Electrifying, moving and covering untraveled roads--from avant-garde virtuosity to highly charged computer-assisted improvisation--this extraordinary mother/daughter duo puts together flute and live electronics pioneer Anne La Berge with rising new music violinist Diamanda La Berge Dramm.
As The Treble Girls, La Berge and La Berge Dramm's 2013 mini-tour of the United States will hear world premieres by three composers who, themselves, explore the compositional and improvisatory edges of today's music.
Here's the new and challenging music this Dutch mother and daughter will be performing together:
Natacha Diels, A is for Alphabet for violin, piccolo, flute and electronics (2013)
David Dramm, Lotus Blue Dream for amplified violin and piccolo (2013)
Jorrit Dijkstra, Expats for violin and flute (2013)
Anne La Berge, muffled for improvisers and Max MSP (2011)
Karlheinz Stockhausen, Tierkreis (arr. for violin, flutes and electronics)
As for Anne La Berge, solo, she'll be playing:
Martin Parker, GruntCount for flute and Max MSP (2011)
Yannis Kyriakides, flock for flute and electronics (2009)
Anne La Berge, Away for 19-tone flute and Max MSP (2009-11)
Karlheinz Stockhausen, Xi
Meanwhile, Diamanda La Berge Dramm will have these pieces to get through on her own:
Luciano Berio, Sequenza VIII (1976)
John Cage, Chorals (1978)
Georg Friedrich Haas, de terrae fine (2001)
As for remaining Treble Girls dates and locations, La Berge and La Berge Dramm can be heard this week at the following:
April 20, 2013
Miami Beach Botanical Garden in Miami, Fla.
April 17, 2013
Goethe Institute in Boston, Mass.
April 18, 2013
The Red Room in Baltimore, Md.
Anne La Berge's career as flutist/improviser/composer stretches across international and stylistic boundaries. Her performances bring together a ferocious and far-reaching virtuosity, a penchant for improvising delicately spun microtonal textures and melodies and her wholly unique array of powerfully percussive flute effects, all combined with electronic processing.
In 1999, she co-founded Kraakgeluiden, a improvisation series based in Amsterdam exploring combinations of acoustic instruments, electronic instruments and real-time interactive performance systems. La Berge's own music has evolved in parallel, and the flute has become only one element in a sound world that includes computer samples, the use of spoken text and electronic processing.
As a performer using quartertone flute, amplified and processed, La Berge transforms the sound of her instrument and dramatically extends its musical potential. Her instrumental and electronic settings foreground phonic qualities, leaving words intact to deliver their semantic load.
"La Berge's work is a stimulating indication of what might be achieved when the written voice speaks," says The Wire's Julian Cowley.
Diamanda La Berge Dramm grew up in Amsterdam, playing the violin since the age of four. Growing up among the leading figures of the Dutch classical, avant-garde and improvisation scenes, her own concerts reflects all of these elements. At the age of thirteen, she premiered Raadsels by Louis Andriessen in the Concertgebouw for the opening of the Holland Festival 2005. She's gone on to perform as soloist, chamber musician and band member in venues such as Amsterdam's Bimhuis and Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, as well as The Stone in New York and Jordan Hall in Boston.
La Berge Dramm has worked extensively with Garth Knox, Anthony Coleman, Chaya Czernowin, Christian Wolff, Alvin Lucier and Gunther Schuller. She performs regularly with the Callithumpian Consort and East Coast Contemporary Ensemble. Festivals include the Amsterdam Canal (Grachten) Festival, Pierre Boulez's Lucerne Festival Academy and Ensemble Modern's Summer Academy.
