This September – next week, I’m thrilled to go one tour again with our Nadar Ensemble, beginning in Utrecht—a city that feels like a second home. Over two weeks, we’ll perform in three countries, presenting two programs that showcase the ensemble, its flexibility, and our (new) collaborations with six innovative and compelling composers. .
The tour opens with “What’s Next”, where I’ll take on the playful role of a sports commentator in Paul Scully’s piece, alongside works by Matthew Grouse, Nina Fukuoka, and Eveline Vervliet. We’ll also perform “Don’t Leave the Room”, premiering Golnaz Shariatzadeh’s evocative composition Bluer Womb and Alexander Khubeev’s two-part work for solo performer (signing Russian Sign Language!): Don’t Leave the Room and Silentium!
Last week I had the great pleasure of performing with Nadar at the Dublin Sound Lab’s cool festival Music Current. On the program was Thiery De Mey’s great Light Music. Back in 2021, the incredible computer scientists at Centre Henri Pousseur recreated De Mey’s electronics and since then we have had the chance to play it in several new venues. This most recent performance was reviewed by Adrian Smith:
“Technology was very much a feature of Thierry De Mey’s Light Music (2004, rev. 2021) for conductor and technician that utilised wifi sensors to ‘paint light and sound’. The Nadar Ensemble’s trombonist Thomas Moore assumed the role of a conductor, standing in relative darkness with a beam of light crossing the stage in front of him. When Moore moved his hands into the path of the beam they gave the impression of being independent of his body, flame-like and dancing in sync with sounds from an accompanying tape track. Later in the piece, these movements were visualised on the screen to paint the sound into a series of abstract images. The performance was a tour de force of concentration and accuracy from Moore and again demonstrated the effective integration of music and technology.”
Thierry De Mey’s Light Music has fascinated me since the very first the moment I saw it performed. It’s a work for solo conductor and live electronics, but that perhaps does not give enough credit to De Mey’s foresight and inventive spirit. In this piece, the soloist literally creates and illustrates sound in real time and in light. During my doctoral studies I had the chance to work very closely with De Mey and the computer wizards at Centre Henri Pousseur on Light Music and created a new version in 2021. I am thrilled that my ‘home’ ensemble, Nadar, is just as inspired by the piece and has included the work as the title piece in our program at Concertgebouw Brugge this Friday, the 2nd of February. The program is full of incredible light-inspired pieces: DRIE by S. Verstockt, Nocturne by M. Wettl, and Simon Steen-Anderson’s reimagining of Bach’s Schlummert Ein.
This Thursday evening I get to take another crack at an old favorite: Terry Riley’s “IN C”. Hermes Ensemble, I Solisti and the Youngstars will join forces in and around the Blauwe Zaal in DE SINGEL (Antwerp, Belgium) to present this monumental minimalistic masterpiece. I feel very fortunate to have the chance to coach and direct this wonderful collection of musicians and look forward experiencing it come to life. Come check it out!
“De balans: dit waren de beste 10 klassieke concerten van 2023 tot nu toe (…) 9) Stefan Prins / Nadar Ensemble, Der Wanderer 2.0. Het begrip ‘klassiek’ mag wel eens wat opgerekt worden.” For my English speaking friends: The balance: this were the best 10 classical concerts of 2023 so far. 9) Stefan Prins / Nadar Ensemble, Der Wanderer 2.0. The term ‘classical’ can be stretched a little.
Sweet words to start the summer.
Link to the article here and I took some screenshots below because its behind a paywall.
Together with the amazing Pascal Gielen and Rebecca Diependaele, I am more than thrilled to announce that my first book will be published in the coming weeks. Here is a copy of the cover designed by the one and only Joram De Cocker.
Thank you to Nadar for everything and especially this time for the great publishing work! Thank you to Michael Beil for the inspiring piece! And thank you to INSAM for allowing us to rework and republish this essay.
Existing and new video and electronica works are linked in a surprising way in a single, uninterrupted grand tour.
In our ever more virtual world, the boundaries between indoors and outdoors are becoming increasingly blurred. In Der Wanderer 2.0, a new, full-evening multimedia performance from Stefan Prins and Nadar Ensemble, you’ll have the opportunity to experience this first-hand. Not only will Prins go with you on a stroll in and around DE SINGEL, but also through his oeuvre. Existing and new compositions with video and electronics are linked in a surprising way in a single, uninterrupted grand tour.
This article traces the creative process of six to five, a work for 20 guitarists with a special role for the conductor, premiered by the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp’s guitar ensemble. I commissioned the American composer Jessie Marino as part of research into the role of the instrumentalised conductor. The article explores the ways in which Marino deployed the conductor to meet her artistic goals, testing at each step the extent to which her utilisation rises to the level of instrumentalisation. Applying political theories offered by, among others, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, the article also considers the extent to which Marino deployed the conductor as a tactical leader in both the rehearsal process and the performance of six to five.
It’s been a while since my last post, so this may be longer than usual. It has been quite the spring and I have a lot to cover!
(c) Wim Hierbaut
First off – Nadar Ensemble – what an amazing and crazy whirlwind of concerts, trips, and composer’s schools in no less than 8 cities in 6 countries across 2 continents. We first went to Keil, Germany to play our now well-routined Doppelgänger program at the Frequenz festival. This program includes Jodlowski’s solo trombone piece, OUTERSPACE in which I got to play really close to the public – I mean audience-nervously-thinking-about-holding-their-ears-close! Our band then made is US debut as the 2022 Fromm residents at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. We were invited to work closely with the PhD-composition students on new pieces written especially for our ensemble. Personally this concert was quite touching because not only did I learn how to use a CD-mute (it sounds wild!), my parents made the trip up to see us play. How wonderful it was wonderful to present this ensemble and my friends to my family. After Harvard it was back to the capital city of Europe for a rock-n-roll-style concert at Das Haus followed closely on its heels by our family show at Côte Jardin in De Bijloke, Ghent. And that was just May! In June, we first flew to Athens, Greece to play our newest (and fanciest!) version of FITTINGinSIDE, by Stefan Prins at the annual DARIAH-EU event. Then Nadar repeated my PhD-program, HANDS ON (hands off) to an incredibly appreciative crowd at the INMM conference in Darmstadt, Germany. Afterwards we headed off to Paris, France to play Pierre Jodlowski’s thrilling and enrapturing chamber opera Alan T.) at the Philharmonie. The last stop on our blizt across Europe was in beautiful and charming (and hot!) Plasencia, Spain. There we once again were invited as artists-in-residence for a composer’s school. This one was put on by the really hip Klexos Ensemble.
While I was in the States in May, I got the chance to work with an old school friend of my on an improvisation project, the amazing and unstoppable saxophonist, Tyrone Fredericks. He introduced me to another great musician from the Lehigh Valley, drummer Kevin Soffera. Together we spent a day in Kevin’s basement studio playing Ty’s numbers and putting together a cool little recording we hope to bring out by the end of the year. More on that later.
(c) Lotte de Voght
And lastly, I just finished off my first year as chair of the brass section at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. It was a year in which I felt like I was playing catch up constantly, but am grateful to my colleagues within the section and my fellow chairs for their help along the way and especially their patience. The brass group is full of great players and teachers, and most importantly, we all seem to share a collective vision. I must be doing something right because at the end of the year, not only did the school renew my brass position, they also asked me to act as chair of the research group Performance Practice in Perspective as well as teach two courses in Artistic Research. I am very much looking forward to the challenge both functions will present and am really grateful that I can continue pursuing my own research in the arts at this institution.
Thomas R. Moore 