Together in the Universe of Sound Symposium

Programme

In order to keep up momentum and give shape to action, we need theory and discourse.

In the Universe of Sound symposium we will present contributions by artists working collaboratively and across genres.

One of the shared topics in the lectures and discussions will address questions about what kind of connections are being made between sound, music and stage action. This topic will include conceptualising the stage within a larger framework than the theatre stage, and the themes of creating meaning and communication with audiences.

We are searching for no less than the essence of it all and how the outcome of these talks and lectures can create an impact and a shift in concepts of music theatre. The topics of the symposium are new music theatre, nostalgia in the relation of dance and music in 2021, devised opera, electronic music and sound, norms, gender, sensuality, and essence.

The day ends with a roundtable discussion where everyone present is invited to take part.

Keynote: Iñigo Giner Miranda
Artist talks: NAF, Libero Mureddu
Artist dialogues: Essi Kausalainen & Annika Tudeer (Oblivia), Rachel MacIntosh & Yiran Zhao (Oblivia) and Patrick Kosk & Liisa Pentti
Moderator: Pia Lindy

Artistic interventions by Yiran Zhao:
YÁO YÈ #3
YÁO YÈ #3 (2019)
installative performance (sound meditation for the audience)

SHH I:
SHH I (2015)
solo for a head

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Symposium is part of Together in the Universe of Sound Festival which takes place at Maunula House on two weekends in October: Oct 15-16 and 29-30. The event is produced by Oblivia and Liisa Pentti +Co in collaboration with Maunula House.

The festival is supported by Goethe-Institut Finnland, City if Helsinki, Konstsamfundet, Stiftelsen Tre Smeder, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Arts Promotion Centre and DANCE ON TOUR AUSTRIA – a project by Tanzquartier Wien in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs.

Experts

Keynote speaker
Iñigo Giner Miranda

Materials and people interacting on and off stage in Musiktheater

The talk will present a framework for analysing different interdisciplinary projects (mainly concentrated on Musiktheater sub-genres), both from the perspective of the result as well as through the actual creative process.

Iñigo Giner Miranda is at home in a number of places – not only geographically speaking, but also artistically: classically educated as a composer and pianist, he works regularly as concert designer, composer or performer/musician in concert halls and theatres all across Europe. He has, e.g., worked for directors such as Barbara Frey, Ruedi Häusermann, Matthias Rebstock, or Rafael Sánchez at some of Europe’s leading venues: Schauspielhaus Zürich, Teatro Real Madrid, Schauspielhaus Köln, or HAU Berlin among others.

As composer and concert stager he was selected for the #bebeethoven programme of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (Germany’s Federal Cultural Foundation), where he has collaborated for three years with the Zürich Tonhalle orchestra on the development of staged concerts for the orchestra. Since 2014, he also regularly works with Podium Esslingen, staging concerts and creating new formats for them, some of which have toured to places such as Lucerne Festival, Pierre-Boulez Saal Berlin, or Radialsystem V. He also regularly assists or creates stage concerts together with ensembles or soloists – for example, at the Munich Biennale 2012, L’auditori Barcelona, or Gare du Nord in Basel.

He also regularly teaches at the UdK Berlin with a special emphasis on new concert formats and stage work for musicians -subject matters he has also discussed in seminars and courses at, among others, Budapest Music Center, Musikene Music College of the Basque Country, Humboldt University Berlin, and EVA Conference London (Electronic and the visual arts).

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NAF

NAF are Nana Hülsewig and Fender Schrade from Stuttgart. Since 2013 they have been working consistently on an aesthetic of transgression in the areas of pop music, theater and the visual arts. The duo has received numerous awards for their performances onstage and in public spaces.

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Libero Mureddu


Pianist, improviser, composer and music technologist based in Helsinki, Finland.

Born in Milan in 1975 and based in Helsinki since 2003, he has studied composition at the Conservatory “G. Verdi” of Milan and music technology at the Centre for Music and Technology, Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki. He is currently doing his artistic doctorate at the MuTri Doctoral School at the Sibelius Academy.  In his research, Libero Mureddu investigates the role of embodied knowledge in a free improvisation performance, and how this knowledge can be observed, analysed, and used to develop free improvisation languages.

His current artistic practice intersects between free improvisation languages, composition, algorithms, and artificial intelligence, to create innovative, unexpected and challenging performative frameworks.

Since 2009 Libero Mureddu is the general manager of the NYKY Ensemble.

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Yiran Zhao

Yiran Zhao is a composer, performer, and sound artist based in Berlin.

Her works focus on various modes of expression incorporating both musical and performative elements, lighting, visual arts, and other media. With great interest in the physicality of performance, she works with the human body and objects as compositional material.

She studied composition in CCOM Beijing, HMDK Stuttgart, and the Musik-Akademie Basel, in addition to scenic composition at ABPU Linz, where she also taught. She works as a freelance composer with numerous groups, including Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Recherche, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Ensemble Garage, etc. Her new portrait album will be released in 2022 by WERGO.

She is a member of OBLIVIA international performance company. As composer-performers, Yiran Zhao and Kirstine Lindemann are the founders of performance group OTHER EYE.

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Essi Kausalainen

Essi Kausalainen’s works operate through performance, textile, text, audio and video. Collaborating with plants and fungi, artists, musicians, plant biologists, and children, Kausalainen’s work approaches the body as an open ended process made in and shaped by the complex relations with other beings, situations, and environments. Her work has been exhibited and performed in venues such as Somerset House in London, Uppsala Arts museum, Moderna Museet Malmö, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Nikolaj Kunsthal Copenhagen, and SAVVY Contemporary Berlin.

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Rachel McIntosh

Rachel McIntosh is an American opera singer and noise artist based in Helsinki, Finland. She has worked extensively at the intersection of experimental and traditional stage works.

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Patrick Kosk



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Pia Lindy

Dancer and choreographer Pia Lindy graduated from Amsterdam’s School for New Dance Development in 1995 and since then has worked on several solo/group works and collaborative projects with different artists and other people both in Finland and abroad. In her work Pia explores expectations and values embodied in art and society. What does dance and art offer us – or what should it? Lindy’s working, teaching, and performing lean on improvisation, experientiality and process-oriented approaches, and the work happens in different environments and contexts. In recent projects, the focus has been on the moving dialogues and the mixing of skills/knowledge between people with various backgrounds and of different ages.

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Liisa Pentti

Liisa Pentti is a choreographer and the artistic director of the company Liisa Pentti +Co since 2000. She has been working on the field of dance in many different roles and positions and has a long teaching carrier.
In her work she is currently is concerned with the psycho-energetic dimensions and the relationships of bodies and other entities in visible and non- visible spaces and in dreams. The work done by Liisa Pentti +Co includes also seminars, events and workshops related to the content of the dance art and the role of the art in the society. Liisa Pentti one of the core creators of Zodiak – Center for the New Dance and the Sidestep Festival in Helsinki.

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Annika Tudeer

Annika Tudeer is a performer, an artistic director and a founding member of Oblivia. Annika Tudeer graduated from Helsinki University with a MA in literature after working as a dancer and choreographer in the 1990’s in a.o. Zodiak. She worked as a dance critic writing on new trends in dance and performing arts nationally and internationally until 2004.

She is also a founding member and initiator of the platform and studio spaces Performance Center (2008) and of Mad House Helsinki (2013), platform and venue for performance and live art in Helsinki. In 2014 she was awarded a 5-year artist grant from the Arts Council Finland. In 2016 Annika was awarded two awards: the first Stella Parland award and an award from the Stina Krook foundation for her groundbreaking work in performance in Finland.