's fundamental nature? What determines its "essence" - beyond familiar associations and connotations, beyond external appearances, beyond the geographic or climatic setting? "into…" is an artistic approach, an attempt to musically answer these questions.

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into Dubai © Siemens Arts Program -

To create these musical distillations of cities, sixteen contemporary composers from around the world agreed to participate in "into…". Beginning in February 2008, four groups of four composers will each spend a month in one of four megalopolises (Istanbul, Dubai, Johannesburg, and the Pearl River Delta), where the encounter with the city will inspire each composer to write an about twenty-minute composition for the Ensemble Modern. The four different attempts to give musical expression to the essence of each of these very different cities will premiere in October 2008. Each composition will be a "musical city opus".

World premieres

Istanbul:
October 11, 2008, Frankfurt, Alte Oper, Mozart Hall
Johannesburg:
March 7, 2009, Frankfurt, Alte Oper, Mozart Hall
Dubai:
Mai 27, 2009, Berlin, Konzerthaus, Werner-Otto-Hall
Pearl River Delta:
Berlin, 9. Oktober 2009, Konzerthaus, Major Hall

For moore information and a list of all the participating artists visit: www.siemensartsprogram.de