Future Forest!
The Award for Innovation in Music turns three! AIM stimulates the development of original ideas by awarding €5000 to one of our students. This year the motto of AIM is: Future Forest! It focuses on the detrimental impact of human society on its natural environment and the urge for change. AIM 2021 looks towards the future and its challenges. A crucial topic for human society that calls for innovation on a large scale – the relation between humankind and the ecological system of the planet. Lifestyle and consumption modelled by the West has a strong impact on ecological systems around the globe. We witness rising numbers of temperatures and natural catastrophes. As the need for action grows, societies go into search-mode: new sets of values, philosophical concepts, and innovative ways towards a life in balance with nature are on the rise. With it comes a need for creative, innovative concepts for eco-friendly behavior. Which role can music and musicians play in this context?
Future Forest is particularly inspired by the re-forestation project “Instituto Terra” of the Atlantic Rain Forest in Brazil, initiated by photographer Sebastiao Salgado.
Noel Aiyar
Mother knew a forest once is a sonic exploration of the space forests occupy in our collective memory, emotion, and imagination. Central to it is a very real concern, one of rapidly vanishing ecosystems all over the globe in service to monocultures and industrialized consumerism. As the dimensions and diversity of organic life vanish around us, we ask, could there be a future generation to which a real forest, like dinosaurs, is a phantom of the past? Could a future forest be one whose sounds and physical reality are recreated and transformed in the imagination, around a hand-me -down memory of how free and whole the natural world could once make us feel. In keeping with the organic nature of the theme, the performance enlists musical storytelling about a child born in a colony planet, who has never once seen a forest, reconstructing it’s dynamics through the sonic and emotional memories of his mother. We take it through stages of industrial noise to fantastical wildness using narration, instrumental performance, live foleys and visual montages. The audience is eventually invited to be a part of the child’s imaginarium through the interactive play of sounds and a drum circle – to reflect upon and connect to the emotional release of feeling wild, natural, and free.
Hon Ning Cheung (Heddy) - Three Apocalyptic Calls
“Three Apocalyptic Calls” is a three-movement theatre play combining musicians’ live performance, film, and tape. As a pessimistic optimist, the composer wished to pen a disastrous future with humans’ hope as a resolution. Throughout the composing journey, Heddy was deeply inspired by conversations with different people from the conservatory, listening to their stories about encounters with natural disasters, concerns about the planet, special connections with nature and hope towards the future. The story was unfolded by an imaginary disaster alarm in south Limburg and a dying girl “Alina” running out of water in the forest, interluded by musical responses to different human voices about their FUTURE.
The piece was performed by Nefelibata New Music Collective, initiated by a group of musicians in Conservatorium Maastricht since September 2021, devoted to creating original music inspired by humans, nature, and life.
Hon Ning, Cheung (Heddy) is a harmonicist & composer from Hong Kong. As a latecomer in music, the transposition from chemistry to composition after college was motivated by her main instrument chromatic harmonica, in hopes of sharing more of its musical possibilities with people around through composing and performing. As a composer, she is currently immersing herself in the bond between music and text, inspired by life experiences, memory fragments, images, and stories. As a nature lover and enthusiast in mountaineering, she believes there is an innate connection between music and nature.
Programme Three Apocalyptic Calls:
- Inertia
- Migrations
- Disappearances
Musicians:
- Clarinet in Bb: Chi Hin Cheong
- Alto saxophone: Pedro da Silva Melo
- Classical guitar: Edoardo Gatta
- Chromatic Harmonica: Hon Ning Cheung
- Vocal: Alina Palus
- Piano: Lilian Phan
- Percussions: Colin Crandal
Human voices/Storytellers:
Carmen Elisa, Seulbi Cho, Daryl Chiew Kah Weng, Flavio Banni, Jeroen Riemsdijk, Thomas, Marie Hesberg, Asia Zakhareva, Ian van Wolferen, Hibiki Sakamoto, Ming Hong Lui, Joop Celis, Manuel Gottschlich, Sachit Ajmani, Chi Hin Cheong, Pedro da Silva Melo, Edoardo Gatta, Lilian Phan, Colin Crandal
Juliette Romboti - The Sound of Trees
Forests and trees surround us in many ways. We try to perceive them through our senses or measure them through science. But can we fully understand what a tree is through those two means? So, what is the essence of a tree? Does it feel and if so, what is it feeling? If it could communicate, what would it say? These are the questions from which I began my creative process. The resulting piece is an abstract impression exploring what forests would sound like if they could speak; and what they would look like if we could see what is happening beneath the surface.
I am currently studying classical composition with Vykintas Baltakas. Together with my previous experience in the visual arts, I am exploring the possibilities of merging sound and image as a single medium of expression. Both my visual art and music composition focus on creating a deeper connection within oneself, with others, and with nature.
Join the Forest Fundraiser!
