For one brief shining moment, Tilburg, Netherlands, will be the epicenter of the Theremin Universe.
"Theremin Summit" - features four Thereminists-Eric Ross (USA), Lydia Kavina (RU), Wilco Boterman (NL) and Thorwald Jorgensen (NL) with Renske de Leuw-harp and Gene Carl-synths in a performance of solos, duos and ensembles including the premiere of Eric Ross' "Music from the Future" (with videos by Mary Ross) on Saturday, May 7, 2016, at 8:30 pm at Club Paradox, Tilburg, NL.
Eric Ross is the initiator of this Summit. He's presented concerts of his original works at Lincoln Center (NYC), Kennedy Center, Redcat Center (LA) , Newport, North Sea, Brussels, Berlin and Montreux Jazz Festivals, Guggenheim-Bilbao, Copenhagen, Prague New Music Festivals among many others. He performs on guitar, keyboards and is a Master of the Theremin. For over twenty years he's led his ensemble that's featured jazz giants- John Abercrombie, Larry Coryell, Andrew Cyrille, Oliver Lake, Leroy Jenkins, New Music Virtuosos -Youseff Yancy, Lydia Kavina, Robert Dick, world musicians- Randy Raine Reush, Subhash Sarkar, Aqi Fzono and others He's played with blues legends BB King, Buddy Guy, Lonnie Brooks, Kenny Neal, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. He began playing the Theremin in 1975, and has toured and performed worldwide live and on radio, film and TV. He's written an Overture for 14 Theremins and gave the world premiere of Percy Grainger's Free MusicNo.1 in New York City in 1997. Among recent projects is Ultimedia Concept program at UNESCO World Heritage sites including Guggenheim- Bilbao Museum, Spain; Residenz Palace, Wurzburg; Bauhaus- Dessau, Germany; Casada Musica Portugal. He was a friend of theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore and electronics pioneer Robert Moog. In 1991, he met and played for the inventor of the instrument, Professor Lev Termen. He's drawn inspiration from them to continue developing the Theremin as a voice in his own compositions.
Lydia Kavina - Born in Moscow and currently living in Oxfordshire, UK, Lydia Kavina is one of the leading performing musicians on the theremin. Lydia began studying the theremin at the age of 9 under the direction of Léon Theremin, who was first cousin of her grandfather. She has performed more than a thousand concerts throughout the world. As a solo performer Ms. Kavina appeared at such prestigious venues as the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, London Royal Albert Hall, Chatelet Theatre in Paris, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Caramoor center NY, USA. She collaborated with the Netherlands Radio Orchestra under Reinbert de Lewes, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia under V. Spivakov, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and others. She has appeared on many CDs, DVDs and recordings and played at Lincoln Center Festival, the Holland Music Festival, the Martinu Festival in Prague, the Electronic Music Festival in Burge, and Moscow “Avantgarde”.Lydia played for a number of film soundtracks including “Ed Wood” and “eXistetnZ” with music by Howard Shore and ''The Machinist'' by Roque Banos.Lydia Kavina has also featured in numerous stage productions, such as ''Alice'' and ''The Black Rider'' (both conceived and directed by Robert Wilson, with music by Tom Waits) in the Hamburg Thalia Theater and Halle Kalk in Cologne. She also played for stage productions of Russian Bolshoi, Hamburg Schauspielhaus, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and others.
Wilco Botermans plays the theremin since 1997 and lived in Moscow twice for 3 months to study classical theremin playing and interpretation with master thereminist Lydia Kavina in 1999 and 2001.He studied Music Technology with Hans Timmermans . His music always departs from the pure sound of the theremin itself. The theremin is also used to control analogue synthesizers and computers, to create complex sound structures. 'The nature of the theremin places the performer in the centre of the sound.' Wilco is a member of the Schreck Ensemble. As composer, instrument builder and performer he joined many dance, theatre and performance projects, and can be heard as a guest musician on various cd productions. He is a regular teacher and performer at the European Theremin Academy.Recent projects were creating an interactive environment where dancers would control the music through 5 theremins suspended from the ceiling (Generale Oost, Arnhem NL), and building a replica of the “Croix Sonore”, a French theremin-like instrument, for the Dutch Holland Festival.
Thorwald Jorgensen is curently one of the leading classical Theremin players. He started his musical career as a percussionist. He studied at Utrecht and Tilburg Conservatories. Taking up the Theremin for him was a logical progression. This instrument also requires, like percussion , a skilled coordination of the left and right hand. He has developed a vast repetorie of works on the Theremin. was also coached by Sakia Boon, former cellist with the Royal Orchestra. He is recently back from a tour in Chile and Brazil . He plays a Moog Etherwave Pro.
MARY ROSS (1950-2012) fine art photographer and visual artist used video and computers to produce still images on film. Her video and computer generated still photographs and video art have been featured in hundreds of multimedia performances she's produced in collaboration with composer/performer Eric Ross. She has exhibited extensively at galleries and museums in the United States, Europe, Israel and Japan. Recognized as and important pioneer of digital photography, her photographs are in the permanent collections of the Kunsthaus, Zurich; International Polaroid Collection; Herbert Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University; King's Library, Copenhagen, Bibliothèque Nationale; Paris and the Lincoln Center Library Dance. Her archive is at the Rose Goldsen archive for New Media Art at Cornell University and at LIMA in Amsterdam, NL.
Gene Carl - Electric Storks- has some 15 CD’s of his own music and plays on recordings of groups from USA, Holland and Germany. His last projects were with 4 synths and 6 sopranos for Theater Group Amsterdam and a piece for 7 pianos played by 14 dancers who he taught piano to for a dance piece by North Netherlands Dance. He’s performed since 1975 in Holland as pianist, synthesizer player and vocalist both as solist and in ensembles/orchestras, touring with Fred Frith, Jon Carter, and ensembles of Louis Andriessen. As composer he received international attention for his quadraphonic electronic piece “What the River Said” which won prizes in 3 countries. Through the years he’s been integrating his synth playing/live electronics with tape, acoustic instruments and electronic instruments.
Renske deLeuw (harp) studied at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Alexandre Bonnet, obtaining successfully her diplomas Bachelor and Master of Music. She also attended master classes with various harpists (a.o. Isabelle Moretti, Isabelle Perrin, Maria Graf, Emilia Moskvitina) at home and abroad. After graduation Renske wanted to broaden her musical horizons even further, therefore she followed also jazz and popharp lessons with several teachers as Park Stickney and Edmar Canstaneda. Her current duo is with Thorwald Jorgensen. Renske is a versatile harpist, she performs as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral harpist.
