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| Akram Khan Tours To Seven Major European Concert Halls In March and April 2006 the London Sinfonietta and Akram Khan Company will give a European tour of a new collaborative commission from composer Steve Reich and choreographer Akram Khan. Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings will be performed in seven of Europe's leading concert halls from Cologne to Athens, all of whom are members of the European Concert Halls Organization, which commissioned the work. There will be one UK performance at Symphony Hall, Birmingham on 30 March and further performances in New York and London will take place in September and October 2006 as part of extensive celebrations to mark Steve Reich's 70th birthday. As the founding father of American minimalism, Reich's music has influenced classical, jazz and pop musicians across the world. Reich is also one of the most choreographed of living composers, and in collaborating with Akram Khan the new work will bring together different cultural starting points promising to produce a visual and aural explosion. This is Khan's first work choreographed for all-male trio and will highlight his distinctive style blending Western contemporary dance and the North Indian classical dance-form Kathak, which has brought the Akram Khan Company worldwide acclaim. The two dancers who will perform alongside Akram Khan are from South Africa and South Korea, and Khan will also draw from their own cultural aesthetics in his choreography. Alongside this new work, the London Sinfonietta performs two of Reich's classic instrumental pieces: Sextet and Different Trains. In Different Trains Reich contrasts his own childhood train journeys in America during the second world war with the very different train journeys taken by Jewish children in Europe at the same time. To startling effect, Reich creates instrumental melodies from fragments of recorded speech. Steve Reichwas recently called the most original musical thinker of our time and among the great composers of the century. His instantly recognizable musical language combines rigorous structures with propulsive rhythms and seductive instrumental colour. From his early taped speech pieces It's Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966) to his and video artist Beryl Korot's digital video opera Three Tales (2002), Steve Reich has embraced not only aspects of Western Classical music, but the structures, harmonies, and rhythms of non-Western and American vernacular music, particularly jazz. Several noted choreographers have created dances to Steve Reich's music, including Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Jirí Kylían, Jerome Robbins for the New York City Ballet, and Laura Dean. Reich has an exclusive recording contract with Nonesuch, on which label Different Trains earned him one Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition and Music for 18 Musicians a second. In July 1999 a major retrospective of Steve Reich's work was presented by the Lincoln Center Festival and a series of festivities in London, New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Paris, Porto and Barcelona is planned for his 70th birthday in 2006. Steve Reich is published by Boosey and Hawkes. London Sinfoniettais one of Europe's leading contemporary music ensembles. Associate Artists of the South Bank Centre, the ensemble also tours regularly throughout the UK and abroad. Its collaborations with electronica artists in recent seasons have resulted in sell-out tours reaching new young audiences in Europe, while other projects have included performances at the Hayward Gallery, the Tate Modern and Southwark Underground Stations, and a multimedia tour with the Akram Khan Company in February 2003. The ensemble has been responsible for major events in the concert hall focusing on the music of Harrison Birtwistle, György Kurtág, Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, Magnus Lindberg, Steve Reich, Peter Eötvös, Toru Takemitsu, George Benjamin and the ensemble's Conductor Laureate Oliver Knussen. The London Sinfonietta has commissioned nearly 200 works for established and emerging composers. In 1983 it was the first orchestra to establish an education programme, leading over 200 education projects in the past 10 years. In 2003 the London Sinfonietta won the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Best Large Ensemble and in 2004 launched its own CD label. Akram Khanhad already embarked on his career as a solo artist when in December 1999 he teamed up with Farooq Chaudhry, currently the company's Producer, who initiated Khan's move to the prestigious X-Group choreographic project at P.A.R.TS (Performance Arts Research Training Studios) in Belgium. During his six months there, Khan developed his craft as choreographer and presented the solo work, Loose in Flight at British Dance Edition in Newcastle, which proved to be a runaway success, grabbing the attention of UK and international promoters. Akram Khan's participation in the X-Group project concluded in July 2000 with the presentation of his trio Rush, which signalled his start as a group choreographer, and soon after he co-founded the Akram Khan Company with Farooq Chaudhry. Since then it has established itself as one of the foremost young dance troupes in the world. Its touring programmes have featured in leading dance festivals and venues all over the globe. The company has given over 300 performances in the past four years, during which time Akram Khan has picked up a string of high profile awards and nominations. In April 2001 Akram Khan was made Choreographer in Residence at the South Bank Centre. In 2003 his tenure was changed to that of an Associate Artist, the first non-musician to be afforded this status and in 2004 the company was made a fixed term client of Arts Council, England. In 2005 Akram Khan became an associate artist of Sadlers Wells Theatre. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |