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), and commissioned by the Ensemble KNM Berlin. 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 GNO Alternative Stage will become an impressive multimedia setting through the presentation of the 3D-sound installation ... make beauty out of debris ... by the Argentinian-Mexican compositional and performative duo Ana Maria Rodriguez and Juan-Felipe Waller. This work serves as a musical and political commentary on recycling and social resilience. Inspired by the Argentinian financial crisis (2001-02) and the phenomenon of the “cantoneros” (cardboard and trash collectors), this work explores the concepts of circularity and reuse through the sounds of paper, cardboard, and packaging materials. These everyday materials, once part of the natural world, transform into sound bodies on stage, acquiring new life and a poetic dimension.

© Kai Bienert

Brief biographical notes

Ensemble KNM Berlin
Since its foundation in 1988, Ensemble KNM Berlin has presented programmes across the world that reflect a curiosity to explore the unknown and the willingness to confront the most pressing themes of our times. The ensemble presents compositions, concert installations and concert projects created in close cooperation with artists from around the world. Since 2016, KNM Berlin has been increasingly committed to musical, multi-perspective networking with intercultural collaborations worldwide. KNM Berlin has earned an international reputation with repeated guest appearances at important music festivals such as the Donaueschinger Musiktage, Festival d’Automne Paris and Wien Modern in Vienna, as well as with its own productions such as Tunings of the World 2.0. KNM Berlin’s discography comprises 18 recordings to date. The ensemble received the German Record Critics’ Award for Christophe Bertrand’s Vertigo and before that in 2009 and 2010 for their collaboration with the composer Beat Furrer.
https://kammerensemble.de

Ana Maria Rodriguez
She studied composition, piano, history and philosophy in Buenos Aires. She later moved to Barcelona, where she also studied electronic music and algorithmic composition at Phonos Studios. In 1993, she was invited by the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft to develop several audio projects for the Artificial Intelligence department. Since then, Rodriguez has composed numerous pieces, concert installations, mixed media or music theatre works for a variety of instruments using live electronics and computer technology. Many of her early works can be categorised as site-specific art—such as the Garden of Branching Paths inspired by the Donaueschingen Court Library, One Way for the Deutzer Brücke in Cologne or Links gehen, rechts stehen for the former Hypovereinsbank site on Warschauer Strasse in Berlin. Later, based on essential premises of these works such as spatial resonance, instrumental amplification and contextualisation, her work takes on a more abstract form, which gives her work a more flexible and adaptable character. Installations and concerts using gongs, transducers, video mapping and various types of resonators are evidence of this. Her works have been performed at festivals in Europe and abroad such as Berlin in Lights (NYC), Brückenmusik Köln, Chiffren-Biennale Kiel, CTM Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage, drei D poesie, Foro International de Música Nueva (Mexico), Forum Neuer Musik (DLF Köln), Les Instants Fertiles Saint-Nazaire, Les Musiques Marseille, MaerzMusik-Festival für Zeitfragen, November Musik Essen, Poesiefestival Berlin, Festival Scènes d’Europe Reims, Tage für neue Kammermusik Witten, Transmediale Berlin, Wiener Festwochen, Wien Modern, Visiones sonoras Mexico, etc. She lives in Berlin.
https://www.anamariarodriguez.net

Juan-Felipe Waller
He is a composer and performer who has lived in Berlin since 2009. In 1994 he emigrated to Europe, where he took up composition studies with Klaas de Vries at the Rotterdam Conservatory and in Paris at IRCAM – Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique / Musique. Waller’s music often overlaps divergent elements, creating a cohesive musical reality and referencing a surrealistic environment. His compositions explore materials such as ceramics, plastics and recyclable materials, which explore particular timbres, resulting in sounds that resemble electronic tones but are generated acoustically. The productions of his works range from symphonic orchestras to chamber music and electronics, often in combination with multimedia elements. He has received several awards and scholarships, including the NOG First Prize Composition Concours for Orchestra (1999, Netherlands), FONCA Jóvenes Creadores (1997, 2003, Mexico), Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte (2008, 2011, 2016 Mexico) and the Camargo Foundation Residency (2006, France).
https://felipewaller.com

Zesses Seglias
Born in Edessa in 1984. He is a composer whose work focuses on sonic bodies, language and the voice. His music explores the hybrid space between sound and meaning, which he calls spoken sound theatre. Characterised by long-duration forms, sharp contrasts, vocal presence and static textures punctuated by dense episodes, his works often borrow narrative devices from other arts. Highlights of his career include the opera To the Lighthouse (Bregenz Festival, 2017), acclaimed by Opernwelt, Süddeutsche Zeitung and FAZ, and Not I (Greek National Opera, 2023), based on Samuel Beckett. Earlier, he won the Einojuhani Rautavaara competition (2012) and presented his mini-opera hystéra at Graz Opera (2014). Other major projects include Namphaise (2018), the trilogy Conversations (2020–22) and madrigali alla luce e al sangue (2021–22). His music has been commissioned and performed by Klangforum Wien, Musikfabrik, Schallfeld Ensemble, Phace, Diotima Quartet, Exaudi, and many leading soloists in festivals and venues such as Konzerthaus Berlin, Konzerthaus Wien, Radialsystem, Time of Music, Resonant Bodies, Aspekte, Sirga, Avignon and others. He studied in Thessaloniki with Michalis Lapidakis and in Graz with Beat Furrer and has worked with Georges Aperghis, Brian Ferneyhough, Pierluigi Billone, Mark Andre, among others. He completed his doctorate and postdoctoral research at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki under the supervision of Dimitris Papageorgiou. His teaching activity includes positions at several Greek universities and international seminars. His works are published by Editions Gravis and BabelScores.