Event 53: Contemporary Music Weekend: Nature:Nurture

Percussion ensembles of the Musikhochschule Freibury and the University of Leeds

Animal skins, blocks and bars of wood, bones, dried gourds, chimes of shell and of stone. Mother Nature, the percussive art’s great provider.  From the dawn of human history, man has gathered sounds from the world around him in order to communicate, in order to make music, a tradition which has never ceased to expand and diversify.

Be it the rattling seed pods of John Cage or the bamboo chimes of Karlheinz Stockhausen, the cornerstones of the percussionist’s literature have been heavily influenced by the sounds of the natural world.

‘Nature’s gleaming’, the autumn harvest, the song of a field Lark, a refracted beam of light. The percussion ensembles of the Musikhochschule Freiburg (Germany) and the University of Leeds present a works inspired by diverse natural elements, culminating in Iannis Xenakis’ seminal percussion sextet, ‘Pleiades’.

Formed in 1973 by Professor Dr. Bernhard Wulff, the Freiburg Percussion Ensemble has since developed into one of the leading percussion groups in the world. The ensemble has performed in the USA, South East Asia, Mongolia, Kirgizstan, Poland, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, China, Argentina and Chile, and has been awarded the Ernst von Siemens Stiftung and the Carl Seemann Preis.

The creation of a tolerant and cooperative working atmosphere is key to the ensemble’s creative philosophy.

Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, School of Music, University of Leeds
Tickets: £8, FREE students and children under 16