Summer holidays are coming to an end and Avgarde is excited to invite you to the first season concert, which will as well be a program launch event on the 27th of August. We are planning on a short presentation of our autumn plans by Avgarde´s styreleder - Sigurd F. Olsen and a world premiere of 50-minute music-theatre work Institutions of the Flesh by and with Alwynne Pritchard and with and for Alpaca Ensemble.
Starting 20:00
Place: Corneteater
Kong Christian Frederiks Plass 4
Institutions of the Flesh
Imagine that in every song we sing, the first human utterance can be heard. Feel the sensation of muscles contracting, a gasp of air being expelled and imagine the first ever cry of pain, pleasure, wonder or protestation coming into being. Then slowly, slowly, slowly it evolves into song. And the kinetic forces that make these songs, this music happen, are as old as those that brought forth flowers from the oceans. The thing that connects a mournful melody and the drawing of horsehair across the gut string of a ‘cello, is also in how we experience the soft descent of rainfall, the violent tumble of a rock and the fragile beating of a bird’s wing. It’s what fires our depictions of angels, fuels our fear of god and even drives our abuse of people and of power. Everything is motion, everything is connected and everything is collated and organised in the body. The first breath is everything.
As well as the traditional Scottish folk song Black is the Colour, the texts used in this performance are by Alwynne Pritchard, William Blake and Heiner Müller.
Institutions of the Flesh was developed in close collaboration with the Alpaca Ensemble and is dedicated to them.
Voice: Alwynne Pritchard
Piano: Else Bø
Violoncello: Marianne Baudouin Lie
Lights: Steven Lunn
Costume: Maria Victoria Høvring Høeg
Design elements: Vera Gomes
Bio:
Alwynne Pritchard is a British composer, vocalist, physical performer and writer based in Bergen. She has created work for orchestras, ensembles, musicians and other performers internationally, and has appeared as actor in stage productions in Norway, France, Italy, Germany and the UK. In 2015, she formed the music-theatre company Neither Nor with her partner Thorolf Thuestad and in 2020 she wrote, produced and directed her first animation film, in collaboration with the Italian artist Domizia Tosatto.
ALPACA ENSEMBLE, derives from the piano trio Alpaca Trio, a versatile chamber group frequently collabo- rating with other musicians, artists and composers. They initiate innovative projects crossing and ques- tioning boundaries between established genres, and have had numerous works written for them. Alpaca Ensemble was also nominated for Årets Utøver 2020 av Norsk Komponistforening.