Backbone

Save the bassoon

Save the Bassoon will have its roaring finale this June. The campaign was launched during the 2015 Holland Festival to save the bassoon from decline and stimulate children to pick up a classical instrument. Thanks to all our partners, the initiative has been a great success throughout the country.

World-class bassoonists Pascal Gallois and Bram van Sambeek will give concerts at this year’s festival. Merlijn Twaalfhoven will write a new composition for more than one hundred bassoonists of all abilities, and everyone is invited to join in. There will also be a number of ancillary activities. You can take part in our bassoon course for absolute beginners and there’s a masterclass by Pascal Gallois for bassoon students. After all the media attention at the launch of Save the Bassoon last year, this will be a fitting finale to a successful campaign. 

Backbone

Marlies van Gangelen (oboe), Bram van Sambeek (bassoon) and Aart Strootman (guitar) have teamed up with Ernst Glerum (double bass) and Akim Moiseenkov (live electronics) to form the ensemble Perforator. At the 2016 Holland Festival, this quintet will make their stage debut with Backbone, a special concert crossing the boundaries between a range of genres and blurring the lines between composition and improvisation.

Perforator's members have asked six composers to each write a succinct musical idea which can serve as a backbone for their improvisations. This can be a groove, a melody, a chord progression or a set of improvisation rules – anything goes, as long as it fits on a single A4 page. Van Gangelen: 'Backbone is an attempt to work according to a new kind of creative process, in which the boundaries between composer and performer are not as strictly defined and where the end product is the resounding result of a co-creative process. It's also an attempt to bring together a range of very different sound worlds.'

Take musical omnivore Greg Saunier for instance. With his band Deerhoof, which he formed in 1994, he has to date produced thirteen albums which hop from style to style – from The Man, The King, The Girl's improvised noise punk to the orchestral synth arrangements on Green Cosmos and their latest release La Isla Bonita, with gritty grunge seamlessly turning into poppy electro beats and atmospheric soundscapes. Classically trained American singer Shara Nova (previously Worden) is equally versatile. Under the stage name My Brightest Diamond, she has made a significant impact as a singer-songwriter who can turn her hand to a range of different musical styles, as evidenced on her debut album Bring Me The Workhorse, on which she combines rock grooves with classical string arrangements and chamber music instrumentations. Julia Holter studied classical composition at the CalArts Conservatory in Los Angeles, yet on her debut album Tragedy she emerged as a writer of experimental dreamy pop songs in the spirit of Laurie Anderson, Kate Bush and Julianne Barwick. Her latest release Have You In My Wilderness marked her international breakthrough in 2014. 

New York composer Judd Greenstein grew up listening to hip hop beats before he entered the Yale School of Music to focus on writing classical music. But pop has remained an important presence in his work, evidenced by the infectious pulse of his scores. Parisian Daniel Wohl now lives in New York as well, where he, in his own words, pursues his 'vision of new music which connects the endless sonic possibilities of today's world with [his] classical compositional background.' Wohl blurs the lines between electronic and acoustic instrumentation, blending both elements into a greater organic whole. Nicknamed 'the scientist of groove', Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch creates unparallelled Zen-funk with his Ronin ensemble layered, funky grooves with minimalist use of meditative repetition. 

As Marlies van Gangelen says: 'I believe that a new musical genre is emerging, blending acoustic sounds with electronics and connecting contemporary composed music with indie, avant-garde rock and various electronica styles. It's a belief which is reflected in the music of the composers we have asked to contribute to Backbone.'