Trinity Laban presents a spectacle of contemporary and improvised music for piano and chamber ensemble.
Each day (Monday 20 and Tuesday 21 June) will feature four separate programmes and the festival will culminate with Scenes of Childhood, an immersive improvised performance in multiple spaces.
For the fifth New Lights Festival curated and hosted by Trinity Laban’s Keyboard Department, there will be explorations of how the old interacts with the new, how dialogues form across artistic eras and art forms, and how the creative act of improvisation unfolds in real time.
Founded by pianist Peter Tuite, the mission of the festival is to explore ideas of newness both in approaches to interpretation and repertoire, as well as in presentation. This broad scope allows for exciting and challenging ideas and events to be presented in fresh and often startling ways.
Collaboration with a range of art forms lies at the heart of the festival. From film and photography to dance and theatrical presentations, New Lights presents works that capture the synergies arising from such collaborations. Innovative and diverse repertoire from the 20th century onwards also provides for a central part of the programming. And so, for each event, there will be works that range from the experimental and collaborative to works engaged in a dialogue with past traditions.
Douglas Finch, artistic director
Howard Felton, project manager
Roxanna Albayati, improvisation tutor
This short documentary, produced and directed by Anthony Cheng, explores the idea of musical improvisation with Trinity Laban’s professor of piano and composition, Douglas Finch.
Mon 20 June
Performance 1 | Peacock Room, 14:00
Ludwig’s Alptraum
Roxanna Shini Mehrahzadeh and Kyle Nash-Baker, piano
Joy Peter, viola
New Lights’ opening recital pairs Shostakovich with Russian/American composer Lera Auerbach. About her piece Ludwig’s Alptraum, Auerbach writes: “Every art arises out of dreams, and it is perhaps only in dreams that fate can show us its hidden threads which connect each passing day with the next.”
Lera Auerbach, Ludwig’s Alptraum
Roxanna Shini Mehrabzadeh, piano
Shostakovich/Auerbach, Preludes 19, 20 and 21
Roxanna Shini Mehrabzadeh, piano
Joy Peter, viola
Lera Auerbach, Preludes 19, 20 and 21
Roxanna Shini Mehrabzadeh, piano
Douglas Finch, Preludes and Afterthoughts – fantasy-transcriptions on Chopin’s Preludes Op. 28
I. Premonition (Prelude in E Minor)
II. Memory 1 (Prelude in A Major)
III. Dream (Prelude in A Major)
IV. Whirlwinds and Sighs (Preludes in B Flat Minor and E Minor)
V. Memory 2 (Prelude in A Flat Major)
VI. Dirge-Canon (Prelude in C Minor)
VII. Rounds (Preludes in A Flat Major, A Major and E Minor)
Milda Vitartaite, piano
Performance 2 | Peacock Room, 15:30
Flux
Carolina Cury and Giordano Buondonno, piano
Konstantinos Damianakis, electric guitar and electronics
Olivia Bell, voice
A programme of contrast, flux and social commentary led by pianist, singer and composer Carolina Cury. Frederic Rzewski’s seminal protest piece Winnsboro Cotton Mills Blues will be featured in its rarely heard two-piano version – a tribute to this influential and much loved composer who passed away last year.
Sofia Gubaidulina, Chaconne
Carolina Cury, piano
Fazil Say, Black Earth (Kara Toprak)
Giordano Buondonno, piano
Carolina Cury, Awakening of a numb creature
Olivia Bell, voice
Giordano Buondonno, piano
Hypereyess, Flux
Hypereyess – Konstantinos Damianakis and Carolina Cury, electroacoustic duo
Frederic Rzewski, Winnsboro Cotton Mills Blues (for two pianos)
Giordano Buondonno and Carolina Cury, piano
Performance 3 | Peacock Room, 17:15
Dreaming and Remembering
Jinah Shim and Raymond Wui Man Yiu, piano
Pianists Jinah Shim and Raymond Wui Man Yiu offer a programme of classic 20th Century works for two pianos interspersed with colourful solo pieces, including two world premières by Allan Moore and Raymond’s own Fugues on popular themes.
