Cassandra Miller will be in the spotlight at the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik in early May 2025. The focus includes a world premiere and draws together many of Miller’s key collaborators from recent years.
A new 20-minute work for string trio – made up of llya Gringolts, Lawrence Power, and Nicolas Altstaedt – and experimental vocal ensemble EXAUDI is the centrepiece of Miller’s residency (3 May). Power premiered Miller’s celebrated viola concerto I cannot love without trembling (2023) with Ilan Volkov and Brussels Philharmonic, a work inspired by the writing of Simone Weil and lamenting Greek-Cypriot folk violin of Alexis Zoumbas; it has since appeared at the BBC Proms and Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele. EXAUDI premiered Miller’s Guide in 2013 - a 13-minute piece about “the feeling of freedom one gets from singing” based on a 1968 folk recording of hymn by Maria Muldaur.
On 4 May Elena Schwarz conducts the German premiere of Bismillah Meets the Creator in Springtime with the WDR Sinfonieorchester, featuring Miller and Silvia Tarozzi as soloists. Co-composed with Tarozzi for the Tectonics festival, the 22-minute work exemplifies the breadth of Miller’s imagination, with its influences including Bismillah Khan performing the raag Malkauns and Pharaoh Sanders’ The Creator has a Master Plan (2003). Miller and Tarozzi sing and improvise on toy trumpets, enfolded in an instrumental deluge that they liken to a swollen springtime river. Keyboard music from yet another great extemporiser – J.S. Bach – patiently unfolds behind these currents.
The same day, Quatuor Bozzini and Juliet Fraser perform Thanksong. The 15-minute work references the ‘Heiliger Dankgesang’ of Beethoven’s op.132 quartet, summoning its prayerful mood and drawing its gentle, pendulum-like gestures from the movement’s opening. The members of the quartet and soprano each perform independently, with the soprano intoning ‘thank you’ throughout. Fraser has worked with Miller on their ongoing modular collaborator Tracery – performed at 2024’s rainy days and 2023’s MaerzMusik – an experiment in embodied practices of deep listening for voice and electronics.
Bozzini, who previously premiered and recorded Miller’s About Bach, Warblework, and Leaving, present a new string quartet at this summer’s Darmstädter Ferienkurse, where Miller will be in residence; further performances are planned for TIME:SPANS and Le Vivier.