I am afraid that I am little behind on my blog posts. Still it has been a really exciting spring so here’s a quick update:

27 March: after returning in early March from Portugal, Nadar flew into their next project: The Night of the Unexpected II for Klara Festival 2019 at the Kanal in Brussels. We performed an incredibly diverse and virtuoso program that included Wettl’s Nocturne for 16 lamps and Michael Beil’s Key Jack for solo pianist. I was lucky enough to be able to repeat two really cool solo-conductor pieces: Alexander Khubeev’s Ghost of Dystopia and Alexander Schubert’s Point Ones. 

6 April: Being a member of Nadar ensemble means getting to take on true challenges, such as Exit F by Michael Maierhof. The piece, which were performed at the Bijloke’s annual “Ear to the Ground,” is for 4 hot air balloons and 8 musicians. I got to play one of the percussion parts. How about that! In one season I debuted on horn and also as a  percussionist!

1 and 2 May: Stefan Prins and Daniel Linehan created a really interesting piece for 10 musicians and 7 dancers called Third Space. When the show came to deSingel (Antwerp) in May, Nadar was invited to join the production. Having performed quite a bit of Stefan Prins’s music, it was really interesting to see his work from the perspective of a dance performance. For me, it added a new layer of drama to his music.

25 May: German composer, Alexander Schubert, was featured at the Musica Electronica Nova festival in Wroclaw, Poland, in a portrait concert titled: A Private Room – Alexander Schubert. Schubert is an important composer for our ensemble and apparently we are important to him, as well, because he invited us to come to Poland to perform his portrait. Personally, it was nice to be able to do the Alexander’s solo-conductor piece, Point Ones, with the composer present, offering very helpful feedback and, in his own words, “really enjoying my interpretation.”

30 May: Rounding off an incredible month, Nadar ensemble premiered Bernhard Lang’s Hermetika IX, at Concertgebouw Brugge. This evening-length performance was written specifically for our ensemble and for the building in which we premiered it. The audience was led on a parcours throughout the beautiful halls, walkways and hidden nooks and crannies of this incredible concert hall, ending in their Angel Room with Lang’s Angels Song.

The month of June sees performances with SPECTRA in Dusseldorf and quite a few shows conducting Soldaat van Oranje, de musical in the Netherlands. In July, I am off to the Time of Music festival in Finland to once again suit up and launch into Signale zur Invasion from Stockhausen.

 Copyright: Kristof Lemp

Last week, with my fellow Nadar musicians we explored new resonances in the mountainous and quite literally cheesy city of Seia and the lovely seaside city of Aveiro, Portugal. We appeared as guests on both the Dias de Música Electroacústica (in Seia) and the Arte No Tempo Festivals (in Aveiro). We had the opportunity to premiere a new piece by Luis Pena,Tracking Reality #1. (Bravo Luis!) I also got to play Pierre Jodlowski‘s really cool and more than a bit horror-like OUTERSPACE for Trombone and Video. Good times! 

This week, it’s back to Antwerp to work with the guitar class at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. We are premiering the revised version of Michael Maierhof‘s Zonen 6 for Guitar Orchestra. 18 guitarists! Who would wanna miss that! Here is a link to the concert – Sunday, 17 March at 11 am. See you then!

James Chan-A-Sue and the Philharmonie Luxembourg just posted this really cool video re-cap of Nadar’s living room performances in the city of Luxembourg: Your Place of Mine.

Link: https://youtu.be/OV0l-adWZWA 

Next Friday the 7th of December, I’ll be in New York City performing our new expansive, immersive audio-video production: Signale & Oktophonie. Both pieces are masterworks by the German composer, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Klaas Verpoest has created a spectacular and “mesmerising” video.

Here’s the relevant data –

Where: John Doe Gallery (https://www.johndoe-ny.com)

When: 7 December 2018, 7:30 pm

Tickets (and more info): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/karlheinz-stockhausen-oktophonie-signale-zur-invasion-tickets-52997063644

Last week we had the pleasure of performing at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in England. Here’s what the press and blogs had to say:

According to CultureCalling.com, we were one of five shows to catch: https://www.culturecalling.com/features/5-shows-to-catch-at-huddersfield-contemporary-music-festival

Simon Gummings penned this very positive review on his blog: http://5against4.com/2018/11/24/hcmf-2018-divertimento-ensemble-stockhausen-oktophonie/

And, the BBC used a very nice photo of our performance to promote a radio program called Hear and Now: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00019bx

Photo: copyright Klaas Verpoest

This Friday, the 23rd of November, I’ll make my English debut at the renowned Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, presenting Stockhausen’s masterpiece: Signale zur Invasion for solo trombone, octophonic tape (Oktophonie) immersed in the amazing video by Klaas Verpoest.

