Rough Surfaces

The collaboration between European Chamber Music Academy, KASK & Conservatorium and Gent Festival has meanwhile become a fixture within the festival program. Every year that collaboration gets a new artistic interpretation, with international top ensembles and a program in which tradition and innovation challenge each other. New music gets a central place this year: three composition students from KASK & Conservatorium write new work for the present ensembles, and those creations are an integral part of the concert. This creates a concert where new and old music meet, break open, and rewrite each other. Three ensembles move in their own way between different times, voices, and musical languages. Het Turicum Quartet connects the late-romantic intensity of Szymanowski’s string quartet with new work by Yngwie Janseghers and Victor Alexandru Colțea. Het Osimun saxophone quartet places Bach next to Ligeti, and shows how works from different centuries can resonate with each other. Here too, a new creation gets a place, with work by Milo van Binnendijk. Het Susato Trio completes the program with the expressiveness of Boulanger, Barvinsky, and a new composition by Flore Delvaux. In the days prior to the concert, the ensembles work together with their teachers and the composition students on interpretation, ensemble playing, and the new works on the program. You can attend the masterclasses for free and thus follow the rehearsal process and the artistic preparation up close.