FRIDAY 4/10/2024

Theatre of Voices – the internationally acclaimed vocal ensemble from Denmark
Artistic Director Paul Hillier

In Memoriam Taki Caldis
CREATOR SPIRITUS

Arvo Pärt:                        Missa Syllabica                                4 voices + string quartet

Guillaume de Machaut:  Veni creator spiritus                          4 voices      

Arvo Pärt:                        Fratres                                              string quartet

Mozarabic chant             Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae      bass

Josquin Desprez:           Gaude Virgo                                      4 voices 

Μικρό διάλειμμα   
           
Arvo Pärt:                        Stabat Mater                                     3 voices + string trio  

Theatre of Voices
soprano:         Else Torp
alto:                Laura Lamph
tenoro:            Christopher Bowen
bass:              Jacob Bloch Jespersen
violin 1:           Christina Astrand
violin 2:           Trine Yang Møller
viola :              Katarzyna Bugala
violoncello:     Therese Åstrand Radev

Artistic Director - Paul Hillier

Paul Hillier
Artistic director Paul Hillier’s career has embraced singing, conducting, composition and writing about music. He was founding director of the Hilliard Ensemble, and subsequently Theatre of Voices. He has taught at the University of California and from 1996-2003 he was Director of the Early Music Institute at Indiana University. He has been chief conductor of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir 2001-2007, Ars Nova Copenhagen 2003-2023, Coro Casa da Música 2008-2019 and since 2008 the National Chamber Choir of Ireland. His close to 200 recordings, including seven solo song recitals, have earned worldwide acclaim and won numerous prizes – Diapson d’or and Grammy Awards. Several have been Editor’s Choice in leading international music magazines and are reference recordings in music anthologies. His books about Arvo Pärt and Steve Reich, together with editions of choral music, are published by OUP, whilst his own compositions are found on Edition-S. In 2006 he was awarded an O.B.E., 2007 he received the Order of the White Star of Estonia and won a Grammy with EPCC, followed by another Grammy in 2010 for ’The Little Match Girl Passion’. Named Knight of Dannebrog by the Danish Queen in 2013. 2023 recipient of the Carl Nielsen og Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen’s Honorary Prize.

 
Theatre of Voices was founded in 1990 by the British conductor, singer and writer Paul Hillier. The Copenhagen-based group has been nominated twice for the Nordic Council Music Prize. Theatre of Voices performs at prominent venues such as the Teatro Real, Palais Garnier, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Barbican Center, Elbphilharmonie, and Sydney Opera House. Recent projects include hologram appearance for 16 shows in Hong Kong, performances at the Venice Biennale, and residency at Kings Place in London. The group has done close to 40 recordings, won several awards - including a Grammy Award, and collaborates with groups like Kronos Quartet and London Sinfonietta. The repertoire stretches from the earliest notated music to modern sound art installations and contemporary opera. The distinct, clear sound has led to many collaborations with leading contemporary composers such as Steve Reich, Arvo Pärt, Galina Griorjeva, Kaija Saariaho, Heiner Goebbels, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen and Line Tjørnhøj. Film tracks include Oscar-winning La Grande Bellezza, Hollywood production Arrival and a string of Nordic films like the horror movie ‘Selvmordsturisten’ (DK), ‘The Woodcutter Story’ (Finland) and ‘Gullspång Miraklet’ (Sweden). The group continues recording both classical music, new film scores and music for computer games. Theatre of Voices has been named special focus ensemble by the Danish Arts Council 2024-27, and is supported by the The Augustinus Foundation and Holbæk Municipality.

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MONDAY 7/10/2024

Ex Silentio

Dies irae – excesses in worship in the Middle Ages

Tonakar, Hymn to Armenia (11th century)

Ave nobilis, hymn to the Virgin Mary from the collection Carmina Burana, (Germany, 12th century)

Na luys er, Hymn to Armenia (11th century)

Laudemus virginem, canon for 3 voices from the collection Libre Vermell, (Catalonia, 14th century)

Stella splendens, virelai for 2 voices from the Libre Vermell, (Catalonia, 14th century)

Dies irae, sequence, (France, 13th century)

Karitas habundat, antiphne Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)

Victimae paschali laudes, Victimae paschali laudes, sequence Wipo from Burgundia (11th century)

Petruslied, Hymn to St. Peter, (Germany, 9th century)

O virgo splendens, 3 voice Hymn from the collection Vermell, (Catalonia, 14th century)

Cunctipotens genitor Deus, genitor Deus, Hymn, (France, 11th century)

Da que deus mamo, Song to the Virgin Mary from the Cantigas de Santa Maria (Castille, 13th century)

Santa Maria strella do Dio, Song to the Virgin Mary from the Cantigas de Santa Maria (Castille, 13th century)

Rosa das Rosas, song for the Virgin Mary from the Cantigas de Santa Maria (Castille, 13th century)

