COMPOSITIONS
Tortoise is a conversation between the choir and the electronics that accompany them. It gives sound to the contrast between turbulence and quiet, between change and balance, between growth and stability, between the transient and the never-ending. In many cultures the animal symbolises stability because of its long lifespan. Everything changes quickly, but some things move much slower, they observe. Time facilitates changes, but it stays untouched, uninterrupted, ever ongoing.
for SATB choir and electronics
premiere: april 2022, Nationaal Studenten Kamerkoor o.l.v. Béni Csillag
Walzer is a virtual reality experience with several stories circling women's rights and the first wave of feminism during the late 19th and early 20th century.
As you travel through a virtual photographic landscape, a waltz is your guide. When you move around, the waltz morphs into a variety of moods in eight different languages accompanied by songs and poems.
This vr was built with thousands of unknown personal photographs found on flea markets, online marketplaces and private collections. During the process of collecting and digital restoration, intriguing stories emerged. Narratives developed when we connected pictures with other pictures and combined them with music, words, sounds and 3D technology. Inside this virtual world the user's knowledge, background and behaviour determines the experience.
HAN shows a development that the choir goes through as a group; a unity with surface tension moves, but always returns to its centre. The group branches out, born from the same seed. Finally, the separated pieces embrace and remember their common source, without being able to become one again.
for SATB choir
premiere: july 2021, Utrechtse Studenten Cantorij & Nederlands Studenten Kamerkoor
conducted by Fokko Oldenhuis, during the Europa Cantat Festival 2021
Dieses Gewisse Nichts
for 3 church bells
Small Steps is an opera-walk. It leads the visitor along the water that connected Amsterdam to the rest of the world for centuries. Over the headphone they hear a girl. She shows us how she sees the world and she wonders where it is heading. "What is your wish for the world?"
The opera strives to bring people together, without them having to physically meet, and to inspire them to see the world and its people with fresh and curious eyes. To explore the world anew, step by step.
© Kim Krijnen
Spiegelgasse is an electronic ballet that bows before the Dadaists of Zürich. It was commissioned by visual artist Jorinde Gustavs. She uses everyday objects in her installations. The music contains the sounds of these objects, in compelling rhythm, and the duet of an old and a young voice.
premiere: april 2019, during vernissage "GROSZE GESCHWISTER", Orangerie Putbus Rügen
Dance: Alexander Blum Bertelsen & Frieda Gustavs
Voices: Jorinde Gustavs, Frieda Gustavs & others
Camera: Leo Erken
Music, direction & edit: Frieda Gustavs
Filmed and edited at NL12 studio Amsterdam 2020
United is a song for mezzo soprano and acoustic guitar, based on "Unity" by Pablo Neruda
Jenseits des Horizontes is a 1-minute canon with text by Svea Gustavs, based on Dshan by Andrej Platonov
Dornbusch is a “Briefmarkenoper” for singer/performer and moving light
premiere: november 2018, during "Mehr Licht Festival", Universität der Künste, Berlin
DUN IJS is a madrigal for SSATB-ensemble
text by Mischa Andriessen
premiere: june 2018, durung the Holland Festival, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam
we’ve got a body is inspired by my search for music and sounds that ring all over the world when a community bids farewell to a departed person.
for SATB-choir and organ
premiere: may 2018, Orgelpark (Amsterdam) NEON conducted by Fokko Oldenhuis
hofmuziek
electronic soundscape to accompany Artfully Dressed: Women in the Art World, Carla van de Puttelaar
vernissage: may 2018, The Weiss Gallery, London
voice: Ana Balestra and Frieda Gustavs
https://www.weissgallery.com/events/weiss-gallery-presents-artfully-dressed-women-art-world
OX
Opera Forward Festival, may 2018, Nationale Opera Amsterdam
conductor: Marijke Beute, directing: Christina Pfrötschner, scenography: Katharina Wegmann, libretto: Teun Grondman, dramaturgy: Jasmijn van Wijnen, solo: Merel Wentink & Sabine van Kuipers, Domukoor Groningen