Jakub Gucik: 12 etiud

When prepar­ing new works or col­lab­o­rat­ing with com­posers, I often encounter the opin­ion that the pos­si­bil­i­ties of string instru­ments have been exhausted. 

Most peo­ple are explor­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ties of wind instru­ments, object-based instru­ments, eth­nic instru­ments and elec­tron­ics. And yet instru­men­tal tech­niques con­tin­ue to advance — the knocks, strikes and scrapes that were spec­tac­u­lar in the 1960s, or the exper­i­ments with bow pres­sure and left-hand fin­ger­ing pop­u­larised in the late 20th cen­tu­ry, are not the end of the cel­lo’s pos­si­bil­i­ties. In 12 Etudes for Solo Cel­lo I explore rarely encoun­tered extend­ed tech­niques such as var­i­ous manip­u­la­tions of the instru­men­t’s res­o­nance, mul­ti­phon­ics, pizzi­ca­to at dif­fer­ent parts of the instru­ment, dyads, over­tones and subtones, approach­ing the cel­lo more as an ana­logue syn­the­sis­er or object than as a noble instru­ment bur­dened with cen­turies of tra­di­tion and rich sym­bol­ism.

Com­posed with a grant from the Min­istry of Cul­ture and Nation­al Heritage.

Programme:

Jakub Gucik 12 etiud

Performers:

Jakub Gucik cel­lo

Production:

pro­gramme con­cept and text: Jakub Gucik                
pro­duc­tion: Olga Pasek, Aga­ta Krys­tek
visu­al iden­ti­ty: Alek­san­dra Ołdak

Przestrzeń Muzy­ki Współczes­nej Hash­tag Lab is co-financed by the City of War­saw.
The media patron of Przestrzeń Muzy­ki Współczes­nej Hash­tag Lab is POLMIC​.PL and Dwój­ka Pol­skie Radio.

If you want to know more about the artist:

Jakub Gucik
Born in 1989. Grad­u­ate of the Acad­e­my of Music in Kraków (2013). He works in con­tem­po­rary and impro­vised music, seek­ing new son­ic pos­si­bil­i­ties of the cel­lo. Mem­ber of the ensem­bles: Spółdziel­nia Muzy­cz­na con­tem­po­rary ensem­ble, Attack of the Mugatu, and IPT Wójciński/Bańdur/Gucik. Author of the­atri­cal, elec­troa­coustic
and elec­tron­ic music. Togeth­er with Spółdziel­nia Muzy­cz­na, lau­re­ate of the Ernst von Siemens Ensem­ble-Förder­preise 2021. Four-time lau­re­ate (2016–2019) of the FAMA fes­ti­val in Świnou­jś­cie, award­ed the Andrzej Jakó­biec Prize in 2018 and the “Tri­dent of Nep­tune” in 2019. First prize win­ner at the Nation­al Com­po­si­tion Com­pe­ti­tion named after J. Patkows­ki (2017).
In 2010 he received a schol­ar­ship to attend mas­ter­class­es at the Ober­st­dor­fer Musik­som­mer fes­ti­val. Lau­re­ate of 4th (2006) and 1st (2007) place at the Tal­ents for Europe com­pe­ti­tion in Dol­ný Kubín, Slo­va­kia, and a spe­cial prize from Moyzes Quartet. 

He has per­formed at fes­ti­vals includ­ing: Afekt Fes­ti­val (Tallinn), Darm­stadter Ferienkurse (ensem­ble in res­i­dence 2023), Maerz­Musik (Berlin), Inter­na­tion­al Young Ensem­ble Acad­e­my, Intl Jazz Plat­form, Warsza­wska Jesień, Sacrum Pro­fanum, Musi­ca Poloni­ca Nova, Neo Arte, Ensem­ble-Akademie Freiburg, Dni Muzy­ki Nowej, Ober­st­dor­fer Musik­som­mer, Audio Art, Krakows­ka Jesień Jazzowa. 

He has giv­en Pol­ish and world pre­mieres of works by com­posers such as: J. Krei­dler, 
A. Mincek, F. Dona­toni, S. Nemtsov,  R. Eizirik, A. Schu­bert,  M. Shlo­mowitz, B. Mun­ten­dorf, J. Wal­she, M. Beil, S. Scia­r­ri­no, A. Bak­er,  A. Nowak, P. Peszat, A. Kwiecińs­ki, A. Zagajewski. 

He has led work­shops and lec­tures at, among oth­ers, the Eesti Muusi­ka- ja Tea­tri­akadeemia in Tallinn, Kung­li­ga Musikhögskolan in Stock­holm, and dur­ing the Syn­thetis cours­es in Radziejow­ice. In col­lab­o­ra­tion with Cricote­ka, Muzeum MOCAK, Spółdziel­nia Muzy­cz­na con­tem­po­rary ensem­ble and KBF he leads work­shops for musi­cians, music lovers and sound seekers. 

Tickets

30 PLN