BACK‘We have proved we are trailblazers’ – inspiring women of Edinburgh International Festival share hopes for classical music
Every year, some of the world’s finest performers from opera, classical music, dance and theatre, flock to the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) for three weeks of glorious music and performance.
And as Classic FM partners with the EIF to present online highlights from their classical music offering, we shine the spotlight on three of the festival’s star composers, Errollyn Wallen, Anna Clyne and Ayanna Witter-Johnson, who tell Classic FM about why we all need music in our lives – and what performers desperately need in order to keep making it.
Wikinger gehen einfach erstmal los
Dicker Staub zwischen den Stoppelfeldern auf der Anfahrt zum „Slotsfeldladen“, einer mächtig die Landschaft dominierenden Kulturscheune: der letzte knappe Kilometer führt über unbefestigte Feldwege. Was hier am vergangenen Freitag begann, forderte aber nicht nur den Besuchern einige Entdeckungslust ab, sondern war insgesamt ein Gang ins Offene – die Geburt eines neuen Klassikfestivals in der weitläufigen Gutsdorf- und Parklandschaft rund um das kleine Barockschloss Schackenborg in Südjütland.
Tommaso Lonquich (Klarinette), der Cellist Jonathan Slaatto und Martin Qvist Hansen am Klavier sind drei Musiker, die als Dänisches Klarinettentrio zusammenspielen und nun, Väter und Hebammen in einem, das neue Musikfest nahe der Kleinstadt Tønder aufziehen. Die kann bereits mit einem Folk-Festival aufwarten sowie einem Standesamt, das jährlich mehr als anderthalbtausend vorwiegend ausländische Paare auf kurzem Weg zur beamteten Zweisamkeit bringt; Strukturen, die einem spontan-beherzten und trotzdem wohlorganisierten Zugriff auf die schönen Dinge des Lebens entgegenkommen, lassen sich also voraussetzen.
Vikings just go for it
Thick dust between the stubble fields on the approach to the “Slotsfeldladen”, a cultural barn that powerfully dominates the landscape: the last scarcely kilometre leads over unpaved dirt roads. What began here last Friday, however, not only demanded a certain amount of discovery from the visitors, but was altogether a walk into the open – the birth of a new classical music festival in the extensive estate village and park landscape around the small baroque castle of Schackenborg in southern Jutland.
Tommaso Lonquich (clarinet), cellist Jonathan Slaatto and Martin Qvist Hansen on piano are three musicians who play together as the Danish Clarinet Trio and now, fathers and midwives in one, are raising the new music festival near the small town of Tønder. Tønder already has a folk festival and a registry office that brings more than one and a half thousand couples, most of them from abroad, to their official togetherness; structures that accommodate a spontaneous and yet well-organised approach to the finer things in life can therefore be taken for granted.
À Paris, vif engouement pour les concerts à la bougie dans les églises cet été
On passerait presque devant sans la voir et pourtant, ce soir, une petite foule se presse devant la minuscule église Saint-Ephrem, rue des Carmes, dans le 5e arrondissement de Paris. Un succès surprise pour Serge Rougegrez, de l’association Musique et Patrimoine, qui organise des concerts depuis près de 20 ans dans l’église syriaque : “À ma plus grande surprise, il y a une bonne affluence, je dirais 50% en plus pour la période. C’est certainement dû au fait que beaucoup d’organisateurs ont eu peur de programmer beaucoup de concerts, de crainte de ne pas avoir de monde, parce qu’on manque quand même de touristes à cause de la Covid. Les gens se replient donc sur le peu de concerts qu’il y a à Paris, c’est comme ça que j’explique cette affluence.”
Des touristes pour la plupart, mois d’août oblige, ravis de retrouver un peu de musique vivante, dans un cadre intimiste et magnifique. Une affluence qui fait plaisir à Clément Caillier, pianiste de 28 ans, qui donne quatre récitals ce mois-ci à Saint-Ephrem. “Il s’agit d’un endroit absolument magnifique, avec une très belle acoustique. On sent tout de suite un cadre très intimiste propice à jouer Chopin, Satie, Liszt, comme c’est le cas ce soir”, confie le jeune homme, en enfilant son costume. “Puis c’est la première fois depuis plusieurs mois que je revois un public en chair et en os.”
In Paris, candlelight concerts in churches are very popular this summer
You could almost walk past it without seeing it, and yet this evening a small crowd is crowding in front of the tiny church of Saint-Ephrem, rue des Carmes, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. A surprise success for Serge Rougegrez, from the association Musique et Patrimoine, which has been organising concerts in the Syriac church for nearly 20 years: “To my great surprise, there is a good attendance, I would say 50% more for the period. This is certainly due to the fact that many organisers were afraid to schedule many concerts, for fear of not having any people, because there is a lack of tourists because of the Covid. So people fall back on the few concerts that there are in Paris, that’s how I explain this influx.”
Most of them are tourists, because of the month of August, and they are delighted to find a bit of live music in an intimate and magnificent setting. Clément Caillier, a 28-year-old pianist, is delighted with the number of people who come to Saint-Ephrem this month to give four recitals. “It is an absolutely magnificent place, with very good acoustics. You can immediately feel a very intimate setting conducive to playing Chopin, Satie, Liszt, as is the case this evening”, confides the young man, as he puts on his suit. “And it’s the first time for several months that I’ve seen an audience in the flesh.
Chamber Music America Names CEO
As of September 1, Kevin Kwan Loucks, an Orange-county based chamber musician and entrepreneur, is the new CEO of Chamber Music America. He succeeds Margaret Loi, who announced her retirement last November.
Louck’s wide-ranging background includes co-founding Chamber Music OC, a performance and outreach organisation coming up on its 10th anniversary in 2022; program development for the Music Academy of the West; fund-raising for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County; performing as pianist and founding member of the still-extant Trio Céleste; and serving as a teaching assistant for the Emerson String Quartet at SUNY Stony Brook.
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