Bergen International Festival 2019 English catalogue FiB Katalog EN 2019 lowres single pages | Page 18

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BE RGE N INTE RN AT I ON AL
FE STIVAL 2019
FEST I VAL COMP OS ER
Unsuk
Chin
m
Mimodramas
GRIEGH A LLE N
P EER GY N T-
SA L EN
DAT E/ T I M E
Friday 31 May
at 20:00
See page 35.
Festival Composer and
Artist in Residence
Oslo String
Quartet
T RO L D H AU G E N
T RO L D SA LE N
DAT E/ T I M E
Monday 03 June
at 19:30
See p. 29.
Arctic
Philharmonic
Sinfonietta
BERGEN
D O M KI RKE
DAT E/ T I M E
Tuesday 04 June
at 19:00
See p. 28.
Closing
Concert
with Bergen
Philharmonic
Orchestra
GRIEGH A LLE N
GRIEG SA L E N
DAT E/ T I M E
Wednesday 05 June
at 18:00
See p. 38.
o
Festival
Composer
Unsuk Chin
BERGEN O FF.
BI BL I OT EK
( BERGEN PU B LI C
L IBRA RY )
N OT ERO M M E T,
2 N D F LO O R
DAT E/ T I M E
Saturday 01 June
at 14:00
See p. 97.
The Korean composer Unsuk Chin (1961–) stu-
died piano and composition with Sukhi Kang
in Seoul and from 1985 with György Ligeti in
Hamburg. Chin made her breakthrough in 1994
with Akrostichon-Wortspiel (acrostic wordplay)
for Soprano and Ensemble. The work, which
experiments with language and music, is per-
formed in the 2019 Bergen International Festival
by the Arctic Philharmonic Sinfonietta (p. 28).
Since 1988 Unsuk Chin has been a freelan-
ce composer based in Berlin. Her music is
performed by leading orchestras worldwide,
including the Berlin Philharmonic, the London
Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
She has received prestigious awards and has
been presented at major international classical
music festivals.
The composer explains: 'My music is a reflection
of my dreams. I try to render into music the
visions of immense light and of an incredible
magnificence of colours that I see in all my
dreams, a play of light and colours floating
through the room and at the same time for-
ming a fluid sound sculpture. Its beauty is very
abstract and remote, but it is for these very
qualities that it addresses the emotions and
can communicate joy and warmth.'
full orchestra. In all categories her music is
virtuoso and full of drama, with conflict and
reconciliation and elegant shadows in delicate
soundscapes. Chin is a consummate artist of
timbre, and her scores demand performers
who are true virtuosi on their instruments. Not
infrequently theatrical requirements are made
of the performer to emphasise the dramatic
element. The musician is expected to imitate,
to create illusions, to be playful, to parody and
to surprise.
Unsuk Chin will be present at the festival, par-
ticipating in panel dialogues and at concerts
where her music is performed. She has the
last word:
‘The Bergen International Festival has an
extraordinary history and enormous aspirations
for its artistic projects. I look forward to this
collaboration with enthusiasm!’
‘Unsuk Chin has a formidable ear for sonority
and for mining the expressive potential of the
slightest nuances of pitch and pulse’
– THE GUARDIAN
The Bergen International Festival presents
Unsuk Chin in four concerts, ranging from works
for solo instrument through chamber music to
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