Preludes to New Lights Festival 2021
TL presents a digital festival of contemporary piano and keyboard music performed and recorded in lockdown.
Watch the festival on our YouTube channel
Building on the success of the New Lights Festival 2019, students, staff and alumni are taking the Festival online this summer with a diverse range of composed and improvised contemporary music performed and recorded in homes across the world.
Curated by Douglas Finch, the Festival has earned a reputation for showcasing music of the avant-garde in all its multifarious incarnations.
Offering tasters of what’s to come when the Festival returns to its full live format in 2021, expect seven days of exciting preludes, previews and postludes.
Highlights include:
- the world premiere of Fifth Political Agenda, a new piece by Michael Finnissy written especially for Trinity Laban postgraduate piano student Annie Li.
a excerpt of Sonatina Nostalgica by Stephen Hough, written for and performed by Philip Fowke.
- a film by TL Fulbright Scholar Garrett Snedeker delving into the historical origins of the 1930 Kentucky coal mine strikes and contemporary parallels in the coronavirus pandemic in the US, with his performance of Frederic Rzewski’s Which Side Are You On?
- Birds of a Feather, a new sonic work by Heloïse Tunstall-Behrens recorded as a collaborative group performance on Zoom.
- a multi-media performance of Norbert Zehm’s Prelude in Turquoise by Maya-Leigh Rosenwasser, improvising alongside Norbert’s live action painting and dancer Marie Stockhausen.
- a performance of Soosan Lolavar’s Black Dog by Trinity Laban alum Mahsa Salali
The festival also features opera transcriptions by Canadian composer Rodney Sharman for solo piano performed by Trinity Laban Gold Medal 2020 nominee Christos Fountos; a performance of excerpts from Yuka Takechi’s Winter Light performed by Yukiko Shinohara; works by Ed Cooper and Mikey Parsons; and improvisations inspired by a wide range of sources, from the landscape and nature of Sydney at Dawn, to reflections on the Black Lives Matter movement.
Head of Keyboard and Piano Sergio De Simone comments –
"We're very excited to present this digital festival, which offers an exciting glimpse into the possibilities of 2021. It is testament to the talent and resourcefulness of our keyboard department that we can continue to provide opportunities for performers, creators and audiences to encounter new music in innovative ways."
Films will be premiered on Trinity Laban’s YouTube channel from Mon 6 to Sun 12 July 2020 and released each day at 17.00.
For full event listings see below.
Artistic director: Douglas Finch
Curators: Roxanna Albayati, Maya-Leigh Rosenwasser and Andy Trewen
Video editing: Howard Felton