Ultraschall 2013

I was fortunate enough to spend the last two weeks of January 2013 in Berlin, attending a majority of concerts at the Ultraschall festival, and then some. The trip has resulted in, I think, some rather radical changes in my listening and has suggested a few fairly major questions to my composing and general thinking of music as a result.

The trip, organised through Oberlin Conservatory and lead by Josh Levine, had a website for updates and such that I have contributed a series of reflections to. The writing was primarily intended for a fairly general audience (interested parents, prospective students and the like) but covers some thoughts and ideas about much of the music we heard and the strangeness of attending, for the first time, such a state-funded new music festival (at first quite a motivating experience before the questions, doubts and problems of such a venture register). These writings are linked to below, the day numbers in bold contain the most involved writing on music.

1, 2, 3 and 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14