Echo of Montepulciano 2009 – 2022
Montepulciano is a special place. A handful of young musicians and composers, along with with Prof. Florence Millet and Prof. Johannes Schöllhorn, travel to Tuscany for a week to work together work together on old, newer and entirely new works written by the student composers. They present them in two concerts in Montepulciano's renaissance Palazzo Ricci. There is a tremendous team spirit, and all of a sudden, they are doing things they have never tried before. Finally, Beethoven proves to be a contemporary spirit and forward-looking composer whose music fits well with the new works.
Montepulciano ist ein besonderer Ort. Eine Handvoll junger Musiker und KomponistInnen, zusammen mit zwei oder drei Dozenten fährt für eine Woche in die Toskana, um gemeinsam alte neue und ganz neue Werke, die von den Komponist*innen für den Kurs geschrieben wurden, zu erarbeiten und in zwei Konzerten in Montepulciano zu präsentieren. Es entwickelt sich ein ungeheurer Teamgeist, und alle tun plötzlich Dinge, die sie bislang nie ausprobiert hatten. Schließlich erweist sich Beethoven als zeitgenössischer Geist und zukunftsweisender Komponist, dessen Musik bestens zu den neuen Werken passt.
Article in the Hochschuljournal Echo from Montepulciano 2016:
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From 12 to 19th of June, 17 students return to the European Montepulciano Academy, with freshly composed works by the composition students of the classes Hechtle and Schöllhorn.
To this end, chamber music works by Schubert and Schumann and contemporary masterpieces such as Marsyas by Olga Neuwirth or Liaison by Isabel Mundry are rehearsed. Furthermore
experiments in the zodiac by Karlheinz Stockhausen with notation, rehearsal techniques, conducting and unusual instrumentation will occur.
Faculty are Prof. Dr. Florence Millet, Prof. Werner Dickel and Prof. Johannes Schöllhorn.
Different interdisciplinary formats were tested in the different vintages, for example an actor, Bernd Hahn, was invited to participate in 2013 and instruments such as the accordion and
mandolin were also taken into consideration in different years. Small theatrical productions and resonance ideas, voice and language were used as musical components.
This year, among others , historical wallpaper patterns of the XVIII. Century, will projected while freshly written miniatures for piano by Jan Esra Kuhl will be played on by Lukas
Katter. The miniatures are still in the making and will be composed and rehearsed in the coming weeks.
The projections of the historical tapestries blend perfectly with the décor of the Palazzo Ricci, where salons show the ceilings decorated with unique Renaissance paintings. In each room you
will find in the wall paintings the "Ricci", in German hedgehog, which serves as a coat of arms and symbol of the family.
You will hear the result of this intensive exchange and creativity process in two concerts with different programs in Montepulciano, or you can discover it on 21 June in the University of
Wuppertal and on 29 June in Cologne.
A short review of Echo from Montepulciano in 7 years:
- 28 composers of the composition classes HfMTK with 20 world premieres
- over 80 interpreters
- 28 masterpieces of the current music world
- 20 works by Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert
- 30 concerts
- 6 lecturers from different departments
Since 2018 a cooperation with the Hochschule Freiburg enlarges the exchange perspective .
Echo from Montepulciano has triggered innumerable further developments to world premieres, concerts, prizes, examinations, alumni formation and much more, and carried the echo into the wide
world…