Serbian composer Jug Marković faced the perennial bind for composers; he could hear his latest piece incidAnces in his head but couldn’t finish the work for a small ensemble without hearing and seeing a live performance. Ideally, of course he would have like to work in collaboration with the musicians to push development as far as possible.
ENOA and Snape Maltings came to the rescue with a residency for the Belgrade-based composer with the mentoring support of composer Michael Finnissy and an ensemble of three played and a soprano.
The residency gave time for rehearsals and exploration of techniques that would extend the diversity of sounds available along with dramatic elements. A performance and Q&A session on the final evening closed the residency.
We were fortunate to be able to film some of the development process in collaboration with the musicians.
As with many of these commissions, it was a joy to engage with the musicians as we worked to create a worthwhile film (with a time limit of three minutes) for enoa.
On this occasion we were also able to record the performance so that Jug and the ensemble have a record of their work.