SEASON 2010 - Unesco awarded 'City of Creative Music' - Ghent, Belgium. "... Jazz & Sounds will (will have to) answer a lot of vital questions. A fact though - it is one of the most important developments on the contemporary European Music Scene today and quite a proper response to the levelling influences that a wrong interpretation of the concept 'international' has generated in the past. 'International' isn't hype, it is the generation of synenergy and the coming into being of beautiful new possibilities and perspectives." - Argo Spier. "... To the American opera lover it is quite feasible to make a roundtrip visiting Köln, Brussels and Ghent in a three-day sprint for opera and classical music. This is really the message that the Music Halls in the near vicinity and pereferi of the Ruhr should get out in 2010 – dialogue, feasibility and collaboration." - Argo Spier NEWSREEL - Jazz & Sounds first edition - April 2010 Taking its first step, the newly erected Jazz & Sounds festival in the City of Ghent, Belgium, delivered a potent challenge to some of the 'fixed' ideas of what contemporary jazz is supposed to be about. It shows a 'new' Jazz. Its opening performance on the 22nd of March 2010 made a strong point about this and pushed traditional concepts into strange directions. It also presented a good picture of its ability to engage in the debate to define Jazz. The future of the creativity unleashed by this art, Jazz-new-Jazz, now seems to be a hot topic in Flanders, and its buzz has already spilled over the borders of Belgium. Students from two conservatories in the Netherlands are also taking part in the festival, strengthening the international allures - the Unesco-awarded City of Creative Music indeed has an abundance of initiatives. The festival had its opening at two locations in the city; the first location was the renowned De Bijloke Music Centrum where an 'open lab' was installed in the auditorium and in the glass-covered spaces around the antique hospital that the Centrum was in the 18th century; experimental installations entice the spectator. At the second location, in the recently renovated Miry hall of the De Hogeschool and Gentse Conservatorium, there was an impressionistic jazzy flight into ‘real’ Jazz, namely a flirty dialogue with the work of Miles Davis. By choosing these two locations, the festival states that it wants to 'come in' on a high level and merge with the best of the existing cultural life in the city. It claims its own recognition and, as a barter reward, it offers vibrancy to these venues. Lasting till the 28th of March, the festival will also hold concerts in the Vooruit and a local art museum. All this accentuates trademarks - mobility, a youthful show of exhilaration, dynamic experimentalism, inter-action and an arty atmosphere (with no booze). Specifics - At its location in the De Bijloke Music Centrum, the music installations and 'sound exhibits' drew attention through their researching character. Innovative inroads into the essence of musical expression were taken and emphasis was placed on the 'organic' relationship between music and the human body, mind and ear. In the Miry Hall of the De Hogeschool the flight went into 'Impressions of a Blue Kind', in which young musicians from various conservatoria used Miles Davis' 1959 record, 'Kind of Blue', to explore possible creative responses to the master's creativity. Both refinements on the opening day stressed dialogue and a knack for redefining "aged" concepts. Jazz-new-jazz is what the Jazz of this festival may be called and it is a statement that questions the filaments that holds contemporary creative Jazz together - a very interesting buzzi-ness. Two noteworthy compositions (the concept 'composition' is used here in its broadest sense) at the 'Open Lab' in the De Bijloke Music Centrum set a definitive tone for future signatures: the mixed media work created by Pieter Coussement (completing his Doctorate in Music) and Olmo Cornelis's creation (Musicology, Hogeschool, Gent). Coussement's work seeks to define 'function' and 'location' within the inter-active arts. His audio installation, consisting of robotics, sound capes, accelerometers, tracking cameras and projection, forces a vis-à-vis encounter with the spectator, questioning inter-activity within music. Together with Katty Kochman, he wishes to deliver 'proof' of 'concept' in the augmentation of voice. Olmo Cornelis' 'Nelumbo' (an African word describing the concept 'lily') is a composition for two voices in which a dancer/performer with bodily-attached sensors is the mediator and creative conductor who corrects and steers the evolution of the composition with her physical movements as it comes to life -- pure inter-action between body and sound, leading via computer to an enrichment of the original composition. The software becomes the steering agent and the composer is reduced to spectator. The issue of his work is the exploitation of stress that's placed on communication (content) and its mirror, stress on co-ordination (design and arrangement). In the process of the execution of the composition, it all becomes 'strange' and one wonders 'where is the human voice?' and 'why is music no more than sound?' *** [Update to follow - 'Impressions of a Blue Kind' - Miles Davis' 1959 record; 'Kind of