Concert series ‘RESONANCE’ • ERSO kontserdisarjad 2024/2025

This year, AFEKT Festival focuses on small and large compositions containing elements of transmedial musical theatre. Australian composer Catherine Milliken involves the audience in an interactive performance process of her piece, while the classical symphony tradition is represented by Elis Hallik and her new composition Phos. The word originates from Greek and refers to the physical and metaphorical nature of light. The symphony carries a deeper message and interprets the All Hallows season through light and sounds. The original text for the new piece by Monika Mattiesen, Ariadne aus Neanderthal, was written by Hasso Krull. The installation-based hybrid instrument required for performing the work was created in collaboration with artist Raul Keller and instrument maker and designer Leopold Inkapööl. Hannah Weirich, Carl Rosman, Marco Blaauw, and Benjamin Kobler, members of the Musikfabrik group, are performing the solos.

Every year, one of the highlights of the Estonian Music Days is a concert performed by ERSO (the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra). In 2025, the centenary of the Estonian Composers Union is celebrated at the Estonian Music Days. To commemorate this important anniversary, five new orchestral pieces have been commissioned by the festival team, inspired by the musical example of an Estonian composer or informed by their works. It can take a very clear and recognisable or a more implicit form in the composition. Märt-Matis Lill, Timo Steiner, Mari Vihmand, Tatjana Kozlova-Johannes, and Rasmus Puur will be creating these new orchestral pieces for ERSO. The playlist also includes a selection of the best Estonian compositions for orchestras. Traditionally, LHV presents their new composition award to a composer at the concert, whose piece (that premiered during the previous year) has been unanimously recognised by the committee as a composition with a high artistic value and deserving of international renown.

I: AFEKT Festival. Phos

Friday, 1 November 2024 at 7 p.m. at the Estonia Concert Hall

Elis Hallik. Symphony Phos (world premiere)

Monika Mattiesen. Ariadne aus Neanderthal (world premiere)

Catherine Milliken. Ediacaran Fields (Estonian premiere)

Ensemble Musikfabrik, ERSO, conductor CLEMENT POWER

II: Estonian Music Days

Friday, 25 April 2025 at 7 p.m. at the Estonia Concert Hall

Märt-Matis Lill. New composition

Timo Steiner. New composition

Mari Vihmand. New composition

Tatjana Kozlova-Johannes. New composition

Rasmus Puur. New composition

ERSO, conductor MICHAEL WENDEBERG