Huddersfield orders Swedish takeaway

The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival has teamed up with the leading Swedish new-music establishment to bring a multicultural blast of Scandinavia to gritty Yorkshire.

Press release below:

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (hcmf//) 2022 takes its partnership with Sweden’s leading cultural institutions to another level with a wide-ranging survey of music by some of the most original voices in Swedish new music.

The partnership, begun in 2019 and paused during the two years of the pandemic, bounces back with the announcement of Lisa Streich (pictured) as this year’s hcmf//Composer in Residence, with perhaps the most comprehensive survey of her work to date – music described as “of an enveloping beauty…physical, cruel and tender”. Performances, including a host of UK Premieres will be given by Ensemble Intercontemporain, Riot Ensemble, London Sinfonietta and Quatuor Diotima.

hcmf//‘s Swedish programme also takes in performances by composer, musician and artist Ann Rosén, works by Johan Svensson + Lisa Järnegard, performed by the virtuosic Heather Roche/Eva Zöllner duo, and a solo set by David Granström as part of a day dedicated to electronic music in partnership with the ORAM Awards on November 24.

And the Ethiopian-born Swedish experimental singer, composer and improviser Sofia Jernberg will take the artistic lead in Freedom to Move, a three-day creative intensive workshop with five UK-based singers across genres, to be selected through an open call. The workshop culminates in a public performance as part of hcmf// shorts. The concept (which is part of Sounds Now: https://www.sounds-now.eu/about/) will also be repeated at Ultima (NO), November Music (NL), and Onassis Cultural Centre (GR) with Sofia working with five singers in each country.

Hosted across an eclectic mix of traditional concert spaces, a vast industrial mill, churches and bars, hcmf// is the UK’s largest international festival of new and experimental music taking place annually over ten days in November and comprising over 50 events – including concerts, music-theatre, dance, multi-media, talks and film and a related Learning & Participation programme.