衛武營國家藝術文化中心 National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying)

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) was established in 1987 by the conductor Simon RATTLE. They have accumulated more than 175 commissioned compositions so far, providing the best composers today a platform for presenting their works, and have become one of the most influential art groups promoting new music.

This time, BCMG has ingeniously arranged new sounds from five different countries for Taiwanese music fans. Hayagriva from Indian composer Param VIR uses Buddhist deities as the subject to write a mysterious and beautiful ecstasy movement. Slovenian composer Vito ŽURAJ's work Tension depicts the constant pressure time puts on daily life. Insect Concerto, from German composer Gregor MAYRHOFER, who will also be conducting the concert, captures the pulse of nature. The funny Mad Dog by the Austrian composer Bernd Richard DEUTSCH and a new commission Ornithomancy for Weiwuying International Music Festival by Brazilian-American composer Paulo BRITO, first prize winner at the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award, round out the set.

  Pre-talk  

2022/4/10(Sun)13:50-14:10 Concert Hall 3rd Floor

  Program  

Param VIR: Hayagriva (Taiwan Premiere)

Vito ŽURAJ: Tension (Taiwan Premiere)

Gregor MAYRHOFER: Insect Concerto (Taiwan Premiere)

Paulo BRITO: Ornithomancy (World Premiere, commissioned by Weiwuying)

Bernd Richard DEUTSCH: Mad Dog (Taiwan Premiere)

  Creative and Production Team  

Conductor｜Gregor MAYRHOFER

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

  Artists Introduction  

Conductor｜Gregor MAYRHOFER

Conductor, composer and pianist Gregor A. MAYTHOFER became Sir Simon RATTLE'S assistant at the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 2017. Graduate of the Juilliard School, Gregor A. MAYRHOFER studied conducting with Alan GILBERT.

MAYRHOFER has conducted the orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, Belgrade Philharmonic and Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked with ensembles such as Ascolta, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern Academy, Ensemble Nostri Temporis Kiev, Ensemble Proton Bern, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble and the Scharoun Ensemble of the Berliner Philharmoniker, as well as with soloists such as Patricia KOPATCHINSKAJA, Georg NIGL, Daniil TRIFONOV and Julian PRÉGARDIEN. 

He assisted Sir Simon Rattle at the Festival Aix-en-Provence for a production of Tristan with the London Symphony Orchestra and assisted Kirill PETRENKO, Teodor CURRENTZIS, Michael BODER at the Vienna State Opera and Matthias Pintscher at the Berlin State OperaUnter den Linden" . In the years 2015-2017 he was assistant conductor of the Ensemble Intercontemporain with whom he made his debut at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2016, standing in at short notice for Pablo HERAS-CASADO. In 2017, Mayrhofer conducted premiere performances of his commission for the Ensemble Intercontemporain in the Kölner Philharmonie.

As a composer Mayrhofer has received commissions from the Bavarian State Opera, Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Radio), Biennale Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, State Opera Hanover, the Scharoun Ensemble of the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Tyrolean Festival Erl. The last couple of years have seen premiers of his children's opera Die Drei Spinnerinnen (The Three Spinners, 2018), his Insect Concerto (2018) with the Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Lageder Oktett (2017) with the Scharoun Ensemble.

He regularly performs as a pianist in jazz concerts with his brother Raphael as part of their duo Imbrothersation, first-prize-winner of Süddeutsche Zeitung's Tassilo Kultur Preis in 2009/2010.

Gregor A. Mayrhofer was born in Munich in 1987. He studied composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München (with Jan MÜLLER-WIELAND), the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique Paris (with Frédéric DURIEUX) and at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Duesseldorf (composition with Manfred TROJAHN and conducting with Rüdiger BOHN). In addition to Alan GILBERT, who oversaw his studies for a Master's degree in conducting at New York's Juilliard School, MAYRHOFER has also studied with James ROSS and received lessons from Bernard Haitink, Fabio Luisi and Johannes Schläfli. Furthermore, he assisted Peter EÖTVÖS, Iván FISCHER, Daniel HARDING, Susanna MÄLKKI, François-Xavier ROTH, Marc MINKOWSKI, Andris NELSONS, Sir George BENJAMIN, Gustavo DUDAMEL, Paavo JÄRVI, Andrés OROZCO-ESTRADA, Matthias Pintscher as well as Sir Simon RATTLE.

Among many prizes and scholarships, Gregor A. MAYRHOFER has been awarded with the Bavarian Art Sponsorship, the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship and the Charles Schiff Conducting Award.

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group is one of the world's foremost new music ensembles. Over three decades, BCMG has developed the music of today for the audiences of tomorrow. The ensemble has commissioned over 175 pieces of music from the world's finest composers and emerging international talent. Many of the works have been commissioned through its innovative pioneering Sound Investment crowd-funding scheme to which over 500 donors have contributed more than £300,000; many of these works have subsequently found their way into worldwide repertoire.

BCMG was founded by Simon CLUGSTON and Ulrich HEINEN, musicians from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, in 1987, with Sir Simon RATTLE as Founding Patron. Since then, BCMG has reached over 10 million people in concert and through broadcasts. The Group performs regularly at CBSO Centre, Symphony Hall and Town Hall Birmingham, Wigmore Hall in London and at the BBC Proms and Aldeburgh Festival. To this day, BCMG maintains a close link to the CBSO and regularly works with CBSO's Music Director, Mirga Gražinytė-TYLA.

International tours have included visits to the USA (Library of Congress), Mexico, India and venues across France, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. The Group is regularly heard in concert on BBC Radio 3, and has recorded extensively. Recordings include discs of works by Thomas ADÉS, Mark-Anthony TURNAGE and Benjamin BRITTEN, and a Grammy Award-nominated recording of Gerald BARRY's opera, The Importance of Being Earnest, for NMC Recordings. Recent releases include Wilde Lieder Marx.Music on Coviello and Howard SKEMPTON's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a series of recordings devoted to British composers including BCMG's late Artist-in-Association Oliver KNUSSEN, Julian ANDERSON and Charlotte BRAY (all on NMC) and a disc of the works of Elliott CARTER on Ondine.

BCMG's work both inside and outside the concert hall has earned it many awards and accolades. Over the last decade it has been shortlisted for: ITV's South Bank Show's Classical Music Award; the Royal Philharmonic Society's Ensemble Award and BBC Music Magazine's Chamber Award. Its long-established Learning and Participation programmes actively engage young people in composing and performing, and have earned BCMG nationwide recognition (in 2016, the Group was highly commended in the Family Arts Festival Awards).

In partnership with Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, BCMG has created the NEXT Music Study Programme in Contemporary Performance, an innovative programme of study which supports early career musicians who want to dedicate their professional career to contemporary music. It is the only programme in the UK providing intensive, year-long training in contemporary music performance practice, offering musicians an unprecedented opportunity to learn from some of the most exciting performers and composers working today.