Crippled Symmetries: Motifs in Contemporary Music

Alternative Stage Founding Donor

Major Sponsor of the Greek National Opera

The renowned Ensemble KNM Berlin is coming to the GNO Alternative Stage to present a special project titled Crippled Symmetries: Motifs in Contemporary Music.

The first part of the concert will feature a new work by distinguished Greek composer Zesses Seglias titled … a drop on my fingers, two lips as a fuzz, a sun on our heads (is the pattern). This work, commissioned by the Ensemble KNM Berlin, is written for percussion, flute, clarinet, violin, viola, violoncello, and double bass. As the composer notes: “A large percussive sound lies at the core of the composition. Large not in volume, but in terms of harmonic structure and resonance. A slow exploration of these spectral elements —each time within increasingly narrower circles— feeds the very shape of the piece. At times, windows open, and time seems to pause. And through these cracks, sharp beams pass — like reflections of light that are nothing more than reminiscences of the original sound.”

In the second part, the concert turns into an impressive multimedia environment with the presentation of the audiovisual performance-installation ... make beauty out of debris...  by composers AnA Maria Rodriguez from Argentina and Juan-Felipe Waller from Mexico. This work for two percussionists, electronics, and video projection serves as a musical and political commentary on recycling and social resilience. Inspired by the Argentinian financial crisis (2001-2002) and the phenomenon of the “cantoneros” (cardboard and rubbish collectors), this work explores the concepts of circularity and reuse through the sound of paper, cardboard, and packaging materials. These everyday materials, once part of the natural world, transform on stage into sound bodies, acquiring a new life and a poetic dimension.

Crippled Symmetries is a project by Ensemble KNM Berlin in partnership with Busan International Contemporary Music Festival, Frequenz_Festival Kiel, Goethe-Institut Lima, Greek National Opera’s Alternative Stage Athen, Kultur Büro Elisabeth and Studio Acht Taipei. Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.