J.M. Fentener van Vlissingenzaal at K&W Building, 27 Mariaplaats, 3511LL Utrecht
Shorter sound clips available soon. Video clips also forthcoming.
First performance (includes tuning): MP3 (11 min, 12.42 MB)
Second performance (no tuning): MP3 (10 min, 11.3 MB)
words and music by Anne Ku
The cello begins with a 12-tone lamento passage followed in imitation by the violin and alto recorder. It sets the scene for what seems to be a tragedy, a complete contrast to the title "Jetsetter" which evokes excitement and life. This lament is interrupted by a telephone call.
What do I see before me?
A sea of nothingness, empty and bleak.
No sound. No emotion. No life.
Still as a corpse.
Silence, yet I feel no peace.
No end to this death.
Hello, hello.
It's me. I know. I'm fine. Just fine. And you?
Why not? I see. Poor thing. Oh my!
So sorry. Don't you worry.
Uh huh. I see. Oh yes. All right.
You, too. Okay. I will. Good-bye.
My friend with her husband company car vacation home.
My friend and her children cats and dogs and toys and noise and a mother-in-law.
And I, just me.
I have seen the world from east to west.
Never a moment of rest.
Those were my younger days,
my heart was led astray.
Dining with strangers, dancing till dawn
Played games with chance, flirted with romance.
London to Houston, nonstop business class
Amsterdam, Tokyo, Mexico, Shanghai.
Hello, hello. It's me. I'm fine.
I see. I'm free. How long? How soon?
Tomorrow I can go!
Tomorrow I can go!
Tomorrow I can go!
Pearlmira Kwesi-John was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone. She is a third-year classical voice student of Eugenie Ditewig at Utrecht Conservatory.
Born in México City, Iñigo Aguilar studied the recorder at the Escuela Nacional de Musica de la Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México. He is in his second year of recorder studies under Heiko ter Schegget at Utrecht Conservatory.
While studying the modern violin at the Pilsen Conservatory in the Czech Republic, Veronika Manova followed courses in Baroque music with Jose Vazquez, Christian Drechsel, Bert Honig, and Anton Steck and took private composition lessons, specialising in contemporary music at the same time. In 2003 she founded the Baroque ensemble Foscarina which has performed throughout the Czech Republic. Since 2005, she has been studying the Baroque violin under Antoinette Lohmann at Utrecht Conservatory.
Born in Krakow, Poland, Gosia Oczko started playing the cello at seven years of age. After graduating from Krakow Conservatory she continued with Kerstin Feltz in Graz, Austria and switched to the Baroque cello in the last half year with Viola de Hoog at the Utrecht Conservatory.
A native of Nagasaki, Japan, Emi Matsumoto learned the piano from her mother when she was four. Tired of the piano fourteen years later, she took up the organ. She is currently studying the harpsichord at Utrecht Conservatory, after having obtained her second phase diploma in organ here. She is an organist at Geertekerk in Utrecht and organist/harpsichordist of Ensemble Soluna which is active in the Netherlands.
Anne Ku travelled widely as a magazine editor, covering some three dozen conferences in two years in US and Europe. Prior to this editorial stint, she had worked in London, New York, Washington DC, Houston, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Jakarta. For several years her life consisted of booking hotels with grand pianos and swimming pools, packing and unpacking, and living out of a suitcase. Now as a second-year composition student at Utrecht Conservatory, she finally has an opportunity to capture some of that previous life in music.
"The Jetsetter" programme notes distributed at the concert
Contact Anne using this form.
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