Marc Sabat Lecture-Performance “Microtonally Tuning and Performing Bach’s Violin Sonatas” 18.10.24 at 16.00-19.00
Friday afternoon Oct. 18 16-19:
Open lecture-dress rehearsal of Marc Sabat’s doctoral presentation, “Tuning Bach, which will taking place in Organo, Musiikkitalo, on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 16. The event includes a lecture about the research project “Chords, melodies: a look at harmony by numbers”, a concert with Sabat’s rational intonation adaptations of the three J.S. Bach solo violin sonatas, performed by guest violinists Sara Cubarsi (of Musikfabrik) and Xenia Gogu, followed by an open discussion and demonstrations with the public.
Marc Sabat – Tuning Bach | Uniarts Helsinki
Marc Sabat
Plainsound Music Edition
Marc Sabat : Music & Writings (plainsound.org)
Marc Sabat : biography (plainsound.org)
photo : Natalie Pfeiffer, Berlin 2024
BIOGRAPHIES
MARC SABAT
Marc Sabat is a Canadian composer of Ukrainian descent Marc Sabat (*1965) has been based in Berlin since 1999. He makes pieces for concerts and installations, drawing inspiration from ongoing research about the sounding and perception of microtonal rational intonation (JI). He relates his practice to various music forms, seeking points of shared exploration and dialogue between different modes of experience and cultural traditions. Largely self-taught as a composer, Sabat studied violin at the University of Toronto, at the Juilliard School in New York, and computer music at McGill University, as well as working privately with Malcolm Goldstein, James Tenney and Walter Zimmermann, among others. With Wolfgang von Schweinitz he developed the Extended Helmholtz-Ellis JI Pitch Notation and is a pioneer of instrumental music written and performed in JI. Sabat’s work is presented internationally, available online and in numerous published editions. He teaches composition and the theory and practice of intonation at the Universität der Künste Berlin and is currently a doctoral research fellow at the Sibelius Academy Helsinki. Together with colleagues Catherine Lamb and Rebecca Lane he co-initiated the Harmonic Space Orchestra in 2019.
SARA CUBARSI
Sara Cubarsi explores how putting vibrant matter in and out of sync reveals the fragility of the world in which we live, particularly in the attempt to stabilize vibrations in rational tuning. Acoustic and non-material processes of resonance are a main interest for her, both as a violinist and composer, experimenting with gut strings, instruments with resonance strings (viola d’amore, hardanger fiddle, tromba marina), as well as with melting wax paintings through which Sara reflects on the materiality of tuning, avoiding a partition of the sensible. Sara studied composition with Wolfgang von Schweinitz and Michael Pisaro at CalArts, where she completed her doctoral degree in 2018 with a full scholarship from La Caixa.
Sara’s music has been premiered at St. John Smith’s Square in London by ensemble x.y, at the Fundación Juan March in Madrid and at Art Share Los Angeles by the Euler Quartet. In September 2023, her new piece for natural horn and keyboard titled “La langue des gargouilles” was premiered at the Lucerne Festival. Current projects that Sara is excited about include: the ongoing artistic project about the tromba marina, for which she is writing a new piece, two new works by Sven-Ingo Koch that Sara will premiere in 2025 (for violin and cembalo, and for violin and vocal ensemble), a CD release of Marc Sabat’s Bach Intonazioni together with her violin trio Harmonic Flow, a double e-violin concerto by Katharina Rosenberger, and the complete performance of Bach’s Sonatas & Partitas at El Petit Palau (Barcelona, Dec 2024).
Sara regularly performs new music as a violinist of Ensemble Musikfabrik in Cologne, and barroc violin in the freelance scene, often with her early music and experimental duo Lo Desconcert. She has performed as a soloist in L’Auditori de Barcelona, El Palau de la Música Catalana and Berlin Philharmonie among other places.
XENIA GOGU
Moldovan-Spanish violinist Xenia Gogu specializes in historical performance, combining solo, chamber music, and orchestra projects as part of her artistic life. She is a prizewinner at the Göttingen Händel Competition and at the Biagio Marini Early Music Competition alongside her chamber music partners, performing with them at the Kölner Philharmonie and at the Semana de Música Antigua Estella-Lizarra in Spain amongst others. She is a core member of Parnassus, having performed with them at the Festival Laus Polyphoniae in Belgium.
Xenia is currently studying Early Music at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen with Veronika Skuplik. She has previously obtained her Master’s degree at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg and her Bachelor’s degree at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik Berlin. She also attended the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid with Prof. Zakhar Bron. She participated in masterclasses with Amandine Beyer, Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch, Mauricio Fucks, Natalia Boyarski, Eduard Grach amongst others.
Her interest in historically informed performance practice brought her into taking part in the Apprentices Programme of Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the participation in the Collegium Vocale Gent Academy under the baton of Philippe Herreweghe. She is a co-founder of the Festival Impulso in La Palma. Further orchestral experiences include the Akademie Programme at the Runfunks Sinfonieorchester Berlin, as well as regular collaborations with Kammerakademie Potsdam Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein.
Microtonal Music Studios is a practice-led creative research centre and music studio, examining microtonality through relational art. the project is directed Dr Timo Tuhkanen.
Microtonal Music Studios is supported by Kone Foundation.