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Biografie
Ich bin ein Multimedia-Komponist und -Performer. Momentan arbeite ich mit Klang, Video und physikalisch-virtuellen performativen Räumen. Mein Arbeitsumfeld ist, was die Generation Y als ihren natürlichen Lebensraum bezeichnen würde: eine hybride Welt, in der Technologie analoge Konzepte wie „Körper“, „Zeit“ oder „Bühne“ verschwimmen lässt.
Meine Arbeiten wurden in Auftrag gegeben und aufgeführt u.a. von den Neuen Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, PHACE, ensemble mosaik und CrossingLines. Sie wurden auf zahlreichen internationalen Festivals und Bühnen präsentiert, darunter bei den Wittener Tagen für neue Kammermusik, dem Next-Generation-Programm der Donaueschinger Musiktage und das Museo Reina Sofía Madrid. Zudem habe ich verschiedene internationale Auszeichnungen wie den Giga-Hertz Spezialpreis 2018 (ZKM, Experimentalstudio), den Busoni Förderpreis 2017 (Akademie der Künste Berlin) und den Premio Jóvenes Compositores SGAE-CNDM 2015 (Spanisches Kulturministerium) erhalten.
Seit 2018 arbeite ich bei der Entwicklung meiner musiktheatralischen Arbeiten zusammen mit der Musikdramaturgin Belenish Moreno-Gil.
Biography
I am a multimedia composer and performer currently working with sound, video and physical/virtual performative spaces. My work environment is what Y Generation considers as native: a hybrid world where technology has blurred the analogical concepts of “body”, “time” or “stage”.
My works have been commissioned and played by, among others, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart (DE), PHACE (AT), ensemble mosaik (DE) or CrossingLines (ES). Numerous international festivals and stages have presented my pieces, some examples are Wittener Musiktage für neue Kammermusik, Donaueschinger Musiktage “Next Generation“ or Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid). Besides, my work has been recognized with several international prizes such as the Giga-Hertz Spezialpreis 2018 (ZKM, EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO), Busoni Förderpreis 2017 (Akademie der Künste, Berlin) or Premio Jóvenes Compositores SGAE-CNDM 2015 (Spanish Ministry of Culture).
Since 2018 I also work in team with the musical dramaturgist Belenish Moreno-Gil in the creation of music theater works.
Residency in Positano
Contrast. If I mentally go back to Positano and write down the very first concept immediately coming to my mind, the word “contrast” rapidly arises. It does not only happen at the first try, but at the second, third and fourth one because my everyday life at Casa Orfeo was quite marked by multiplicity in several sides.
Casa Orfeo, its architecture, its situation at the top of the staggered gardens, terraces and corners shaping the property of the Wilhelm-Kempff-Kulturstiftung, gives a deep impression to any visitor.
I arrived on a very rainy 1st of June. The traffic was a mess throughout the thin road connecting the localities of the Amalfi Coast. After passing the main entrance of the Foundation: silence, only interrupted by the raindrops and each of my steps carrying my luggage. The cars were then just an echo. At first glance, I was rapid and primitively shocked by the rugged cliffs sheltering the house and the sonorous consequences I imagined they might create. Indeed, when I heard the first ambulance siren and I looked down to try to find it, I realized it was actually very far away, zigzagging the road and provoking a fascinating game of amplifications.
After passing Casa Orfeo’s entrance (and turning left, entering the music room): even more silence, this time widened by the altitude of the ceilings and the immediate awareness of the huge amount of notes played in that space since the late 50s. “This is all for you”, said Natalie while showing me the rest of the house. The rain was then just an echo.
Of course, the main contrast lied in the fact that time was simply passing differently in the house. It was actually opposite to my previous (and next) months, which were marked by a removal and very short living periods in several cities. For that reason, I feel I built a regular and necessarily comfortable familiarity with the natural and human environment. I discovered many hiking paths, from the way towards the cemetery (which appears very clearly in the frontal picture of the Progetto Positano website) until the Arienzo Beach, in which I used to be completely alone when I went either very early in the morning or late in the evening. Almost every second day, I visited Cinque Giuseppina, where I consumed approximately half of their stock of parmiggiano and La Zagara, whose torta caprese preluded in a big way my work in the afternoons.
The rhythm in the narrow village of Positano was frenetic, above all in summer, when the messy effects of “Insta-tourism” are notorious. That was the reason for another extreme contrast I daily experienced: the IN-OUT, the huge difference between Casa Orfeo and Positano. However, it couldn’t be so laconic, so simplistic. I always will remember the time, one Sunday after a long working day, when I went down to the crowded village and entered, almost accidentally, the Church of Santa Maria Assunta. Almost with no listeners, a high-skilled organist was playing non-stop Bach’s preludes and fugues. I stayed there for around 2 hours until the concert was over and came home realising how much little Positano was also a place for wonders. The uniqueness of the experience was not only about finding solitude and concentration, but also about transforming (as always) what you let enter.
My working activity in Casa Orfeo was deep and one of the most delightful times I have ever had. Here we come back to the matter of time. Reading, thinking and writing were a natural cadence inside the landscape and I consider the fruits of my work during my residency as the consequences of a very special state of mind I was able to achieve there. At that point, I was very grateful to Wilhelm Kempff for having designed such simple but immeasurably powerful scenery.
Óscar Escudero, 2019
Foto © Cristian Damiano
PROGETTO POSITANO 