Lukas Ligeti
WORKING WITH ELECTRONICS IN EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC AND SOUND ART IN AFRICA
2025-01-21 4pm CUCFF (online), Figueira da Foz
Sinopse
In my talk, I will describe my experiences working with digital electronics in collaboration with "traditional" (and untraditional) musicians in Africa. My experiences working in Côte d'Ivoire, and later in other African countries such as Burkina Faso, Ghana, Egypt, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Moçambique, Lesotho, and South Africa have led me to an approach I refer to as Experimental Intercultural Collaboration. Digital technology has often played a major role in these projects, and I have used it not only as a tool for composition and performance but also as a means to develop and analyze new musical concepts. In my talk, I will explain why I believe that much traditional African music is actually digital music, and how technology lends itself particularly to musical work in Africa. I will also speak about the role of digital technology in collaborative composition and improvisation, new approaches I am currently developing influenced by concepts from African music traditions, and how African music has helped me consider experimental music and sound art in a different light.
Bio
Lukas Ligeti combines a wide variety of musical traditions in his compositions, including the European avant-garde; African approaches; jazz; and the spirit of New York's experimental music scene. He explores musical processes, complex polymetric structures, and possibilities for intercultural collaboration - many of his works are rooted in his intensive engagement with the music of Africa. In demand as a percussionist in the field of creative improvisation, Lukas Ligeti has long worked with live electronics and is also the initiator of numerous intercultural music projects, including his ensemble Burkina Electric.
He has been commissioned by the Vienna Festwochen, Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Bang On A Can, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, American Composers Orchestra, MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, Ensemble Modern, Ars Musica (Brussels), the State Opera of Prague, Budapest Music Center, Moers Festival, Eighth Blackbird, the Aris and Kronos Quartets, Håkan Hardenberger, Colin Currie, Nicolas Namoradze, etc. As an improvising percussionist, he has worked with John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, Gary Lucas, Henry Kaiser, John Tchicai, Raoul Björkenheim, Marilyn Crispell, Miya Masaoka, Pyrolator, Wadada Leo Smith and Jon Rose, among others; he gives solo concerts on electronic percussion worldwide. Lukas Ligeti was artist-in-residence at the Emily Harvey Foundation in Venice, Sonoscopia in Porto, the POLIN Museum for the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, the Acéfalo Festival in Valparaíso, and others. Commissioned by the Goethe Institute and other organizations, he has worked with musicians in Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Egypt, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, South Africa, and more.
Lukas Ligeti studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where Erich Urbanner and Kurt Schwertsik were among his teachers, and earned a doctorate at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (South Africa). He also received composition lessons from George Crumb, Jonathan Harvey and John Zorn, among others. In 1998 he moved to the USA; after many years in New York, he taught in the PhD program "Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology" at the University of California, Irvine, until 2021. After a period as honorary professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, he is, sin ce 2024, Professor of Composition at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He has been awarded various prizes and scholarships, including the CalArts Alpert Award in Music (2010) and the Förderpreis der Stadt Wien (1990). For more information, see https://www.lukasligeti.com
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