MISSY MAZZOLI
These Worlds in Us (2006)
ALEX PAXTON
Od Ody Pink’d (2019)
JULIUS EASTMAN
Stay on It (1973)
MISSY MAZZOLI
Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) (2013)
JESSIE COX
Schattenspiel (Shadow Play) (2023)
DERRICK SKYE
Prisms, Cycles, Leaps (2015)
ALEX PAXTON, TROMBONIST
KEVIN JOHN EDUSEI, CONDUCTOR
BASEL SINFONIETTA
He is among one of the most dynamic conductors of his generation. Like few others, Kevin John Edusei shifts effortlessly between eras and styles: from early music to the most modern. The son of a Ghanaian physicist and a German pastor, shaped not least by Pierre Boulez, knows no inhibitions. With this profile, he also made waves as chief conductor in Bern.
Alex Paxton is likewise a dazzling frontiersman in the best sense of the word: the English-born composer, jazz improviser and trombonist has already won several awards. Together with the Basel Sinfonietta, they will be presenting an extraordinarily varied program. There is Julius Eastman: as a homosexual black man, he was faced with massive marginalization in the USA throughout his entire life. Although admired by John Cage and Morton Feldman, he died forgotten and impoverished in 1990. Yet he was one of the leading exponents of free «Minimal Music« with improvisational elements, as in «Stay on It» from 1973. Derrick Skye also treads minimalist ground, reflecting on traditions from the Balkans, Ghana and northern India in «Prisms, Circles, Leaps» from 2015. Jessie Cox, who grew up in Biel, Switzerland, with roots in the Caribbean, also views himself as a bridge builder.
In «Schattenspiel» (Shadow Play) from 2023, he fills soundscapes with multifaceted rituals. These simultaneously hold in reverence the Creole heritage of the Maloyas at the time of slavery, in rebellion against all forms of racism. In contrast, Missy Mazzoli explores the boundaries between minimalism, cluster-like sound textures and cantabile lyricism in «Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)» from 2013.