Frédéric Acquaviva
Composer
Denis Dufour, Frédéric Acquaviva and Loré Lixenberg in Conversation (Saturday, 7.30pm, Rymer)
ANTIPODES (Saturday, 8.30pm, Rymer)
Frédéric Acquaviva (born on January 20 January 1967) is a self-taught composer of experimental music and sound artist since 1990, living between Paris, London and Berlin. In 2020, he becomes the third French composer (after Pierre Henry and Luc Ferrari) to win the prestigious Karl Sczuka Prize (Donaueschingen / SWR) with his opera ANTIPODES, (a prize also obtained by John Cage and Mauricio Kagel). The composer Denis Dufour, in his book of interviews 'La Composition de l'écoute' (Musica Falsa, 2021), defines him as "A composer who is identifiable by his radicality', Frédéric Acquaviva composes strong, absolute works. With him, the concept is as important as the sound rendering. Without concessions nor compromises, he always goes to the end of the idea, whether he likes it or not, and some of his creations are even like experiences to be lived. His sounds, microphonic or synthetic, very anchored in the present, are almost not transformed. He says he does everything to avoid repeating himself from one work to another, and it is this radicalism on all levels that makes him so recognizable".
Prolific on the underground and experimental scene, he has collaborated with personalities of the avant-garde, notably Isidore Isou, Pierre Guyotat, ORLAN as well as numerous musicians including Joan La Barbara, Frances-Marie Uitti, Vinko Globokar, Marc-André Hamelin, Joëlle Léandre and most of all with the British mezzo-soprano Loré Lixenberg. His music has been heard in concert halls and galleries such as the Palais de Tokyo, Centre Pompidou, Stravinsky Hall at the Festival Donaueschinger Musiktage, the Moderna Museet Stockholm, the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern in London, Huddersfield Festival, La Fenice , Fylkingen, Pauline Oliveros Deep Listening Institute, Phill Niblock Experimental Intermedia, Lara Vincy Gallery, Satellite Gallery, White Box Gallery in New York, Spor Festival, Festival Futura, ZKM, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berghain or for France Culture, BBC-Radio3, WGXC Radio New York, SWR2, Deutschlandfuk Kultur...
In 1998, he received a musical commission from the French Ministry of French Ministry of Culture and has been awarded composition residencies at the Emily Harvey Foundation in Venice and EMS in Stockholm. In Berlin in 2014, he founded with Loré Lixenberg an artist space for experimental music, visual and performance art, La Plaque Tournante and the magazine CRU. In 2021, Yoann Sarrat published 'Phonosophie et corporalité compositionnelle : l'art sonore of Frédéric Acquaviva', the first 350-page essay on 30 years of musical research of Frédéric Acquaviva (Al Dante / Les Presses du Réel). On January 13, 2022, Klangkunst broadcasted 'Seminal' (commissioned by DeutschlandFunk Kultur), for voice, dead electronics and large orchestra of 124 musicians including Loré Lixenberg on vocals, Denis Dufour on Thai mouth organ and Trevor Wishart on bicycle horn.