VANESSA ISOBEL BLACK (AUSTRALIA/UK/NORWAY)
WORLD PREMIERE:UNDERWORLDS & OTHERWORLDS
for soprano, baritone saxophone and tape
31.08
Majorstuen Kirke 19:00
Amalie Kongssund (NO) - Sopran
Eivind Holmboe Leifsen (NO) - Baritone Saksofon
Martyna Kosecka (PL/NO) - Tape control
Several of the darker realms in mythology are ruled by women: goddesses, powerful queens, and shapeshifters. Much negativity surrounds their stories but I believe the darkness is often poorly translated. This graphic score uses improvisation elements and amplification with a heavy reverb throughout to create a third ‘ghost’ voice in conjunction with the tape part. The saxophone has often been seen as the musical embodiment of evil, echoing a patriarchal view of women, and both instruments embody shapeshifter characteristics as they weave over each other. Through the lens of the Cailleach in celtic mythology and Hel in Norse mythology, both associated with the biting cold, I am weaving the stories of a woman’s often misunderstood fierceness with the aim to unearth what lost, silenced, or new languages might arise.
Meet The Artists
Vanessa Isobel Black is an Australian/British composer, singer, violinist and visual artist based in Oslo since 2017. She is classically trained in violin and voice with a Bachelor in Composition (Sydney Conservatorium, 2004), and a Masters in Music (WSU, 2006). Through her compositions and improvisations she is exploring the effects of reverb and how it creates space. Working at the intersections of feminism, trauma, nature and folklore, her work is influenced by personal experience or shared stories, merging sound, art, movement and text to write new narratives.
Eivind Holmboe Leifsen is a musician and saxophonist based in Oslo. He has a broad background, but his primary work is in new music. He has worked with a number of composers in different expressions both as a chamber musician and as a soloist, such as Mirsaeed Hosseiny Panah, Paal Nilsen-Love, and Jon Øyvind Ness. In the spring of 2024, he will complete a master's degree in performance at the Norwegian Academy of Music, where he has studied with Rolf-Erik Nystrøm and Geir Holm. In addition to being an active freelancer, he is part of the permanent ensembles AKSE, Koryphae, and Strax saxophone quartet.
Amalie Kongssund is a soprano from Oslo. She is educated at the Norwegian Academy of Music and is a widely used singer in choirs and smaller ensembles. She has for several periods been a substitute in the Norwegian Opera Choir and has also been a soloist for smaller choirs.
Martyna Kosecka is a Polish composer, conductor, performer, and researcher in new music, based in Norway since 2019. She studied composition and orchestral conducting in the Music Academies in Kraków and Katowice, in Poland. Through her music, she experiments with alternative tunings, microtonality, and electroacoustic processing of sounds. Kosecka, with engagement and curiosity, plays with the perception of time and focuses on extracting timbral qualities of each individual sound through a microperspective approach.