MERIDIAN International Music Festival – 17th edition – ATLAS
November 6-13, Romania
Sound maps, imaginary and real routes, a vending machine with travel souvenirs, concerts, conferences, an online audio-visual installation, a reality show with a lecture-lecture, electronic music, a 3D animated film with music from 13 countries, improvisation on a bicycle, a concert-lecture and a guide with sound luggage, multimedia events, postcards with imaginary music and a parking lot in the heart of jazz – these are the events prepared for the 17th edition of the MERIDIAN International Festival, one of the most important new music festivals in the country, which will take place from 6 to 13 November 2022 under the theme “ATLAS”, in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Craiova, Constanța, Ploiești, Pitești and Iași.
For 2022, the year in which the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) celebrates its centenary, MERIDIAN proposes the theme “ATLAS”, oriented around the concept of JOURNEY – either through different parts of the globe or through different aesthetic trends and tendencies.
The festival includes a special event dedicated to the ISCM Centenary, “Sounds to Go (Around the World)” – a 3D animated film with electronic music selected from 13 national sections of ISCM, created by visual artist Alexandru Claudiu Maxim and curated by composer and performative artist Irinel Anghel (ISCM Romania ExCom). The film will premiere in Bucharest, in the opening day of MERIDIAN-ATLAS (November 6, The Opera and Multimedia Studio of UNMB, 8 p.m.), being subsequently screened in Iasi (November 8, UNAGE Studio Hall, 5 p.m.) and in Cluj-Napoca (November 10, the ANMGD Studio, 7 p.m.).
The selected works for “Sounds to Go (Around the World)” are:
ISCM Romania | Irinel Anghel – “Entering the Metaverse on High Heels. In search of Marilyn Monroe”, world premiere
ISCM Austria | Alisa Kobzar – “rechtschreibung”
ISCM Faroe Islands | Lasse Jæger – “Killin’ Kind”
ISCM Serbia | Svetlana Maraš – “Two kinetic studies: Kinetic study no.1”
ISCM Beijing | QI Mengjie (Maggie) – “The Road to Krakow”
ISCM Switzerland | Sachie Kobayashi – “Jeux.1.11 – Les cieux roulent des yeux”
ISCM USA | Eric Moe – “leave but don’t leave me”
ISCM Vlaanderen | Valery Vermeulen – “Mikromedas”
ISCM Taiwan | Fang-Wei Luo – “Sound of Desolation”
ISCM Holland – Nieuw Geneco | Danny de Graan – “Geometric Vibrations”
ISCM Croatia | Ivana Kiš – “Galijot”
ISCM Latvia | Linda Leimane – “Cadavre Exquis III”
ISCM Sweden| Paulina Sundin – “Med lekande kval”, Patric Simmerud – “The Scream and Beyond”
Among the guests of the “ATLAS” edition, we find leading names of the international contemporary music scene, such as the wind quintet V COLORIS (Denmark), BLACK PAGE ORCHESTRA (Austria), the ensemble PROFIL (Romania), the piano and electronics duo “contemporary piano currents” – Junko Yamamoto and Oliver Sascha Frick (Germany), flutists Ion Bogdan Ștefănescu (Romania) and Alessandra Rombolà (Italy/Norway), contemporary music and dance group INTER-ART, Duo ASPERA – accordion and piano (Italy), ensemble ATEM, ensemble AD HOC, percussion ensemble GAME, duo Stefan Doniga (piano) and Diana Jipa (violin), Trio LARSON, Trio MOZAIC (Romania), Trio PYTHIA with a concert for piano six hands (Greece), ensemble COULEURS, ensemble devotioModerna, ensemble ARCHAEUS, ensemble ARS SUBTILIOR, mezzo-soprano Claudia Codreanu and pianist Diana Dembinski-Vodă, pianists Adriana Toacsen and Andreea Bratu, Constantin Basica (electronics, bicycle), Olga Berar (violin), percussionist Irina Rădulescu, composer and performer Cătălin Crețu, organist Dan Racoveanu, and the trio of improvisers Andrei Petrache (piano, SFX), Mihai Balabaș (violin, SFX) and Sorin Romanescu (guitar, SFX) – Romania.
In addition to chamber/electronic/multimedia concerts, “ATLAS” will include:
– The audio-video installation “Music of the Hours”, featuring music by the late iconic Romanian composer Octavian Nemescu, a 12-hour journey-ascension from midnight to midnight, broadcast online on the festival’s YouTube channel at the opening of ATLAS (November 6, 00:00).
– Musicological conferences in Bucharest and online paying homage to leading Romanian and international composers by Valentina Sandu-Dediu, Olguța Lupu, Bianca Țiplea-Temeș, Petruța Măniuț, Octavia Dinulescu, Matthias Kranebitter, Oliver Sascha Frick.
– An interactive art installation, ART MACHINE, in the space of the National University of Music in Bucharest, organized in partnership with the group Pastila Roz
– A journey-concert through various spaces of the NUMB, imagined and coordinated by composer and performer Irinel Anghel, that will lead the audience through 5 musical stops for 2 hours, including a fortress, a mountain top, a train station, an island, a volcano, a sound market, a fortune-teller in imaginary music postcards and many more surprises with the aid of 5 musicians and 10 performers (November 12, 5 p.m.).
The MERIDIAN Festival has been organized annually since 2005 by UCMR – Union of Composers and Musicologists of Romania through the Romanian National Section of ISCM.
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Cultural project funded by the Ministry of Culture and the Romanian Cultural Institute.
Partners: National University of Music in Bucharest, Goethe-Institut Bucharest, Art&Co Association, Sound Borders Association, Art Music Denmark, Artivistas, Ministry of Culture in Greece, ARFA, CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics – USA), National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca, The “Ion Vidu” Art High School in Timișoara, the “Oltenia” Philharmonic in Craiova, the Pitești Philharmonic, the “Paul Constantinescu” Philharmonic in Ploiești, the “George Enescu” National University of Art in Iași, the “Jean Constantin” Multifunctional Educational Centre for Youth in Constanța and the “Teodor T. Burada” in Constanta, Pastila Roz, Norsk jazzforum, Music Norway.
Media partners: Radio România Muzical, Radio România Cultural, CIMRO, BookHub.ro, Zile și Nopți, Actualitatea Muzicală
ISCM Romanian Section | Secțiunea Națională Română a SIMC 