New European Ensemble plays Toshio Hosokawa

Are you a fan of Japanese music? Then we have an interesting announcement for you! Jacob Kellerman (guitar) and the New European Ensemble will be playing world premieres of Toshio Hosokawa (Japan) and Pasi Lyytikäinen (Finland), on Sunday the 12th of March in ‘De Nieuwe Kerk’, Den haag.

Hosokawa created his own musical style, influenced by his teachers: Isang Yun, Klaus Huber and Brian Ferneyhough in Germany. Hosokawa returned to Japan to integrate the Japanese culture and music deeply into his compositions. 

New European Ensemble plays Toshio Hosokawa, Japanese Art and Culture Centre of Utrecht, Japan Fans, Japans Cultureel Centrum Utrecht
Composer Toshio Hosokawa

I want to make a musical cosmos which is constituted of a cosmos and an anti-cosmos (the breaking down of the world that already exists). Since we do not know what will happen next, the present movement is always important. A concrete present leads to a more genuine future.”

Hosokawa

Emlyn Stam, artistic leader of  NEuE: “Hosokawa is the most important Japanese living composer. His works are played on the most important festivals in the world: From the Biennale in Venice and the Berliner Festspiele till Los Angeles and Tokyo. I’m extremely excited about Hosokawa’s new piece for the New European Ensemble, and Hosokawa being with us for this project. A programme like this pin points the center of the present in modern music. Straight from the writing desk to our stands!”

Hosokawa about his own compositions, in a comparison with calligraphy:

I am not sure if I can talk about the “Future” of music because I always prefer concentrating on my present, as a Noh player always does. They think that concentration on the present opens the future. There is, also, a similar way of thinking in calligraphy. So that the world of calligraphy exists not only on paper but also in the air: the entire process of the hand in motion is transferred into a line.

Hosokawa

New European Ensemble plays Toshio Hosokawa

Toshio Hosokawa – a portrait
Hosokawa – Drawing
Hosokawa – Two Japanese Folksongs (world premiere)
Pasi Lyytikäinen – Nieuw werk (world premiere)
Hosokawa – New work (world premiere)
Hosokawa – Singing Garden
Hosokawa – Landscape VI Cloudscapes

The concert takes place on Sunday the 12th of March 2023, 19:30u in “De Nieuwe Kerk”, Den Haag. Tickets via www.neweuropeanensemble.com . Will you go? Let us know in our Facebook Groep!

When we realise our dream of opening a Japanese Art & Culture Centre Utrecht we hope to organise concerts featuring the music of Toshio Hosokawa as well.