Nederlands

BIOGRAPHY

Champ d'Action gives concerts each year at international and national venues and festivals such as deSingel, Concertgebouw Brugge, Flagey, Kaaitheater, Ars Musica, Transit Festival, De Bijloke, Artefact Festival, Wien Modern, Huddersfield, Holland Festival, The Happy New Ears Festival. In parallel, Champ d'Action regularly mounts collaborative projects with the MuHka in Antwerp (Antwerp Museum of Contemporary Art), Kunst/Werk and choreographer Marc Vanrunxt, Slagwerkgroep Den Haag, Blindman, Collegium Vocale, and more. Over the years, Champ d'Action has brought works by international composers such as Kaija Saariaho, Michael Finnissy, Richard Barrett, Karlheinz Essl, Orm Finnendahl, Dmitri Kourliandsky, Mark André, Vinko Globokar, Jonathan Harvey and James Wood. Belgian composers are also featured extensively by Champ d'Action. Aside from the strong ties with the work of artistic director and composer Serge Verstockt, Champ d'Action has created works by composers including Luc Brewaeys, Stefan Van Eycken, Annelies Van Parys, Peter Swinnen, Paul Craenen, Stefan Prins, Tim Vets and David Nunez.

Together with deSingel and the Antwerp Conservatory, over the course of the 2006 - 2007 academic year, the ensemble also developed an ambitious participatory project focused on performance technique, composition and the use of electronics in contemporary music. The central guest in this first edition of the LABORATORIUM-project was the legendary Slovenian composer Vinko Globokar who also led the workshop for the final concert.

In August 2007, Champ d'Action was a guest at the Salzburger Festspiele, the Ruhr Triënnale and in Vilnius with the latest production by Jan Fabre and Troubleyn, 'Requiem für eine Metamorphose', for which Serge Verstockt composed the music.

Each year Champ d'Action creates one of more unique new productions involving collaboration with composers and performers from highly diverse backgrounds. The common thread among these projects is the focus on quality, experiment, the use of electronics and the visual treatment. A few examples of these Champ d'Action projects from the past include the productions HALLUCINATION CITY (production featuring 100 electric guitars), POWER FLOWER, ORGANISED SOUND (in collaboration with Slagwerkgroep Den Haag), TIME CANVAS (in collaboration with MuHka), and TREATISE (featuring classical and free-jazz performers).

Among the more memorable projects in 2008 - 2009 were a collaboration with the Blindman saxophone quartet involving the music of James Tenney (winter 2008) as well as creations by Eric Sleichim and Serge Verstockt, a tour of 'Einstein on the Beach' by Phil Glass in collaboration with Collegium Vocale (September - October 2008), a new edition of LABORATORIUM (2008 - 2009 school year) and concerts constructed around the central guest Serge Verstockt at November Music.

Since January 2008 Champ d'Action has provided both practical and artistic support to the guitar quartet ZWERM.

In September 2009 the new prodcution VOIX INSTRUMENTALISEE by Serge Verstockt will première. Later in the season Champ d'Action will offer an homage to Luc Brewaeys on the occasion of his 50th birthday, a CD of which will be published on the Et'cetera label. Thoughout the 2009 - 2010 season, Champ d'Action will be a regular guest of the MuHka with the projects TEXTILES and TIME CANVAS. Other projects of note also include a new composition by Serge Verstockt for concert band and Champ d'Action and THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC, a production based on the music of Michael Nyman and Gavin Bryars.