GREGORY VAJDA (HUNGARY)
Medáliák (Medals)
for female voice, clarinet and piano (2022)
31.08
Majorstuen Kirke 19:00
Anna Molnár – voice
Josh Spear – clarinet
Sanae Yoshida – piano
This miniature song cycle is composed to a string of poems from 1928 written by the most famous 20th Century Hungarian poet, Attila József. The song cycle is dedicated to the composer's elder son, Balázs, who was 23 years old at the time of the composition, just like the poet at the time of writing the poems. Each of the 12 numbered poems consists of 2x4 lines, except for the last one, where the last 4 lines are replaced by dashes (here the music finishes what is left unfinished). Medáliák (Medals) is dealing with mythical worlds and mysterious topics, and its main motives circle around stars, heaven, cold, freeze, water, and world. Medals is full of unexpected and very strong and direct effects in words as well as in music.
Meet The Artists
Internationally sought-after composer and conductor Gregory Vajda's music has been commissioned and presented by major orchestras, ensembles, and festivals all over the globe. He is Artist in Residence of the new music ensemble Ars Nova in France in 2021. As Program Director of the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation, he has been the professor of numerous conducting and composition master classes. His works have received numerous awards. For his creative achievements, he has been elected a full member of the Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts in 2019.
Sanae Yoshida is an Oslo-based pianist working regularly with both contemporary and classical repertoire as a solo, chamber and ensemble musician - she is a member of Ensemble Ernst, and she is the founding member of Ensemble Temporum. She has worked closely with several composers, and has premiered a large number of works. She is an artistic research fellow at the Norwegian Academy of Music, with the project "My(mi)crotonal Piano".
Vocal artist, mezzo-soprano Anna Molnár is „a versatile artist with a stirring voice, who likes pushing boundaries and participating in experimental performances”. /Dániel Mona/ Besides Baroque music and lied, Anna regularly performs significant and challenging 20th Century repertoire (Ligeti, Schönberg, Webern, Boulez, Berio) and music by living composers, among them many premieres written exclusively for her. As a soloist she has appeared with the Hungarian Radio Symphony, the Orfeo Orchestra, and the UMZE Ensemble among others, and since 2018 she is returning regularly to the Hungarian State Opera. She is a regular guest at festivals like CAFe Budapest Contemporary Art Festival, Transparent Sound New Music Festival, CentriFUGA, The Day of Listening, Kamara.hu chamber music festival, Budapest Spring Festival, Liszt Fest, The Night of Music of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Armel Opera Festival, and the Haydneum Festival of Sacred Music. Since 2017 Anna is a permanent guest soloist at the conductor and composer masterclasses of the Peter Eötvös Foundation, lead by Péter Eötvös and Gregory Vajda. She participated in three significant new music masterclasses: the Darmstadt Summer Course — professor: Donatienne Michel-Dansac, the Summer Academy of Ensemble Linea in Strasbourg — professor: Françoise Kubler, and the Impuls in Graz — professors: Agata Zubel and Andreas Fischer. Anna was awarded the Annie Fischer Scholarship (2016, 2017, 2018) and the art scholarship of Bank of China in 2017.
Josh is a british composer-performer who now calls Oslo home. He complete his artistic research PhD at Norwegian Academy of Music in 2021. He has been a core member of his group Bastard Assignments since 2013 and together they are creating a new show-length work commissioned by Wigmore Hall and Borealis. Josh studied at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and University of Manchester.