events

The 2011 edition of the ULTIMA Oslo Contemporary Music Festival hosts several concerts dedicated to Luciano Berio's Sequenzas. In the frame of the Festival, which will take place in the first half of September, the Sequenzas will be performed by Marino Formenti (September 8, Sequenza IV), Garth Knox (September 10, Sequenza VI), Rolf Borch (September 13, Sequenza V), Karin Hellqvist, Håkon Thelin, Ensemble Recherche (September 14, Sequenza VIII, XIVb, I, VII), Guri Egge, Thomas Kjekstad, Grzegorz Miszczyszyn (September 15, Sequenza III, XI, XIII), Sava Stoianov and Juan Carlos Gavoyo (September 16, Sequenza X). On September 13 will take place a workshop focused on the Sequenzas, that will be held by Luca Francesconi and musicians of the Ensemble Recherche.

The 2011 programme of the Dartington Summer School, where Berio held composition classes in 1961, features various performances and courses dedicated to his music. The Duetti for two violins serve as a model for the beginners composition course, A-Ronne is at the center of Linda Hirst’s course on Berio’s «voice theatre», which culminates in a concert including also Sequenza III and Cries of London (August 25). Other performances feature the Sequenze VII, X, XIV, Gesti, Lied, Opus Number Zoo, E si fussi pisci.

During the month of July 2011, Alina Ibragimova will perform Sequenza VIII for solo violin in several concerts in the frame of the Manchester International Festival. The concerts, scheduled at the Manchester Chetham's School of Music (July 1-17), will be replicated in London, at the Wiltons Music Hall (July 25-26-27), in collaboration with the Barbican Centre. The program includes works by Bach, Biber and Bartók. The performance will feature video installations by The Quay Brothers.

On May 27th, 2003, we lost Luciano Berio. On this eighth anniversary of that day, we would like to remember him with light illuminating his face as he watched the sun set, how he would meet a person dear to him, as an idea caught fire, or as he listened to or sang a beloved song. We pay our respects to him here with some new photographs, a few unpublished manuscripts and an extraordinary audio recording centered on E si fussi pisci, a favorite among Sicilian songs, which he reworked several times, from his beginnings until when the end drew near.

We are happy to announce the introduction of a new section to our website. The Concert calendar lists all the performances of Berio's music scheduled within the following six months. The Calendar, which can be ordered by date, city and country, will be updated regularly. It provides the principal information on the concerts and links to the website of the hosting institutions. You are all invited to consult it and share with us your impressions.

The Centro Studi Luciano Berio has set up a photocopying service in order to facilitate the access to printed literature that is no longer available or hard to reach. The service is limited only to published texts listed in the bibliography section of our database (http://www.lucianoberio.org/en/bibliography) and it is reserved exclusively to the Friends of the Centre (http://www.lucianoberio.org/en/node/1157). For further information please contact us at info@lucianoberio.org.

On 18 May 2010 Edoardo Sanguineti passed away, leaving a void that will never be filled. On the occasion of the first anniversary of his death, the Centro Studi Luciano Berio wishes to honour his memory with a small selection of unpublished documents testifying to the extraordinary human and creative bond that linked the great poet with Luciano Berio, bearing fruit in the creation of Passaggio, Laborintus II, A-Ronne, Canticum novissimi testamenti and Stanze.

Between the 16th and the 19 of May the Orchestra della Toscana, conducted by Giordano Bellincampi, with the mezzo-soprano Monica Bacelli, will perform Luciano Berio's orchestration of De Falla's Siete canciones populares espaňolas. The four concerts are scheduled in Bologna (May 16), Pisa (May 17), Piombino (May 18), and Florence (May 19). The program includes also the lyric Alba by Bruno Maderna, a selection of Lieder from Mahler's settings of Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and the "Unfinished” Symphony D.759 by Schubert.

From 11 to 14 May 2011, the Red Note Ensemble, directed by Garry Walker, will perform Différences for five instruments and tape in their tournée in Scotland. The tour will touch the towns of Banchory (May 11), Edinburgh (May 12), Glasgow (May 13) and Stirling (May 14). The program also includes two works by Salvatore Sciarrino and a new composition by the Scottish composer Carolyn Sparey.