Category: blog article
Joséphine Markovits, in memoriam
This is how I remember her: laughing freely and delighting in the vibrant deep-orange landscape the colour of her hair. In 2008 I travelled together with Joséphine Markovits and a few friends of mine to Kooljaman, an Aboriginal-owned and -run wilderness camp at Cape Leveque, on the extraordinarily beautiful Dampier Peninsula in Bardi Jawi Country, ...
A Sutured World, ‘cello concerto
I’ve spent the last months painstakingly and sometimes painfully writing a ‘cello concerto. The ‘cello is an instrument I think I know pretty well, having written several solo pieces for it as well as featuring it in numerous larger works. But so many times in composing this piece I had the sensation of scrabbling around, ...
Multispecies Knots of Ethical Time—who are we and who else is here?
This is Part 2 of the ARTikulationen keynote talk given at Künstuniversität Graz entitled ‘Who are we and who else is here (Multispecies Knots of Ethical Time)‘ (see previous post for Part 1). This continues my speculations on the sentiency, the vitality of the more-than-human in a partnership with musical energies. Multispecies Knots of Ethical ...
The Tailor of Time (2023): time paradoxes and the sentiency of notation
I recently gave a keynote address for the ARTikulationen conference ‘Researching Across’ at Kunstuniversität in Graz and discussed two recent works: The Tailor of Time (2023) and Multispecies Knots of Ethical Time (2023). My talk focussed on some ideas or ‘thought experiments’ around multiplicity; on some perspectives, perceptions and experiences which resist notions of the ...
A Wiko Year in Berlin
(long newsletter post…) My year as composer-in-residence at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute of Advanced Studies) or ‘Wiko’, has recently come to a close (1 Sept 2021-30 June 2022). This is a residency like no other in which the ‘obligations’ comprise attending 4 lunches and a dinner during the week and giving a talk to ...
Annunciation Triptych (2019-2022)
Three scores sit on my desk in Berlin. They make up my large orchestral cycle, Annunciation Triptych (2019-2022) comprising: I. Sappho/ Bioluminescence (2019-2020)II. Mary/ Transcendence after Trauma (2020-21)III. Fatimah/ Flowers of Jubilation (2021-22) The various parts of this 50-minute cycle were commissioned by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the WestDeutscherRundfunk Sinfonie-Orchester, and the Symphonieorchester des ...
World as Lover, World as Self
I’m very excited to post that I’ve just finished composing a work: World as Lover, World as Self, for solo piano and orchestra, commissioned by the Donaueschinger Musiktage for a premiere at the 100th Anniversary (!) edition of the festival on 15th October this year. The work is written for the fabulous pianist Tamara Stefanovich with ...
Videos in pandemic-times
One emergent positive amongst the many negative impacts on the arts in these pandemic times has been the opening up of access to concerts and festival events from all over the world (as long as one has a good internet connection). In the past weeks, I’ve been able to catch fresh premieres from the 2021 ...
on ‘Sex Magic’ (2020) for contrabass flute, electronics & kinetic percussion
[image of pre-Columbian Nariño ocarina, Met Museum New York, public domain] Sex Magic is a 45-minute piece for contrabass flute (with alto ocarina, Aztec ‘death whistle’, bell, pedal bass drum), live electronics and installation of kinetic percussion written for & dedicated to Claire Chase. The work was commissioned by Claire Chase to be Part Vii ...
more thoughts about the Annunciation
I’ve just completed writing the second orchestral piece of my Annunciation Triptych called ‘Mary/ Transcendence after Trauma’ for which I recently posted some sketches. I wrote about the first part, Sappho/ Bioluminescence earlier this year and now there’s one remaining part to compose, ‘Fatimah/ Flowers of Jubilation’. Mary/ Transcendence after Trauma was commissioned by the Musica Viva concert series ...
Current projects – Sappho & Squid
Excerpt from Sappho #94 from Anne Carson’s ‘If Not, Winter. Fragments of Sappho’, New York, Vintage Books, 2002. I’m currently working on several projects that celebrate ideas of spirituality bound together with feminine energy and erotics. There’s a 3-part work for orchestra called Annunciation Triptych and the somewhat provocatively titled Sex Magic, a big work for Claire Chase ...
Liza Lim 