Miller Theatre Presents A Composer Portrait Of Carola Bauckholt, February 8

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts continues its 2023-24 Composer Portraits series with Carola Bauckholt.

International Contemporary Ensemble performs selections from the pioneering German composer's unconventional catalog (which includes balloons as a vital instrument). Evening will include stage discussion with Carola Bauckholt and George Lewis on Thursday, February 8, 8PM at Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street)

The pioneering German composer Carola Bauckholt is fond of using noisy sounds, particularly ones produced by unconventional means. Her work focuses on the phenomena of perception and understanding, and her music blurs boundaries between visual arts, musical theater, and concert music. The adventurous International Contemporary Ensemble performs a selection of her works spanning 20 years, anchored by Oh, I See, written for clarinet, violin, cello, video, and two balloons.

Program:
Oh, I See (2015-16)
Membran (2014)
Schlammflocke II (2012)
Treibstoff (1995)

Artists:
International Contemporary Ensemble

Carola Bauckholt was born in Krefeld, Germany. After working at the Theater am Marienplatz (TAM) in Krefeld for several years, Bauckholt studied composition at the Musikhochschule Köln with Mauricio Kagel (1978-1984). She founded the music publisher Thürmchen Verlag along with Caspar Johannes Walter in 1985, and six years later they founded the Thürmchen Ensemble.

Bauckholt has received numerous residencies and prizes including the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Scholarship from the city of Cologne (1986), a residency at the Villa Massimo in Rome (1997), and Artist of the Year by the State of North Rhine Westphalia (1998). Additionally, she was selected to represent Germany at the World Music Days in Mexico City (1992), Copenhagen (1996), Seoul (1997), and in Zurich (2004). In 2010, she was awarded the German Composers Prize from the GEMA (German Society for Musical Performing and Mechanical Reproduction Rights) in the category of experimental music. From the London International Animation Festival 2019, she received the "Best Sound Design Award" for The Flounder in collaboration with Elizabeth Hobbs and Klangforum Wien. 

In 2013, Bauckholt was elected as a member of Akademie der Künste in Berlin and from November 2021 on she was appointed the director of the music section. In 2015, she was appointed as a professor of composition at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz, Austria. In 2020, she was elected as a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts. She has taught as a guest professor around the world, in Santiago, Ostrava, Amsterdam, Kraków, Zürich, Apeldoorn, Oslo, Mexico City, Monterrey, London, Moscow, Chaykovsky, Valencia, Barcelona, Bludenz, Haifa, Chicago, Luxembourg, Graz, and in Germany.

Now in its third decade, the International Contemporary Ensemble is a multidisciplinary collective of musicians, digital media artists, producers, and educators committed to building and innovating collaborative environments in order to inspire audiences to reimagine how they experience contemporary music and sound. Under the leadership of composer and Artistic Director George Lewis, the Ensemble creates a mosaic musical ecosystem as “America's foremost new-music group” (The New Yorker), honoring the diversity of human experience and expression by commissioning, developing, recording, and performing the works of living artists in “a mission worth following” (I Care If You Listen). 

The Ensemble is the recipient of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, as well as Musical America's Ensemble of the Year Award. Notable presenting partners have included Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, TIME:SPANS Festival, Roulette, and Miller Theatre at Columbia University. The Ensemble has premiered over 1,000 works and has given performances at Warsaw Autumn, Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music, Cité de la Musique (Paris), Park Avenue Armory, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ojai Music Festival, and Big Ears Festival. Other performance venues have included the Dutch National Opera, Carnegie Hall, and Walt Disney Concert Hall Stage.

Through trailblazing initiatives such as the “Call for ____” Commission Program and Ensemble Evolution (in partnership with The New School's College of Performing Arts), the Ensemble has had a major impact on the contemporary performance ecosystem in New York City, nationally, and internationally, by supporting the creativity of their composer-collaborators, as well as presenting workshops and performances for hundreds of student composers. Works by emerging composers have anchored the Ensemble's programming since its founding in 2001, and the group's recordings and digital platforms highlight the many voices that weave music's present.

Tickets starting at $20; Students with valid ID starting at $10
Read the Program Notes:
Tim Munro speaks with Carola Bauckholt about "What is not music?" Photo by Maria Sturm for Miller Theatre

Thursday, February 8, 8PM
Carola Bauckholt (b. 1959)