Frankfurt - New York: Composing and making music

In mid-April 2024, 15 stu­dents from the HfMDK and the Man­hat­tan School of Mu­sic (MSM) will em­bark on a two-week coope­ra­ti­on pro­ject in which they will vi­sit each other in Frank­furt and New York City and work tog­e­ther on and per­form works from their own ranks. On April 14, four mu­si­ci­ans, three com­po­sers and a con­duc­tor from the Big Ap­ple will come to Frank­furt to em­bark on an ar­tis­tic ad­ven­ture with four mu­si­ci­ans and three com­po­sers from the me­tro­po­lis on the Main.

The six com­po­sers have writ­ten works - each in their own style - for flu­te, sa­xo­pho­ne, cla­ri­net, horn, trum­pet, gui­tar, vio­lin and dou­ble bass, which will be rehe­ar­sed by their fel­low stu­dents in a few days and then per­for­med for the very first time in four con­certs, twice in the Rhi­ne-Main re­gi­on and twice in New York. The pro­gram will be com­ple­men­ted by the "Fes­ti­ve Sounds" by Ger­man-Ame­ri­can com­po­ser Ur­su­la Mam­lok (1923-2016), who­se foun­da­ti­on is hel­ping to make the pro­ject pos­si­ble. The eight-pie­ce en­sem­ble is made up of stu­dents from the MS­M's "Con­tem­pora­ry Per­for­mance" mas­ter's pro­gram and stu­dents from the in­stru­men­tal sub­jec­ts and the IEMA from the HfMDK.

The first con­cert with the world pre­mie­res of the works will take place on April 19 at 7:30 pm in the Gre­at Hall of the HfMDK, the se­cond on April 20 at 4 pm at the Aka­de­mie für Ton­kunst in Darm­stadt. The two con­certs in New York will take place on April 24 at the Man­hat­tan School of Mu­sic and on April 28 at ano­t­her ve­nue in New York. Jour­na­lists are wel­co­me to at­tend the rehe­ar­sal days (April 15-18) and the con­cert at the HfMDK (April 19).

In ad­di­ti­on to the mu­si­cal work, the two pro­ject weeks also in­clu­de ac­tivi­ties de­si­gned to teach stu­dents about the coun­tries and their peop­le and to streng­t­hen the per­so­nal bonds bet­ween the stu­dents. The two pro­ject lea­ders, Prof. Dr. Ul­rich Krepp­ein from the HfMDK and Prof. Dr. Rei­ko Fü­ting from the MSM, are ai­ming for long-term in­ter­na­tio­nal coope­ra­ti­on bet­ween the two uni­ver­si­ties with this ar­tis­tic ex­chan­ge: The stu­dents should en­ter into a las­ting in­ter­cul­tu­ral dia­log, learn from each other, stay in con­tact with each other for as long as pos­si­ble and draw on their spe­cial sha­red ex­pe­ri­en­ces. And fu­ture stu­dents should also be able to be­ne­fit from the new trans­at­lan­tic coope­ra­ti­on.

The Frank­furt - New York 2024 en­coun­ter is sup­por­ted on the Frank­furt side by the Ger­man Aca­de­mic Ex­chan­ge Ser­vice, the So­cie­ty of Fri­ends and Pa­trons of the HfMDK and by QSL funds from the Uni­ver­si­ty (for Qua­li­ty Im­pro­ve­ment in Stu­dy Con­di­ti­ons and Tea­ching). The New York stu­dents re­cei­ve fi­nan­ci­al sup­port from the Dwight and Ur­su­la Mam­lok Foun­da­ti­on.

• Sunday, April 14: Ar­ri­val of the stu­dents from NYC in Frank­furt
• Mon­day, April 15 to Thurs­day, April 18: Rehe­ar­sal days in Frank­furt
• Fri­day, April 19, 7:30 p.m.: Con­cert I, HfMDK Frank­furt, Gre­at Hall
• Sa­tur­day, April 20, 4 p.m.: Con­cert II, Aka­de­mie für Ton­kunst Darm­stadt
• Sunday, April 21: Trip of all stu­dents to New York
• Mon­day, April 22 and Tu­es­day, April 23: Rehe­ar­sal days in New York
• Wed­nes­day, April 24, 7:30 p.m.: Con­cert III, Man­hat­tan School of Mu­sic
• Sunday, April 28: Con­cert IV, con­cert ve­nue in NYC to be an­noun­ced
• Mon­day, April 29: De­par­tu­re of the HfMDK stu­dents to Frank­furt

Mu­si­ci­ans:

HfMDK

• Ja­vier Cuen­ca (gui­tar, Mas­ter of Ar­tis­tic In­stru­men­tal Stu­dies)
• Pa­blo Pi­ñei­ro Mun­din (cla­ri­net, Mas­ter IEMA CoMP*)
• Ro­byn Blair (horn, Mas­ter IEMA CoMP*)
• Em­mett Jack­son (dou­ble bass, Mas­ter IEMA CoMP*)

(* In­ter­na­tio­nal En­sem­ble Mo­dern Aca­de­my, Con­tem­pora­ry Mu­sic Per­for­mance Mas­ter)

MSM

• Ade­li­ne De­Bel­la (flu­te)
• Grace Press­ley (sa­xo­pho­ne)
• Sam Fried­man (trum­pet)
• Yeji Pyun (vio­lin)
• Hwa­nee Pak (con­duc­tor)

Com­po­sers:

HfMDK

• Ar­wen Camp­bell (Ba­che­lor Com­po­si­ti­on)
• Fran­ces­co Bor­ghet­ti (Mas­ter Com­po­si­ti­on)
• Tomás Jesús Ocaña Gon­zá­lez (Mas­ter Com­po­si­ti­on)

MSM

• Yue Chen
• Jia­ning Song
• San­tia­go Gu­tier­rez

Or­ga­ni­zers:

• Prof. Dr. Ul­rich Krepp­ein (HfMDK)
• Prof. Dr. Rei­ko Fü­ting (MSM)

The pro­ject is made pos­si­ble by the kind sup­port of the DAAD, the GFF and the QSL funds of the HfMDK as well as the Dwight and Ur­su­la Mam­lok Foun­da­ti­on.