The Central European Chamber Orchestra

The Central European Chamber Orchestra
Mitteleuropäisches Kammerorchester
Presentation of the Orchestra
Review of HERMES 2008-2009
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Content
The Central European Chamber Orchestra
Mitteleuropäisches Kammerorchester
1. Mission statement
2. The conductor Ajtony Csaba
3. Review
4. Contact
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1. The Central European Chamber Orchestra | Mission statement
The Vienna-based Central European Chamber Orchestra was
founded in 2005. It came into being owing to the enthusiasm
and adventurous spirit of students. By now, many of these
young musicians have matured into excellent instrumentalists,
committed composers, experienced arrangers, and promising
conductors.
This gathering of artists from different countries, with different
musical and educational backgrounds, made possible a great
deal of flexibility in terms of repertoire. In addition to its work
on pieces from New Music and familiar disciplines, the ensemble
aims at establishing a close co-operation with artists with
background in performing and visual arts.
The mission of the ensemble is to establish itself as a
interregional significant musical entity which does not see
Vienna as its sole area of activity, but rather as an important
centre, the focal point of a realm of Central European culture
which transcends national borders. The Central European
Chamber Orchestra has given two international guest
performances in China, where careful introduction of interesting,
extravagant pieces resonated well with the audience.
The latest project has chosen itself the name of hermes for the
season 2008/09, the god connecting and mediating between the
divine and the human worlds. The concerts were held in the
cities of eastern and central Europe connecting cultures and
generations and create a link between performers and
audiences. In this project, the group was scheduled to visit four
cities in four countries: Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava and
Bucharest. Each concert featured, besides works by young
composers with ties to the group, pieces by musicians of
significance in European contemporary music. Each concert was
enriched by the visual experience of video installations and
projections by artists from the Viennese visual arts scene.
Image1 MKO
Image2 string section
Image3 conductor Ajtony Caba
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2. The Central European Chamber Orchestra | The conductor Ajtony Csaba
Ajtony Csaba was born in Siebenbürgen, where he
took a degree at the conservatoire in cello
performance, piano performance, solfeggio, and
composition. He went on to study conducting and
composition at the Ferenc Liszt academy in
Budapest (Zoltan Jeney, Tamas Gal).
Image4 Ajtony Csaba
From 2001 until 2007, he studied orchestral
conducting at the University of Music and
Performing Arts in Vienna with Uroš Lajović,
composition with Dieter Kaufmann, musical
coaching with Konrad Leitner, as well as media
composition with Klaus Peter Sattler.
In 2007 he received a triple MA in two countries,
and earned distinction for his graduation recital
with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in
Musikverein.
As a conductor and composer, he has given
numerous concerts, both at home and abroad,
performing new works as well as classical
repertoire. This includes performances in
Acanthes, France, with the Hungarian UMZE
Chamber Orchestra (Varese, P. Eötvös, A. Csaba)
in 2001, in Szombathely, Hungary (Bartók) in
2004, and with the Wroclaw Symphonic Orchestra
in the Wroclaw Philharmonics Building in Poland
(Liszt) in 2006.
He has conducted performances of works by
Stravinsky, Puccini, Bizet, Brahms, Sibelius and
Debussy amongst others in Vienna and
Budapest.
He has received prizes at numerous
competitions, including the Theodor Körner
prize of the City of Vienna.
During his studies, he benefited from valuable
opportunities to put his ideas into practice. In
2005 he worked as an assistant for modern
productions at the Hungarian National
Philharmonics, where the premiere of his opera
"Gentle Birth" was given.
In 2005/2006 he worked as a musical
supervisor at the Hellerau European Arts Centre
(Festspielhaus). In addition, he was in charge
of numerous operatic productions by the
Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts
at the Neue Studiobühne. He has served as
Head of the Central European Chamber
Orchestra, with which he toured China in 2006
(seven performances, including those in
Shenhen, Lanzhou and in the Parliament in
Beijing). The second Chinese tour followed in
2007. Ajtony Csaba has been Head of the
Viennese Jeunesse Chor since 2007.
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3. The Central European Chamber Orchestra | Review
2005
J. Varga.:Klavierkonzert, B. Bolcso:Fluid
Music Academy Budapest
2006
P. Maxwell-Davis: Miss Donnithorne´s Maggott
Studiobühne,Penzing, Vienna
Vivaldi: Gloria ed Imeneo
Studiobühne,Penzing, Vienna
Mozart: Symhony g-minor KV 550
J.S.Bach: Suite in H-moll
Reformierte Stadtkirche, Vienna
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
Studiobühne,Penzing, Vienna
Sibelius, Brahms, Bizet, J. Strauss,...
First Tour to China, 7 Concerts
China / Shenzhen, Lanzhou, Beijing Parliament,...
2007
Mozart: Trinitatismesse
Donaufelder Pfarrkirche , Vienna
A. Csaba, Th. Skweres, J. Kretz, J. Varga,...
Alte Schmiede, Wien
TRAFO theater, Budapest
Mozart: Missa brevis in G (KV 140)
Dom, Brunn am Gebirge
J. Cage, Mendelssohn, Bizet, Brahms,...
Second Tour to China, 15 Concerts
Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Beijing, Xi´an, Chengdu,...