Igor Stravinsky, Three Movements from “Petrushka” for 2 Pianos
Jinah Shim and Raymond Wui Man Yiu, piano
Allan Moore, Dreaming Faure – Remembering Johannes Ilyich
Jinah Shim, piano
Graham Fitkin, The Cone Gatherers
Jinah Shim, piano
Steve Reich, Piano Phase for 2 Pianos
Jinah Shim and Raymond Wui Man Yiu, piano
Raymond Wui Man Yiu, Two Fugues on Two Popular Themes
Raymond Wui Man Yiu, piano
Lepo Sumera, Piece from the Year 1981
Jinah Shim, piano
Witold Lutoslawski, Variations on a Theme of Paganini
Jinah Shim and Raymond Wui Man Yiu, piano
Performance 4 | Peacock Room, 19:00
In Memoriam Messiaen
Christos Fountos, piano
Pianist Christos Fountos explores Messiaen’s influential legacy through the lens of pieces dedicated to him by renowned composers, alongside two solo piano movements from one of Messiaen’s most adventurous orchestral works: Des Canyons aux étoiles…
Peter Michael Hamel, In Memoriam Olivier Messiaen
No. Vlll from Von Klang des Lebens
Olivier Messiaen, Des Canyons aux étoiles… Part I
No. IV Le Cossyphe d’Heuglin
Michael Finnissy, A Solis Ortus Cardine
Tristan Murail, Cloches d’adieu, et un sourire…, In memoriam Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen, Des Canyons aux étoiles… Part III
No. IX Le Moqueur polyglotte
Jonathan Harvey, Tombeau de Messiaen
For piano and tape
Toru Takemitsu, Rain Tree Sketch II, In memoriam Messiaen
Tue 21 June
Performance 5 | Peacock Room, 14:00
Daedalus Reached
Milda Vitartaite and Christina Koti, piano
Alex Lyon, clarinet and bass clarinet
Rebecca Burden, cello
Megan Strachan, soprano
Hester Dart, mezzo soprano
Pianist and composer Milda Vitartaite and friends perform a dramatic programme of new and recently composed chamber pieces, including Milda’s own when the grasshopper sings.
Ján Števuliak, Heuristic Studies for piano and delay
Milda Vitartaite, piano
Harry Wier, A Place Inside The Blizzard
Christina Koti and Milda Vitartaite, piano (four hands)
Hanna Kulenty, Van
Christina Koti and Milda Vitartaite, two pianos
KC Cheng, Le cosmicomiche
Christina Koti, piano
Sylvia Glickman, Black Cake – A Recipe by Emily Dickinson
Megan Strachan, soprano
Milda Vitartaite, piano
Paweł Mykietyn, ‘…Although Daedalus Reached…’
Terra Invisus: Milda Vitartaite, piano, Alex Lyon, clarinet, Rebecca Burden, cello
Milda Vitartaite, when the grasshopper sings
Hester Dart, mezzo soprano
Terra Invisus: Milda Vitartaite, piano, Alex Lyon, clarinet, Rebecca Burden, cello
Performance 6 | Peacock Room, 15:30
Wondrous Minds
A programme of new pieces arising from collaborations between Trinity Laban composers and pianists.
Alex Man-Wai Cho – Prelude in G Minor
Calum Ward, piano
Kornélia Nemcová, Dust
Milda Vitartaite, piano
David Balica, Recent Venture into Wondrous Minds
Stefan Weidner, piano
Nikita Faie, The Winter Hour
Louisa Grantz, piano
Nathan Durasamy, Confabulation
Milda Vitartaite, piano
Ján Števuliak, Variations and Theme on Invisible Cities
Carolina Cury, piano and interactive electronics
Performance 7 | Mackerras Room, 16:45
…the bones in my hands
Roxanna Albayati, cello and voice Mahsa Salali, piano, voice and pre-recorded electronics
Experimental duo Mahsa Salali and Roxanna Albayati present a programme of semi-improvised works.
Ed Cooper, …the bones in my hands disintegrate only to grow...
“Always disintegrating but totally focussed; in great conflict with itself; clarity is perceivable but in the future.”
Roxanna Albayati and Mahsa Salali, Here are Girls
Extract from the Here are Girls project, a physical and musical exploration of the expectations and constraints that weigh on women through traditional and modern-day struggles. This work used elements of Iranian Dastãh as well as the poem “Here Are Girls” by Elisabeth Hewer.
Performance 8 | In multiple spaces, East Wing of King Charles Court, 18:30
Scenes of Childhood
Improvisational Performances
Roxanna Albayati, improvisation tutor
Performers
Faculty of Music:
Dominic Bentham, Rebecca Burden, Arthur Tak-Hon Chan, Alex Man-Wai Cho, Carolina Cury, Polina Pancheva, Nefeli Erma, Nikita Faie Daniel Greenwich, Ali Hancorn, Ashley Solano Hernandez, Alex Lyon, Franklin Oliver, Isaac Tobenna Onyirioha, Xinyu Liu, Miriam Pancheva, Jân Stevuliac, Milda Vitartaite, Jessica Yui Wu, Yan Yan, Raymond Wui Man Yiu
Faculty of Dance:
Elisa Ansaldo, Maria Vittoria Bortolotti, Ifigenia Christodoulou, Chander van Daatselaar, Hannah George, Alessia Tomassi, Lilli O’Reilly Wagner Hansen
Lullabies, hidden rooms, streams of consciousness, hide and seek, a moving choir, audience participation and much more will be part of this theatrical performance. Scenes of Childhood will move between different spaces in the East Wing of Trinity Laban, King Charles Court.
All admissions are free and no booking is required.