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CURRENT PROJECTS > Josep-Maria Balanyà - Tamara Joksimovic
The music moves between the images,
the image generates sound, movement,
with a constant union and confrontation,
a river, a sea, there is no difference.
A journey together.
SURVIVOR
Josep-Maria Balanyà, music, piano, chanting, percussion
Tamara Joksimovic, mapping, light scenography
This project, which was originally a solo piano performance entitled Survivor, suddenly changed when the Catalan Josep-Maria Balanyà and the Serbian Tamara Joksimovic were introduced in Barcelona a week before the concert. Having received the informal proposal to work together, they began rehearsing the same day they met and it became clear that artistic and personal chemistry worked from the start. Eight days later, on April 8, 2022, they premiered their joint project in the Utopia126 concert room in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, a place full of magic.
Survivor is the first piece to be performed and is the title of the performance. This piece, created by Josep-Maria Balanyà and recorded on the CD "Un Peu À Gauche, SVP" (2007 Laika Recs.), was performed by Balanyà at the Two Days and Two Nights of New Music, a Festival in Odessa, Ukraine, in 2007. Now, in 2022, this work takes on a special value because of the attack on this country. Survivor is dedicated to Ukraine.
The performance shows a powerful instrument, performed by the pianist and composer Balanyà with orthodox and extended techniques, plus his chant. And on the other hand, the light scenography produced by Tamara Joksimovic, which she projects on the piano, the pianist and the whole stage, creating together with the music, an audio-visual dramaturgy full of tension and drama.
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The career of the Catalan pianist Josep-Maria Balanyà, born in Barcelona, with 27 CD recorded and more than 140 works, has taken him from the classical music and jazz until his specialisation into the field of improvisation and the new contemporary, experimental music and performance. Internationally recognised, Balanyà is also composer, conductor of improvising orchestras, sound artist, painter and photographer.
He studied in Barcelona and Switzerland (Swiss Jazz School and Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Bern), he attended composition workshops, led by Helmut Lachenmann, Walter Zimmermann and Ivan Fedele, and improvisation workshops by Borah Bergman in New York.
Among his works are multimedia projects for piano, voice, electronics, video, Butoh dance, sculpture and sound installations. His works as a solo pianist reflect his interest in complimenting the pure sound of the piano with pieces for the prepared or extended piano.
He has created sound sculptures and sound installations, which can be played by the audience / visitors.
He has played with first-rate musicians including Claudio Pontiggia, Hans Koch, Joachim Kühn, Franz Hautzinger, Carlos Zingaro, Michiel Borstlap, Walter Quintus, Ksenija Lukic, Das Neue Ensemble Hannover, Americo Rodrigues, Hannah Marshall, Hannah Ma (dance), Ulrich Mitzlaff, Ramón López, Mimi Barthélemy among others.
Balanyà has played in festivals and radio programs in many countries in Europe and America. He has received several grants in Germany and Switzerland. He is currently based in Brussels and Barcelona.
He has developed his most imaginative actions at the boundary between music and performance, such as a recital in complete darkness at the Sendesaal of Bremen or the concert for the bells of Trier’s cathedral (Germany).
The concerts by Balanyà are powerful rituals – it could be said that he plays the piano with his whole body – during which we can perceive the presence of music change into matter.
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Tamara Joksimovic was born in 1989, in Belgrade, Serbia. She studied scenography at the Faculty of Applied Arts, University of Arts, Belgrade, Serbia, where she obtained bachelor and masters degree in 2013. In Columbia, SC, United States with a scholarship has finished Grad School at The University of South Carlolina in Scenic Design, the generation of 2017. Since, she has been working on professional Theatre and Opera productions in Europe and the United States. She has worked with La Fura dels Baus, doing Scenography and Costumes on productions in Denmark, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Austria etc. In her work she focuses on questioning the notion of reality, and searches for ways of challenging its boundaries.
