Neo voyager

You know what makes us love con­tem­po­rary music? The oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with com­posers on new com­po­si­tions. And you know what gives us the great­est joy?

Watch­ing young com­posers spread their wings. That is pre­cise­ly the point of the Neo Edu Arte edu­ca­tion­al project, which cul­mi­nates in the Neo Voy­ager Tour — a con­cert tour pro­mot­ing the lat­est works writ­ten for string quar­tet. Six dis­tinct musi­cal worlds that took shape in the minds and souls of tal­ent­ed com­posers from Ice­land, Nor­way and Poland.

In Octo­ber 2022 we announced a call for par­tic­i­pa­tion in a two-year edu­ca­tion­al pro­gramme for young com­posers. From more than 60 appli­ca­tions, an inter­na­tion­al jury select­ed six out­stand­ing cre­ators. Each par­tic­i­pan­t’s task was to write a new work for string quar­tet by March 2024. The task was any­thing but sim­ple, since the core premise was broad artis­tic free­dom and the option of using the full set of acoustic and elec­tric string instru­ments, elec­tron­ics, syn­the­siz­ers and video — the tools Neo­Quar­tet uses every day. The young com­posers had mul­ti­ple oppor­tu­ni­ties to meet expe­ri­enced cre­ators such as Trond Rein­hold­sten, Mar­ty­na Kosec­ka, Idin Sami­mi Mofakham, Paweł Hen­drich and Bergrún Snæb­jörns­dót­tir. They also worked with the Neo­Quar­tet musi­cians. In March 2024 the com­po­si­tions were pre­sent­ed to an audi­ence for the first time in Reyk­javik, as part of the Ice­landic edi­tion of the NeoArte — Syn­teza­tor Sztu­ki fes­ti­val. Neo Voy­ager Tour presents the lat­est works in fur­ther cities. Con­certs take place in Katow­ice, War­saw, Bergen and Oslo.

The Neo Voy­ager project is a con­cert and edu­ca­tion­al project car­ried out by NeoArte Asso­ci­a­tion in 2022–2024 with the sup­port of EEA Funds.

The idea of the project is to realise the Nor­we­gian and Ice­landic edi­tions of the NeoArte — Syn­teza­tor Sztu­ki fes­ti­val in 2023–2024, and to car­ry out the Neo Edu Arte edu­ca­tion­al pro­gramme for out­stand­ing com­posers from Ice­land, Nor­way and Poland. The result of the Neo Edu Arte project is the cre­ation of 6 new com­po­si­tions for string quar­tet, which received their world pre­mieres at the NeoArte — Syn­teza­tor Sztu­ki fes­ti­val, Reyk­javik edi­tion, in March 2024.

The diver­si­ty and cre­ativ­i­ty of the young com­posers made it pos­si­ble to cre­ate mul­ti­me­dia, con­cep­tu­al, mul­ti-lay­ered com­po­si­tions — some­times sur­pris­ing­ly min­i­mal­ist ones. We are cer­tain­ly deal­ing with works that chart new direc­tions in the devel­op­ment of the con­tem­po­rary string quar­tet. This type of com­po­si­tion is a per­fect fit for Neo­Quar­tet, an ensem­ble that is con­stant­ly seek­ing new paths in the evo­lu­tion of this roy­al instru­men­tal line-up.

Com­posers tak­ing part in the project:

Ice­land: Ása ÖnnuÓlafs­dót­tir, Kristján Steinn Kristjánsson

Nor­way: Anders Han­nevold, Vanes­sa Iso­bel Black

Poland: Hubert Gabriel Żmudz­ki, Prze­mysław Pacek

Pro­gramme

Anders Han­nevold Air­songs for string quar­tet and organet­to por­ta­tivoÁsa ÖnnuÓlafs­dót­tir GárarKristján Steinn Kristjáns­son String Quar­tet No. 1Vanessa Iso­bel Black Blind Frac­turesHu­bert Gabriel Żmudz­ki String Quar­tet No. 3Przemysław Pacek Polar­iza­tion for string quar­tet and electronics

Neo­Quar­tet

Karoli­na Piątkows­ka-Now­ic­ka acoustic and elec­tric vio­lin­Paweł Kapi­ca acoustic and elec­tric vio­lin­Michał Markiewicz acoustic and elec­tric vio­laKrzysztof Pawłows­ki acoustic and elec­tric cello

Anders Han­nevold organet­to portativo

Pro­duc­tion

pro­gramme con­cept, text Neo­Quar­tet­pro­duc­tion Mar­ta Piórkowska

visu­al iden­ti­ty Karol Yamazaki

sound engi­neer­ing Marcin Kowal­czyk, Kos­ma Standera

Organ­is­er: NeoArte Asso­ci­a­tion, EEA Funds — Work­ing togeth­er for a green, com­pet­i­tive and inclu­sive Europe

The Con­tem­po­rary Music Space Hash­tag Lab is co-financed by the Cap­i­tal City of Warsaw.

More about the ensemble

They are pas­sion­ate about art and con­tem­po­rary music. They love to cre­ate, per­form con­certs, cross bound­aries and over­turn estab­lished pat­terns. They place great val­ue on the oppor­tu­ni­ty to col­lab­o­rate with artists from every field and on the mutu­al inspi­ra­tion that brings. They are fas­ci­nat­ed by build­ing a bond with audi­ences, giv­ing peo­ple the chance to trav­el to oth­er dimen­sions and gain a new per­spec­tive on the world.

Excep­tion­al ener­gy, com­plete com­mit­ment, free­dom of expres­sion and the forg­ing of new paths — these are the qual­i­ties that define NeoQuartet.

Neo­Quar­tet is one of the most inter­est­ing and most dynam­i­cal­ly active ensem­bles spe­cial­is­ing in con­tem­po­rary music in Europe. It is the lau­re­ate of the pres­ti­gious Pomeran­ian Artis­tic Award. It has also been nom­i­nat­ed for a num­ber of oth­er awards (Sztorm Roku, Fry­dery­ki). The ensem­ble has to its name thir­teen CDs released on Pol­ish, Ger­man, Greek and Amer­i­can labels.

Since 2017 Neo­Quar­tet has expand­ed its instru­men­ta­tion to include elec­tric MIDI string instru­ments, syn­the­siz­ers and loop­ers, cre­at­ing a unique phe­nom­e­non on the inter­na­tion­al new music scene. In 2022 the ensem­ble released its first album of orig­i­nal music. The album “String The­o­ry” chart­ed new direc­tions in the devel­op­ment of the string quar­tet in the 21st century.

Neo­Quar­tet per­forms both in Poland and abroad. Between 2012 and 2023 it gave more than 500 con­certs in near­ly every cor­ner of the world, play­ing in such pres­ti­gious venues as Carnegie Hall in New York and the For­bid­den City Con­cert Hall in Beijing.

The ensem­ble is formed by: Karoli­na Piątkows­ka-Now­ic­ka (1st vio­lin), Paweł Kapi­ca (2nd vio­lin), Michał Markiewicz (vio­la) and Krzysztof Pawłows­ki (cel­lo).

The ensem­ble organ­is­es its own fes­ti­val, NeoArte — Syn­teza­tor Sztu­ki, which has tak­en place annu­al­ly since 2012 in Gdańsk.

Tickets

40 PLN