Here’s a link to the website for tickets: https://hcmf.co.uk/event/25-stockhausen-oktophonie/

And here is the great text the festival wrote about the piece:

Thomas R Moore trombone
Klaas Verpoest video
Patrick Delges sound engineer

Karlheinz Stockhausen Signale zur Invasion & Oktophonie

In this expansive audio-visual collaboration, Thomas Moore and Klaas Verpoest create a maximalist tribute to the work of Karlheinz Stockhausen. It is a chance to hear two of the German composer’s pieces, albeit simultaneously: Signale zur Invasion and Oktophonie come from Stockhausen’s Deinstag aus Licht, a ‘modular opera’ from the larger song cycle Licht, in which separate pieces can interact with one another as segments or layers. In this concert, filmmaker Klaas Verpoest provides grand, moving shapes that consume the figure of trombonist Thomas Moore, who walks into the audience while playing, emphasising the nonlinear space sound occupies.

Tomorrow – Pierre Jodlowski – OUTERSPACE

Trombone – Video – Electronics

Tomorrow’s the day. Tomorrow Nadar heads into the heart and living rooms of Luxembourg City to present and play “Your Place or Mine.” As part of this special program, I get to take on Pierre Jodlowski’s new work for solo trombone, video and electronics titled, OUTERSPACE. This piece is awesome! Truly in the spirit of this program, we peak into a virtual realm that seems to be connected to the concert space and somehow embodied by the trombonist.

Come join us! Here’s a link to the concert. 

Afterwards, please join us in the Philharmonie Luxembourg for Part II: Wettl, Marino, Prins & Beil. 

Luxembourg City, Luxembourg – Huddersfield, England – New York City, USA

Jodlowski & Stockhausen

3 cities | 3 solos | 2 great pieces

ТОМАС МУР (БЕЛЬГІЯ). OKTOPHONIE & SIGNALE ZUR INVASION | KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN Концерт-інсталяція до 90-річчя Карлгайнца Штокгаузена на фестивалі актуального мистецтва Porto Franko 2018, Івано-Франківськ, 2018.

In the coming weeks, I’ll get to revisit a masterpiece by Stockhausen and take on a brand new amazing work from Pierre Jodlowski.

It starts in Luxembourg at the Rainy Days Festival. Nadar Ensemble, welcomed once again into local living rooms, will bring the program “Your Place or Mine.” I get to take on Jodlowski‘s newest horror spectacle for solo trombone, electronics and video: OUTERSPACE.

Then its time again to revisit Stockhausen’s amazing solo masterpiece for Trombone, Octophonic Tape and Immersive Video (Klaas Verpoest): Signale zur Invasion. Once again, my partners from Centre Henri Pousseur and video artist Klaas Verpoest will be joining me. We will bring this “intense & galatic trip” to the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival on the 22nd of November and then head to New York City to play it in the John Doe Gallery (hosted by Innuan.org) on the 7th of December.

Hope to see you there!

This weekend I am off to Vienna to once again strap on Alexander Khubeev’s unique “Conductor’s Instrument” and perform his Ghost of Dystopia with the Black Page Orchestra. I am thrilled that I get to step back into this role and am very much looking forward to working with this great ensemble in their home town.

Topping off the bill are Stefan Prins’s “Generation Kill, Offspring 1”, Sarah Nemstov’s “Journal” and “Drop” by David Bird.

Here’s a link to the concert: Black Page Orchestra

Here’s a link to the cool bio page they made for me: Thomas Moore

If you’re in town, come check it out!

After two sold out concerts in Centralstation in Darmstadt, next on the agenda is a home turf series of concerts during the Museumnacht – Antwerpen.  I have the fortune to repeat Stefan Prins’s really cool and fun to play solo work for Trombone, mp3-players, and guided walking tour: FITTINGinSIDE. So, if you missed it in Darmstadt, here’s your chance. We’ll play on the half hour every hour from 7:30 pm to 12:30 am.

And a big thank you to IMD and the city of Darmstadt. We had a great week seeing this city from a slightly different perspective during this summer’s edition of the Darmstadt Summer Course for New Music.

Here is a link to an interesting review of our location concerts in the Algemeine Zeitung.

And here is a link to an episode of the Good Morning Darmstadt podcast made the day after Nadar’s second concert day.  In it you’ll hear an interview with our Artistic Co-Director Pieter Matthynssens and myself.

Photos: (c) IMD 2018, Photographer: Kristof Lemp

Today, Tonight, & Tomorrow – Nadar Premieres OurEars at the famous Darmstadt Summer Course for Modern Music.  We’ll bring new location-based works from Natacha Diels, Martin Schüttler, Vladimir Gorlinsky, & Cathy van Eck. The evening program will feature a new piece by Louis d’Heudieres, a fantastical rendition of Joanna Bailie’s Analogue, and I once again get to play Stefan Prins’s awesome FITTINGinSIDE for Trombone, MP3-Players, and Walking tour.

See you there!