Archive August 2005

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August 31, 2005

Weird encounter

KL Auschwitz I (Photo: RV)Being in the neighborhood after Ostrava, my significant other and I traveled to the Polish town Krakow and visited the Museum Auschwitz. While we were down in the basement of Block 11 (the death block) I ran into some other Ostrava composers and musicians, like Todd and Kate. It was the most bizarre place to meet acquaintances I have ever experienced.

Feet away from the "standing-cells", the first "trial and error" gas-chamber, torture rooms and the wall of death in Block 11 we ran into each other and said hastily our hellos. Then we shut up until we were outside again.

It is shocking to see how small this Auschwitz I camp actually is. It is also shocking to see all those buildings, where so many people suffered in a terrible way, with our own eyes.

Posted by Renske at 21:23 UTC | permanent link

August 30, 2005

The wise man of Ostrava Days

Petr Kotik conducting JPO (Photo: RV)The wise man of Ostrava Days is Petr Kotik. This summer course with festival is his idea. These three weeks is his counterweight to the Darmstadt Summer course. I visited Darmstadt in 1996 (just as a visitor) and it helped to stay away from music for many years.

Ostrava Days just did the opposite to me. It validates my decision to return to music as a good decision. For what I have heard from people who attended Darmstadt, the summer course there is a large scale enterprise with 300 student composers who are in competition to get their music performed.

Ostrava days is a much smaller event (only 30 resident students), lasts about one week longer and nearly all students have concerts. The amount of students guarantees that relationships are easily established.

The concerts, the lectures, the meetings with Zsolt Nagy and the rehearsals for Louis Andriessen's La Passione felt as a warm bath.

I was even interviewed by Czech international radio after the performance of Blink Blink!

I heard that a lot of Czech composers don't want to come to Ostrava because Ostrava has the worst reputation of all Czech city's. Those people miss an important festival in a town that it is finding it's way up. I really like the town a lot.

I assume Ostrava days will continue to grow, and I hope it will be acknowledged by a lot of media attention and more and more new music lovers finding their way to the festival.

On the other hand I hope the organization will keep the amount of resident students low and maintain the fine selection of lecturers like Christian Wolff, Alvin Lucier, Zsolt Nagy, Petr Kotik and Louis Andriessen.

Petr Kotik gave an interview to Czech Radio in which he explains his thoughts about Ostrava Days.

This trip has been made possible by:

Posted by Renske at 19:47 UTC | permanent link

August 29, 2005

Ostrava Days Festival

Me @ bus stop - Ostrava Days poster
(Photo: Mylène Meester)The Ostrava Days conclude with a one week festival of concerts in either the Dum Kutury (House of Culture, or in short: Philharmonic Hall) or the well equipped concert hall of the Janacek Conservatory. This last week functions as a pressure cooker. While the first week only has seminars, discussions, private meetings and lectures, the second week adds rehearsals, last week added 2 concerts a day, except for Monday; we then had three concerts to go.

Although my amount of time was limited during these last week I had my camcorder with me during several rehearsals giving me the opportunity to shoot some footage. I created a couple of one minute musical portraits of 10 of my fellow resident students.

I will put them online as soon as I am back in Holland.

BTW, the Ostrava Days 2005 ended on August 27, but I have some more postings due for my blog.

This trip has been made possible by:

Posted by Renske at 20:45 UTC | permanent link

August 20, 2005

Rehearsal stress

Fixing technical problems
(Photo: Daniela Dostálková)Oh boy, after the rehearsal of Blink Blink this morning this Czech lady came up to me and asked if I knew what "blink" means in Czech. I said I didn't and then she said: "It means to vomit". I mean, the piece meant to be whimsical, but I didn't choose this meaning option. I am kind of embarrassed by this.

The rehearsal went okay, by the way, except for one glitch. My laptop, containing the samples necessary for the piece, never failed on me but now it crashed. I could revive it rather quickly though, but it was the cause for some sweating on stage.

Ostravaská Banda played very well, and with some attention from Zsolt Nagy things started to work out as I intended. The people picked up the humor in the music so I am fairly confident for the premiere on Wednesday.

This trip has been made possible by:

Posted by Renske at 14:12 UTC | permanent link

August 18, 2005

Rehearsals in Ostrava

Rehearsal in Philharmonic Hall (Photo: RV)Last week Ostrava Days was all about seminars lectures and individual meetings and by the end of the day drinking beer in one of the local pubs.

This weeks schedule has changed things a little. Now we have all of the above plus rehearsals. This puts a strain on everyone, but once in awhile you see one of the participants disappear for a couple of hours to catch up sleep.

This morning and afternoon I withdraw for a while, just to be on my own for a moment and to do some work for myself. Yesterday I helped out with a rehearsal lead by Petr Kotik. I have prepared some audio stuff for Louis Andriessen's La Passione. This piece is going to be performed during the final concert of the festival at the end of next week.

Another thing that is about to happen is the upcoming rehearsal on Saterday with Zsolt Nagy. We are going to work on Blink Blink with Ostravská Banda for the premiere next Wednesday and I am really looking forward to that.

This trip has been made possible by:

Posted by Renske at 15:47 UTC | permanent link

August 15, 2005

Being a tourist in Ostrava

Ostrava skyline (Photo: RV)One of the virtues of Ostrava is that there are hardly any tourists. One of the resulting charms is that the locals hardly speak any language but Czech. This is bound to get you in all kinds of funny misunderstandings, but the local population on average is very willing to help you out.

Before traveling to Ostrava I bought a Czech-Dutch dictionary, but the words simply didn't sink in. It took the man behind the hotel reception-desk 3 full days to learn me my room number in Czech.

Wandering around the city center this week I couldn't agree less with the travel-guides who barely mention this city, because the town center is very nice and a lot of buildings are being reconstructed. But today I discovered the other side (the fume and smoke side, so to speak) of this city.

We went with a group of people to the Coal mining Museum, that is absolutely worth a visit. Someone tipped us off to also climb the hills near the museum for a view of the town. What you see is actually rather shocking; chimneys galore, and they are fuming all of them. It is all heavy industry and it is so much, that in a way it is becoming charming again.

If you are ever in the proximity of this town, just know, it is worth a visit.

This trip has been made possible by:

Posted by Renske at 13:14 UTC | permanent link

August 12, 2005

Ostrava Days

Ostrava City Center (Photo: RV)For the first time in 11 years I behave like a student. I am one of the resident students of the Ostrava Days 2005 in the Czech Republic.

I had never heard of the Czech town of Ostrava and when I looked it up in a travel-guide it didn't appeal to me at all. The travel guide describes the city as: "If you can't avoid going to Ostrava, the city is as good as any". And although Ostrava isn't exactly Prague, Paris or Amsterdam, it does has its charms.

Visiting the classes is something I have to get used to again. Seminars are often 3 hour stretches without a break. And most of the stuff is rather brainy. This morning we had a lecture by Makis Solomon on Cellular Automata in the music of Yannis Xenakis.

For someone who usually tends to skip this intellectual information it was actually refreshing for a change. Not that I will ever use Cellular Automata in my music, but I just got some ideas because of it that might end up in my compositions.

This trip has been made possible by:

Posted by Renske at 15:04 UTC | permanent link