Hello everyone, this is Maarten Ornstein with the news
My first newsletter sent from substack!
Dear all,
This newsletter comes to you via Substack, which I started using in an effort to finally move away from Meta, for obvious reasons.. During the past months it became abundantly clear what Meta is all about, and I really want nothing to do with a company like that. Substack gives me the option to publish my newsletters as articles, so they will remain on my profile for anyone to read in the future. So, whatโs the news? I will briefly talk you through what I have been doing, what I am doing and of course what Iโm going to do. Info, links and dates are all in the article below. I really hope you like my new version of the news and if you do, please subscribe. I promise I wonโt spam you!
DASH!
My trio DASH! with Alex Oele and Eric Hoeke is celebrating its 21st birthday! I think playing with a band for that long is quite an achievement, even if there were changes in the lineup, and a 2 year break. I still enjoy playing with Eric and Alex enormously and feel that there is a lot more music to play and discover.
To mark the occasion weโre playing a concert in the Bimhuis on April 24. We will be playing all the songs from our latest album Radio Rotor, dedicated to the famous electronics shop on the Kinkerstraat that closed in 2022. Remember the shop? I would love to hear your stories. If you have some, please share them. Radio Rotor is available as a digital download on my website, and included with the download is all the sheet music from the tunes we play.
Memorial concert
This year on the 4th and 5th of May we celebrate 80 years of liberation from occupation and fascism, and we remember those who were murdered in the camps. Of course, you could ask yourself if weโre really liberated, as a quick look at the news would tell you otherwise. I mean, have you read the papers lately? Iโm playing a memorial concert of the 4th of May in the Uilenburger Sjoel in Amsterdam, together with Mattijs van de Woerd, Emily Beynon, Johan van Iersel and Antonii Baryshevskyi. Weโll play music by Rolf Marbot, Guillaume Connesson, Marius Flothuis, Sandy Denny, Ilse Weber and more. The concert starts at 9PM. Tickets here.
Al-kiฬmiyaฬ
One of the most exciting things Iโm doing this year is a new project together with cellist Frances-Marie Uitti. Itโs called Al-kiฬmiyaฬ, and itโs built on ancient music manuscripts, free improvisation and synesthesia. Frances is an incredible musician and a true free spirit, and Iโm so very happy to work with her again. We played quite a few concerts in the past few years, mostly improvised. This project adds a whole new dimension to our collaboration, so Iโm hugely excited about it. When finished, Al-kiฬmiyaฬ will be a CD AND a book with music represented in both notation AND images, and we will play the music live in concert too. I will update you on this project as we make more progress.
Koreri
In 2023, I completed an opera called Opera Papua. For the music I used birdsong, traditional music from Papua New-Guinea, and Louis Armstrong as ingredients to create a kaleidoscopic score which I was quite pleased with. It was premiered in May 2023. You can read more about Opera Papua on my website.
Sadly, due to circumstances the opera was played only once, so I was very happy when I was asked to create a suite of the operaโs instrumental highlights. It really was a โKill your darlingsโ exercise and a lot of work, but I am quite happy with the resulting piece for octet, called Koreri. (Whatโs Koreri?) The music will be premiered on May 17 in Muziekgebouw aan โt IJ.
New recordings
Next June, Mike Fentross and I will be recording a new CD with music by Bach, Stockhausen and Willem Breuker. We started working on the Bach program after winning the Willem Breuker award in 2022, and now we are finally ready to record it. Which Bach? I hear you ask. Wellโฆ, weโre doing the Goldberg Variations! And then some more Bach, pieces from Stockhausenโs Tierkreis and Willem Breukerโs beautiful Reisefieber. We play two tryouts before recording: April 15th in Amstelveen, and May 27th in the Roode Bioscoop Amsterdam. See you there!