ensemble treffen um die ecke
A new ensemble dedicated to playing the music of Philip Corner
photo by Andreas Grill
Hilary Jeffery – brass, alphorn, voice
Theresa Patzschke – flute, voice
Eleni Poulou – synthesizer, baglama, voice
Simon Rose – baritone saxophone, voice
Zsolt Sőrés – viola, voice
Deborah Walker – cello, voice
E.T.U.D.E was formed in the summer of 2023 by Hilary Jeffery. Six diverse musicians form the basis for a unique and wide ranging ensemble which exclusively plays the music of the American composer Philip Corner. Their debut concert took place in July 2023 in Berlin and featured a solo concert by Hilary Jeffery playing Corner’s old Alphorn and a mixed ensemble programme of pieces from his extensive oeuvre.
photo by Andreas Grill
Hilary Jeffery first worked with Corner together with James Fulkerson on a complete CD of trombone music, released on New World Records in 2007. In 2023 he and Eleni Poulou visited Philip and his wife Phoebe, during this meeting they proposed the idea of the new ensemble, which was positively received. Jeffery and Poulou also received a duo composition from Corner, entitled “Two Geese Flying”.
Etude will continue their activities in 2024, in close co-operation with Philip Corner. They plan intensive rehearsals, recording sessions, research at Archivio Conz (Berlin) and concerts. Through these activities they will dive deep into Corner’s musical world and bring it to a wider audience.
photo by Zsolt Sőrés
Concerts
SATURDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2024
ORGANZA RAY
Two Geese Flying
Music by Philip Corner, Hilary Jeffery and Eleni Poulou
Hilary Jeffery – brass, melodica
Eleni Poulou – synthesizer, voice, melodica
Yellow Solo at R50
Ritterstrasse 50
10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg
yellowsolo.de/exhibition/two-geese-flying
Thursday 23 November 2023
Organza Ray play “Two Geese Flying”
photo by Šimon Lupták
Hilary Jeffery – trombone, electronics, melodica
Eleni Poulou – synthesizer, electronics, melodica
Organza Ray – “Bridge Call” (2022) – 11′
Philip Corner – “Microtonal Memory 1 – Polymelody” (1998) – 7′
Hilary Jeffery – “Lee’s Sofa” (2023) – 6′
Eleni Poulou – “Tetra Palta” (2023) – 15′
Philip Corner – “Two Geese Flying” (2023) – 15′
photo by Šimon Lupták
Slovak National Gallery
Budova SNG
Rázusovo nábrežie 1
81102 Bratislava
Slovakia
sng.sk/en/slovak-national-gallery/events/music-of-today-in-sng-46-two-geese-flying15
FRIDAY 28 JULY 2023
E T U D E
Ensemble Treffen Um Die Ecke
play music by Philip Corner
SET 1
Hilary Jeffery – solo alphorn
Hilary Jeffery presents a sequence of pieces taken from Philip Corner’s recent collection of compositions:
“The Art of No-Art” (2022), Los Angeles: Recital Program
SET 2 @ 21:00
photo by Andreas Grill
Hilary Jeffery – alphorn, trumpet, trombone
Theresa Patzschke – flute
Eleni Poulou – synthesizer, baglama
Simon Rose – baritone saxophone
Zsolt Sőrés – viola
Philip Corner
“A Revelation of the Instruments Reality” (2004)
“Close Position Harmony”
“Feelings (A Music)”
“A Grand Noise”
“Round Sound” (1963)
“Microtonal Melody 1: Polymelody” (1998)
“One Note More Than Once” (2005) + “Life’s A Joke” (2022)
WERKHALLE WIESENBURG
Wiesenstrasse 55
13357 BERLIN Wedding
Saturday 17 June 2023
IN SITU / EXPOSITION OF NEW MUSIC
photo by Klaus Waldow
Hilary Jeffery performing solo Alphorn pieces from “The Art of No Art” by Philip Corner
Besední dům
Filharmonie Brno
Komenského náměstí 534/8
60200 BRNO
Czech Republic
Music
The Art of No-Art, Nos. 375, 294, 228, 275, 367 & 264 (2020–21)
Hilary Jeffery – trombone, whistling
Eleni Poulou – synthesizer
Franz Schütte – whistling
Zsolt Sőrés – viola, whistling
Franz Schütte + Zsolt Sőrés
Microtonal Memory I: Polymelody (1998)
Hilary Jeffery – trombone
Eleni Poulou – synthesizer
Microtonal Memory II: Harmony Stasis (1998) + Electrickhummmmmmmmmmmm (2007)
Hayden Chisholm – alto saxophone
Hilary Jeffery – trombone
Eleni Poulou – synthesizer
Werkhalle Wiesenburg
28 July 2023
“A Revelation of the Instruments Reality”
“Close Position Harmony”
“Feelings (A Music)”
“A Grand Noise”
“Round Sound” (1963)
“Microtonal Melody 1: Polymelody” (1998)
“One Note More Than Once” (2005) + “Life’s A Joke” (2022)
Radio
Elope #48
Philip Corner + Christian Wolff
Eleni Poulou’s show “Elope” (Cashmere Radio) – featuring the music of Philip Corner and Christian Wolff!