Cuncti simus concanentes, from the collection Vermell, (Catalonia, 14th century)

Ex Silentio
Theodora Baka –        song
Irine Bilili -Moraiti –     song & medieval viela
Elektra Miliadou –       medieval viela
Dimitris Koudouras –  artistic director and medieval flute

The early music ensemble Ex Silentio specialises in early music with the use of period instruments. Artistic director of the ensemble is the flautist Dimitris Kountouras. Some of the international festivals and concert halls where the ensemble regularly appears are the Banchetto musicale of Vilnius and Vivat Guirlandia of Riga, Styriarte of Graz, Via Medieval of Mainz, the Italian Marco Fodella festivals of Milan and Mousike by Barry, the Viennese summer festival of St Ruprecht, the Religious Music Festival of Schwaebisch Gmund and the Swedish early music festival of Trollhaitan.

In 2018 in Nicosia in collaboration with the Leventis Foundation the ensemble performed the rare medieval codex of Cyprus. Five recordings for the Talanton, Carpe Diem and Nefeli t companies have also been made.

Ex Silentio often appears at the Athens Concert Hall and concerts have been given at various places of historical importance such as the Rotunda of Thessaloniki, the ancient theatre of Messina, the archaeological site of Vergina and the Monastery of Daphni.

The ensemble has also collaborated with distinguished artists such as the countertenor Michael Chance, the singer-composer Savina Giannatou and the lyre master Sokratis Sinopoulos.

Ex Silentio is an ensemble in residence at the Athens Conservatory and organises the Ostium series of medieval music.

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SUNDAY 13/10/2024

KammerChor Saarbrücken
Conductor: Prof. Georg Grun

Nicolas Gombert (1495-1560)                                      Je prens congie

G. P. Da Palestrina (1525-1594)                                   Stabat Mater

Robert Schumann/arr. Georg Grün (1810-1856)         Die Mondnacht

Max Reger (1873-1916)                                                 DerMensch lebt undbestehet

Hugo Wolf (1860-1903)                                                 Resignation Ergebung

Edward Elgar (1857-1934)                                            Lux Aeterna

Hubert Parry (1848-1918)                                             There Is an Old Belief

Fredrik Sixten (1962)                                                    There Is No rose of Such virtue

Arvo Pärt (1935)                                                            The Deer ́s Cry

Vytautas Barkauskas (1962)                                        Stabat Mater

Vytautas Miskinis (1974)                                              Dum Medium Silentium

Levente Gyöngyösi (1975)                                           Te lucis ante Terminum

The Saarbrücken Chamber Choir is one of Germany's leading chamber choirs and is also internationally known for its distinctive, homogeneous and transparent a cappella choir sound.
Over the last twenty years it has won many choral competitions, including most recently the 13th International Chamber Choir Competition in Marktoberdorf in 2013; a testament to the choir's consistently high quality.
A large number of radio and CD recordings as well as collaborations with historically informed baroque ensembles and classical orchestras document the sophisticated programmatic versatility of the ensemble. The choir regularly receives invitations to internationally renowned festivals and prepares choral-symphonic works with the German Radio Philharmonic, among others, and produces its CDs exclusively for Saarländischer Rundfunk, including the first recording LETZTE LIEDER - vocal works by Richard Strauss arranged for a cappella choir by Clytus Gottwald and Franz Zimnol, which was released in 2023.

Georg Grün is one of the most sought-after choir conductors and choir sound specialists internationally. He founded the KammerChor Saarbrücken in 1990 and is still its artistic director today.
From 2000 to 2013, Georg Grün held a professorship for choral conducting at the Mannheim University of Music, with whose newly founded chamber choir he won numerous international prizes. Since 2008 he has been a baritone member of the Daarler Vocal Consort and since 2010 he has been a mentor of the Conductors' Forum of the German Music Council.
In 2012 he became professor of Choral Conducting at the Saar University of Music and became director of the BachChor Saarbrücken.
In 2015 he set up the now internationally successful "HfM Summer School" for choral conducting of which he is the artistic director.
Since 2022 he has been leading the "International Masterclass for Choral Conductors" affiliated with the International Chamber Choir Competition Marktoberdorf.
Concerts, juror activities, masterclasses and guest conducting regularly take him home and abroad.

THE CHOIR

SOPRANO: MARGOT ROLLER, YVONNE ZIMMER, LISA NAPILETZKI, JOHANNA ZUHL, MANUELA EICHENLAUB

ALTO: SUSANNE WAGENMANN, JULIA ORTMANN, LENA GRUNER, MARITA GRASMUCK

TENOR: BENEDIKT ORTMANN, HOLGER KOHR, MARKUS SONTHEIMER, SEBASTIAN THIMM

BASS: MARTIN HOFMANN, MARTIN SCHMIDT, RAIMUND SCHULER, RUPERT SCHMIDT, LEON ZIMNOL

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