Kiel Days of New Music
The Festival of New Music in Northern Germany
Thanks to the biennial festival “chiffren – Kiel Days of New Music” the city of Kiel has become a focal point of contemporary music in recent years. An important part of the festival’s mission is to convey an idea of the lively culture and diversity of contemporary music. The performances mainly showcase works composed during the past ten years, but older reference works that have lost none of their currency are performed as well.
Not only does chiffren offer music at its highest level, it also inspires audiences to set out to discover new music on their own. A number of supplementary projects, such as Crescendo, Tuchfühlung, i.e. within touching distance, and Vibrations exemplify this, as do the artist talks held before the actual concerts.
Here are some press clippings about the Kiel Days of New Music 2010:
“It makes sense to embed new music in the thick of life in the way it was done; at any rate the ‘Kiel Days’ won enthusiastic audience response…” (Egbert Hiller, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, No. 2, 2010)
“The concept behind the festival that was only inaugurated in 2006 […] is different from other traditional contemporary music forums. It is not a fair for music which presents new titles to circles of experts. It rather aims to pique the curiosity of many a listener with its small but select program. First encounters take precedence over world premieres and acquainting people with new music has top priority for the organizers.” (Ludolf Baucke, MusikTexte, February 2010)
“Northern Germany has the guts – The first weekend of February brought a celebration of new music to Kiel in a festival featuring top-notch musicians. Since its founding three years ago, chiffren stands for high-class sound and experiment.” (Margarete Zander, NDR-Kultur, neue musik, radio program broadcast on 10 March 2010)
The Kiel Days of New Music have featured the following guest musicians:
2010: ensemble reflexion K, Klangforum Wien, the Fograscher/Hymer piano duo, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, the Schleswig-HolsteinYouthEnsemble for New Music
2008: Ensemble Modern, ensemble reflexion K, ensemble mosaik, students of the University of Music Lübeck
2006: ensemble reflexion K, Ensemble SurPlus, students of the University of Music Lübeck
Crescendo
Prick up your ears and take note(s)
“Crescendo” means gradually getting louder in a piece of music. We intuitively perceive an increase in volume as something coming closer and closer and adapt to this situation.
“Crescendo” is the title of a series of public lectures in the weeks before the festival that provide initial listening experience and information on the music to be performed during the Kiel Days of New Music.
These introductions are supplemented by pre-concert talks with the composers.
Tuchfühlung - "Up close"
New approaches to music at school
New music is a fascinating and rewarding topic for music lessons because this type of music is exciting and inspiring. Talking about new music will invariably lead to new experiences and insights and besides, its musical language is the language of our times.
The “Tuchfühlung“ program includes:
- a preparatory workshop for music teachers dealing with selected works to be performed at the festival,
- a visit of a composer in class and
- attendance of the participating classes at the respective festival concert free of charge.
“Tuchfühlung“ is a project offered by chiffren in cooperation with the Institute for Quality Development of Schools in Schleswig-Holstein (IQSH).
Vibrations
Instrumental music workshop for students that own their own instrument
What does it feel and sound like if a flute player plays multiphonics producing several notes at once? Or if a violinist does not use the strings but the sound box of his instrument to make sounds audible?
Young instrumental students get a chance to try all of this themselves. Students interested in taking part receive short sheet music extracts from the concert program before the festival so that they can prepare for the workshop itself which is held during the festival. The workshop affords the students the unique opportunity to find out what new music sounds like or what it might sound like. Using their own instruments, they play together with the musicians of one of the festival ensembles. In the evening, workshop participants can recognize “their own” tune in the authentic, live festival performance of the ensemble and follow it in the ensemble’s overall sound.
