Concert for a Space and Time is a 60 min. site-specific alternative Christmas concert written for choir and 5 string players, exploring the space and atmosphere of a shopping and congress center.

First, the piece focuses on the material functions and concrete aspects of the place; the stairs, the escalators, the floor....

Then it moves into the material; wood, steel, glass...

Then deeper into the consistency of the material warm, cold, hard, soft, and beyond to the time before the material; the time before the glass became glass; into the smaller components such as silica, limestone, and quartz sand... and on to the sound of the waves rolling over the sand...

The voices move throughout the center at the beginning of the piece, and the sound of the strings will at one point come from many different directions.

At another point the sound of the voices makes the air in the center's passage vibrate with beatings, the resonance lifts the awareness from the material around us to the material inside us and levitates the experience into connectedness across time, life, and death. The ending of the piece connects to the sunset, the change of colors in the sky, and the ending of yet another day.

The piece is a tribute to the opening of one’s awareness of the surroundings and people with whom we share the same air, space, and time. Concert for a Space and Time invites a new appreciation of the moment right now, right here.

Composition and idea: Lil Lacy
Libretto: Sonja Ferdinand and Lil Lacy

N E X T P E R F O R M A N C E
November 24, 2024, at 15:00
In The Scandinavian Center, Aarhus, Denmark
Choir: Ars Nova Copenhagen and ENSEMBLE EDGE
Ensemble: Århus Sinfonietta
Conductor: Mathias Skaarup Sørensen

Produced in 2024 by Lil Lacy Music, AUT, ENSEMBLE EDGE, Ars Nova Copenhagen and Århus Sinfonietta in collaboration

Supported in 2024 by The Danish Arts Foundation, KODA Kultur, The William Demant Foundation, Den Jyske Kunstfond and Korsangernes Fællesråd, as well as the project GENSTART supported by Augustinus Fonden, Statens Kunstfond, William Demant Fonden and Hoffmann & Husmans Fond and realized in collaboration with Edition·S, Dansk Komponistforening and Art Music Denmark.

ARS NOVA Copenhagen is a Danish-based, international vocal ensemble of 12 members that specialises in renaissance polyphonic choral music and new vocal music, which is performed with precision and nerve, and with a sound that attracts attention all over the world. With concerts in Copenhagen and the rest of Denmark and several annual tours worldwide, the group is today more in demand than ever.

ENSEMBLE EDGE is a vocal ensemble from Aarhus, founded in 2016, pushing the boundaries of vocal music. Through close collaboration with composers, they create innovative and experimental concerts and have premiered several new and site-specific works. The ensemble moves effortlessly between genres such as classical, jazz, and electronic music and is known for its versatility and artistic quality.

Århus Sinfonietta is an Aarhus-based contemporary musical ensemble striving to perform music that understands its past, plays its present and develops its future. Århus Sinfonietta was founded in 1990 by a group of musicians from Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and Det Jyske Ensemble in collaboration with the composer Hans Abrahamsen. Today the ensemble consists of 19 permanent musicians.

Mathias Skaarup Sørensen is a conductor with a master’s degree in conducting from The Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus. He is the conductor of the chamber orchestra Bellbird and the chamber choir Ensemble Edge, and he has also conducted ensembles like Aarhus Sinfonietta, Ensemble MidtVest and the choir of The Danish National Opera. Mathias also teaches conducting at The Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus and the Danish National Academy of Music in Esbjerg.

Lil Lacy is a Danish-American composer who has explored music within many genres and forms of expression; released a number of critically acclaimed records in different constellations and created music for an array of concerts, performances, film, dance and theater. Educated from The Royal Adacemy of Music, Aarhus, with studies at University of California San Diego. Recipient of the Léonie Sonning Talent Prize 2020. She is Composer in Residence at the Danish Philharmonic Orchestra from 2024-2027.

Sonja Ferdinand is educated as a playwright from the Danish National School of Performing Arts and received a Talent Reumert for her debut Un-dressed the same year. Her work is often created in close collaborations, where the circumstances of the process wiggles its way into the work. The last couple of years she has written for The National Theatre in Olso and the play Insomnia for Berliner Ensemble.

Aarhus Unge Tonekunstnere (AUT) is a concert organisation based in Aarhus, focusing on broadening access to experimental music and interdisciplinary projects with both local and international sound artists. With a special focus on young composers, AUT is a platform from which young sound artists can work in a professional setting and develop their artistic and production skills.

Concert for a Space and Time was premiered on November 24, 2019, at 15:00 in The Scandinavian Center, Aarhus, Denmark

Performed by
Choir: ENSEMBLE EDGE
Ensemble: Århus Sinfonietta
Conductor: Mathias Skaarup Sørensen

Produced in 2019 by Århus Sinfonietta and AUT in collaboration with Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium and ACC (Aarhus Congress Center).

Supported in 2019 by Snyk, Statens Kunstfonds Projektstøtteudvalg for Scenekunst, Aarhus Kommune Musikpuljen og Initiativpuljen, Dansk Komponist Forening & KODA Kultur.

For more information about the piece, please listen to the podcast made by AUT in the link below. In this podcast the chair Frederik Sakham interviews Lil Lacy, the composer of Concert for a Space and Time, about the thoughts and process of the piece.
The podcast is in Danish.