of Sound and Song 3

"of Sound and Song" is a piano concert series by contemporary art gallery & in a historical canal house in Amsterdam. This third edition of "Sound and Song" marks the 10th anniversary of Merchant House with music for solo piano by two composers Charlemagne Palestine and Maxim Shalygin.
“The 9 preludes for piano are perhaps the first large-scale work in which I managed to find the subtle connections inside musical matter that invite the listener to move inward. Everything in the preludes is aimed at gradual immersion, avoiding the use of external effects. This intimate and dark atmosphere allowed me to become one with myself without the distraction of external factors. This is what I wish for the listeners as well; sometimes the music is so quiet that we start to hear our own breath..” – Maxim Shalygin.

Program:
‘’Strumming Music’’  (2009)  Charlemagne Palestine
‘’9 Preludes’’  (2005)  Maxim Shalygin
Piano: Tomoko Mukaiyama
Duration:  ca. 70 min

Dates and Times:
29th (FRI) March 2024, 20:00
30th (SAT) March 2024, 16:00

Location: The Merchant House (Herengracht 254, Amsterdam).
Supported by: Fonds Podiumkunsten.

The venue can host a maximum audience of 30 individuals – creating an intimate and personal setup. If you plan on joining one of the performances, please reserve at your earliest convenience to secure a seat.

-----------------------
(Pianist/Artist/Director)

Tomoko Mukaiyama is a Dutch-Japanese pianist, visual artist and director based in Amsterdam. In 1991 she was the first Japanese pianist to win the prestigious Dutch Gaudeamus competition and in 1993 she won the Muramatsu Prize in Japan, which is awarded to an outstanding musician. She has been engaged by many prestigious orchestras and ensembles throughout the world, like the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, the London Sinfonietta and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, among many others. Tomoko uses her experience as a concert pianist to bring new dimensions to the concert space - as a multi-modal artist she develops performing arts projects and art installations that combine music with modern dance, fashion and visual art.

https://tomoko.nl/ 

-----------------------

The Merchant House (TMH) presents contemporary art to discover, immerse oneself in, and collect. Each project seeks to address pressing questions in art and brings together an extended exhibition, event series, and publication. Founded by Marsha Plotnitsky in 2013 in a 17th-century canal house in Amsterdam, TMH stands for a new reflection on the art-in-the-city traditions. In curating the art projects in the Amsterdam canal house, Marsha Plotnitsky, our Founding Artistic Director, explores the artistic, spatial, and organisational possibilities of an art merchant construct.

https://merchanthouse.nl/

-----------------------

(Composer/Artist)

Charlemagne Palestine was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1945. He studied at New York University, Columbia University, Mannes College of Music, and the California Institute of the Arts. Palestine is a minimalist composer, performer, and visual artist. He has been writing music since the 1970s and is most well-known for his minimalist piano compositions of layered electronic drones and hypnotic rhythms. In the late 70s, he mostly gave up his career in music to pursue the visual arts. As a musician and a video artist, he is interested in revealing the inner workings of the self to his audience through intense, ritualistic sound and motion. His performances draw on sacred ceremonial traditions from cultures around the world, rendering Palestine as a shaman-like figure as he confronts the primal, emotional and psychological states of his audience.

-----------------------

(Composer/ Conductor/ Performer)

Ukrainian-Dutch composer, conductor and performer. For the past ten years, the composer has been living and working in The Hague, the Netherlands. He is the author of works of various genres, including chamber, vocal, symphonic, electro-acoustic music, as well as music for plays, ballets and movies. In 2012, the composition "Letters to Anna" was awarded at the International Competition of Young Composers "Gaudeamus Muziekweek" (Utrecht, the Netherlands). In the same year, the composer's music was selected for the project "Gesamt" directed by Lars von Trier. Maxim Shalygin participated in the residencies of the Isolation Foundation, Storioni Festival, and Tomoko Mukaiyama Foundation.
https://maximshalygin.com/

Host or Publisher Tomoko Mukaiyama Foundation