Photo by Astrid Ackermann
The pioneering German composer Carola Bauckholt is fond of using noisy sounds, particularly ones produced by unconventional means. Her work focuses on the phenomena of perception and understanding, and her music blurs boundaries between visual arts, musical theater, and concert music. The adventurous International Contemporary Ensemble performs a selection of her works spanning 20 years, anchored by Oh, I See, written for clarinet, violin, cello, video, and two balloons.
PROGRAM
CAROLA BAUCKHOLT Treibstoff (1995)
CAROLA BAUCKHOLT Schlammflocke II (2012)
CAROLA BAUCKHOLT Membran (2014)
CAROLA BAUCKHOLT Oh, I See (2015-16)
PERFORMERS
David Fulmer, conductor
Alice Teyssier, voice
Gareth Flowers, trumpet
Michael Lormand, trombone
Joshua Rubin, clarinet
Emmalie Tello, clarinet
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, flute
Adrian Morejon, bassoon
Josh Modney, violin
Kyle Armbrust, viola
John Popham, cello
Randy Zigler, bass
Jacob Greenberg, piano
Vicky Chow, piano & voice
Levy Lorenzo, percussion
Nathan Davis, percussion
Nicholas Houfek, lighting designer
Caley Monahon-Ward, audio engineer
Ross Karre, video designer
About The Composer
Carola Bauckholt was born in Krefeld, Germany, in 1959.
After working at the Theater am Marienplatz (TAM), Krefeld for several years, she studied composition at the Musikhochschule Köln with Mauricio Kagel (1978 - 1984). She founded the Thürmchen Verlag (music publisher) along with Caspar Johannes Walter in 1985, and six years later they founded the Thürmchen Ensemble.
She has received numerous residencies and prizes such as the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Scholarship from the city of Cologne (1986), a residency at the Villa Massimo in Rome (1997), in 1998 she was designated the Artist of the Year by the State of North Rhine Westphalia, and she was selected to represent Germany at the World Music Days in Mexico City 1992, Copenhagen 1996, Seoul 1997 and in Zurich 2004. She was awarded the German Composers Prize from the GEMA in the category of experimental music in 2010. From London International Animation Festival 2019 she received the "Best Sound Design Award" for "The Flounder" in collaboration with Elizabeth Hobbs and Klangforum Wien. For 2021 she has been invited to a three-month stay at the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles.
She teaches as guest professor in Santiago di Chile (2010), Ostrava Tschechische Republik (2011 and 2013), Amsterdam (2012 and 2014), Krakau (2012), Zürich (2012), Apeldoorn (2013), Kiev (2013) Oslo (2014 and 2015), Mexiko City (2014), Monterrey (2015), London (2015), Moskau and Tschaikovsky City (2016), Valencia (2018), Barcelona (2018 und 2021), Bludenz (2018, 2019), Haifa (2019) Chicago (2019), Luxembourg (2020), Graz (2021) and in Germany.
In 2013, she was elected as a member of Akademie der Künste in Berlin, from November 2021 on as the director of the music section. In 2015, she was appointed as professor of composition with focus on contemporary musictheatre at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz, Austria. In 2020, she was elected as a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts.
A central theme of Bauckholt's work is the examination of the phenomena of perception and understanding. Her compositions often blur the boundaries between visual arts, musical theater and concert music. She is especially fond of using noisy sounds, which are often produced by unconventional means (such as extended instrumental techniques or bringing everyday objects to the concert hall). It is important to note that these noises are not just part of some kind of a predetermined compositional structure, but rather they are carefully studied and left free to unfold and develop at their own pace lending the compositions their own unique rhythm.
INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE
Now in its third decade, the International Contemporary Ensemble is a multidisciplinary collective of musicians, digital media artists, producers, and educators committed to building and innovating collaborative environments in order to inspire audiences to reimagine how they experience contemporary music and sound. The Ensemble creates a mosaic musical ecosystem as “America’s foremost new-music group” (The New Yorker), honoring the diversity of human experience and expression by commissioning, developing, recording, and performing the works of living artists in “a mission worth following” (I Care If You Listen).
CREDITS
The International Contemporary Ensemble’s performances and commissioning activities during the 2023-24 concert season are made possible by the generous support of our board of directors, many individuals, as well as the Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, Amphion Foundation, The Cheswatyr Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Siemens Musikstiftung, New Music USA, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, BMI Foundation, as well as public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council for the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for the International Contemporary Ensemble.