Born in China, YIXIE SHEN is a composer based in Hamburg, Germany. She is currently nominated for the Gaudeamus Award and is the prizewinner of the Alexander International Music Award of Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie. She has received grants from "akademie kontemporär" (2021/2023) among others. Her works have been performed by various orchestras, ensembles, soloists as well as at festivals widely in Europe, including in the Elbphilharmonie, by Symphoniker Hamburg, Ensemble Ascolta, IEMA Ensemble, Ensemble
KNM Berlin, Ensemble LUX:NM, Hamburger Ratsmusik, at the Heinrich Schütz Music Festival and the Festival of Young Artists Bayreuth.
SMOKE is the image that inspires this work. It is a state of movement that contains many nuances and subtle changes and there are many microtones in the work, which separate
and merge into different layers. Along with this, the variations in the shading and colour of the state, the density of the texture, as well as the speed of the movement of the smoke are essential parameters that were considered throughout the work. I also see it as a piece for an imaginary film, because it has strong sense of scenery and intense dramaturgical curves.
The inaugural SA Composers’ Competition was launched in 2022/2023 for young composers to develop skills and recognise talent in the local creative music industry. There were 29 entries from a diverse selection of young composers 35 or younger at the time of entering and a panel of judges headed by eminent composer Hendrik Hofmeyr after much, blind, deliberation, chose five to compete for the title. Conrad Asman and his piece Beyond the Atom was chosen by the judges to be the winner and Asman’s prize was a cash prize and commission to compose a piece, Load & Shed, which you will hear tonight. Tonight’s winner will win a cash prize and a trip to Germany to have his/her piece performed by the Junge Nord-Deutsche Philharmonie(jnp) in April in Hamburg.
Louis Heyneman - producer
Shirley Gueller - manager
CAPE TOWN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA conducted by Jeremy Silver
The Judges:
Hendrik Hofmeyr (non-voting chairman), Alexander Valentin, Antoni Schonken (convenor), Amy Crankshaw, Arthur Feder, Bernhard Gueller, Clare Loveday, Lise Morrison
MUSICSCAPE Livestream
Marek Pinski - video production and sound recording supervision
Caitlin Mittelmeyer - Live video editing
Tony Mittelmeyer - multiple video camera setup and system coordinator
14 апр 2024