Blue' becomes enriched with impressions composed by young artists from the various Conservatories in Gent (Belgium), Maastricht and Tilburg (The Netherlands) The Jazz & Sounds festival is running from the 22nd till the 28th of April 2010 Program and tickets from the Festival's homepage Homepage and program - Jazz & Sounds Argo Spier, Opera Pages Consulting editor, Joneve McCormick, USA GENT JAZZ - July 2010 '... The Gent Jazz 2010 presentation at the De Bijloke Music Center in July isn't merely an event on a yearly calender, it is much more. It is an exhibition of the range and scope the city of Ghent and the De Bijloke Music Centrum is capable of and proof of the city's ability to deal with grand musical events scoring high internationally. - Lieven De Caluwe, City Council, dept. Culture and Tourism. '... Departing from the concept that Yves Rosseel (former General Director of the De Bijloke Music Centrum - Ed.) developed the past ten years at the De Bijloke, the idea that the meaning of the word 'international' should be approached in terms of one's ability to have influence on the international development of a musician’s career, rather than from a point of view of managerial hype, this writer has to admit that he is excited by the reciprocating creativity that may result from the mix of the sounds of young Flemish Jazz talent with Nora Jones' timbre and soul-searching bluish drawl in July 2010. - Argo Spier, Opera Pages. NEWSREEL - APRIL 2010 - There is exciting news from the Gent Jazz Festival 2010 this April 6, 2010. This year's Jazz festival - housed at the renowned De Bijloke Music Centrum in Ghent, Belgium and taking place from the 7th to the 18th of July 2010 - will feature the much beloved 88 year old Belgian mouth harmonica virtuoso, Toots Thielemans, from New York, USA. Nora Jones, American singer-songwriter, pianist, keyboardist and guitarist will also be featured, with a tribute to Django Reinhardt. The festival will present artists and works from different periods of Jazz, thereby giving it a 'representative' character. Previous editions of the Gent Jazz festival included grand Jazz Maestros such as Van Morrisson. The Jazz lover that wants to 'get into' the Belgian contemporary Jazz scene will have an excellent opportunity this year to explore it in a classy, 'high-cultured' Flemmish setting which oozes medieaval-modernity coupled with a homespun and honest engagement with music. The city of Ghent is one of the four UNESCO acclaimed and awarded cities of 'Creative Music' in Europe. The Jazz component of its creativity is a great contributor to the 2010 event. (The other three cities are Bologna (Italy), Sevilla (Spain) and Glasgow (Scotland). Attending the press release, the representative of the local city council, Lieven Decaluwe, stressed the fact that the festival will once again show the city's ability to handle large, international events with aplomb. The city has sufficient accommodations for visitors from beyond its borders and purchasing a night's stay in a hotel gives a day ticket free. Also attending the press release was one of Flanders' most renowned lyrical and chanson singers, Johan Verminnen, who is also Chairman of the SABAM Cultural overseeing copyright issues. Asked whether an improvised session with Nora Jones and himself would not be 'a thing' for him, his answer was an emphatic 'yes'. Her voice's timbre and his in a zany setting ... oh, this may be something for Jones' managers to think about - her sound with that of a Flemish troubadour. And departing from the concept that Yves Rosseel (former General Director of the De Bijloke Music Centrum - Ed.) developed the past ten years at the De Bijloke, the idea that the meaning of the word 'international' should be approached in terms of one's ability to have influence on the international development of a musician’s career, rather than from a point of view of managerial hype, this writer has to admit that he is excited by the reciprocating creativity that may result from the mix of the sounds of young Flemish Jazz talent with Nora Jones' timbre and soul-searching bluish drawl in July 2010.’ The Gent Jazz Festival 2010, even now, so early into the European Spring, is already enticing fans with great expectations. homepage gent jazz 2010 online ticket sales gent jazz 2010 you tube - nora jones - don't know why you tube - johan verminnen's - pauline you tube - toots thielemans - sophistic lady homepage de bijloke - 2010 Argo Spier, Opera Pages Consulting editor, Joneve McCormick, USA ARCHIVE - January 2010 - Jazz & Sounds At its first Press Conference on the 12th of January 2010, the newly erected festival, Jazz & Sounds, emphasised its creative connection between jazz and classical music, and unveiled a most exhilarating and innovative evolution of the music scene in Flanders (the Flemish-speaking side of Belgium) - namely the building of a collaborative pact between mainstream classical music venues and circuits in the Unesco-awarded creative city of music, Ghent, and the reaching out of these institutions across the borders of known musical genre. The emphasis of Jazz & Sounds will be on jazz, contemporary music creations and the flow in improvisation. Seven institutions are involved: the De Bijloke Music Centrum, the Hogeschool Gent Conservatorium, the KASK (academy for fine arts), Kunstencentrum Vooruit, Stichting Logos (experimental music), El Negocito and IPEM (Institute of Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music). The co-incidental initiative of these up and coming and established venues for contemporary, traditional and baroque music is a forceful reciprocation to the events that are momentarily taking place across the border of Belgium, in the Ruhr Gebiet of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, where all art is exposed to international attention because it serves in 2010 as the World Cultural Heritage capitol. Jazz & Sounds grew from the firm local roots of a tradition of creative improvisation in the City of Ghent and feeds on the dormant drive towards nostalgia in the town and its history of creative eruptions in music. This is part and parcel of the music scene in Flanders and previous festivals, such as the Blue Note Festival and Ghent Jazz, housed in the de Bijloke Music Centrum until recently, which brought to Ghent many acclaimed USA Jazz musicians and stars like 'Van-the-Man' (Van Morrison), fed the desire for introspection and exploration. And the result now is a well thought out and creative-based new 'jazz' festival. The yearly, and newly renowned Festival van Vlaanderen in the city, has for the last two years also played a part in the innovation of a platform for 'experimental improvisation' with its sub-section, Festival Made®! and the initiatives of Jelle Derricks. Jazz & Sounds is posing a rethinking of this tradition and it seems to wish to consolidate creativity and bundle it as a spectacular new force in the city. One of its concerts planned for March 2010 (March 22 in the renovated Hall Miry in the Hogeschool Gent Conservatorium) is a good example of this and the course (with its precariously ambitious daring) it wishes to take - 'Impressions of a Blue Kind'. Students from conservatories in Belgium and the Netherlands will work on Miles Davis' 'So What' and fuse it with Claude Debussy's 'Arabesque No. 1' to create a new 'impression'. This example of the use of the tools of music in unification processes and in layered creative research signifies not only the Festival's international perspective, but also its desire to break away from the dead, flat, boozy and submissive atmosphere of Jazz. (Talking about booze - it is a known fact that Belgium has 'the best beers in the world' ... such as the 'Kwak' with its specially designed glass that cannot stand on a table and says 'qwack' everytime you drink from it). But that is but one of the issues in Jazz & Sounds. The real issue, and one of the most daring, is the attempt to create a 'festival nouveau' that wishes to undertake the recycling of existing products of art and creating newly with them. And, by way of entering the discourse as to whether art can be made out of art ... what artist will tell you it cannot be done?! Can it be done to create art - that is the question. Jazz & Sounds will (will have to) answer a lot of vital questions. A fact though - it is one of the most important developments on the contemporary European Music Scene today and quite a proper response to the levelling influences that a wrong interpretation of the concept 'international' has generated in the past. 'International' isn't hype, it is the generation of syn-energy and the coming into being of beautiful new possibilities and perspectives. Program Jazz & Sounds Argo Spier, Opera Pages Consulting editor, Joneve McCormick, USA NEWSREEL - January 2009 * (Update soon with info Graupner Project - Florian Heyerick/De Bijloke Music Centrum - March 2010 feature.) NEWSREEL - October 2009 - The De Bijloke Music Centrum in Ghent, Belgium programmed two up and coming Baroque ensembles for its October 2009 series of concerts and delivered two most intriguing and fragile ‘storytelling’ concerts. Le Poéme Harmonique, an ensemble that formed around Vincent Dumestre beginning in 1997 and which will be performing its creation Calvary Lamantations in the Miller Theatre of Colombia University in NYC on the 23rd of January 2010, brings source music of the early French and Italian repertoire and explores traditional folk music. It very vividly re-creates tableaux baroques. On the 13th of October 1990, Le Poéme Harmonique had its World Premiere in the De Bijloke with its latest creation, a correlative interpretation of works by the early 17th century composers, Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Trabaci and Marco Marazzoli. The ‘rediscovering’ of ‘old music’ of Le Poéme Harmonique combines with punctual poetic interpretation of the oral tradition and is performed with expressive authenticity using instruments from the 16th and 17th century – viola da gamba, theorbe, lute, tjorbino, arpa tripla and beogen. The ensemble’s large-scale stage productions, such as Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (in 2004), a comédie-ballet by Molière and Lully (stage director, Benjamin Lazar) and its Baroque Carnival (directed by Cécile Roussat), an original show combining Italian music with the circus arts (artists trained at the Centre National des Arts du Cirque) included enrichment brought by other disciplines, with actors and dancers joining its singers and musicians in programs of chamber music. The Carnival