Performers & composers

Knut Vaage

Knut Vaage, Norway, born 1961. Vaage has worked in different styles of music, though concentrating on improvised and contemporary music. His music has been regularly performed on concerts and at festivals in Norway and abroad.
"Movements" for sinfonietta is one of several works commissioned by the BIT 20 Ensemble. "Transit" was commissioned by the French Department of Culture. This work was given its first performance by Ensemble Court-Circuit at the Ultima Festival in 1998. In his work "Hexa", written for the Ter Jung sextet, Vaage emphasises various symmetrical textures and formations.
"Continue" came into being in the course of a workshop hosted by the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra which performed the work in the Autumn of 1994. Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra gave the autumn 2000 premiere of "Chaconne" for flute, harp and orchestra, And in 2006 “Gardens of Hokkaido” for piano and orchestra. The piece "Odysse" for sinfonietta is a re-composition of Edvard Grieg's op. 54 resulting in an alloy of musical impulses from Vaage and Grieg. From his list of works for wind instruments one can mention "Graffiti" for brass band. Much of Vaages compositions have been released on CD.
The opera "Nokon kjem til å komme" is based on the Jon Fosse play of the same name. The work was premiered at the Ultima in the autumn of 2000 and received rave reviews internationally.
The propagation of contemporary music for a wider audience forms also an important part of Vaage's compositional activity.
Knut Vaage has served as a board member of the composers' group of Ny Musikk, the Norwegian branch of the ISCM, and the Norwegian Society of Composers . He has in addition led a local division of Ny Musikk in Bergen, where he was also director of the Autunnale festival.

Electra

Electra for electric violin and live electronics was commissioned by Victoria Johnson and premiered by her at the Autunnale festival in 2003. The computer programming is by Thorolf Thuestad. All the sounds in the piece are coming directly from the violinists action on stage, even the very low sub-frequencies. This is made possible by the programming of Max/MSP, in combination with the pure musical ideas, and frequent use of a "low teck" fuzz box. The work is a dramatic dialogue between the computer and the violin, with the former stealing energy in real time from the violinist, who has to fight back in order to maintain the focus of the musical dramaturgy.

Electra II:

All the sounds in Electra II for amplified flute and computer are coming directly from the flute players action on stage, even the very low sub-frequencies. This is made possible by the programming of Max/MSP, in combination with the pure musical ideas, and frequent use of slow glissandies combined with sampling. The work is a dramatic dialogue between the computer and the flute, with the former stealing energy in real time from the flute player, who has to fight back in order to maintain the focus of the musical dramaturgy.
Electra II for flute and computer is based on Electra for el.violin and live electronics. The studio testing and developing of Electra II has been done together with Ingela Øien autumn 2005. Electra for el.violin was commissioned and premiered by Victoria Johnson in 2003. The computer programming is by Thorolf Thuestad