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Symposium & Festival 2009

Symposium & Festival May 2009 inspires international audience
‘Quatre jours fort sympathiques’


Improvisation in 'western classical' music has been researched in different ways in different parts of the world during the past few years. The researchers, however, had never met in the context of a symposium before. The Orgelpark was delighted to offer a unique overview of the subject, provided by the scholars and researchers themselves, on the first Orgelpark Symposium & Festival, 13-16 May 2009.

It was, if we may say so ourselves, quite successful. Especially the international and inspiring atmosphere was praised time and again; many new networks were created, new developments initiated.

International platform
Precisely this effect was what we had hoped for: to create a new international platform for organ related improvisation research. We invited to contribute, to name just a few, Prof Dr Emile Wennekes [Utrecht University], Dr Karin Johansson [Lund University / Malmø Academy of Music], Dr Markus Schwenkreis and Dr Rudolf Lutz [Forschungsgruppe Basel für Improvisation] and Dr Marcel Cobussen [Leiden University / Orgelpark Research Team Amsterdam], as well as outstanding musicians like Peter Planyavsky [Vienna], Thierry Escaich [Paris] and Ansgar Wallenhorst [Ratingen, Orgelpark Research Team Amsterdam]. Among the guests many visitors from abroad as well, like Vincent Thévenaz (Conservatory Geneva), Mauro Lanza (IRCAM, Paris), and several conservatory students from Austria and Germany.

Presentations
The presentations addressed, of course, a wide range of aspects of organ related improvisation. Nevertheless, it was easy to discern a remarkable basic agreement: most attendants viewed improvisation to be the basic, and hence a most interesting way of making music. Also it was agreed upon that interpretation and improvisation are points on the same scale: interpreting a score requires including improvisational elements (especially on organs, since each organ is an individual and thus forces the musician to reconsider the music time and again), whereas improvising always includes aspects of the pieces the musician has interpreted or heard before (again, this can be seen best in organ music, since organists are the only western classical musicians to keep the art of improvisation alive).

The next step
This supports our conviction that organ related research is a relevant aspect of musicology in general. The improvisation project, which will last until 2011, will now focus on developing ‘auditive analysis’ (what do you hear and experience when you listen to music, how do you react) and on education of improvisation, thus connecting theoretical and practical aspects of organ related improvisation research. Of course, the Orgelpark Research Team will take part in this, as well as a few of the new networks that were created at the Symposium & Festival.

5th Dutch International Improvisation Competition
An exciting aspect of the Symposium & Festival was the Fifth Dutch Organ Improvisation Competition. Three young talents were admitted to the competition: Gerben Budding (student at Utrecht Conservatory), Wouter van der Wilt (student at the Brabant Conservatory) and Bastiaan Jan van Vliet (autodidact). The had to improvise twice: on Thursday 14 May, they had to present a Prelude/Adagio/Scherzo/Finale (they all chose the French romantic Verschueren organ for this assignment), on Saturday, they had to improvise on a theme by composer Wim de Ruiter, including a pedal solo and a trio (this time they played the Sauer organ and the Verschueren organ). The jury (Henco de Berg, Hayo Boerema, Bert van den Brink, Arie Keijzer and Jan Raas) unanimously decided that Wouter van der Wilt had made the most convincing music. His prize included 1000 euros, funded by Organ builder Mense Ruiter (Zuidwolde) and admittance to the prestigious International Improvisation Competition at Haarlem in 2010.

Reactions
We received some very nice reactions to our initiative.

Thierry Escaich (Conservatoire Paris)
Juste un petit mot pour vous remmercier de l'invitation à ces deux jours forts sympathiques et bien organisés à Amsterdam.

Peter Planyavsky (Musikhochschule Vienna)
Ich habe mich sehr gefreut, daß ich dabei gewesen bin. Sie haben ja gespürt, daß ich ungefähr 27% meines Herzens in Holland bzw. Haarlem habe...

Vincent Thévenaz (Conservatorium Geneva)
I left on Saturday after Thierry Escaich's workshop, but I still wanted to thank you for these very interesting days in a friendly atmosphere. It was, I think, a real success. I hope this project will continue and I'll be able to attend or even take part to further meetings.

Rudolf Lutz (Schola Cantorum Basel)
Welch tolles Symposium, welche Superkonzerte! Herzliche Gratulation. Es war mir eine Freude, in Amsterdam sein zu dürfen. Ich habe viel profitiert und Anregungen bekommen.

Béatrice Piertot (Organist en musicoloog te Parijs)
Thank you very much for the last week. It was great to go here and very interessant.

Didn't you visit the Symposium & Festival?
An overview of all program elements for those wo weren't able to visit the Symposium & Festival: