Running over four weeks from 19 October – 18 November, the 2012 sound festival offers more than 80 performances and events in 30 venues across North East Scotland. The programme showcases the broad mix of new music for which sound has become recognised from instrumental to choral, jazz and electro-acoustic, and includes 18 World, UK and Scottish Premières. sound “regulars” and returning friends include Red Note Ensemble, NYOS Futures, BBCSSO, harpist Ruth Wall, violinist Madeleine Mitchell saxophonist Tommy Smith, Michael Popper and Pete Stollery. They are joined in 2012 by “newcomers” including Matilda Brown, Claudia Molitor, Rolf Hind, Elizabeth Chojnacka, Mathew Herbert Quintet, Daniel’s Beard, Nicola Benedetti and more. Pdf of full programme attached.

“The 2012 sound festival is the most adventurous to date,” says Festival Director Fiona Robertson. “sound is a showcase for performers across a wide variety of musical genres offering a vital platform for the vibrant and dynamic world of new music.”

“This year in an exciting new venture we take opera out of the concert hall and into venues as diverse as a lighthouse, a stable block, a pub and a bus, and we unveil the soundclub which will offer after hours music experiences at Musa. We are introducing a new workshop programme, soundgeneration, which offers composing and performing opportunities to young people as well as a new family events programme which this year includes projects with Red Note and Daniel’s Beard. Our 2012 residency is with NYOS Futures will see this new generation of Scottish performers presenting world premieres of works by Stephen Montague, Paul Mealor and Oliver Searle. We welcome a host of old and new friends including sound regulars Pete Stollery, Michael Popper, Ruth Wall, Richard Craig and more, and, making their sound debut Elizabeth Chojnacka and Nicola Benedetti among others.”

“Over the years Scotland has built up a strong reputation internationally for its commitment to commissioning and performing new music. sound continues to fly the flag for this important part of the nation’s cultural life ensuring that a body of new work is created for generations to come and that more people can experience the thrill of live performance.”

Out of the Box Opera Weekend (1-4 November)

At the heart the 2012 sound festival programme is a weekend of performances and events that takes opera out of the theatre and into a lighthouse, a stable, a pub, an art gallery, an urban flat, and on to a bus. The Out of the Box weekend (1 – 4 November) includes five new operas commissioned by sound from some of Scotland’s leading composers, the first performance of Sonica’s new commission from Claudia Molitor, a new community opera and a one day symposium exploring new directions for opera led by Alex Reedijk.

Acclaimed composer John Harris and award-winning author Zinnie Harris collaborate on The Garden, a new piece commissioned by sound, which will be staged in an urban flat; Pippa Murphy’s Bolted, commissioned by sound and directed by Grid Iron’s Ben Harrison, is performed at a stables; Gareth Williams’ Last One Out, a sound festival-Scottish Opera co-commission with libretto and direction by Johnny McKnight, will be presented in the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses in Fraserburgh. Claudia Molitor makes her sound festival debut with the first performance of Remember Me, her new work inspired by the desk she inherited from her grandmother. Remember Me will be staged at a desk in Aberdeen Art Gallery. In Re:Sound composer Duncan Chapman will work with individuals and community groups to create, rehearse and perform a specially commissioned opera all in one day. Meanwhile, in the Illicit Still pub in Aberdeen sound will present performances of Gareth Williams The Sloan’s Project. Based on stories collated from people who frequent Glasgow’s celebrated Sloans Bar, the piece will be performed by a cast headed by tenor, Jamie McDougall. Meanwhile, Unleashed, a late night “anti-opera about maleness” with music by Philip Venables will be staged in the Lemon Tree. Linking three performances on Saturday 3 November (The Garden, Bolted and Last One Out) an Opera Bus will tour between venues entertaining the travellers with a new piece composed specially for the trip which has been commissioned by sound from Stephen Deazley. Mathew Sharp will both sing and play the cello on the opera bus.

World Premieres

Once again sound offers a plethora of premieres. Alongside the new operas, the 2012 festival features 11 other World Premieres including a sound festival commission from Robert Saxton, Little Suite for Organ; Stephen Montague’s Phrygian Ferment, commissioned by Elisabeth Chojnaka; Paul Mealor’s Crucifixus; Geoff Palmer’s A Caedmon Symphony and David Matthew’s Romanza, for which acclaimed violinist, Madeleine Mitchell will be joined by pianist Nick Clayton. Pieces by Oliver Searle, Huw Watkins, Ross Whyte, John McLeod and Moritz Eggert will also get their World Premiere along with a specially commissioned piece from Marc Victoria Garcia, winner of the 2011 Aberdeen Music Prize, which will be performed by the BBCSSO in a concert that also sees Nicola Benedetti’s sound debut.