Baroque was performed in Berkeley and San Francisco, USA in 2008. With its current World creation and the performance of Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Trancredi e Clorinda, Trabaci’s ‘Consonanze stravaganzi’ and Marazoli’s ‘La fiera di Farfa’ in the Bijloke, it achieved new heights. The performance was most fragile, agile and inviting in the agitated style of the genere temperato that Monteverdi swore by. The execution of it bordered on a delicate precision. The imagery that remained with the spectator was that of a mediaeval market tableau with all its vividness and intrigue. Moteverdi struggled all his life to reach a perfect subtle portrayal of the symbiotic co-existence between poetry and music in his compositions and used the storytelling orchestral tableaux as a medium; with its performance on the 13th in the Bijloke, Le Poéme Harmonique achieved a similar correspondence between poetry and music, using the same medium. It was most intriguing for the spectator to ‘rediscover’ the fact that music and words, in the right dialectical discourse, tell a story better than any of the ‘stories’ dished up today on HD Television. Visit the homepage of Le Poéme Harmonique Vincent Dumestre & Le Poeme Harmonique: Una Musica Il Suonar Parlante, the ensemble around virtuoso Vittorio Ghielmi, born in Milan, Italy, who is among the world’s best players of the viola da gamba, performed the Premiere suite en re mineur and Troisieme suite en re majeur of the 17th century composer, Antoine Forqueray. The simplicity of the storyline in Antoine Forqueray’s ‘composite stories’ and the blatant singularity of their honesty came as a rejuvenating shock to many spectators on the 8th of October in one of the Music Center’s more intimate halls, the Kraakhuis. Vittorio Ghielmi brought to life these two instrumental pieces with such a marked fragility and subtlety that these ‘beautiful stories’ of so many centuries ago readily assumed the character of the real. The audience, consisting not only of die-hard Baroque fans (I sat next to a modern jazz muscian), was thrilled with the discovery of the dormant power of the now in the hands of Vittorio Ghielmi and his Il Suonar Parlante ensemble. The concert was an appropriate gift to its audience from the De Bijloke, celebrating its 10th birthday this year. It also illustrates yet again the distinctive difference the Music Centrum wishes to maintain among other music halls in the vicinity and neighboring countries, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany’s Nordrhein - Westfalen. In the past 10 years the De Bijloke Music Centrum has steadily established itself as one of the most important contemporary centres for the exploration and discovery of Baroque Music. Vittorio Ghielmi has performed as a soloist in the most important concert halls of Europe and the USA with orchestras such as Il Giardino Armonico, Wiener Philharmoniker, Philharmonic Orchestra, London. Visit Vittorio Ghiemi's homepage Forqueray - La Couperin / Il Giardino Armonico Argo Spier, Opera Pages Consulting editor, Joneve McCormick, USA   Ticket hot-line Jazz & Sounds 00 32(0)9 267 28 28 - Kunstencentrum Vooruit 00 32(0)9 268 92 92 - De Bijloke Music Centrum on-line available tickets program jazz & sounds newsletter de hogeschool gent conservatorium Press information Press and general information   ARCHIVE - September/October 2009 - Festival Made®! is the latest project of the Festival van Vlaanderen, Ghent, Belgium. Since its initiation during the Festival's 50th edition celebrations last year and its incorporation into the yearly September series of classical concerts of the Festival, it has already become the talk of the town as a rejuvenating force for Festival activities. The Festival van Vlaanderen opened its classical concert series in the city of Ghent with the jubilant and renowned Odegand (Ode to Ghent), a day filled with small concerts by musicians from multiple countries world-wide, introducing their work and the classical folklore behind it of the respective countries. The theme this year is La Gioia and once again there will be classical concerts with high standards from some of the world's best muscicians almost every night of the week and in diverse historic locations, till the 5th of October - a golden opportunity for the classical music lover to visit Ghent and have access to democratically priced concerts and to be among the Belgians and experience their cultural enthusiasm for music. The Festival Made®! project is programmed to begin the 26th of September, from 14.00h till 10.00h. In its previous version Made®! was spread out across two locations in the inner city, the Cercle Artistique et Littéraire and the historic Palace of Justice, both well-dated historical sites within the framework of the inner city's idyllic mediaeval buildings and Bruges-like canals. This year, however, Made®! has found its permanent abode in the Palace of Justice, which is more centrally situated and has now, after renovations, ample space for smaller and larger happenings. It is also within 10 minutes from the local central train station (and within 45 minutes from the Brussels' European hub for trains to Paris, London, Köln and Amsterdam and it is two hours 15 minutes from London's Euro star terminal.) rest of the newsreel   top