Timelessness, T. De Mey – Lausanne Opera, Switzerland – 18 june 2022

After the performance given at the Hautepierre theatre in Strasbourg on 10 November, which many of you attended, and concerts in France in December, Thierry De Mey’s Timelessness will be presented at the Opéra de Lausanne on 18 June, as part of the International Percussion Festival

With this transdisciplinary show for eight percussionists, Thierry De Mey plays as much on gesture as on sound for a great moment of instrumental choreography. Premiered on 29 September 2019 at the Festival Musica, Timelessness is a true “artistic and political manifesto”, in the words of the composer. This show is woven of gestures as much as sounds: in counterpoint to the instrumental pieces, Musiques de table, Silent Must be, Floor Patterns, or Hands, choreographed by Wim Vandekeybus, make the musician’s body the eloquent instrument of a silent music.

Concert on 18 June at 7 pm at the Opéra de Lausanne, Switzerland

100 cymbals – R. Ikeda at Pôle Pixel, Villeurbanne, France – 24 june 2022

One evening, ten percussionists, one hundred cymbals for a show that combines visual, conceptual and musical performance. Or when, from abstraction and pure sound, light and harmony are born.

A simple brass and bronze disc, which is used more to underline a strong moment than to take centre stage, the cymbal plays the leading role here! Created in 2019 in Los Angeles, 100 cymbals brings out all the multitude of harmonic layers of the instrument. A key figure in electronic music and art, the composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda is known for mixing physical phenomena with mathematical notions. As for the Percussions de Strasbourg, they have been one of the leading groups in contemporary music since their creation in 1962. In Villeurbanne, 100 cymbals will be preceded by But what about the noise of crumpling paper… a sound portrait that John Cage dedicated in 1985 to the founder of the Dada movement, Hans Arp.

Concert on 26 June at 7pm at the Pôle Pixel in Villeurbanne

Ensemble ULYSSES – Festival ManiFeste – IRCAM Centre Pompidou, Paris – 25 june

Each year, a new ensemble of young musicians living in Europe is formed and travels through several academies and festivals of the ULYSSES network. In 2022, and for the first time, the ULYSSES Ensemble will be an ensemble dedicated to percussion, and will travel from June to September between the ManiFeste academy, the Time of Music festival, the Gaudeamus festival and the Warsaw Autumn festival.

The ULYSSES Ensemble will be made up of 5 percussionists, accompanied by Rémi Schwartz, soloist at the Percussions de Strasbourg, who will lead and supervise the young performers during the whole adventure.

The young percussionists will be hosted at the Hautepierre theatre in Strasbourg where they will rehearse the different pieces of their tour together. They will work closely with the musicians of the Percussions de Strasbourg, but also with the young composers Mioko Yokoyama and James Alexandropoulos-McEwan, who have written two pieces for them.

For this concert on the occasion of the ManiFeste 2022 Festival – the Academy, the ensemble will perform the following programme:

Malika Kishino, Sange (2016)
Iannis Xenakis, Metals & Skins, excerpts from Pleiades (1978-1979)
Mioko Yokoyama, new work for 6 percussionists (2022), commissioned by Time of Music, Gaudeamus Festival, Warsaw Autumn Festival, World premiere

Guests: Illektré, Ink, Vincent Beer-Demander, GooMar, Aube, Niid, Encore
Every Friday and Saturday, from 8 July to 27 August, at 10.30 pm, 11 pm, 11.30 pm

INTERNATIONAL YOUNG COMPOSERS ACADEMY – Ticino – from 27 June to 3 July

From 28 June to 3 July 2022, the Percussions de Strasbourg will share their experience with young composers during the International Young Composers Academy, under the direction of Oscar Bianchi. After several days of rehearsals and masterclasses, this week of residency will end with two concerts, in order to present to the Swiss public the new compositions of the academicians, as well as Pléiades by I. Xenakis.

Concert on 02 July at 6 pm, church of Loco, Switzerland
Concert on 03 July at 11 am, Lugano Arte e Cultura, Lugano, Switzerland

RéfleXion(s) – Cathédrale de Strasbourg – 8 July – 27 august

This year, the Cathedral’s illuminations are being carried out by the Passe-Muraille agency. Their mapping project translates into five chapters the intersections of the different motifs of nature, the trajectories and paths that nature offers, thus synthesising biology, natural history, mathematics and physics in the service of art.
A new vision of the world in immersion presented on the castle square.

The composition of the soundtrack was entrusted to Ena Eno, member of the AV Extended collective. His contemporary music is influenced by the North American composers Steeve Reich and Philip Glass. He uses both traditional instruments and electronic music. He will work here by mixing the sounds of nature with deeper harmonies and contemplative or more exalted rhythms in order to match the construction of the mappers and make the experience immersive.

This year the mapping experience is enhanced by live performance. Every Friday and Saturday, Les Percussions de Strasbourg are invited to revisit the soundtrack live. Three percussionists will create unusual sounds, and will introduce the general public to exceptional instruments. Each Saturday, a guest will complete the group to create an original format, at the crossroads of their styles.