“The perfect man climbs the wind and the clouds, he rides the sun and moon, and wanders beyond the confines of the Universe”
Zhuang Zou 369-286 BC

At the start of my thirtysecond year as a freelance violinist I am looking forward to a creative and diverse period filled with orchestra work, chamber music, improvisation, quests for suitable texts for the trio Rara Avis, making arrangements for crossover projects, searching for original stages and developing programmes with the great and versatile violinist Tinta von Altenstadt. Riding Zhuang Zhou’s sun and moon with an open mind.

This season started with the rehearsals for the production Shadows from The National Ballet, after which I took part in the production ‘7 Deaths of Maria Callas’ with the  LUDWIG Orchestra and Marina Abramovic in Carré Amsterdam. Am currently playing in the opera ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ at the Dutch National Opera, and in the meantime developing literary concerts in libraries in Amsterdam with Tinta and the actor Sander Commandeur. We put together concerts with texts of contemporary Dutch writers intertwined with all shapes and forms of suitable music.

My work largely consists of playing in classical orchestras and ensembles, and since about twenty years I have been developing free improvising skills as well (see: impro). Since autumn 2017 Jodi Gilbert , Albert van Veenendaal and I form a trio named Rara Avis. The music on the album “How Do I Listen” (named after a poem from Hafez) is totally improvised and we find inspiration in many different texts from e.g. Hafez, Yosa Buson, F Scott Fitzgerald, a rose catalogue, a newspaper headline and Jodi Gilbert’s texts. We are very proud that our debut album has been released on the Donemus Crossover label as well as Bandcamp and all major streamers. The CD release is going to be in april 2023 on minimal damage recordings and we are very happy that Edwin van Munster has once again produced an eye-catching  CD cover.

We have just (26/4/’23) received a great review from the German audiomagazine Bad Alchemy: “Jodi Gilbert transforms the whole material into something like art pop, something quite different from artificially dumbed-down or tirillized art songs. Violin and piano are on the move in a modernist way, with enough know-how and esprit to shake the right thing out of their sleeves, from bitterly tremolated emotional tremors and shimmering wisping to the most pointed i-fiddles, with a thoughtfully applied hand, small hatchings on the piano wire or cross-keys to plonking grips or tonal preperation. Just great. [BA 119 rbd]

On the 14th of september we performed in the BIMhuis during an evening dedicated to Jodi’s ensembles.

And also…