Northern Connection
Composer Lisa Robertson represents Scotland in new international music partnership Northern Connection
Northern Connection is a new and innovative project that aims to connect Nordic countries and Scotland by establishing and strengthening liaisons between composers, ensembles and festivals in contemporary music.
The partners in Northern Connection 2023 are:
Music Finland, Musica nova Helsinki and defunensemble (Finland)
Music Norway, Ultima festival and Ensemble Temporum (Norway)
Scottish Music Centre, Sound Festival and Red Note Ensemble (Scotland)
Each country’s selected commission will be performed by one of the ensembles at a festival in at least one of the partner countries, and possibly more, during 2023 and the following years.
In this programme, composers will get new commissions, ensembles will get new material for their repertoire and festivals will get new programme from the neighbouring countries – which is sustainable and financially wise. New contacts, ideas and networks will strengthen co-operation and bring additional value to the contemporary art field in the northern area.
2023 programme:
Lisa Robertson/defunensemble at Musica nova Helsinki 1.3.2023 G Livelab – more info
Lauri Supponen/Ensemble Temporum at Ultima September 23rd 2023
Tine Surel Lange/Red Note Ensemble at SOUND Scotland 2023
“Scottish Music Centre are proud to partner with our international colleagues from Music Finland and Music Norway in this brand new initiative to share our culture and music with our close neighbours. We look forward to the festival performances in all three countries and to further expanding this new northern network to more countries”.
- GILL MAXWELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SMC
Lisa Robertson is a composer from the West Highlands of Scotland, particularly interested in combining sounds from nature and traditional music; examining relationships between people and the land and highlighting environmental concerns. Recently, she was featured in BBC Music Magazine's 'Rising Stars' column. Her music has been recorded by The Sixteen and performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, EXAUDI, Red Note Ensemble, Psappha Ensemble, Hebrides Ensemble, Lucy Schaufer, and Heather Roche, among others. Her piece was also originally scheduled for a performance in 2020 by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard. Her music has appeared at festivals including Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, where she also performed her own solo violin piece in 2019, Cheltenham Music Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Sound Festival and on BBC Radio 3, BBC World Service and BBC Radio Scotland.
Composer Profiles
Lisa Robertson (Scotland)
Lauri Supponen (Finland)
Lauri Supponen (b. 1988) is a composer based in Finland. He grew up in Brussels and studied composition at the RCM in London and UdK in Berlin, graduating from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in autumn 2016. Lauri’s works have been premiered by leading contemporary music ensembles such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern and BBC Singers at major festivals around Europe and North America. Close collaboration with instrumentalists and other artists forms the nucleus of his method. Lauri also performs as an oboist and contrabassist, recently at the indie music festival Flow with Korvat Auki Ensemble and ainoregina.
laurisupponen.fi
Arctic landscapes, surrounding sounds, mythologies, and sound choreography are some of the inspirations that shape the works by the Norwegian composer and interdisciplinary artist Tine Surel Lange (b. 1989, Vesterålen, Norway). Based in Lofoten, Northern Norway, her work is rooted in organic material – with a focus on listening, space, and how connotations color how we listen to and experience art. Lately, she has been focused on sound choreography, 3D sound, sounding objects, sound for scenic productions, and creating conceptual works for sound and image – fascinated by magical realism and the coming doom of the human race.
tinesurellange.com
Tine Surel Lange (Norway)
Formed in 2009, defunensemble has established ifself as one of the most important contemporary music groups in Finland. The ensemble's vigorous mission is to systematically delve into the world of electroacoustic music. Defunensemble gives Finnish premieres of the most essential electroacoustic repertoire both classic and current, while simultaneuosly actively commissioning new works incorporating the latest technologies. With artistic director Sami Klemola the ensemble's concert concepts have proven to be highly innovative, blending different sub-genres of the electroacoustic persuasion with an unprecedented street credibility—any dusty notions of classical music are soon forgotten. A serious professional undertaking, the musicians and sound desingers of defunensemble are some of the most active personalities in the Finnish contemporary music scene.
Ensembles
Defunensemble (Finland)
Ensemble Temporum (Norway)
Ensemble Temporum is a contemporary music ensemble based in Oslo. The ensemble had its debut at the Ultima festival in 2016, performing Gerard Grisey’s Vortex Temporum and a commission from Tim Mariën, and it was broadcasted on Norwegian radio (NRK P2). Since then, they have given concerts in Norway and Finland, performing works by Spahlinger, Ørjan Matre , Kúrtag, Crumb, Grisey, Streich, Dusapin, Messiaen, Ravel, and a commission by Jon Øivind Ness. The ensemble consists of a sextet and the conductor Kai Grinde Myrann.
Since its formation Red Note Ensemble has taken up a leadership position as Scotland’s contemporary music ensemble, performing and developing an extensive, highly-varied and critically-acclaimed programme of new music to the highest standards, and taking new music out to audiences across Scotland and internationally. Red Note performs the established classics of contemporary music, commissions new music, develops the work of new and emerging composers and performers from Scotland and around the world, and finds new spaces and new ways of performing contemporary music to attract new audiences. Outwith the UK it has a growing international reputation, performing to great acclaim at festivals in France, Germany, Belgium, Holland and Australia in recent years. The ensemble also undertakes an extensive programme of Access, Engagement and Participation (AEP) work, focusing particularly upon working with younger and older people, people with multiple disabilities, people living in areas of multiple deprivation, and also working to address inequalities of access and representation due to race/ethnicity and gender imbalances. Red Note also undertakes an extensive performer and composer development programme within schools, universities and conservatoires nationally and internationally.
Red Note Ensemble (Scotland)
"It's been a pleasure to plan a new type of cooperation with our northern partners. It's especially gratifying to have Scotland with us in the project. Everyone is excited to join in and inquiries have already come in about when the project will expand and whether we can add more partners to the Northern Connection network,"