How can art and music be used to stimulate a deeper sense of care, curiosity, and appreciation for nature? Through this piece I aim to create a space in which the audience can connect to the essence of forests and trees. However, I also find it important to turn the experience into concrete action. For every audience member attending the live performance of the Award for Innovation in Music on the 12th of November 2021 in Conservatorium Maastricht, a donation will be made to One Tree Planted, an organization that plants one tree for every euro donated. I invite you to double the number of trees we can plant and plant a tree too!
https://forest-fundraiser.raisely.com/juliette-romboti
Celllo: Heidur Bjarnadottir
Soprano: Margarita Dudčaka
Mezzo soprano: Adèle Sterck Filion
Alto saxophone: Francesca Fantini
Alto Saxophone: Inés González Gómez
Irina Trajkovska - The Mogul
My name is Irina, and I created a short movie with a team of talented colleagues. This short movie called ‘The Mogul’ is a very personal creative project for me. It conveys a girl that finds herself in 6 different areas of the world and experiences their struggles. It is full of symbolism and my own perception of current events regarding climate change. The secondary character – The Mogul, is a symbol of the ignorant people in power globally.
I grew up with media signaling and warning about the dangerous effects climate change can cause. The story of my movie is quite simple, it focuses on a woman trying to do her craft in peace and constantly being disturbed by the deteriorating state of her world. The point is to convey a message of unity, wherever in the world you are climate change if not already, will eventually take a toll on your life. That is why the music in the film is 6 different renditions of the song “Let it be” by The Beatles. The short movie is supposed to be eye catching and symbolic. Every item, every action and every sound of music tells a subtle story. After the movie is shown, I really want to achieve a sense of urgency and solidarity. Societal reforms need to happen, and world leaders need to decide on rapid changes, but we, the common people, should be what we always have been: human. I want to inspire the people in the audience that they can contribute already by tonight. Imagine providing a meal for a child thousands of miles away on another continent or making someone smile when they wear the clothes you donated or imagine the momentum we can gain if we sign an important petition.
What is happening to the world is mass destruction of homes, forests, eco systems. That is why we need a mass reaction as a counter force. There is a certain narrative in the media that tells us that no matter how much we recycle or donate, we will not make even a dent on a global scale. But that is a wrong approach, I think we should remain human even under the biggest pressure.
I want to name the people that helped me achieve this dream. Without them it would not have been possible to create this project.
Tameem Kammouhi – producer and videographer
Pian Vane – composer
Jesus Serrano Huitron – sound engineer
Joshua Franken – actor
Lorenzo Rietveld – video editor
Anna Gunnarsdottir & Harmoney Lee - Microcosm
Welcome to our performance called Microcosm, featuring a pianist and a plant!
As a metaphor for performing to our ecosystems we want to show you how to connect with nature through music. We connected our plants with sensors and collected data to generate midi, a digital format for music. With midi we sculpted sounds and visuals that you can experience tonight with the introspective tones of Clair de lune by Claude Debussy.
Our message asks everyone to recognize that plants and humans exist among a larger ecosystem — one that is collapsing and facing its own extinction. Our relationship with our natural world is disconnected. During the pandemic many of us built mini forests in our homes to help us deal with social distancing and keep us sane. It is time we recognized and thanked the small aspects of nature.
We need to sustain our ecosystems, just as we need to sustain our plants at home. Climate change is happening now. Iceland already had the first funeral for a glacier in 2014. Once a glacier melts, it cannot come back. In the next centuries all our main glaciers will have the same fate. If the erasure of a glacier is not enough, what will open our eyes?
Tonight, we want to explore what it would be like if we could really listen to nature. Join us in this experience and feel the microcosm of our house plants with the help of technology.
Anna Þórhildur Gunnarsdóttir is an Icelandic pianist currently based in Maastricht, NL.
Harmoney Lee is a Canadian designer based in Toronto, CA.
Josh Baptista is a Canadian designer based in Toronto, CA.
Anna's and Harmoney’s previous AIM work can be viewed here.
Jury
- René Rousseau - Initiator and donor of AIM
- Stijn Huijts - Artistic Director Bonnefantenmuseum
- Peter Peters - Endowed professor of Innovation of Classical Music (MCICM)
- Marleen Hartjes - Van Abbemuseum & Maastricht Institute of Arts
- Joachim Junghanss - Associate Director/Head of Jazz & Pop Music at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam
Previous Winners
- 2019: Helen Svoboda & Andrew Saragossi
- 2020: Jien Chir Yap
Supporters of AIM
AIM is generously donated by René Rousseau and Cecile Maas. It is furthermore supported by the Conservatorium Maastricht Foundation. Valuable support is also provided by Hans Leufkens from HI Capital. The award is in collaboration with the MCICM, the Maastricht Center for the Innovation of Classical Music, as well as Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht.