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Nancarrow In The 21st Century

 

Nancarrow In The 21st Century

International Conference


April 21st & 22nd, 2012

Southbank Centre / Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance

How To Register

Call For Papers & Deadlines

Call For Pieces

Conference/Festival Calendar


About the Conference

To mark the centenary of Conlon Nancarrow's birth, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is hosting a conference at London's Southbank Centre to coincide with Impossible Brilliance: The Music of Conlon Nancarrow a two-day festival. The theme of the conference is the exploration of contemporary practice and thinking in relation to Nancarrow's original ideas.

Keynote Speakers

  • Kyle Gann: composer, musicologist and writer (Bard College, USA)
  • Charles Amirkhanian:  composer and Executive Director of Other Minds (USA)

Plus presentations from

  • Dr. Felix Meyer: Director Paul Sacher Foundation (Switzerland)
  • Trimpin: sound artist, composer, sculptor (USA)

The conference and festival will take place in the presence of special guest Yoko Sugiura-Nancarrow.


About the Festival

Taking place in the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room, Impossible Brilliance: The Music of Conlon Nancarrow will feature performances by the London Sinfonietta and the Arditti Quartet, as well as the complete 'Studies for Player Piano' on an original Marshall and Wendell Ampico reproducing piano. 12 channel surround sound versions of some of Nancarrow's pieces, as well as other works composed especially for this event, will take place in the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The festival will also feature the installation 'Conloninpurple' by composer and sound artist Trimpin, which will perform works by Nancarrow and others.

The festival will be issuing a Call for Compositions. Further details will be announced on this webpage in due course.

Venue

The conference will take place at the Southbank's Level 5 Function Room and Purcell Room, in tandem with the festival.

Registration

Registration will be via this website from 6th January 2012, and will include an 'early-bird' registration fee that gives delegates full access to the conference as well as selected concerts from the Impossible Brilliance festival.

Conference Director and Festival Artistic Advisor

  • Dr Dominic Murcott (Head of Composition, Trinity Laban)

Committee

  • Dr Dominic Murcott (Trinity Laban)
  • Dr Jonathan Owen Clark (Head of Research, Trinity Laban)
  • Kyle Gann (Bard College USA)
  • Dr Felix Meyer (Paul Sacher Foundation Switzerland)
  • Prof. James Greeson (University of Arkansas)

Conference Partners

  • Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London

    Trinity Logo

  • Southbank Centre, London

    Southbank Logo

  • Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel
  • Institute of Musical Research, London
  • The Berthold Goldschmidt Lecture Series

 

  • Call For Papers

    We invite proposals for any of the following:

    • 20-minute oral presentations
    • 30-minute lecture recitals/performances in The Purcell Room (speakers will be fully responsible for musicians and set up time will be strictly limited). There will be access to an Ampico reproducing piano
    • Proposals for a suitable Panel Session

    Papers presenting new understandings of Nancarrow's work are welcomed. Topics may include (but are not limited to):

    • New aesthetic and/or compositional dimensions of Nancarrow's musical techniques
    • New thinking of Nancarrow's historical significance and its relation to contemporary arts practice
    • New compositional (and other) methodologies expanding on those initially explored by Nancarrow
    • Issues surrounding the performance of Nancarrow's works
    • The future of the tempo canon
    • Contemporary performance technologies and their relation to Nancarrow's ideas

    Deadlines

    Please submit proposals to the Conference Administrator, Dr Steve Gisby, at s.gisby@trinitylaban.ac.uk by Friday, December 16th 2011.

    Successful proposals will be confirmed by email by Friday 20th January.

  • Call for Pieces

    Conloninpurple

    The celebrated sound artist and kinetic sculptor known simply as Trimpin will be installing his room-sized installation dedicated to Nancarrow entitled Conloninpurple in the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The work is a five-octave MIDI controlled marimba, suspended in ten groups above the audiences head... Read More

    12 Speakers

    There will be a twelve-channel Genelec system arranged in a line in the Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer. This will play 12 channel versions of Nancarrow works plus new compositions. We are inviting composers to create pieces which will be played a number of times during the weekend. We would welcome pieces that combine this system and the Conloninpurple installation, which will be located next to it... Read More

    "Stings" for the London Sinfonietta

    On the evening of 21st April the London Sinfonietta will play a concert featuring Nancarrow chamber works plus new and existing arrangements of his Player Piano Studies. The first piece in the programme will be Study #21 or Canon X. This consists of a slow voice accelerating to "heroic" speeds plus a simultaneous fast voice decelerating. We are seeking 100 new miniature works or 'stings' inspired by Nancarrow that will be published on the internet as a metaphorical countdown to the concert. These stings will range from 30" to 1" in length, with the final cluster of them being played at the concert leading up to the first notes of #21.

    40 of these stings will be recorded by a quartet from the London Sinfonietta and we invite composers to send in one or more works to be considered... Read More

    Electronic "stings" using samples of Nancarrow's own player piano

    The 60 remaining "stings" will be made using samples of one of Nancarrow's own player pianos recorded at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel in 2011. Composers are invited to use the samples in any way they wish. They are availablehereas separate audio files and as a Logic ESX24 sample instrument with the samples tuned to A440... Read More