Kevin Juillerat: Dammerung (Funf Sonaten Ohne Interludien)

Description

A true odyssey of sound and drama, Dammerung is an exploration of a new piano, metamorphosed by various preparations, and extended by an electronic device that literally transforms it into a loudspeaker. The work is the result of several years of collaboration between the Franco-Swiss pianist Cedric Pescia and the Swiss composer Kevin Juillerat. It was written in 2020 during a 6-month artistic residency in Berlin. It was premiered in Lausanne (CH) on 20 May 2022.

The title Dammerung (which in German means both dusk and dawn) evokes an in-between and an uncertain state of transition. A music between light and shadow. A piano that is not really a piano, with its notes transformed by the preparation and the unreal sounds of the electronics that run through it. But also the circumstances of the composition of the piece: Berlin where it was written on the one hand, a city that has undergone numerous metamorphoses throughout history (World War II, the Wall, reunification, outrageous neo-liberalism, etc.); and on the other hand, 2020, the year in which it was written, which was severely marked by the COVID-19 pandemic - a strange period of waiting for a hoped-for return to normality or a hypothetical mutation in our society.

Kevin Juillerat was born in Switzerland in 1987. He studied saxophone at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne and at the Hochschule fur Musik Basel. At the same time as his instrumental studies, he attended composition courses at the Haute ecole de Musique de Geneve and with Georg Friedrich Haas in Basel. He then went on to study composition at the IRCAM in Paris, where he took the Cursus de composition et d'informatique musicale.

His work is dedicated to sounds created through a delicate fusion of timbres and the constant search for beauty and expression. The vivid, almost breathing dramaturgy of his pieces is traversed by great dramatic lines, creating music that is both contemplative and tragic. His language is in the classical Western tradition, but at the same time is infused with influences and energies from free jazz and rock.

Cedric Pescia began his musical education at the age of seven. He first studied at the Conservatoire de Lausanne, then at the Conservatoire de Musique de Geneve and completed his studies at the Berlin University of the Arts. He gives numerous concerts and recitals all over the world as well as masterclasses in the USA and Europe. He is Chairman of the Artistic Commission of the Concours de Geneve. In 2012, he was appointed professor of piano at the Haute ecole de Musique de Geneve.