cashmereradio.com/episode/elope-48-philip-corner-christian-wolff-special
Kastra
photo by Eleni Poulou
Eleni Poulou’s show “Kastra” (Stegi Radio) – celebrating Philp Corner’s 90th birthday with Hilary Jeffery playing The Art of No-Art at Philharmonie Brno + new releases.
stegi.radio/show/kastra-2023-06-22
Biographies
photo by Hilary Jeffery
Philip Corner is an American composer of interdisciplinary works that have been performed throughout the world. He studied composition with Mark Brunswick and musicianship and piano with Fritz Jahoda at the City College of New York, where he earned his BA in 1955, and composition with Henry Cowell and Otto Luening at Columbia University, where he earned his MA in 1959. He also studied analysis with Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris from 1955–57, where he earned a deuxième prix, and studied calligraphy with Ki-sung Kim in South Korea in 1960–61. He studied piano privately with Dorothy Taubman in New York, New York from 1961–75. As a performer of new music, he has been active as a pianist, trombonist and vocalist. He has also played alphorn and various natural objects, including resonant metals. He was drafted into the US Army in 1959 and shipped to South Korea in 1960–61, where he introduced music by himself, as well as John Cage, Olivier Messiaen, Wallingford Riegger, Anton Webern, and other composers. He has participated in various concerts, exhibitions and festivals with the name Fluxus since 1961. He served as a resident composer and musician to the Judson Dance Theater in New York, New York from 1962–64. He co-founded with Malcolm Goldstein and James Tenney the Tone Roads Chamber Ensemble in New York, New York in 1963, a group for contemporary music that performed until 1970. He co-founded with Julie Winter the ensemble for music and ritual Sounds Out of Silent Spaces in New York, New York in 1972 and co-founded with Barbara Benary and Daniel Goode Gamelan Son of Lion in New York, New York in 1976 and often played with each ensemble, as well as with the Experimental Intermedia Foundation in New York, New York. His major publications include the book I Can Walk through the World as Music (1966, unpublished; 1980, Printed Editions). He gave courses on the analysis of contemporary music and experimental composition at The New School in New York, New York from 1967–70 and taught contemporary music, music theory and world music at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey from 1972–92.
Biography courtesy of The Living Composers Project
composers21.com/compdocs/cornerp
photo by Andreas Grill
Hilary Jeffery has performed internationally in many settings including theatres, museums, jazz clubs, cathedrals, night clubs, festivals, dance studios, bars, cinemas, galleries, streets, forests and mountains. As well as composing Hilary plays trumpet, trombone, tuba, piano, electronics, and sometimes sings. In addition to Organza Ray with Eleni Poulou, his current projects include the brass trio Zinc & Copper, Etude (Ensemble Treffen Um Die Ecke), an ensemble dedicated to the music of Philip Corner, and Mullet – a modern jazz band with Tobias Delius and Charly Birkenhauer. The sense of silent space he experienced during a journey to the Sahara Desert in 1990 is a central and sustaining influence on Hilary’s work.
photo by Zsolt Sőrés
Theresa Patzschke is a German writer, musician and artist who lives and works in Berlin. Patzschke’s collages, like her fiction writing and music projects, emerge from a process of collecting stories and forms, and putting them together through improvisation. She frequently collaborates with Eleni Poulou, most recently in the form of a zine consisting of collages and poetry, which was shown at Halle für Kunst in Lüneburg as part of the exhibition Betriebsfeier. In addition to her musical solo projects, she is co-founder of the band Recycling Plastic Inevitable and plays in a duo with artist Tobias Spichtig. Her fiction has appeared in literature and art magazines such as Starship and Wetter Magazin as well as in exhibition catalogues, and has been performed at Volksbühne Berlin and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, among other venues. Her writing has also been published in Kaleidoscope, Interview Magazine, SSENSE, and 032c.
