by Tera de Marez Oyens as published in the IAWM Journal, February 1996, pp. 24.
After teaching for many years at the Vienna Summer Seminar for new Music, I was once more amazed at the talent and musicality of the 1995 summer students. Capable of verbally fluent explanations of their works, they presented a list of newly composed works that deserve to be on the repertoire of any self-respecting program-board for new music.
One of the most impressive composers was Charlotte Seither, born in 1965 in Landau, and now living in Berlin, Germany. Her "Kammersinfonie 'Objet diaphane'" was performed last year by the Berliner Philharmoniker after she received a commission from this prestigious ensemble. In 1995 this work won first prize at the Prague Spring. After she explained her attempts and ideas, we listened enthralled to the music, which gives the listener unbelievably balanced sounds in a differentiated structure. I quote from an article about her in the newspaper "Neues Deutschland" by Gunter Gortz: "The way in which she makes music out of reality and her personal realm of thought shows a sympathetic self-confidence, which results from a knowledge of her own talent and her success.... But she doesn't look for examples, self-confidently she tries to realize her own ideas. She is especially interested in the inner life of sounds, not so much in the reflection of reality." She tries to discover new sound-possibilities in handling word and tone. One cannot put a label on her compositions; she is not hooked on any style or technique, but she wants to play freely with the possibilities. She has won numerous prizes, and is presently working on a chamber-opera about a woman, who tries to exist as an artist in the male-dominated world.
Another fascinating composer who presented her work at the Summer Seminar was Anna Ikramova from Russia. She lives now in Germany and is especially interested in electronic music, which she combines with other disciplines. She showed us some examples of her work with film and texts about Russian folklore. Until now there have been no composition students from the USA at this Summer Seminar; perhaps next year, when it takes place in Vienna from August 19 till August 31. Information can be obtained at my address: Tera de Marez Oyens, celebeslaan 13, 1217 GT Hilversum, The Netherlands.