Séverine Ballon

Tickets £14 // Concession £11 // Under 30 £5
Advance booking required

Séverine Ballon cello
Centre Henri Pousseur electronics

Annelies Van Parys (Belgium, 1975)
Shades of Light (2022) 15’ UK Premiere

Séverine Ballon (France, 1980)
temps étendus (2022) 18’ UK Premiere

Sam Hayden (UK, 1968)
instabilités (2016-2019) 15’ UK Premiere

Deeply engaged in the development of her repertoire, cellist and composer Séverine Ballon works within the intimacy of the fabric of sound. Her practice draws on key works from the repertory, premiering solo works by the likes of Rebecca Saunders, Chaya Czernowin and Mauro Lanza as much as on her numerous collaborations with composers. In recent years, she has composed the original score for two feature-length films by director João Pedro Rodrigues, held positions as a fellow and Visiting Artist at Harvard University and CCRMA/Stanford University respectively, composed works following her laureateship of the ‘concours Luc Ferrari’ and been selected for a scholarship at AuditivVokal Dresden. Her solo CD, Solitude, was released on Aeon/Outhere in 2015 and her debut CD as a composer, Inconnaissance, was released by label All That Dust.

This year at hcmf//, Ballon performs three works. Annelies Van Parys’ Shade of Light was written for Ballon to perform, the spatiality of her cello notes extended and transformed by filtered, shifted electronics. Ballon’s own composition in this programme, temps étendus, consider what deliberate meanings might exist within innocuous sounds: trees rustling in the summer forest, the brushing of wind against leaf, and the songs and silence of birds. Rounding off the programme is Sam Hayden’s instabilités, a solo cello and computer work characterised by its moments of stillness and harmonics.

Co-produced by hcmf//, Centre Henri Pousseur & TRANSIT Festival; supported by the Hinrichsen Foundation

instabilités is co-commissioned by hcmf// & Centre Henri Pousseur, Liège

Photo: Séverine Ballon © Pauline Ruhl-Saur