Classical Jazz Concert Award
Conservatorium Maastricht - Willem Hijstek Hall
19:30
On November 4th 2022 at 19:30, Conservatorium Maastricht will premiere the finalists of the AIM, the Award for Innovation in Music.
The Award for Innovation in Music turns three! AIM stimulates the development of original ideas by awarding €5000 to one of our students. This year the motto of AIM is: LIGHT!
Join us on November 4th for the final of this award.
The finalists are:
- Luca Vaillancourt
- Juliette Romboti
- Théo Dufour
- Luna Gräfin von Hardenberg
- Konstantinos Loumpas
Aguamarina - Luca Vaillancourt
Aguamarina is a performance which bridges between lost traditions and contemporary music. As third-second-and first generation immigrants, the pillar of Triana y Luca’s vision is that cultural knowledge and traditions do not “belong” to anyone; they exist as entities thriving on constant reinvention and evolution. Exploring the meeting point between stories of heritage, Flamenco folklore, and popular mythical iconography, the duo break the chains of orthodoxy and hope to inspire others to look into their own lost traditions.
Their composition Aguamarina explores themes of love, spirituality, guidance, and nature. Working with a team of young creatives and mixing dimensions of music, poetry, costume, and movement, their performance draws on the art of storytelling. Embodying an exploration of different mediums of expression, Aguamarina is an encounter between research and raw, intimate performance.
Composers: Luca Vaillancourt & Triana Segovia
Arranger: Luca Vaillancourt
Double Bass: Peter Willems
Choir: Mariann Kiss, Amelie Jost, Gabriel Montenegro, Gabriel Kruse, Denise Farricella, Melanie Schlüter, Peter Willems, Sondre Kvingedal
Ad Astra - Juliette Romboti
Through the creation of a fully immersive experience, this work invites the audience to collectively connect to ‘the light within’. While loosely alluding to the long-used narrative of searching through darkness for light, the piece uses stars and distant galaxies as a visual metaphor to access the light within ourselves.
Composer, Visual Artist, Juliette Romboti
Sound Engineer, Nader Adabnejad
Soprano, Margarita Dudčaka
Mezzo Soprano, Jeske de Haart
Alto Saxophone, Francesca Fantini
Alto Saxophone, Elena Toro Arróniz
Alto Saxophone, Jorge Gómez Josa
The last light - Théo Dufour (movie-concert)
September 1939. While Europe is at the beginning of a war and in the greatest uncertainty, Madeleine, Philippe and their daughter Rose live a peaceful life as best they can. But, the war is coming, and will come and break everything. One day, a bombardment arrives, the girls run to hide in the cellar. Soon, the memories will become the last light that will illuminate them.
In a great collaboration with the movie-director Robin Guimmara, the jazz-guitarist Francisco Laurito and the choir-conductor Zi Zhang Wang.
To Become a Butterfly - Konstantinos Loumpas
“To become a butterfly” tells the story of a young man who dares to dream in a landscape of misery and decay. The echo of a faint song amid the whir of raging fire, lulls the young man to sleep, and in his dreams, he wishes for nothing more than to become a butterfly, than to become something more than what the limits of his world allowed him to be, and in the process alter the perishing reality of that world.
In the performance the audience will dive into the dreams of the protagonist as he falls asleep but also into his dreams and desires for a better future. Phenomenally different approaches to dreams, but actually very similar as both are imaginations of a reality that doesn’t exist in the full sense of the word, but are filled with potential because in dreaming anything is possible.
“To become a butterfly” presents a pessimistic reality and the fear of dreaming without limits, that it engenders. The young man in the story represents nothing less than every person who has aspirations and goals for the future, so seemingly crazy and impossible as the desire to become a butterfly. Through the pessimistic landscape presented, reminiscent of the corrupted and cruel side of our world, I want to pass the message that we should always fight for a better future and seek change for what has to change, and this fight begins with a simple dream.
Performers:
Ariadna Ruiz – Piano
Taja Rijavec – Harp
Pierre Anfray – Percussion
Eleni Dendrinou – Vocals
Nebula - Luna Gräfin von Hardenberg
‘NEBULA’ is an immersive experience where we explore through the music of Eric Whitacre and Ola Gjeilo, a glimpse into the mysterious beauty of the lights existing in space and reminiscing of the Aurora Borealis.
A Nebula is a giant cloud of light, dust and gas in space. Some nebulae come from the explosion of a dying star, while other nebulae are created from new stars being born.
