This event is part of Dark Music Days 2023

Don Quixote, Molly Bloom and the monster Ubu travel to the Moon in a performance with Ísak Ríkharðsson, Hyazintha Andrej and Stefan Kägi. An Icelandic premiere of two piano trios, Daníel Bjarnason’s White Flags and Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Présence. White Flags is written about American flags that were left on the moon 50 years ago during the Apollo missions but have faded due to ultraviolet radiation and have now turned white. The piece mixes together the American national anthem and white noise. Présence is a surrealist ballet with a narrator and three dancers, Don Quixote, Molly Bloom from Ulysses by James Joyce and King Ubu the monster and title character from Alfred Jarry’s play. The dancers however are only instrumentalists and the narrator a pantomime.

Performers
Ísak Ríkharðsson - violin, Hyazintha Andrej - cello, Stefan Kägi - piano

Programme:
Daníel Bjarnason (IS) : White flags (2018) ‘10 min.
fiðla, selló, piano, premiére in Iceland

Bernd Alois Zimmermann (DE) : Présence (1961) ‘35 min.
violin, cello, piano, premiére in Iceland

Ísak Ríkharðsson is born in 1993. He works as a freelance musician in Switzerland after receiving BA and MA degrees at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) in the class of Prof. Rudolf Koelman. Ísak has played as a substitute with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Collegium Novum Zürich, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Basel Sinfonietta and Sinfonieorchester Liechtenstein as well as being an avid chamber music performer. He is also a member of the Ever Present Orchestra, which specializes in the performance of the works of Alvin Lucier. Last May, Ísak toured Sweden with the modern ensemble Norbotten Neo and this October he travelled to Tbilisi, Georgia as a soloist in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Tbilisi Youth Orchestra under the baton of Mirian Khukhunaishvili.

Hyazintha Andrej is born in Graz, Austria in 1995. She has studied at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) in the class of Thomas Grossenbacher since 2014. Hyazintha has been awarded for the performance of 20th century music in Internationalen Musikwettbewerb für die Jugend in Oldenburg, Germany. In the fall of 2016 she performed as a soloist in Zürich and Berlin with the Arc-en-ciel Ensemble in the piece Violation by Dieter Ammann. In 2017 she won an internship position at the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich. She has performed in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Ireland and Italy.

Stefan Kägi - chair performer, lamellophone virtuoso and passionate computer musician - studied piano at the Zurich University of the Arts with Karl-Andreas Kolly, improvisation with Lucas Niggli, new music with See Siang Wong, jazz piano with Tim Kleinert and organ with Ursina Caflisch. In his artistic practice, the exploration of banana costumes and algorithms are in lively interaction. He often plays improvised music and appears as a song accompanist.
The Heidenheimer Zeitung described his playing as "extremely expressive and almost percussive, but as a not always painless experience for the human ear". He has performed at the Tonhalle Zurich, the LAC in Lugano, the Munich Gasteig, the Kaserne Basel, the Hyperlokal Zurich and on the Limmat, among others, and also at festivals such as the Festspiele Zurich, "Platz für andere Musik", the Zeitfestivals in Zurich and Augsburg, the Domleschger Sommerkonzerte, the far Festival in Nyon, the #workoutjazz madness and the #workoutjazz marathon or the Emser Bachwoche. With Breitkopf & Härtel he appeared as co-editor of a new edition of a work by Joachim Raff. Current projects include the Dada/Commedia dell'Arte troupe Piffalamozza, the Japanese-HC techno band Candytoe, an organ/electronic duo, the duo OHRABLÜATLER, the collective PHON3M and the duo tbc.