photo by Andreas Grill
Eleni Poulou has recorded and toured worldwide with many groups including The Fall and Shizuo, and is currently working with Wolfgang Seidel, Bomb Sniffing Dogs, and as ULR with James »Jeanette« Main. She hosts regular radio shows such as “Elope” on Cashmere Radio and “Kastra” on Movement Radio, and has appeared on Montezpress Radio, Rinse France, RTM FM, Noods Radio and NTS with Ono Tesla. Eleni also DJs, writes poetry, creates sound collages, composes music and makes zines with like minded artists such as Theresa Patzschke. She is one half of NOHE NOSHE together with Petr Step Kišur and is part of the Berlin art collective Honey Suckle Company. She formed Organza Ray with Hilary Jeffery in 2022, her most recent solo album is “Karta” which merges Greek Pontic music with other sounds and beats.
photo by Zsolt Sőrés
Simon Rose is a musician-composer, researcher and author from London living in Berlin. A recognised baritone saxophonist, his main interest is with open form improvisation. Rose performs as a soloist and in a great many, diverse collaborations in Europe and North America including in a wide variety of settings: high-energy free jazz , reductionism, noise, silence, rock, jazz, solo, and improvising orchestras. He also performs in various interdisciplinary artistic constellations with dancers, visual artists and others. Leading the London based trio ‘badland’ (Simon Fell double bass, Steve Noble drums, 1995 – present) Rose recorded four CDs; toured internationally; radio sessions included BBC Jazz on 3, Resonance Radio. Solo, Rose has toured internationally and recorded two well received solo CDs on alto and baritone saxophone. Current groups include: Michel Doneda, Steve Noble, Stefan Schultze, Hilary Jeffery, Paul Stapleton, Nicola Hein, Deniz Peters, Philippe Lemoine; Jan Roder double bass and Willi Kellers drums; Dag Magnus Narvesen drums and; Adam Pultz Melbye double bass. Performances have included, amongst many others: Pauline Oliveros, Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, Mark Dresser, Tristan Honsinger, Dave Douglas, Alexander von Schlippenbach, John Raskin, Audrey Chen, Mark Sanders. Recordings can be found on the labels: Emanem, Leo, PSI, Bruce’s Fingers, Not Two, Rayon, FMR, PfMentum, Bug Incision, Red Toucan, Creative Sources. He appears on over forty music releases.
photo by Andreas Grill
Zsolt Sőrés is primarily and by nature an interdisciplinary artist. His way of seeing and creating demands that he works with more than just a single medium. With an academic background in literary theory and history, he began making music and various intermedia works in the mid-1990s as a member of Spiritus Noister, SoKaPaNaSz, Mesékstb. and S.K.ψ. These groups performed genres alternating between phonic poetry and free, non-idiomatic musical improvisation. After 2000, Sőrés established himself as a solo composer and performer (mainly of live music for dance performances); thanks to occasional collaborations with Ernő Király, Franz Hautzinger, Adam Bohman, Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Jean-Hervé Péron, Christian Kobi, Hilary Jeffery, Rudi Fischerlehner, Anla Courtis and many others he soon gained international recognition.
berliner-kuenstlerprogramm.de/en/artist/zsolt-sores
photo by Jean Jacques G
Deborah Walker is a new music performer and improviser based in Berlin. She is interested in multiple forms of music creation related to the exploration of sound and interaction with other art forms. She has played at many festivals such as I Suoni delle Dolomiti, Italia Wave, ZKM in Karlsruhe, Centre Pompidou (Paris and Metz), Festival dʼAvignon, Festival Nomad in MʼHamid (Morocco), Switch ON (Malaysia) and tours regularly in International venues and Festivals. She is a member of ensemble Dedalus and of the improviser orchestra ONCEIM. She has worked with composers like Pascale Criton, Éliane Radigue, Philip Corner and Phill Niblock, both in solo or in ensemble. Since more than a decade Deborah plays regularly with violinist Silvia Tarozzi. Their repertoire includes both contemporary and experimental works, as well as transcriptions of Italian traditional folksongs from their birthplace, the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy. After a Master in Music and sound composition at the University of Paris 8, Deborah completed a PhD at the University of Lorraine on the work of Fluxus artists in Reggio Emilia and Cavriago collaborating with Rosanna Chiessi and her editions Pari&Dispari, with a focus on the work of American cellist Charlotte Moorman.
elli.media/artists/deborah-walker
Links
A Long Life, Endless As The Sky by Marcus Boon
marcusboon.com/philip-corner-a-long-life-endless-as-the-sky
Archivio Conz
archivioconz.com/collection/artists/philip-corner
Extradition Plays Philip Corner
extraditionpdx.bandcamp.com
Extreme Positions
newworldrecords.org/products/philip-corner-extreme-positions
dramonline.org/albums/philip-corner-extreme-positions/notes
Frog Peak Music
frogpeak.org/fpartists/fpcorner
Wikipedia
wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Corner
Gallery