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2008
B. Bartók: The Castle of Duke Bluebeard /A. Schönberg: Erwartung
Studiobühne Penzing, Vienna
A.Schönberg: Erwartung (Karaew-Fassung) /Rautavaara : Octet for Winds
Schönberg Center, Vienna
HERMES concert cycles 2008-2009
free style hermes
F. Riederer: Iniciacao
Romitelli: Trash TV Trance
J. Varga: Auge
C. Czernowin: Six Miniatures and a simultane Song
J. Sarwas: Queen-tet
Autumn Festival, Budapest / Collegium Hungaricum, Wien /
Music Academy, Bratislava
Visuals by 4youreye
free style hermes, Vienna
2009
free style hermes, Vienna
Vertical Concert with works by
Jonathan Harvey
Ajtony Csaba
Balint Bolcso
Wolfgang Liebhart
Tomasz Skweres
Piotr Skweres
Alexander Kral
Olga Neuwirth
Ivan Buffa
Juraj Vajo
church Farnosť Sv. Rodiny, Bratislava / reformed church Fasori, Budapest
Vertical Concert, new sacred music without words
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haydn.reflected
Joseph Haydn: Symphonie Nr. 6, "Le Matin"
Reflections on "Le Matin":
haydn.reflected, Vienna
Jana Kmiťová: Motto
Ivan Buffa: ...wieder Morgen...
Balazs Horvath: Tak
Balint Bolcso: Good Morning
Witold Lutoslawski: Grave.Metamorphoses
haydn.reflected, Bratislava
Collegium Hungaricum, Vienna / Palais Pálffy, Bratislava / Music Academy Franz List, Budapest
Visuals by 4youreye
aperghis.play
Samuel Gryllus: Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu
Fausto Romitelli: Blood on the Floor, Painting 1986
Georges Aperghis: Recitations
Philippe Hurel: Loops
Matthias Kranebitter: spreu und scherben
Aperghis: La Nuit en Tête
Wolfgang Liebhart: Octet
aperghis.play, Vienna
aperghis.play, Bucharest
Collegium Hungaricum, Wien / Palais Pálffy, Bratislava /
Óbudai Társaskör, Budapest / Sala Enescu, Bucharest
Visuals and installation by Sarah Rechberger
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4. The Central European Chamber Orchestra | “hermes 2008-2009”
"To turn the making of music into a collaborative
and transforming activity, the cooperative
character of the activity to the exact source of
the music. To stir up, through the production of
the music, a sense of social conditions in which
we live and of how these might be changed."
Christian Wolff
Preambulum
The capability of a region in spreading the output of young artists is vastly
determined by the developement of infrastructure and the available channels of
communication.
That implicates that members of creativ communities in central europe have a strong
disadvantage in comparison with their western europe collegues keeping track of
artistic activities in their surrounding area. So happens often, that a new
performance in this area first reaches a major musical center in europe, and then is
beeing redistributed to the "external" territories. That can represent sometimes a
delay of up to 10 years, which is definitely to much in a development of an artist.
Establishing a regular cultural circuit between Bucharest, Bratislava, Budapest and
Vienna provides for the musicians and every art-consumer in spite of infrastructural
lacks with a very recent information about artistic trends in the partner countries.
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Project 2008/09 “hermes”
Idea
Usually, during an artistic education in abroad gains each performer an additional input to his
identity, meanwhile he enriches the cultural diversity of the center which he attends. Then
returning to the hometown, takes with him not only the experience of one other culture, but the
experience of a whole mixture of cultures it exists on this place.
Inspired from this multidirectional cultural interaction, we planed a cycle of performances
played from people they worked on the program abroad (in Vienna at the moment), then took the
whole “mixture” of human input with them to their hometown and perform it.
We invited musicians from the partner towns with strong interests on contemporary arts, to work
with us on written music, improvisation concept and live-performance sets written by composers
and artists from the partner regions. Then we went on tour and performed the program in each of
the partner cities, “redistributing” the artistic “mixture”, which is the result of the collective work.
We launched a series of 4 programs, played by an ensemble where the members come from these
partner regions, symbolizing the role of the messenger, sharing the information – and in
transferred sense – the musical, cultural goods between the partner regions.
We intended cooperation between cultural organizers in Vienna (A), Budapest (H), Bratislava (SK)
and Bucharest (RO) in order to create a cultural cycle and common musical pulse for sharing
actual music performances – principally from the contemporary repertoire, improvisation, live
performance but also including compositions of the traditional literature.
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Content
Each of the four concerts took focus on a composer, who represents a strong and important
influence on the music reception of our time. These composers had one major work, which took ca
20-25% of the program-time. (First Fausto Romitelli, Chaya Czernowin, Joseph Haydn and
Georges Aperghis). In the major part of the performance we presented compositions, live
performances, installations created in the partner regions, which have a special connection,
commendatory, critical or counter pointing relation to this selected thematic works. So is one
performance also – in a philosophical way – the reaction of a whole region on a special artistic
statement, presented as thema.
With hermes we intended to establish a musical cycle that should lead to a permanent
circulation in this region in terms of music, but also in discovering artistic elements that
connect the multiply but still separated creative potentials of the middle-european region
with each other and encourage a sense of community.
Visuals
The reception of the New Music is often problematic, because the associations induced by the
compositions are not enough evident for every segment of the audition. Therefore we staged each
concert in cooperation with projection artists with a dynamic visual design, which made the whole
program perceivable not only for the ears and brain but provided also an important visual layer.
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5. The Central European Chamber Orchestra | Contact
Mitteleuropäisches Kammerorchester
Messenhausergasse 10/21
A-1030 Vienna
@:
[email protected]
Artistic director
Ajtony Csaba
T: +43-660-6546566
@:
[email protected]
Project Management
Jan Vysocky
T: +43-650-2038543
@:
[email protected]
Public Relations
Ulrike Dröscher
T: +43-699-25158404
@:
[email protected]
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