Red Note at sound

Red Note have become synonymous with sound from their first ever performance in 2009 to last year’s hugely successful Noisy Night and 1000 Airplanes. This year they return with a rich and diverse programme at the Woodend Barn in Banchory. Kicking off with a Noisy Night on 26 October, they will then lead a workshop and give a family concert featuring Sally Beamish’s delightful work The Intoxicating Rose Garden on the morning of 17 November. That evening they will be joined by the celebrated dancer, Michael Popper, and Iranian Setar player, Anoosh Jahanshahi, for a full performance of The Intoxicating Rose Garden with animated images of Hafez poems, which Beamish has set to music in this piece, created by Jill Peacock.

Three Cities and soundsites

2012 sees the culmination of first stage of the Three Cities project, which has brought together participants from Aberdeen, Bergen and St Petersburg to create unique sound pictures of these three northern cities. The finale will be presented in the stunning new library building at Aberdeen University. Meanwhile, launching at sound 2012 is soundsites a new project commissioned by Aberdeen Council from composer Pete Stollery. Using an internet-based interactive sound map people will be able to document and share places in and around Aberdeen. The first sound recordings will be made for the map during sound.

Hills, harp, harpsichord and more

Composer Matilda Brown has a deep love of the hills. For the 2012 sound Festival she will present an exhibition including original photos by Nick Rawle, projections, music and song all inspired by landscape, staying in bothies and camping in the Highlands. For those who share her love of the great outdoors and want to compose their own response there is also a rare opportunity to join Matilda on a three day event which will include a day out on the mountains around Glen Muick with a visit to Shielen of Mark bothy, a day workshopping a musical response to the experience with a professional ensemble and a performance in Ballater.

Scottish harpist Ruth Wall makes a welcome return to sound this year with a programme ranging from the spiritual to the sultry. Playing three different instruments (Celtic, Renaissance and Scottish Lever harp) Ruth will perform works by Arvo Part, Steve Reich, Graham Fitkin and Astor Piazzolla amongst others.

The harpsichord is inextricably linked with the baroque period, but sound 2012 will show how the instrument is as adept for the 21st as the 17th and 18th centuries. Joined by the strings and percussion of NYOS Futures Chonjnaka will showcase her formidable keyboard skills in Stephen Montague’s Phygian Ferment, a piece which she commissioned. NYOS Futures will also join forces with NYCOS for the world Premiere of Paul Mealor’s new work Crucifixus and give a concert of work with the astonishing flautist, Richard Craig, which will feature the World Premiere of Oliver Searle’s Close to Shore for contrabass flute.

Other performers bringing new and exciting work to sound this year include Tommy Smith whose “Karma” programme sees the acclaimed saxophonist exploring sounds and textures that evoke Irish, Scottish, Japanese and Arabic folk influences; pianist and composer Rolf Hind; the renowned Kungsbacka Trio, who will give the World Premiere of a new work by Huw Watkins; guitarist Simon Thacker whose programmes will include music from JS Bach to Nigel Osborne, Terry Riley and India’s greatest composer Shirish Korde; and the Matthew Herbert Quintet whose visceral One Pig is the story in sound of the life of an anonymous porker from its first squeals to its inevitable end in the abattoir.

Events and activities for young people and families

sound has always offered programmes of events for the family and this year is no exception. As well as the Red Note workshop and concert at Woodend Barn the 2012 festival will see a second Go Compose project for young composers aged 13 – 18; What’s the Score, a weekend workshop for 12-18 year olds who would like to learn to write music for film or TV; composition and improvisation workshops; and Daniel’s Beard’s Music and Nonsense. The celebrated ensemble will work with local primary children on music based on Edward Lear’s Nonsense Poems and then give three family concerts with performances of Lenny Sayer’s Jabberwocky, The Owl and Pussycat and more; Chris Hutchings Actaeon and Diana and the pieces composed in the children’s workshops.

Tickets for all sound Festival events available from Aberdeen Box Office.

In person at the Music Hall or His Majesty’s Theatre: 9.30am – 6pm Mon- Sat or at The Lemon Tree 11.30am – 2.30pm Fri – Sun.

By telephone on 01224 641122, 9.30am – 6pm Mon – Sat and online at www.aberdeenboxoffice.com

For full details of the 2012 sound festival on www.sound-scotland.co.uk

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Source: Sound Festival