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Ensemble’s take on jazz with innovative and eclectic programme at 27th edition of festival
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Two performances at UBB Lokhalle in Heringsdorf, with smaller audiences and safety measures consistent with COVID-19 regulations
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Pieces by Grieg and Jan Garbarek to reflect 2020 festival’s Norway theme
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Programme to be played without breaks, with pieces intertwined, and featuring original electronics and video
Berlin 17 September 2020. The Baltic Sea Philharmonic and Kristjan Järvi will open the 27th edition of the Usedom Music Festival on Saturday 19 September. Replacing at short notice the planned opening concert by Norwegian jazz saxophonist Jan Garbarek, a Baltic Sea Philharmonic ensemble of 13 musicians will give two performances (at 3pm and 8pm) at the UBB Lokhalle in Heringsdorf. Both concerts will have valid social distancing and other safety measures in place to comply with COVID-19 regulations. This year’s Usedom Music Festival theme is Norway, but some Norwegian artists are unable to travel to the festival because of tightened pandemic restrictions in Norway. The Baltic Sea Philharmonic will reflect the Norway theme in its ‘Nordic Escapes’ programme with music by Grieg and Jan Garbarek. The ensemble’s evening concert on 19 September is already sold out, but some tickets are still available for the afternoon concert.
Nordic heritage and innovation
For its Usedom Music Festival concerts, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic ensemble will perform an eclectic programme in the orchestra’s unique, boundary-pushing style and with its own take on jazz. Composers past and present from around the Baltic Sea region will be represented, from Beethoven and Tchaikovsky to Gediminas Gelgotas from Lithuania and Kristjan Järvi from Estonia. Audiences will experience the complete programme as an unbroken flow of music, with pieces intertwined. With the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s characteristic flair for innovation, the performance will also include electronics-infused remixes in the shape of Kristjan Järvi’s Nebula, remixed by German producer and composer Robot Koch, and Midnight Mood, a reimagining of Grieg’s ‘Morning Mood’ from his Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, mixed and produced by Kristjan Järvi. The latter piece will be accompanied by an original video production by the Baltic Sea Philharmonic from their ‘Musical Chain’ series. In a special addition to the programme, New York-based musician and composer Gene Pritsker has arranged Jan Garbarek’s Brother Wind March for the Baltic Sea Philharmonic ensemble, with clarinet and flute taking the original piece’s saxophone solos.
Innovation continues online with ‘Musical Chain’ videos
With many of their planned concerts unfortunately postponed or cancelled in the last six months, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic and Kristjan Järvi have been busy producing innovative online music experiences. The next release in the orchestra’s ‘Musical Chain’ series of remix videos is ‘Beethoven’s Twilight’, with music written and produced by Kristjan Järvi, based on Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. The video will be available on the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s social media channels from 24 September.
Baltic Sea Philharmonic – a revolution in music and culture
The Baltic Sea Philharmonic takes the orchestral concert experience to a new dimension. Every performance is a voyage of musical discovery, as the musicians perform the entire programme from memory, creating a one-of-a-kind artistic journey. Each concert is a unique spectacle of sound, light, visual art and technology, and under the electrifying baton of Music Director and Founding Conductor Kristjan Järvi every performance has a special energy that’s absolutely infectious. But even more than this, as a community of musicians from ten Nordic countries, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic transcends boundaries and has become a movement for bringing people together. Embodying all that is innovative and progressive about the Nordic region, this visionary ensemble is taking the traditional orchestral model further than ever before. ‘It is a living breathing creature, with boundless energy and enthusiasm for the new – an adventure in itself,’ says Kristjan Järvi.
