unified - Opening concert for the anniversary
Thursday, 31 January 2019, 7:30 pm
Hall Tirol/congress innsbruck
Fulminant start to the university anniversary
The anniversary year was ceremoniously opened at Congress Innsbruck with an impressive concert by the three university ensembles consisting of orchestra, choir and big band. The highlight was the premiere of the contemporary commissioned work "unified" by the South Tyrolean composer Manuela Kerer.
The highlights in 15 minutes
More videos:
- Combinations - a piece for voice, big band and strings by Markus Moser
- Unified - Opening concert 350 years University of Innsbruck
Impressions
The artistic prelude to the anniversary year was the opening concert with the three university ensembles Chor, Orchester and BigBand.
The musical spectrum, which ranged from the traditional to the modern experimental, was synonymous with the entire anniversary year: Together, the three ensembles organised the evening in alternating collaborations. The highlight was a piece for all three ensembles, which was specially commissioned for the anniversary year from the South Tyrolean composer Manuela Kerer.
Manuela Kerer is a child of this university in two respects and thus also stands for an interdisciplinary approach: in addition to her composition studies, she also holds a doctorate in both law and psychology. Today she is regarded as a figurehead of contemporary Tyrolean music. For the commissioned work, she worked closely with the three ensembles, asked university members about characteristic sounds at the university and incorporated the answers into her composition.
The greetings were translated into sign language.
Programme
Premiere of the commissioned work for the 350th anniversary of the University of Innsbruck:
UNIFIED
for choir, orchestra, voice and big band
by Manuela Kerer
Also to be performed:
"Academic Festival Overture" in C minor op. 80
by Johannes Brahms
"Combinations" for voice, big band and strings
by Markus Moser
"Gaudeamus Variations" for choir, big band and audience
by Georg Weiß
"Fantasy" in C minor op. 80 for piano, choir and orchestra
by Ludwig van Beethoven
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Preparations
A host of university musicians, singers, the creative output of a contemporary composer and 350 years of university history and its sounds - these are the ingredients for an anniversary cocktail that is already being rehearsed today.
The commissioned work
The composer Manuela Kerer deals with the Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck in a work composed especially for the anniversary year. She will musically illuminate its history as well as its present and future. The piece is conceived for the university's three ensembles, the University Choir, the University Orchestra and the University Big Band. Manuela Kerer's musical language can be categorised as avant-garde serious music.
The composer Manuela Kerer
(*1980 Brixen / South Tyrol / Italy) loves to be amazed and is constantly on the lookout for new sounds, surprises and challenges. In addition to her studies at the Tyrolean State Conservatory (composition and IGP violin), she completed her studies in law and psychology at the University of Innsbruck (dissertation: music and dementia).
Further studies in composition led her to Alessandro Solbiati in Milan. Works by M. Kerer have been written for the soloist ensemble Kaleidoskop Berlin, Klangforum Wien, Die Reihe, the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie or for exceptional artists such as Julius Berger and Maja Ratkje and have been performed at festivals such as the Munich Biennale for Contemporary Music Theatre and Wien Modern or in the concert halls of Berlin and Vienna, at Kampnagel Hamburg, in the Accademia Filarmonica Romana and at the ACF New York.
Manuela Kerer has received numerous prizes, including the Walther von der Vogelweide Prize (2009), the SKE Publicity Prize (2011) and the Austrian State Scholarship for Composition (2008, 2011 and 2016). In 2009, the composer was selected by the Committee of European Regions as one of Europe's 100 "young creative talents", and in 2012/2013 by the Austrian Foreign Ministry for the "New Austrian Sound of Music" programme.
In 2015 she received the international working scholarship "Composer in Residence - Women Composers to Frankfurt", in 2016 she was Composer in Residence at the St. Gallen / Styria Festival.
Kerer's works are published by Breitkopf & Härtel. They have been recorded on numerous CDs, and a portrait CD was released as part of the ORF Edition "Zeitton".
Co-creation of the anniversary composition
Students and members of the university were invited to help shape the anniversary composition. The composer Manuela Kerer had formulated 3 questions. The most interesting answers will be integrated into the piece by the choir:
- What characteristic sound do you associate with the University of Innsbruck and why?
- What is your favourite quiet place at the University of Innsbruck and why?
- What is your favourite loud place at the University of Innsbruck and why?
