Live Music

‘Jacques Demierre, Dorothea Schürch and Alfred Zimmerlin’ at IRTIJAL ’15

Founded in 2000, Irtijal is presently the oldest music festival of the city of Beirut, and one of the longest standing international festivals of post-war Lebanon. Irtijal is organized by MILL, a non-profit association founded in 2000 by musicians Mazen Kerbaj and Sharif Sehnaoui, with the intent of promoting contemporary and experimental practices in music, and assisting projects that do not fit within the Lebanese mainstream, yet still present undeniable artistic value.

Born in Geneva in 1954, Swiss pianist Jacques Demierre works in jazz, improvised music, contemporary music and sound installations, as well as composing for concerts, theater and dance. He studied at the University of Geneva, at the Conservatoire Populaire (piano, jazz piano, electroacoustic music), and at the Geneva Conservatory (music theory). He gave up on classical piano early on, to focus his attention on jazz improvisation. Demierre has worked with Dorothea Schürch, Radu Malfatti, Hans Koch, Martial Solal, Han Bennink, Joëlle Léandre, Carlos Zingaro and Ikue Mori, among others. He regularly gives solo concerts and performs in trios with Lucas Niggli and Barry Guy, and with Urs Leimgruber and Barre Phillips. He is also a freelance music writer and writes for Contrechamps, a magazine which focuses on twentieth century music.

The sounds that avant-garde vocalist Dorothea Schürch produces, using her larynx, tongue, lips and hands, are nothing short of phenomenal. She has been active in the field of improvised music since 1986, and has given numerous concerts throughout Europe and the USA, performing in many important festivals including the Festival Musique Actuelle in Victoriaville/Canada, total Music Meeting in Berlin, London Musicians Collective Festival, Jazzfestival Mulhouse, Experimental Festival Kopenhagen, Canaille Frankfurt, and Taktlos Festival in Zürich. In the field of music theatre and contemporary music, Schürch has been collaborating with renowned composers such as Jacques Demierre and Alvin Lucier. She is currently a member of experimental ensemble “6ix”, alongside Demierre, Ur Leimgruber, Thomas Lehn, Okkyung Lee und Roger Turner.

Born in Zürich in 1955, composer and cellist Alfred Zimmerlin attended the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany. His impressive body of work includes pieces for piano, chamber music (with and without electronics), vocal music, orchestral music, music for theatre, and works for radio and film. As an improvising musician and cellist, he has taken part in various formations in Europe and the USA. In 2014, he received the Cultural Award of the canton of Zürich. Since the early 80’s, Zimmerlin has taken an active part in “WIM” (Workshop for Improvised Music) in Zürich, and in improvisation collective “KARL ein KARL” (in cooperation with Peter K. Frey and Michel Seigner), the distinctive feature of this trio being the fact that all compositional decisions are being made and accounted for collectively.

Cost
25,000 LL

For more information
76.952.387