Carte Blanche Tamriko Kordzaia

Zurich-based pianist Tamriko Kordzaia had already made a name for herself in her native country Georgia as an interpreter of Haydn and Mozart. After moving to Switzerland at the end of the 1990s, she continued this occupation, but increasingly turned her attention to new and experimental music. As a result, she can now be found on a wide variety of stages and festivals throughout Europe: at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, at Wien Modern, the Jazz Festival Willisau, at Ambient Cologne and Musik Protokoll Graz, at Sonic Matter, at Le Singe in Biel or at Café OTO in London... and it is precisely in this spirit that she also designs her Carte Blanche.

The idea behind the program of her Carte Blanche is to open up spaces by crossing the most diverse music scenes and juxtaposing experimental, new, freely improvised, old, folk and electronic music or genres oriented in completely different directions - creating collisions, abrupt, unsubtle transitions, in order to ultimately hear how close all this exists next to each other and how much common ground there is despite all the differences.

The first part of the evening will focus on the Dutch music scene. The musical aesthetics there are different from those in German-speaking countries. Holland's musical gesture is more inspired by America, is playful, open to cleverness. The Dutch music scene is also home to many young musicians who find a good ground there to try out all kinds of craziness.

With Kluster5, a young but already very experienced ensemble comes to Zurich this evening. Together with Alexandre Kordzaia, Kluster5 will present a kind of music theater piece entitled "1999 (do you wannago?)".

The piece is based on the audio recordings of a 5-year-old boy who emigrates from Georgia to Switzerland. He looks back to the dark 1990s in Georgia and looks through the eyes and thoughts of a five-year-old child at civil war, political chaos, friendship, radio memories, horror movies, farewell and loss.

The evening sets the stage for theatrical experiments and concert forms that leave the purely musical framework to create something of their own together with other art forms. Thus, the Jazz Club is transformed into a theatrical stage!

The trio "Kiosk Ru_Le_Ta" also tells stories. Tamriko Kordzaia has already collaborated with soprano Lena Kiepenheuer in other concert programs. Now the three of them, together with Georgian composer and singer Russudan Meipariani, are embarking on a whole new adventure. Meiparani studied with Wolfgang Rihm, but has made something entirely her own out of this influence. When she is on stage, she seems like an old Nordic fairy tale character. She sings with her peculiar, wondrous voice joyfully and rapturously, sometimes perhaps bordering on kitsch, but always peculiar and unique.

The trio presents a musical kiosk in the style of post-Soviet kiosks (so-called butkas), where you could find anything - from the finest fruits and vegetables, Chinese fake luxury items, to rare antiques. Thus, the ensemble's program also includes music from Janacek, Kagel Luigi Nono, John Cage to the present time - compositions and original compositions by Russudan Meipariani and, of course, Beethoven!
The selection of pieces resembles a wild potpourri, embodying the longing for the direct, the simple and the playful... matching the small sceneries that stage designer Sophie Krayer creates with simple means to the music.