Of course presenting new music is not always connected with new presentation forms. Composers of today are still working with traditional settings and instruments but over the last twenty year we see a lot of composers experimenting with all kinds of instruments and combination of instruments but also more and more composers (and directors) experimenting with non-traditional ways to present their music outside concert halls. Or sometimes the concert hall is used in a different way with musicians and audience placed in a different way than standard. Quit often non-musical elements are used (video, dance, actors, lights, etc.) but there is also a tendency to put musicians spaced in a hall. Also the setting of the audience could be different (walking, laying, people can walk in and out, etc), the length of the pieces or program could diverse (like the 30 hours The Long Now concerts at MaerzMusik Berlin, 24 hour chamber concert at SPOR Festival Aarhus 2008 and the 2 Minute Operas of VONK at November Music 2017), as well as intimate formats (one-to-one, one-to-few, like the Living Spaces project by Manos Tsangaris at SPOR festival 2017).

The out-of-the-box-thinking of certain composers/ensembles leads to new work that needs a new presentation form. Not as an extra to his work, but as the context in which his work needs to be presented. The artist and his artistic ideas are the engine, and some artists are open and feel the necessity to create and present their work in a new form. This kind of work fits well into a festival format (where people are more used to experimental concepts compared to a normal concert setting) and can also attract new audiences

The re-thinking of the traditional presentation forms and our work with new/experimental presentations forms involves a very diverse field with many elements to consider – like how we work with audience segments, how we choose the spaces to present the artistic works in, how we communicate with the audience and the society, how we choose artists etc. It creates new spaces and presentation forms where audiences – and also artists – who are not familiar or feeling comfortable with traditions of new music, can feel welcome and invited to participate.

November Music is part of the European Sounds Now project which deals with these kind of topics. Educating and working with (young emerging) curators is one of the elements of this 4-years project.

For the GAS-Festival I have selected several young emerging Dutch artists and ensembles typical for their generation. All of them are great performers, composers, curators and organisers at the same time and working with new concepts and presentation forms in different ways. I’m excited to present their work at the GAS-Festival 2020.

Bert Palinckx – Artistic Director November Music