RECONNECTING EUROPE
ONDREJ VESELÝ
WITH GUITAR
The COVID pandemic localised the international music-art scene, depriving it, one might say, of creative oxygen. The online environment
simply cannot replace vivid,on-site artmaking. The renewed chance of travelling and of working in person with composers across Europe
allowed us to resuscitate the culture of live musical collaboration. The depth, precision and quality of on-site artistic collaboration
are irreplaceable by online means.
In the July and August 2021, Ondrej traveled across Europe and collaborated with these fabulous composers through
a series of on-site artistic collaborations. Four compositions written for this project are outcome of this project. The selection of the countries/artists
connects the whole of Europe, symbolising wholeness and unity.
PART ONE
JAMES HELGESON (BERLIN/GERMANY)
05. July 2021 - 11. July 2021
James Helgeson is a composer and music scholar based in Berlin. His first degree was from the Curtis Institute of Music, followed by a bachelor degree at Oberlin College and Conservatory. He will soon complete a doctorate in Music Composition at Royal Holloway, University of London. His first PhD is from Princeton, where he worked on the subject of Renaissance theories of music and poetry. He has taught at Cambridge, Nottingham, and Columbia.
Currently working at the intersections of music, literature and philosophy, he is a founding member of the AGOSTO / artist collective.
Visit James' website:
![James Helgeson & Ondrej Veselý [RECONNECTING EUROPE WITH GUITAR]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bT3r-LwlEaU/maxresdefault.jpg)
PROJEKT OF ONDREJ VESELÝ INVOLVING FOUR ACCLAIMED COMPOSERS:
JAMES HELGESON (USA/GERMANY)
HARRI SUILAMO (FINLAND)
OLIVER KENTISH (ICELAND)
JOHN E. ZAMMITPACE (MALTA)ta)
PART TWO
HARRI SUILAMO (SALO/FINLAND)
12. July 2021 - 19. July 2021
Harri Suilamo’s idiom is Modernism flavoured with Post-Serialism and microintervals. His music “does not manifest itself in any individual element such as melody, rhythm, and so on,” writes Harri Vuori, who sees his colleague’s music as developing straight out of his youthful enthusiasm for progressive rock. Suilamo favours highly concise forms, and his output consists almost entirely of chamber music. Not content with conventional ensembles, he constantly seeks out new combinations such as accordion and concert kantele.
Visit Harris' website:
PART THREE
OLIVER KENTISH (REYKJAVIK/ICELAND)
28. July 2021 - 07. august 2021
Oliver Kentish was born in London and studied the cello at The Royal Academy of Music where his teacher was Vivian Joseph. In 1977 he came to Iceland to play in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. From 1978-1986 he taught at the Akureyri Music School and now teaches at Nyja Tónlistarskólinn in Reykjavík. He is also active as a choral and orchestral conductor.
Oliver has composed music in most genres, including a large number of songs, choral works and chamber music. Ongoing is a series of chamber concertos for various instruments, drawing inspiration from Greek mythology.
Visit Oliver's website:
The concertos include those for trumpet, clarinet, oboe, violin, guitar and harp amongst others. In 1993 he was commissioned by the British Government to compose a work which was the gift from the British nation to the people of Iceland on the occasion of fifty years of Icelandic independence. The work, “My People” (Icel."Mitt fólk") for baritone and orchestra, dedicated to Iceland´s then President, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, was premiered in September 1994, performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and baritone Michael Clarke, conducted by Osmo Vänskä. Oliver has received several awards for his music and has three times been composer-in-residence at the Skálholt Summer Music series as well as receiving stipends from the Composers' Fund of the Icelandic Radio and from the Icelandic Ministry of Arts & Sciences. Music by Oliver is regularly performed on Icelandic Radio and appears on several CDs and he has been performed widely in Europe, the Scandinavian countries, the USA & Russia.
![Harri Suilamo & Ondrej Veselý [RECONNECTING EUROPE WITH GUITAR]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KaSoRahTpSo/maxresdefault.jpg)
![Oliver Kentish & Ondrej Veselý [RECONNECTING EUROPE WITH GUITAR]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z3gYrBAwOOc/maxresdefault.jpg)
PART FOUR
JOHN E. ZAMMITPACE (MELLIEHA/MALTA)
08. august 2021 - 18. august 2021
John E. ZammitPace is a composer of classical avant-garde music and of circa 150 compositions, mostly in a multiplicity notated way, but also in a graphic manner. Recently, his graphic orchestral work, Trisolar, was performed in Chicago by The Chicago Modern Orchestra under the baton of composer Renee Baker. John is an author of symphonies, string quartets, and Concertos, but also of a certain number of chamber music, duets, and solo music for various instruments. In his studies, he was highly influenced by the music of Xenakis, Stockhausen, Cage and Boulez, to mention a few...
Visit John's website:
With generous support of:
UI/UX Design:
@michaela.badzgonova
Cover photo:
@Tomáš Surovka
![John E. Zammitpace & Ondrej Veselý [RECONNECTING EUROPE WITH GUITAR]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ytYczvwsl5M/maxresdefault.jpg)