World Premiere of Lisa Bielawa's Tempelhof Etude

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Etude is the first musical chapter of her new project Tempelhof Broadcast

Tempelhof Broadcast by Lisa Bielawa

Tempelhof Etude will have its world premiere in a free concert performed by The Knights conducted by Eric Jacobsen, presented by Naumburg Orchestral Concerts outdoors at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. The concert will also include Morton Feldman's Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5.

Tempelhof Etude for orchestra is the first musical chapter of a project that will culminate in Tempelhof Broadcast, a 60-minute piece for more than 600 musicians on the tarmac of the former Tempelhof Airport in Berlin. This site, famous for its role in the Berlin Airlift in 1948-49, is currently open to the public, unaltered, but in 2013 it will begin to evolve into a new role in the life of Berlin. On several days in September 2012, Lisa will turn the abandoned runways into a vast musical canvas, as professional, amateur and student musicians execute a spatialized symphony. The massive event will begin in the center of the field and disperse outwards.

Bielawa explains how the Etude functions, "One of the big challenges for me is to find ways to make a dynamic piece without players needing to have written parts. In this Etude, I begin to explore some of the ways that musical material can unfold according to simply-defined 'tasks' - ways to make musical experiences unfold organically, according to mnemonics, rules and games."

Tempelhof Etude was commissioned for The Knights by Susan Bloom and Eddie Jacobsen.

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