Monday 21 January 2019 20:30
SNFCC Cosmos concert series present the renowned pianist and Oscar-nominated film composer Hauschka, who will present a retrospective of his work as well as songs from his new album, ‘A different forest’ that will be released on February 2019.
Hauschka (Volker Bertelmann) is a composer, songwriter and experimental musician who uses prepared piano as his primary instrument. The prepared piano refers to the technique of resting pieces of paper, marbles, drumsticks and other objects on the strings to produce odd, sometimes randomly generated sounds that move the instrument in unexpected directions.
Hauschka grew up in Germany in the village of Ferndorf. The thousand-year-old village was small, with a population of about 1,000 people. He started taking piano lessons when he was nine but being a musician was not an acceptable career path in his family, so he studied medicine, although he was still playing in bands. Just before graduation, he examined his career choices and dropped out to do music full time.
Substantial, Hauschka’s first solo album, blended classical, avant-garde and pop impulses, with an aura of measured melancholy. Then he discovered prepared piano. His experiments with this new instrument changed set him on a journey of exploration that continues to this day.
For Hauschka every musical work is therefore a momentary recording of his activities in the here and now. Similar to a hike it’s often first in looking back, that the way reveals its ‘meaning’. So too with Hauschka’s compositions – it’s often on looking back at the process of their creation that their sense crystallises.
His albums of prepared piano music include The Prepared Piano, Ferndorf, Salon des Amateurs and Silfra.
In 2014 Hauschka released Abandoned City which was followed by A NDO C Y, a collection of solo improvisations. Hauschka’s latest release, What if (2017) finds him adding player pianos to his armoury, something that he has also been exploring in his live performances following the album’s release. His new album A Different Forest consisting of melodic solo piano works, will be released in early 2019.
In recent years Hauschka has also built a prolific career writing scores for films, coming to international prominence in this field through his soundtrack for the hit film Lion in 2016. Scored in collaboration with Dustin O’Halloran, the soundtrack was nominated for numerous awards including an Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA. His other recent soundtrack work includes the films Hotel Mumbai (premiered at the Toronto Film Festival 2018), Adrift (2018), In Dubious Battle (2016), Exodus (2016) & Praia do Futuro (2014); and music for the new US TV mini-series Patrick Melrose (2018) starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
Monday 21/01 | 20.30
Free entry via online pre-registretion
