Program
Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179)
O rubor Saguinis for solo voice
Samir TimajChi (1992)
Unknown for soprano and double bass. World premiere
Andys Skordis (1983)
SHE…NEN for soprano and string quartet. World premiere
Yannis Kyriakides (1969)
Now we send you this message for soprano, bass clarinet and string quartet. World premiere
Andreas Moustoukis (1971, Dom Radio composer-in-residence)
letters from the garden for soprano, violin, viola and cello. World Premiere
Beat Furrer (1954)
Lotófagos (2006) for soprano and double bass
Details
“Between silence and screeching” is how Kristia Michael describes her new programme, Songs from the Garden. The soloist, equally experienced in medieval and contemporary vocal repertoire, presents several world premieres and reinterprets 21st-century music drawing inspiration from medieval ritual aesthetics.
The hymn of the famous 12th-century German abbess and visionary Hildegard von Bingen, O rubor Saguinis, will set a tone for four world premieres of chamber vocal works by Greek and Cypriot composers and Samir TimajChi, a young Iranian-born St. Petersburg composer. Attention to the nature of sound and silence, taste for the newest technologies and language features of contemporary electronic music, unhurried meditative manner, and interest in extreme vocal practices distinguish the works of Yannis Kyriakides, a master of Cypriot new music, and Andreas Moustoukis, the composer-in-residence of Dom Radio. Ideas about the meaning and purpose of music, echoing the medieval musical cosmogony, are shared by all of the composers presented in the programme. Austrian master of new music, Beat Furrer, has turned the story of the search for oblivion based on José Ángel Valente’s poetry into a poignant and disturbing acoustic narrative. His Lotófagos for soprano and double bass will be a true test for the soloist and a catharsis for the audience.
Kristia Michael is a Netherlands-based singer and composer from the Republic of Cyprus. Her musical education began in Cyprus and continued at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague (Netherlands), where she studied early and contemporary music. Kristia specialises in medieval repertoire under Menelaos-Dimitris Kountouras and masters the Gothic harp. She collaborates with the Greek early music ensemble Ex Silentio and directs the early music ensembles Sibil•la (NL) and Cantara (CY).
Kristia Michael’s teachers in contemporary music are Noa Frenkel, Natalia Pshenichnikova and Yannis Kyriakides. She has performed world premieres of works by Andreas Moustoukis, Tasos Stylianou, Georgios Stavrou and others. She is actively involved in concerts, lectures, and audiovisual installations. Her compositions have been performed at the SPRING festival, at the IMZ International Music + Media Centre, and her installation Elian was presented at Dom Radio by musicAeterna under the baton of Teodor Currentzis. Her album Silent Lands was co-produced with the Dom Radio composer-in-residence Andreas Moustoukis.