Voor het openingsoncert van het Transit festival (hoogfeest voor hedendaagse muziek) bereidt HERMESensemble een Vlaams-Italiaans programma voor. Het concert presenteert vier eigentijdse muzikale karakters. Eppur si muove, het laatste werk dat Luc Brewaeys in opdracht van het TRANSIT festival schreef, bestaat uit een donkere maar transcendente kleur. Even donker – althans afgaand op de titel Pour que la nuit finisse en op de keuze voor instrumenten in het lage register – belooft het gloednieuwe werk van Bart Vanhecke te worden, dat hier de première beleeft.

De Vlaamse werken worden in dialoog gesteld met Italiaanse meesters. Met Defining schreef Tiziano Manca een intrigerend ritmisch en harmonisch enigma. Het concert sluit af met de schalkse spitsvondigheden van Francesco Filidei. Ballata no. 5, in 2015 in opdracht van HERMESensemble gecomponeerd, is een wervelend concerto voor trompet en ensemble.

HERMESensemble o.l.v. Ed Spanjaard

HERMESensemble - Francesco Filidei - Ballata No.5 'Carnavale' (TRANSIT 2017)

HERMESensemble (Antwerpen, BE) opereert in de grensgebieden van hedendaagse muziek en kunst. De kernleden van het collectief creëren eigentijdse artistieke verhalen in nauwe samenwerking met gastkunstenaars en een divers publiek.

HERMESensemble realiseert kruisbestuivingen met oude muziek, jazz, pop-, niet-westerse muziek en elektronische kunst. De producties overstijgen de traditionele concertvorm door de met theater, dans, beeldende kunsten, video, film en multimedia. 

Experiment en ontmoeting vormen de uitgangspunten van elke productie. HERMESensemble. biedt scheppend en uitvoerend jong talent de gelegenheid en de ruimte om in samenwerking de grenzen van de muziekkunst te verleggen.

HERMESensemble werd in 2000 opgericht door artistiek directeur Koen Kessels en is jaarlijks te volgen op de grote Belgische podia en festivals (onder meer deSingel, Concertgebouw Brugge, Opera-Ballet Vlaanderen, Flagey, Festival van Vlaanderen, de Bijloke). Daarnaast is het regelmatig te gast in onder meer Muziekgebouw aan ’t Ij Amsterdam (NL), Philharmonie de Luxembourg (LUX), Concerthaus Wien (AT), Barber Hall Birmingham (VK) en op internationale festivals als Roma Europa en de Biënnale van Venetië (IT),Berliner Festspiele (DE), November Music (NL), en Mona Foma (AUS).

HERMESensemble wordt ondersteund door de Vlaamse Overheid.

Dr. Shuhan Hu, Chinese composer and music theory researcher.

She began learning music at the age of 4 from her father, composer and professor in composition. She has been working at the College of Music, Nanjing University of the Arts since 2008, teaching composition and orchestration. She received her PhD in composition in 2019 from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Now she is chercheuse en acceuil at CNSMDP, under the direction of Prof. Frédéric Durieux, and also a private student of Tristan Murail.

During her master's studies at Shanghai Conservatory, she became interested in spectral music and began to study it systematically. Her master's dissertation is entitled "Research on spectral composition based on OpenMusic". In 2015, Tristan Murail started to give regular composition masterclasses to the students of Shanghai Conservatory, and so she attended his composition classes every year thereafter, profoundly influenced by him. Today, she remains a private student of Professor Murail, having regular private classes with him at his home in Provence. During her doctoral studies, she focused on music centered on timbre and sound with her doctoral dissertation entitled "Morphology of Gestures and Textures in Contemporary Music Centered on Timbre and Sound and their Structural Functions". Besides, she has also published two articles on spectral music in the Journal of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, "Art of Music," a very prestigious academic journal in China: Deciphering the Code of Spectral Music: The Concept of Sound in Spectral Composition (Art of Music, Sept. 2010, pp.125-130); On Techniques and Means of Orchestration in Spectral Composition (Art of Music, Sept. 2015, pp.123-131). 

Recently, she also participated in masterclasses with Liza Lim, Yann Robin, Francesco Filidei, Mauro Lanza, Johannes Schöllhorn and many other well-known composers, and has also received their recognition.

Her major works include Xiao, for alto flute (which won the Ex aeqvo prize in the A category of the 2008 Youth International Music Competition); Streaming, for three Chinese plucked instruments (which won third prize in the 2008 "Music of China" International Composition Competition); Le Trou de neige, for ensemble (premiered by the Israel Contemporary Players, conducted by Zsolt Nagy in 2016); The Sea as My Blood, for trumpet, doubled-bell trombone and percussion (will be premiered by Elision Ensemble at the end of 2024); Lamps, and Slices of the Night, for large orchestra (premiered by the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zhang Liang in 2016); Portrait: Flowing Water, for large orchestra (premiered by the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zhang Liang in 2018); Happy, Lively, Vengeful Teeth, for piano trio (premiered by Ensemble Fractales, conducted by Jean-Bernard Matter, at Schloss Reichenau, Austria, in 2019) ; While the Fishes Playing the Sonata, the Deeper the Water Is, the Longer the Song Is, for quartet of doubled-bell brasses (premiered by Ensemble Musikfabrik in Dec. 2020); Les Fleurs de pêcher s'épanouissent à travers les fissures des os, for solo cello (commissioned by Radio France, premiered by Marie Ythier at Festival Présences 2022), etc.