Thinking of summer, many of us imagine the beach, a nice ice cream, or a wonderful holiday trip, but for a lot of Royal Conservatoire students, summer is much more than that. Their summer weeks are full of projects, residencies, concerts, and musical trips. This summer, we follow some of our students and their musical adventures.
Kalina Vladovska (M2, percussion) is Artist in Residence at Muziekzomer Gelderland this summer. She will not only be active as a soloist and performer, but also as a curator, maker, and much more. When she was invited by Muziekzomer Gelderland a year ago, she immediately knew she could bring to life the plans she has been walking around with for a while within this festival. This eventually turned into the following performances:
Solo met NJO - Een concert van het Nationaal Jeugd Orkest met Kalina als solist en Chloe Rooke als Dirigent. Zij zullen het concerto voor slagwerk en groot ensemble van Joey Roukens uitvoeren.
Solo with NJO - A concert of the Nationaal Jeugd Orkest, with Kalina as soloist Kalina and Chloe Rooke as conductor. They will perform Joey Roukens's concerto for percussion and large ensemble.
Sla je slag - an entire day of performances and workshops, presenting the richness and diversity of percussion in all genres. Especially for this day, Kalina has created a Bulgarian folklore music inspired program with improvisations and singing, together with her colleague from KonCon Ivan Gianakis.
Shortcuts - a joint program with the MAAT saxophone quartet, inspired by the composition Connectome by John Psathas. This performance invites the audience to think about whether the actions we are taking in the present, would lead humanity in the direction we would like it to go in the future. Onlosmakelijk - an interdisciplinary performance with dance, percussion, and light that puts a mirror in front of us and our daily relationship with our mobile devices. In this program, Kalina is collaborating with fellow percussionist and KonCon student João Brito.
Check the website of Muziekzomer Gelderland for more information and tickets.
Het zomerdagboek van Kalina
Rehearsals for Onlosmakelijk:
Today I spent a big moment reflecting on how lucky I am to have a team of such creative, free and supportive artists for this project. It is thrilling to go into this swirl of energy, ideas and creativity together with a strong team. Even the craziest, most outrageous ideas seem realistic, suddenly.
Rehearsals with MAAT
It's a freeing feeling to be able to meet each other for the first time, come together with five people and be able to play a piece from start to finish right away, without having ever rehearsed together before. They are such professionals and I feel pushed to do my best at every moment. It's a quick and very satisfying process.
Lesson with my teacher for Joey Roukens' percussion concerto
I love it when a teacher helps you hear what's hidden in those notes you have to play. I was having a lesson today and we worked on a beautiful choral section from opening of the fourth movement. Having somebody help the direction you give to your notes feels liberating and makes your playing so much easier. I love those lessons, in which you are either reminded of something you had come across a while ago or your eyes and ears are being opened to a new way of listening.
Rehearsal for Sla je Slag- Bulgarian Program
The process of taking a piece of music that is not originally for your instrument and finding a way to make it fit can be both daunting and thrilling. Today I had so much fun with my colleague, trying to find a way to make a choir work fit on a marimba for two players, and on top of that make a new composition out of it by adding all sorts of percussion around the instrument. It's as if I am back to being a child, having the freedom to use any instrument to fit in 'the story'. Just like being a child in a forest - a stick and a stone were enough to spend an hour exploring your imagination. I love this work!