Conditions (Maya Verlaak), New Work (Jesse Broekman)

With a Dutch composer who teaches composition in Flanders (Jesse Broekman) and a Flemish one who does the same in the Netherlands (Maya Verlaak), this concert inevitably has a certain derby-der-Lage-Landen content. Add to that the swagger of one of the brightest new music ensembles and you get the punkiest of above and below the Great Rivers. Not for nothing has Klang been a fixture on De Link’s program for years.

Maya Verlaak is a Belgian composer who is active as a performer, curator and teacher. She describes her composition process as a creative process guided by the specific context of each commission. This results in the development of different compositional techniques for each creative endeavor. Her works are intended to create space for critical thinking, both for the audience and the performers.

The focus of Jesse Broekman’s compositions is chamber music, with or without electronics. Central to his work are sounds of an unstable and unpredictable nature. Here he searches for playing techniques that do not go against the nature of the instrument, but make them sound completely different. His recent work with electronics concentrates on the electronic control of acoustic objects.