The first fuseleeds broke the mould with a brand new music festival that celebrated the full wealth and diversity of today’s vibrant new music scene, had the critics swooning and put Leeds firmly back on the UK’s cultural map. This exciting bi-annual festival makes an eagerly awaited return in 2006 with a programme that brings artists from the worlds of popular, jazz, world and contemporary classical together in a spirit of musical risk taking and experiment. Through new commissions and collaborations presented in an innovative and exciting way, fuseleeds06 continues to be a festival bursting with events that know no musical boundaries, inviting everyone to share in its spirit of adventure and inclusion, and inspiring audiences both new and old.
The headline gig on Wednesday 10 May illustrates the genre-defying ethos of the festival perfectly with a night of no less than four world premieres and fuseleeds06 new commissions from artists as diverse as Antony (Antony & The Johnsons) and Bjork collaborator Nico Muhly, Hanif Kureishi and Michael Nyman, Sister Bliss, Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen and visuals team Flat-e, all performing with the Festival ensemble the London Sinfonietta. This wonderfully broad commissioning policy and platform for experiment had wide-reaching results following the previous festival fuseleeds04, with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood snapped up by the BBC Concert Orchestra as Associate Composer and Markus Stockhausen commissioned by BBC Radio 3 for Bath Festival.
fuseleeds06 has commissioned 2005 Mercury Music Prize Winner, and recent BRITS nominee, Antony (Antony & The Johnsons) to perform a selection of songs arranged for the London Sinfonietta exclusively for the festival by Bjork collaborator Nico Muhly - fingers are crossed for performances of previously un-released material! Whilst Antony undoubtedly needs little introduction, Nico is also an astounding young talent. Since graduating from the Juillard School for composition in 2004 he has already worked with Bjork (for Matthew Barney’s Drawing Restraint), conducted a performance by Antony with a chamber orchestra in Holland, composed a song cycle in collaboration with acclaimed illustrator Maira Kalman and had his evensong canticles performed by the Clare College Choir, Cambridge, also broadcast by BBC Radio 3.
Sister Bliss, one of the world’s leading female DJs and the musical mind behind UK dance band Faithless, makes her first foray into the concert hall with a new work written for the London Sinfonietta and commissioned by fuseleeds06. One of Norway’s most creative musicians, trumpeter Arve Henriksen, has also been commissioned to create a new work for the ensemble to be performed following the world premiere of a new String Quintet by Michael Nyman. Wakefield visuals collective Flat-e, whose knack for producing stunning film work, animations and graphics has led to them being forerunners of the VJ scene in the UK and Europe, have been commissioned to create an exclusive new film to accompany all of the above works.
The evening will close with the world premiere of writer Hanif Kureishi and composer Michael Nyman’s new multimedia collaboration I Was A Total Virgin, commissioned by fuseleeds06 and the London Sinfonietta. Long time admirers of each other’s work, Kureishi and Nyman have teamed up with sound designer/composer Ian Dearden to create a work that uses recordings of interviews between Hanif and five people he knows well talking about various aspects of their lives and histories. With the words underscoring Nyman’s music, the resulting work will interweave the threads of personal histories at the same time as revealing something of Hanif Kureshi as the omnipresent interviewer, chiming with the highly personal nature of his recent work.
Other fuseleeds06 commissions and world premieres across the festival include The Glenn Miller Project by award-winning composer and jazz pianist Matthew Bourne (12 May). One of fastest rising stars of the British jazz scene, Leeds-based Bourne pays serious homage and re-assesses the music of a figure that provided the soundtrack to much of his early life. Performed by a hand picked Big Band of leading young jazz musicians from around the UK, audiences can expect “the deconstruction, rearrangement and in many cases re-composition of Glenn Miller classics [including] an Elvis/Doo-Wop version of Chatanooga Choo-Choo and an Andriessen inspired version of In the Mood. In addition to the typical line-up I will be using various samples relevant to the subject and a narrator, who will occasionally be asked to read selected works of Enid Blyton…” Matthew Bourne
Long time collaborator with Future Sound of London and co-founder of Piano Circus, Max Richter has more recently found acclaim as producer of Vashti Bunyan’s comeback album Lookaftering which found its way onto many critics’ best of 2005 lists. Commissioned by fuseleeds06, the Max Richter Ensemble will give the world premiere a new live soundtrack performed to rarely seen short films from the Derek Jarman film archive together with a performance of Richter’s 2004 release The Blue Notebooks (12 May).
National promoters of new music spnm and their Artistic Director Rolf Hind join with fuseleeds06 to present the world premiere of Many Hands, a carnival of pianos that comes to the iconic setting of Leeds Corn Exchange (7 May). This promises to be an aural and visual delight for an array of keyboards where even the audience is invited to play a part. From the graphic score of Molitor’s Monty Python-esque Tango to the Buddhist processional vibe of Hind’s Sunnata, Many Hands invites audiences to enter a rarely heard sound world of keyboard treats performed by Rolf Hind, Noriko Ogawa, Richard Casey, Daniel Becker, Andrew Ball and Sarah Nicholls.
The Michael Gordon Band also makes its first UK performance with new music featuring Bill Morrison’s film work as an integral part and written especially for a major Contemporary Music Network tour. The first half features the first outing of the Max de Wardener Group, Max records for Accidental, Matthew Herbert’s label and although best known for his scores to films like Comfortably Numb, he’s recently returned to live work, touring with Plaid and playing Sonar as well as festivals in Japan, Germany and France (9 May).
In a joint commission by Opera North and fuseleeds06 comes a double bill of music theatre from the composer Stephen McNeff. Names of the Dead is a musical memorial to all those killed in Iraq - where some names are known, many are not and numbers are still climbing - and pays homage to the civilian deaths recorded since the first performance of the work in 2003 Also, exclusively for the Festival, McNeff explores a fragment of the text to Eliot Weinberger’s stunning and poetic account of the invasion of Iraq to create a potent companion piece to Names of the Dead (8 May).
Home to the largest three manual organ in Europe, Leeds Town Hall is transformed in the hands of some of the world's most noted organists and stars of the glitch 'n' noise scene. Embracing landmark classical pieces and pioneering contemporary compositions, Spire presents an evening of bold exploration into the sonic possibilities of the organ by world-class musicians and composers which invites audiences to think again about the mighty Emperor of Instruments (12 May). Organist Charles Matthews, composer Marcus Davidson and operatic tenor Robert Milner play J S Bach, Henryk Gorécki, Arvo Pärt and others. BJNilsen combines real and sampled organ to create a sprawling sea of thunderous sound. Christian Fennesz fuses organ tones and electronics into an ethereal chorus. Conceptual artist Leif Inger’s expanded version of Bach’s organ composition creates a beautiful yet thrilling soundscape.
The full fuseleeds06 programme is now available from www.fuseleeds.org.uk or call 0113 395 1244 to request your copy of the brochure.
FUSELEEDS is a major new biennial music festival celebrating the wealth and diversity of today's vibrant new music scene. FUSELEEDS06, from 6 – 13 May in Leeds, will present an international live programme placed at the forefront of jazz, world, classical and popular music including experimental new collaborations, specially commissioned works and world premieres, and an extensive education and fringe programme.
FUSELEEDS is a collaborative venture between Leeds City Council, Leeds College of Music and Leeds Jazz.
BBC Radio 3, the UK's leading cultural broadcaster features live classical, jazz, world music and drama: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3
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