Talking Darmstadt Podcast 2023

A selection of Audio Essays crafted by the participants of the Words on Music course at the 2023 Darmstadt International Summer Course.
https://internationales-musikinstitut.de/en/ferienkurse/kurse/words-on-music/

Words on Music Audio Essays 2023

The podcasts are produced and presented entirely by students: the first episode features Madeline, Kevin and Chatori and is produced by Jan.

Episode 01

The podcast is produced and presented entirely by students. The second episode is hosted by Julian, Sinead, Marat and Milan and includes insights on working with Anthony Braxton from singers Fabienne Seveillac and Andreas Halling.

Episode 02

The podcasts are produced and presented entirely by students. The third episode is hosted by Lisa, Mikkel and Juro and includes a discussion about the New Discipline with accordionist-composer Andreas Borregaard and composer-performer Josh Spear of the group Bastard Assignments.

Episode 03

The podcasts are produced and presented entirely by students. Episode 4 includes a review of Minor Characters by Matthew Shlomowitz and Jennifer Walshe, and a spacious and personal conversation with Chaya Czernowin about her opera Heart Chamber: An inquiry about love. Hosted by Chatori, Madeline and Jan with Kevin in the producer hot-seat.

Episode 04

Episode 5 features a chunky conversation with George Lewis, circling in on practical ideas for music education and festival programming of the future. Hosted by Marat, Julian and Sinead with Milan in the producer hot-seat today.

Episode 05

Conversations was created as an audio response to the 2023 Darmstadt Summer Course by Lisa Newill-Smith. It consists of narration by Lisa Newill-Smith and a recorded improvisation session with Jack Adler-McKean, Victor Arul, Kevin Free, Sinead Hayes, Joonghyun Lee, and Lisa Newill-Smith. The narration and improvisation session were both recorded by Arthur Mielke.

Conversations: Lisa Newill-Smith

Every two years composers, musicians and critics descend upon Darmstadt to discuss new music in the world. Some of these people decide to do Words On Music, to discuss music criticism, and discussion. Or at least they think. 

Credits
Interviewed, Edited and Produced  by Kevin Free

Presenter
Wynold Verwij

Participants
Lisa Newill-Smith
Mikkel Schou
Milan Schomber
Sinead Hayes
Julian Day
Jan Topolski
Chatori Shimizu
Madeline Roycroft 
Marat Ingeldeev

Thanks to all of you. 

Special thanks to Peter Meanwell, and Arthur Mielke, who I like to think had fun with all of this.

Stockholm Syndrome: Kevin Free

In August 2023 legendary saxophonist, composer and pedagogue Anthony Braxton conducted a landmark performance by the Darmstadt Summer Course's first Creative Orchestra. In this short documentary we go behind the scenes to discover the story of how the performance came about, through the words of the participants, conductors and Anthony Braxton himself. We also hear from some of the extraordinary composers who were in the audience for the performance.

Producer & Presenter: Sinead Hayes
Co-producer: Peter Meanwell 

With heartfelt thanks to:
Anthony Braxton
Kobe Van Cauwenberghe
Katherine Young
Elizabeth Gartman
Paolo Jiminez
The musicians of the Darmstadt Creative Orchestra
George Lewis
Tyshawn Sorey
Alvin Singleton

Thanks also to the audio team at the Darmstadt Summer Course for permission to use extracts of the official recording of the Creative Orchestra Performance from the 15th August 2023, and to Peter Meanwell for all his help throughout the project.

Stepping into Anthony Braxton's Musical Universe: Darmstadt Creative Orchestra: Sinead Hayes

This audio piece presents my personal reflections on, and journey through, rating concerts from the Darmstadt Summer Course 2023. How do we evaluate music? Is it possible to neatly categorise a piece as good, bad or average? Does a 10-point rating system truly capture the essence of musical value? Join me as I delve into my experience of rating concerts I've never attended, mistakenly labelling one as "pungent ear candy," and navigating the intricacies of a 10-point rating scale.


Credits:

-"Fox News Apologizes For Covering Fake News?!?"
YouTube clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtiEUV1mZDg

- Sunset Landscape by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Creative Commons CC BY 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

- Spook4 by PeriTune | http://peritune.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/

-Special thanks to Madeline Roycroft, Milan Schomber and Lisa Newill-Smith for their amazing voiceovers.

Rating Darmstadt: Marat Ingeldeev

A tram ride to Darmstadt’s Lichtenbergschule turns into a journey of reflecting how passports control one’s mobility. An encounter with Filipino visitors, weekly protests at Luisenplatz on Iran’s atrocities, and flipping passport pages disrupt a daily life of church bells, audible traffic lights, and utility shortwave transmissions – Cedrik Fermont likewise tells stories that challenge assumptions about how we know the world. The tram ride stops midway, migrants reach the border. They are left waiting if they can pass through...

Languyin mo ang ilog;
Magilas ang kabayong hubad!
Naghihintay sa wala.

(Swim by the river;
The naked stallion shows off!
Waiting for nothing.)


