A new approach of contemporary music |
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Founded by pianist and conductor Jean-Philippe Wurtz in 1998, the Ensemble Linea has been involved since its beginnings in a democratization of contemporary music, by giving precedence to the encounter with the audience, an openness towards other artistic disciplines, and an active policy of concert.
With a variable geometry ranging from a large orchestra down to a duo, the group brings together young musicians from different cultures who have been trained at the most prestigious institutions around the world.
Away from schools and trends, the artistic project of Linea covers quite diverse aesthetic perspectives—from musical theater to electronic music, from Western music to the rich Asiatic repertoires.
Linea advocates an engaged music which is anchored in modernity; it favors works which question the mutations and complexity in our modern and globalized societies. Based in Alsace (eastern France, near german and swiss borders), at the crossroads of several cultures, Linea naturally approaches the repertoires in their multicultural dimension and presents to the ear the musical heritages of insufficiently explored regions such as the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, etc.
Alongside the major composers of the twentieth century (Boulez, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Kagel....), Linea integrates into its repertoire the creations of young composers from France and abroad.
The relationship, exchange and work with this latter group lie at the heart of the Ensemble’s artistic approach. Collaborative efforts have been undertaken with such figures in today’s music as Peter Eötvös, Ivo Malec and Michaël Jarrell, as well as with young, up-and-coming artists such as Sebastian Rivas, Daniel Salecich, Valerio Sannicandro, Arthur Kampela, Frédéric Kahn, and a host of others.
The concerts of Linea are conceived as spectacles in their own right. Playful, theatrical, spatialized and explosive, they have always assured the Ensemble a solid reputation for dynamic staging. The audience is regularly involved in interactive spectacles promoting its participation. Finally, Linea eagerly seeks to include dance, video, theater or cinema in its productions. |
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Champs Libres: The Ensemble Organizes its own Festival |
 Champs Libres : Affiche 2008
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Linea has been organizing since 2003 its own festival entitled Champs Libres (Litteraly : “Free Fields”, a french expression meaning an idea of freedom in action, open ways…) each year in June at Strasbourg.
The event serves first of all as a display window for the work of the Ensemble, which presents several concerts focusing on artistic, political or social themes (art and new technologies, young creation, geopolitical dialogues through musical works, etc.). The concerts are performed with special light-shows and stage settings. They are often conceived on an interactive way, making the spectator being active and stimulating his curiosity.
Alongside these concerts, the Détours de Champs Libres (“Detours of Free Fields,” the off-festival) open up original links to other art forms and to other types of music, by bringing together numerous cultural and associational partners. It features concert-debates in local pubs, musical intermezzos in public library, workshops, video-art projections, DJ’s set and live-acts…
A “nearby” artistic rendezvous, Champs Libres is spotted in Strasbourg station quarter, a space « in progress » undergoing a lot of mutations : a place that fits to be experimented in.
Champs Libres is a different sort of festival which reinvents itself every year, attracting an audience which is ever more numerous and diversified.
In 2008, Champs Libres reinforced his place in musical landscape. He was one of the first french event proposing a complete tribute to Stockhausen, and offered an original week-end devoted to Japan music, in frame of the french-japanese cultural season.
Check the websites of the past editions (in french) : 2008 , 2007 , 2006
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An Ensemble in Residencies |
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From September 2006 to July 2008, the Ensemble Linea was in residence with the Dominicans of Upper Alsace at Guebwiller (eastern France). There it developed in particular a work centered on new technologies. This project consists of a highlighting of works by Reich, Stockhausen and Varèse, brought into relation to contemporary electro-acoustic pieces and to examples of electronic music deemed to be “popular.”
The Ensemble Linea itself organized a residency during 2007-2008, with the support of the European Social Fund, with a focus on eight young French and foreign composers for the purpose of accompanying their creative work and facilitating their entry into professional networks. In June 2008, the eight new works written during the residency were performed by Linea during Champs Libres.
Finally, in a new phase beginning in September 2009, Linea will be welcomed for a three-year residency at Royaumont (Val d’Oise), where it will perform different concerts and will collaborate with the composition classes of Brian Ferneyhough and Misatu Moshizuki.
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Policy of Widespread Performance |
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Involved ever since its beginnings in performance work supported in Alsace, especially in areas where contemporary music is seldom or never played, the Ensemble Linea also presents itself in parallel at various large and specialized rendezvous: Musica at Strasbourg, Why Note at Dijon, Ars Nova at Rottweil (G), Archipel at Geneva (CH), etc.
Sought after more and more outside the region, the Ensemble is redirecting its activity along the horizon 2009-2010 towards export—with concerts in Seoul, Caen, Budapest, Bucharest, etc.
In Alsace and along the space of the Rhine, Linea will collaborate with artistic partners established over the course of the years and will be involved in cross-border cooperation with Switzerland and Germany. |
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In 2001, a CD by Linea entitled
Ivo Malec—Œuvres pour orchestre
was released on the Motus label. The magazine Diapason awarded a Diapason d’Or to the Ensemble for this first recording.
A new CD is planned for 2009. To be recorded in Budapest during a studio residency with Peter Eötvös, this CD—a monograph of the Hungarian master’s oeuvre—will include several recent and hitherto unpublished pieces.
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