Pre-Opening: Language Music

Anthony Braxton: Language Music. A system of becoming – conducted improvisation for orchestra

PMP Orchestra
Roland Dahinden (Musical Direction)

Astonishing but true: 77-year-old US composer and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton has never been a guest at the Darmstadt Summer Course before. Braxton is internationally considered an icon of jazz and has been recognized at many major festivals in Europe and North America. His compositional œuvre – as is the case for many composers of color who are also jazz musicians – has not yet been equally appreciated, although it represents a considerable part of his artistic personality. His catalog of works includes the immense number of nearly 500 compositions for the most diverse instrumentations, from chamber music to orchestra and opera. Braxton and his music can be experienced in very different constellations during the two Summer Course weeks, beginning with a project of the Prague based PMP Orchestra under the direction of the Swiss trombonist, composer and conductor Roland Dahinden. For more than three decades, Dahinden has been one of the driving forces in Europe when it comes to Braxton’s œuvre. Since its foundation in 2021, he has been connected with the PMP Orchestra through their intensive work on scores of predominantly improvised music, for example by Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Didrik Ingvaldsen, by Dahinden himself or by Anthony Braxton. In our Pre-Opening concert, the musicians of the PMP Orchestra will focus on his Language Music in an hour-long performance and set a first musical Braxton accent in Darmstadt. – “Try something different, keep it fresh.” (Anthony Braxton)

In cooperation with Prague Music Performance