The PROJECT

The project of cooperation between the “Harmonies and Noises” Music Foundation and the BIT20 Ensemble from Bergen is based on common principles that guide their activities. Both organizations promote contemporary music through activities that go far beyond connoisseurs and professionals. The target group of their activities are all those willing to explore new musical worlds, but also children and adolescents without musical skills as well as young musicians at the beginning of their professional careers. This project covers three types of activities:

● Summer courses for young musicians from Poland and Norway interested in performing advanced contemporary music. The teaching staff will include leading performers of contemporary repertoire from both countries. The courses will be held in 2022 and 2023 in Bydgoszcz.

● Participatory projects that involve joint activities by composers and professional musicians with young people with little or no musical skills. These activities combine the development of creativity and sensitivity to new worlds of sounds with the intention of introducing young people to works performed by Norwegian and Polish musicians. The project also includes the preparation of performances of pieces intended for beginner and intermediate players.

● Concert programs performed by BIT20 and Polish musicians in Poland and Norway will include outstanding works of the last decades, which will introduce the audience to the contemporary new music scene, with particular emphasis on the artistic achievements of the partner countries. In the project, the goals of music education and audience building are combined with actions against xenophobia and promoting openness to other cultures and ethnic minorities in both countries. BIT20’s performance of Olga Neuwirth’s music with the 1924 film Die Stadt ohne Juden (City Without Jews) will serve to show the origins and consequences of anti-Semitism. Part of the rich program of events is the project of the “Harmonies and Noises” Music Foundation dedicated to Iranian composers, women of the Islamic world who strive to fulfill their aspirations.

The project partners are also the two most important contemporary music festivals in Poland: Warsaw Autumn and Kody (Codes) in Lublin, as well as the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, the Polish Music Council, the Vestland District Council, and the Edvard Grieg Music Academy in Bergen, Borealis Experimental Music Festival in Bergen.

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