Mikhail Shmidt discusses Icebreaker V: Love and War

Starting Friday, the Seattle Chamber Players embark on their fifth Icebreaker festival – “Love and War.” While other Icebreakers have focused on American, Russian, and Baltic contemporary music, the latest festival centers on Western Europe. Mikhail Shmidt, one of SCP’s founding members spoke with me about the festival. You can watch and hear Shmidt’s thoughts below.

Mikhail Shmidt discusses SCP’s Icebreaker V from gatheringnote on Vimeo.

The series begins on Friday with a recital entitled “Amsterdam to Seattle: Post Modernism Strikes Back.” As is customary with SCP, they will be joined by other musicians.  This time the musician is pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama. Together they will perform a series of works by Yannis Kyriakides and Michiel Mensingh.

The second day features six composer seminars, a performance by the Xenia Ensemble, an Italian new music group. The Xenia Ensemble will explore contemporary music from their home country. At 8 pm, violinist Mikhail Shmidt and soprano/composer Agata Zubel will tackle Gyorgy Kurtag’s monumental song cycle “Kafka Fragments.” In addition to talking about Icebreaker V generally, Shmidt also talked about learning and playing “Kafka Fragments.” I will be posting his thoughts on the piece later this week. I am also planning on live blogging during the “Kafka Fragments.” Given the nature of the piece – songs are short and each has a distinct character – the piece is perfect for snap judgments and my imperfect meanderings.

On Sunday, SCP returns to familiar territory with a recital of Russian and Ukranian music. This is the only deviation  from the Western Europe theme of the festival. The group will be helped by Russian pianist Ivan Sokolov and together they will present world premieres of works by Virko Baley, Igor Kefalidis, and Alexander Wustin, and a Seattle premiere by Yevgeniy Sharlat. The festival ends with performance by the Figura ensemble.

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All performances will occur at On The Boards.