Tomorrow is the day – our conference Framing the Normal starts tomorrow afternoon at 1 pm (CEST) with a great group of presenters. At 7 pm the incredible Dr. Håkon Stene will offer a keynote address titled, ‘Notes on Post-Instrumental Practices.’ Come check it out: https://framingthenormal.wordpress.com/
Since you are already coming for the keynote, stick around for the evening performances in which Jessie Marino’s newest piece will be premiered by the RCA Guitar Ensemble. We will also feature Winnie Huang’s Tentacles and I will perform Thierry De Mey’s Light Music.
Winnie Huang and I have put together a two-day conference featuring pieces and presentations that all ‘Frame the Normal‘. Day 2 of that conference will feature Alina Taraban & Ensemble XXI playing John Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra and How to make a monster by Sivan Cohen Elias performed by the amazing Winnie Huang.
(c) Art & Research, Royal Conservatoire Antwerp
Our evening show includes short programs by Haize Lizarazu playing music by Fran MM Cabeza de Vaca and Michael Beil and Yui Sakagoshi playing her own music as well as pieces by Sergio Núñez Meneses, Chatori Shimizu and Thierry De Mey. We will close the conference with a collective performance of Ajtony Csaba’s Music for the Eyes.
Next Monday evening at 20h / 8 pm CEST we will premiere both the newly revised version of Thierry De Mey’s Light Music and Jessie Marino’s brand new piece Six to Five. Also on the program is Winnie Huang’s cool duet Tentacles.
Light Music was written in 2004, however the amazing experts at Centre Henri Pousseur have spent the last year completely re-writing the electronics, finding new ways to make it more live and performer-dependant. The piece is so much fun to perform and I am really excited to be able to show it off next week.
(c) Melissa Portaels, Matrix [Centre for New Music]
Melissa Portaels and Rebecca Diependaele from Matrix [Centre for New Music] came to chat during the final rehearsal week Light Music and put together this cool little preview video (in Dutch):
The RCA Guitar Ensemble and I will premiere Marino’s newest piece, titled Six to Five. Jessie has created a really cool and fresh new piece for the ensemble. Come check it out next Monday evening.
This show takes part in the evening programming of an academic conference that Winnie Huang and I have put together as part of our PhD studies at the University and Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp (ARIA). The conference is titled Framing the Normal and we are thrilled to present Håkon Stene as our Keynote speaker. All the details of the conference, including links and the schedule, can be found here: Framing the Normal.
Happy to see that Thin Air, a solo-project I did at the behest of Jelle Dierckx and Lunalia Festival, continues to resound around the world. Here is a nice write up by Gail Wein on Classic Voice North America:
This coming Thursday from 2-3 pm, Nadar will present Schubert’s Point Ones as part of Musica’s educational programming. There will be a short introduction (in Dutch) prior to the performance and an in-depth Q&A session afterwards.
I am very proud to invite you all to a special online performance of John Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra presented by Alina Taraban, Ensemble XXI and the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. The concert will take place at this year’s ARTICULATE festival and broadcast via their YouTube channel.
Yes, lookdowns are terrible, but this one has at least seemed to have produced some new outlets for the performing arts. Last night the new digital channel Podium 19 ‘broadcasted’ our recording of Beethoven’s Drei Equales for Trombone Quartet. Here’s the link. Enjoy!
Lode Smeets: Alto Trombone Soeren Brassaerts, Thomas Moore: Tenor Trombone Bram Meese, Bass Trombone
Yesterday I performed my new solo program Doublespeak | Doublethink in the longest-running new music series, Unerhoerte Musik in the BKA Theater, Berlin. One of the good things about this period we all are trudging through are the lasting mementos of our streamed shows. Here it is!
Doublespeak | Doublethink Thomas R. Moore | Trombone “You do not exist,” George Orwell 1984
In the iconic book, 1984, Orwell defines Doublethink as the ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in one’s head and to believe them both simultaneously. In this program we will walk the edge between two thoughts, doubling and negating the original, both the sound of the trombone and the physical performance itself. The soloist, Thomas Moore will take on a split personality, be pre-recorded, live-manipulated, duplicated and nullified.
Program
Marino, Jessie: Commitment :: Ritual :: BiiM (2011) for solo performer, lights and tape – 4′
Beyer, Stefan: Strandung (2016, rev 2020) for trombone and electronics – 12’
Maierhof, Michael: Splitting 53* (2016-18) for trombone, amplified splitter and tape – 9’
Bark, Jan & Rabe, Folke: Ach Chamberlin (1965) tape – 6’
Henderickx, Wim: Akasha*, from VOID (2020) for trombone/voice and live electronics – 10’
Ivičević, Mirela: Orgy of References (2012, rev. 2019) for speaker/singer and live electronics – 8’
*World Premiere
A small warning: This program acknowledges the existence of and explicitly refers to sexual acts. It may therefore not be appropriate for some people.
Today I had the chance to speak live on Klara, the Belgian classical music station. My thanks to Olaf Grondelaers for the fun interview and Carlo Siau for the great prep work!
Here’s a link to the web-story. On that page you’ll find all the music I was asked to introduce plus the actual 10 min (!) interview clip, too. Enjoy!
In the coming weeks I will present a new solo program that will be streamed twice from two wonderful locations. The program is titled ‘Doublespeak | Doublethink’ and features works from Jessie Marino, Stefan Beyer and Mirela Ivičević as well as two premieres, one by Wim Henderickx and the other from Michael Maierhof. It would be wonderful to ‘see’ you all there!
Doublespeak | Doublethink Thomas R. Moore | Trombone “You do not exist,” George Orwell 1984
In the iconic book, 1984, Orwell defines Doublethink as the ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in one’s head and to believe them both simultaneously. In this program we will walk the edge between two thoughts, doubling and negating the original, both the sound of the trombone and the physical performance itself. The soloist, Thomas Moore will take on a split personality, be pre-recorded, live-manipulated, duplicated and nullified.
Shows
Saturday, 30 January 2021 at 8:30 pm (UTC +1) PXP: Thomas Moore – Doublespeak | Doublethink / warmup: Taha & Yassine Posman Facebook event | YouTube Live Stream
Tuesday, 16 February 2021 at 8 pm (UTC +1) Unerhörte Musik: Thomas R. Moore, Posaune – Doublespeak | Doublethink Website Venue | YouTube Live Stream
Program
Marino, Jessie: Commitment :: Ritual :: BiiM (2011) for solo performer, lights and tape – 4′
Beyer, Stefan: Strandung (2016, rev 2020) for trombone and electronics – 12’
Maierhof, Michael: Splitting 53* (2016-18) for trombone, amplified splitter and tape – 9’
Bark, Jan & Rabe, Folke: Ach Chamberlin (1965) tape – 6’
Henderickx, Wim: Akasha*, from VOID (2020) for trombone/voice and live electronics – 10’
Ivičević, Mirela: Orgy of References (2012, rev. 2019) for speaker/singer and live electronics – 8’
*World Premiere
A small warning: This program acknowledges the existence of and explicitly refers to sexual acts. It may therefore not be appropriate for some people.
Thomas R. Moore 