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Press release


  • 20 April 2007

University plays host to leading Dutch ensemble


In concert: Orkest de Ereprijs

In concert: Orkest de Ereprijs

The University of Sussex is to play host to renowned contemporary music ensemble Orkest de Ereprijs as part of the Brighton Festival Fringe (5-28 May).

Orkest de Ereprijs, from The Netherlands, will perform an exciting and diverse international programme of specially commissioned contemporary pieces, including music by University of Sussex lecturer and composer Dr Sam Hayden.

The Fringe Festival performance will be held, at the invitation of the University's music department, at Mandela Hall, Falmer House, University of Sussex, Brighton, on Saturday 5 May, starting at 7.30pm. It is also the last date of the orchestra's UK tour. Tickets cost £7 (£3 concessions).

Orkest de Ereprijs embraces multiple musical influences, including contemporary classical, avant-garde, Dutch-minimalism, electronic music, big-band, jazz, folk and rock. Collaborations have also resulted in programmes that combine music with dance, sculpture, cinema, theatre and architecture.

Dr Hayden, who has worked with Orkest de Ereprijs for several years, as well as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Oslo Sinfonietta, will have two pieces performed at the concert: ERG[O] II - a reworking of a piece commissioned for de Ereprijs that features loud dissonant chords, dense textures, and a relentless rhythmic energy - and Remembering J, a quiet piece composed in memory of Dr Jeremy Gibson (1967-1996), a former research student at the University of Sussex.

Dr Hayden says: "Orkest de Ereprijs perform a programme that is characteristically diverse, energetic and genre-defying, featuring an international group of composers who, in very different ways, have all been influenced by the music of Dutch post-minimalist Louis Andriessen, but have since very much gone their own ways, following highly individual compositional paths."

The programme also features the following works:

  • Ed Bennett's Shrigley, which displays his enthusiasm for musical accidents, contrasts and a quirky eclecticism;
  • Joe Cutler's Sal's sax, which combines jazz influences with granite-like chords and driving rhythms;
  • David Dramm's Zero Roll, which combines a Duane Eddy-inspired electric guitar concerto with ambient, dissonant chords and electronic pulsing;
  • Hanna Kulenty's dramatic Mezzo Tango - a finely woven web of contrasting dance rhythms and tempi;
  • Anna Meredith's Nirvana-inspired In Bloom, which combines her quest for musical clarity and a directness of expression with her recent interest in robots, machines and mechanical sounds.

Notes for editors

See full Festival Fringe listing and ticket details at: http://www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk/listings/ 

For further information about music at University of Sussex, see: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/music/

University of Sussex Press office contacts: Jacqui Bealing or Maggie Clune. Tel: 01273 678888. Email press@sussex.ac.uk

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