The texts sung narrate a powerful sort of beauty that is seen in the Aurora Borealis and in the divine birth. With warm light as heavy as pure gold, “Lux, calida gravisque pura velut aurum”, and with angels sing softly to the newborn babe, “Et canunt angeli molliter modo natum.”, so does the Nebula welcome the new birth of a star with its light.
But also, how beautiful and frightening that light can be, terrible as an army set in array, “terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata.”, making us flee away while pleading to turn thy eyes away from us, “Averte oculos tuos a me, quia ipsi me avolare fecerunt.”
‘NEBULA’ is a reminder that although we get caught up in mundane life, we are just one small piece in the puzzle of the universe. There are many unknown things much bigger than us that we don’t fully understand and have no control over. We can only observe the beauty from afar and be reminded that we too can be like them when we truly connect with each other: ever-changing, unpredictable and able to create powerful, beautiful light around us from sharing this incredible journey of existence we are all on. "Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.” -Stephen Hawking
Luna Gräfin von Hardenberg is a classical singer, currently studying with Axel Everaert. As an artist, she is very interested in integrating music to visual art in order to create interactive and immersive experiences. Because of her multicultural background, she is adamant about using music to bring people together despite our differences.
Choristers
Sopranos:
Malena Hoffmann
Nora Tarraf
Naïs Toniello
Altos:
Sarah Meyer
Francisca Silva Djacabi
Tenors:
Younes Müller
Sebastian Opgen-Rhein
Basses:
Pieter-Jan Van den Broeck
Ethan Mileski
Aljoscha Ristow
Light effects assistant:
Giulio Branda
Dr. Peter Peters
Peter Peters is endowed professor in the innovation of classical music and associate professor at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University. Before coming to Maastricht University, he worked as a classical music journalist and critic. His research focuses on innovating classical music practices, especially symphonic music. Together with Stefan Rosu, he developed the research lines in the MCICM: the role of classical music and its value for society; the ways in which the relationship between performers of classical music, such as symphony orchestras and their audience is mediated; and the ways in which classical music practices contribute to the preservation of our cultural and social sounding heritage.
René Rousseau
Together with Cecile Maas, René Rousseau is initiator and sponsor of the prize. Their aim of this prize is to broaden student’s horizons and field of work, to open new doors in the creative, musical and sociocultural field. With this prize, they hope finalists tap into new sources, find new audiences and increase the opportunities on the market by taking innovative paths. See the possibilities and opportunities and go further than you can imagine! To learn to be in charge of the performance from A-Z, and to possibly work in a multidisciplinary way together, to design and implement your production, which in turn can add new dimensions to the concept and execution. And not to forget the audience, who can be amazed, surprised and challenged within their own frame of reference and reflect on what the performance offers.
Stijn Huijts
Stijn Huijts is CEO and Director of the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht. Before joining the museum in 2011, he was founder and director of SCHUNCK, a multidisciplinary museum for contemporary art, music, dance and literature, he was director of the Stedelijk Museum Het Domein in Sittard. He has organized several exhibitions and collaborative projects with artists, including the Dutch Pavilion at the 26th Sao Paulo Biennale. As a current advisor to the Mondriaan Fonds, he was a member of the board of the International Committee for Modern Art Museums (CIMAM), the Visual Arts, Design and Architecture Committee of the Council for Culture and a member of the board of directors for the National Office for the Arts. Cultural Heritage. Huijts is a lecturer at international post-doctoral research institutes and a member of the International Association of Art Critics and ICOM. He holds an MA in General Cultural Studies from the University of Amsterdam.
Brigitte van Eck
Since 2021, Brigitte van Eck is director of Theater aan het Vrijthof. Her goal is to realize the cultural and social ambition of the city theatre; culture for a broad and diverse audience. In doing so, it must look for collaborations with partners from both the cultural field and the business community, whereby culture is used as an economic link in an attractive business and residential climate in Maastricht as a cultural city. Before Van Eck started at the Munttheater, she directed Toneelgroep Maastricht, among others.
Laia Genc
Laia Genc, living and working in Germany, is part of a rich music scene in Cologne and plays concerts all around Europa and in the world, whether with her own projects or as a side woman. To a lot of projects, Laia ads a special colour as a sensitive soundpaintress, improviser, composer and arranger in her own particular way of mixing Jazz, free improvisation and lots of musical charm to an unmistakable sound. Her piano techniques give Laia the freedom to fully explore the border between composed structures and improvisational freedom. She is always interested in combining ideas, combining different styles of music and grow them into something special.