Credits:

Cedrik Fermont – narration
Juro Kim Feliz – Tagalog haiku

Additional recordings:
Frau Leben Freiheit protest on 16 August 2023 at Luisenplatz, Darmstadt
conversation with anonymous Filipino couple

“ewig warten...” (forever waiting...): Juro Kim Feliz

This piece was initially inspired by the news stories about UFOs in the Supreme Court that I was following before arriving in Darmstadt. Rather than providing satisfactory answers to the questions asked throughout, the focus of the piece is on painting a picture of the slightly unhinged conversations about aliens and new music I subjected my colleagues to throughout the festival.

Aliens and New Music: Madeline Roycroft

Darmstadt Audio Piece: Chatori Shimizu

Our first episode Talking Darmstadt 2025 is produced and presented entirely by Summer Course participants: James Hamilton Lowrie, Jasper Seibert, Zhuoni Li (aka Lily), Yona Su, Olha Myronenko-Mikheishyna, Irina Sevastianova, Roberto Beseler Maxwell

We are sharing our thoughts on what these podcasts should be and can become, initial impressions on the first few days of concerts, and a roundup of our (food leaning) Darmstadt discoveries!

Talking Darmstadt 2025 – Episode 1 (21.07.2025)

Welcome back to Talking Darmstadt, your (un)official guide to the Summer Course 2025. In this episode, Iga Batog, Jonathan Grimes, Samuel Leung and Gasira Timir reflect on Monday‚s concerts. You will also hear an interview with composer Simon Bahr and members of No Hay Banda, who share their insights into Sarah Davachi‘s Three Unisons for Four Voices. This podcast is produced by participants of the Words On Music course and studio engineer Marta Hinderer.

Talking Darmstadt 2025 – Episode 2 (22.07.2025)

In this podcast episode we continue reflecting on our experiences at the Ferienkurse. New music criticism in Darmstadt, a discussion of the latest concerts, issues of accessibility, an interview with members of Quatuor Bozzini and just a good mood appear in Talking Darmstadt Episode 3. 
This podcast is produced by Ferienkurs participants Zhuoni Li (aka Lily), Olha Myronenko-Mikheishyna, James Hamilton Lowrie and Jasper Seibert and is engineered by Marta Hinderer.

Talking Darmstadt 2025 – Episode 3 (23.07.2025)

Talking Darmstadt 2025 - Episode 4 (24.07.2025)

Talking Darmstadt 2025 - Episode 5 (25.07.2025)

New week, new episode, new recording engineer: Relaxed from the days off, Zhuoni Li (aka Lily), James Hamilton Lowrie, Olha Myronenko-Mikheishyna and Jasper Seibert present a packed episode discussing the weekend’s concerts and concert design. Interviews with the composer Simon Steen-Andersen, the clarinetist Vittoria Ecclesia and the colleagues from the front desk give further insights into the festival. The episode was engineered by Lina Stertzenbach.

Talking Darmstadt 2025 - Episode 6 (28.07.2025)

In today’s podcast, Irina, Roberto and Yona are discussing and reflecting on last night’s concert, "Mountain and Maiden". They are joined by Sarah Nemstov and Padmanabhan (also known as beatnyk) to discuss about the composer’s artistic intention as well as how the film is understood from Padmanabhan’s perspective. This podcast was engineered by Lina Sterzenbach.

Talking Darmstadt 2025 - Episode 7 (29.07.2025)

It is the second week of the Ferienkurse, and we are slowly losing KONTAKTE with reality... In today's episode of Talking Darmstadt, Gasira, Samuel and Iga reflect on the performance of Stockhausen's classic and consider the relationship between sound and space. Composers Mark Andre, Arne Gieshoff, Kari Watson and Luxa M. Schüttler share their insights on this topic. Many thanks to Lina Sterzenbach for making us sound good!

Talking Darmstadt 2025 - Episode 8 (30.07.2025)

In today’s episode: Lily sheds a few tears, James shares his interview with composer Steven Kazuo Takasugi, and Illia gets in a good stretch — all guided by our host, Yona. We also feature Olha’s interview with Basel-based journalists from Post Music Post, as well as Jasper’s conversations gathering people’s wishes for Darmstadt 2027. Stay tuned for more: Olha also speaks to Helena Luca from the IMD Library & Archive, and we wrap up with a roundtable discussion on the musical pieces that stuck with us. More Darmstadt Discoveries are presented. Thanks to sound engineer Lina Sterzenbach!

Talking Darmstadt 2025 - Episode 9 (31.07.2025)

FINAL PODCAST OF DARMSTADT FERIENKURSE 2025!!! This podcast features Iga, Roberto and Yona plus a lengthy conversation about the 2018 Defragmentation Program with Katja Heldt and George Lewis AND there is also a fun segment (recorded by James) about Darmstadt Takeaways! Thank you, Lina, for the fantastic sound engineering. We hope you enjoy this last podcast of Darmstadt Ferienkurse 2025 and hope to see you in two years time!

Talking Darmstadt 2025 - Episode 10 (01.08.2025)

News, reviews & reflection on Darmstadt Summer Course 2023

~ made by students in the "Words on Music" course

Talking Darmstadt

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