#bebeethoven Showcase at Radialsystem / Friday, 28. & Saturday, 29.09.2018

PODIUM Esslingen’s fellowship program #bebeethoven, which is on until the Beethoven 2020 Jubilee, lets twelve young artists tinker with pivotal questions about the making of contemporary music and fresh approaches to the same. Five fellows will showcase their work at Radialsystem. CONTINUUM ensemble will perform “Traumwerk”, a staged concert, and Kaan Bulak will present his new piano record “impromptu” in the form of an electro-acoustic performance. “Free Orchestra” sees the introduction of a new form of composition by Koka Nikoladze, plus the improv-loving STEGREIF.orchester with its current production #freebrahms. Moreover, Elisa Erkelenz presents her project “Outernational”, a cooperation with the drummer and composer Ketan Bhatti.

The musical-literary concert project “Traumwerk” by Elina Albach and her Ensemble CONTINUUM reflects vanitas-motifs from the time of the Thirty Years’ War with contemporary music and texts. Elements of early Baroque thereby meet texts by contemporary poets of the city. A program across genres and eras presents original works and arrangements by A. Mealli, Käpt’n Peng, Kate Tempest and others.

Kaan Bulak’s first record “impromptu” reflects the personal creative moment: 16 Impromptus have been improvised at the piano and recorded in one take – without preparation or addition of electronics. With 4 Repromtus Kaan Bulak experiences his music again – this time through sampling an manipulation. In the arrangement he only uses the 16 previously recorded Impromptus and presents them in an electro acoustic way. At the release concert he will present a selection of Impromptus and Repromtus accompanied by the visual artist Ali M. Demirel.

Drummer, composer and producer Ketan Bhatti is a collector of Worlds: The Trickster Orchestra – this time in a smaller version as Trickster Ensemble – is founded by him an Cymin Samawatie and named after the mythological figure of the ambivalent shape shifter. There is a space opening for the appealing in-between: Outstanding soloists open new sound galaxies through the imitation of the “other”. Improvisational movements turn into chamber music, free sounds from Qanoon to Chinese Sheng melt into electronic tracks. Post-genre, post-nation. Before the concert, #bebeethoven fellow Elisa Erkelenz and Ketan Bhatti will talk about the background of their Outernational Project.

The much-noticed and celebrated production #freebrahms by STEGREIF.orchester traces Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 in F major and presents a wild mix of Jazz, Rock and Salsa. Multiinstrumentalist Juri de Marco and the Ensemble cut in on Brahms’ composition, but don’t fret! The Romantic composer’s original won’t suffer. While doing so, they create an extraordinary sound performance. In context of the #bebeethoven-Showcase, Juri de Marco will talk about the background and the approach of STEGREIF.orchester, which will also present excerpts of #freebrahms.

In the second part of the concert, composer and tinkerer Koka Nikoladze will join forces with the PODIUM Ensemble. In context of #bebeethoven he developed “Blinkscore”, a new technology that allows special musical forms of live interaction between musicians and conductors respectively composers. He will present it together with a part of his cycle “Interactive Symphony”.