"There's a more experimental and conceptual side to Bent Sørensen's recent work which I wanted to present during this year's Festival. "

The Danish composer Bent Sørensen is to be Composer-in-Residence at hcmf// 2011, taking place this year from Friday 18 November - Sunday 27 November.

A wide-ranging programme of recent work by Bent Sørensen, revealing elements of the composer's work hitherto unfamiliar to UK audiences, extends throughout the ten-day festival.

The Sørensen programme is complemented by concerts, premieres and events featuring a spectrum of younger composers on the vibrant Danish new music scene. In the first year of his three-year association with hcmf// Jexper Holmen will write a new work for London Sinfonietta Chamber Players.

The Festival also welcomes some of Denmark's liveliest new music ensembles and performers, including Athelas - Denmark's leading contemporary chamber ensemble - FIGURA Ensemble with mezzo soprano Signe Asmussen and Ensemble Scenatet.

This major survey of trends in Danish new music is one of the key elements in hcmf// 2011. It is made possible by generous funding and close co-operation with SNYK, Wundergrund Festival, The Danish Arts Council, the Danish Composers Society and the Danish Arts Foundation.

The announcement was made by Festival Director Graham McKenzie at a reception on 16 May at the residence of the Danish Ambassador, Birger Riis-Jørgensen at which Bent Sørensen was also present.

 

Bent Sørensen programme 

Bent Sørensen is one of Denmark's leading composers. Now in his 50s, he studied with Ib Nørholm at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and with Per Nørgård at the Jutland Music Academy. His music for chamber and orchestral forces is widely admired in Britain - he won the prestigious Nordic Music Prize in 1996 for his violin concerto, Sterbende Gärten - and he is Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music.

'But there's a more experimental and conceptual side to Bent Sørensen's recent work which I wanted to present during this year's Festival', said Graham McKenzie, adding:

'My interest in Sørensen's work led me to discover other, younger Danish composers who are at the centre of Denmark's current vibrant music scene - many of whom are influenced by Sørensen's work - and so I decided to incorporate a more thoroughgoing Danish focus to this year's Festival.'

The opening concert of the Festival (Friday 18 November) is devoted to the UK Premiere of Bent Sørensen's It is pain flowing down slowly on a white wall, written for the Trondheim Soloists and accordionist Frode Haltli. The World Premiere takes place just weeks beforehand at Oslo's Ultima Festival.

There are five further concerts showcasing Sørensen's work, including Documentary Concert #1 (Saturday 19 November), a composer portrait performed by Ensemble Scenatet which includes a silent documentary film of the composer. The final concert of the Festival, (on Sunday 27 November) will include the UK premiere of Saudades Inocentes, a new work by Bent Sørensen and Anna Berit Asp Christensen for three generations of male singers - grandfather, father and son - guitar and accordion and a landscape of loudspeakers. This new work is commissioned and produced by SPOR Festival and hcmf//.

Cikada Point 4 (Norway) perform Processions Variations - improvisations around Sørensen's Funeral Processions in a late night concert on Monday 21 November, and there's another Sørensen UK Premiere from Cikada and Scenatet, joining forces for a spatial performance of Shadowplay (Tuesday 22 November), a tapestry of three trios.

hcmf// is also seeking ways to represent The White Forest, an extraordinary site-specific installation created by the composer and stage director Katrine Wiedemann in which eight vocal pieces by Sørensen were relayed through speakers hidden in a white-painted woodland setting.

 

Complementary elements of hcmf//'s Danish programme 

A younger generation of Danish composers also takes its place in this year's hcmf//.

London Sinfonietta Chamber Players will premiere a new work for clarinet, viola, violin, cello and electronics by Jexper Holmen (Saturday 19 November).

The Norwegian Ensemble Asamisimasa presents On and Off (Saturday 26 November), a portrait concert of Simon Steen-Andersen, a former pupil of Bent Sørensen. Steen-Andersen combines wit and imagination with well-crafted ideas and an awareness of the visual element of music.

Ensemble Scenatet presents the UK Premiere of Fish and Fowl (Monday 21 November), a ‘super remix' of chamber works by Juliana Hodkinson and Niels Rønsholdt presented in the form of a live audio-visual story.

Denmark's leading new music ensemble, Athelas, presents Floating Messages and Fading Frequencies, a new work with strong Danish resonances by New York downtown star Annie Gosfield (Friday 25 November). The work is inspired by signal communications between the Danish Resistance and British SOE during the Second World War.

FIGURA Ensemble presents a spectrum of work by young Danish composers Peter Bruun, Anders Brodsgaard and Nicolai Worsaae, as well as the Icelandic-German composer Steingrimur Rohloff, who is composer in residence with FIGURA in 2010-2011 (Saturday 26 November). There are new pieces for ensemble and mezzo soprano, an expressive solo for double bass and electronics as well as a song cycle from Peter Bruun's award-winning work Miki Alone.

FIGURA members will also lead a composition workshop (Sunday 27 November) for children aged 9-12 as part of hcmf//'s imaginative Family Programme.

Further details of hcmf// 2011 will be announced in due course.

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