Extract from a live improv concert in collaboration with Ensemble Modern at the Frankfurt Lab, September 11, 2021

The map of Beirut as a space for experimentation. 
The 12 musicians (11 from the Ensemble Modern and me on the piano) are positioned on stage according to the 12 districts of Beirut. And like any Beiruti citizen, each musician will have to negotiate their way through aleatoric (sonic/musical) decisions, creating in the process a real-time composition within the framework of the map. The opening and ending theme on the piano remain the same; But rather than suggesting a definitive representation of a piece, 12 Districts will be different each time it is performed, like an ever changing city soundscape where the social and cultural fabric constantly reinvents itself despite all the odds.

12 Districts_with Ensemble Modern (extract)

www.cynthiazaven.com

Cynthia Zaven is a composer, pianist and artist based in Beirut. 
Her projects combine a variety of media to explore the relationship between sound, memory and identity through interwoven narratives. Works include Untuned Piano Concerto With Delhi Traffic Orchestra (performance, 2006), Morse Code Composition (ICA, 2012), and Perpetuum Mobile, a 12 channel sound installation that was exhibited within the Temple of Bacchus, at the World Heritage site of Baalbeck, and nominated for the Prix Ars Electronica Award 2017. 

Since 1993, Zaven has also created sound design for theater, live performance, dance and conceptual art projects. She has collaborated with musicians and vocalists such as the Neue Vocalsolisten, the Ensemble Modern and the Danapris String Quartet. She has also composed original scores for films that have been screened at venues worldwide including the film festivals at Cannes, Locarno and Toronto, as well as the Walker Art Center, the ICA in London and Oxford's Museum of Modern Art. 
Her music has been published by the Berlin based label, Staalplaat. 
She is currently a professor of classical piano at the Higher National Conservatory of Music in Beirut.


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12 Districts_with Ensemble Modern (extract)

cynthia zaven