Meriel Price

Two of my new music theatre projects will have their world premiere in 2016.

I began developing the first project, Staring at the bin, at the Sounds and City Spaces Festival in Verona.

Staring at the bin is a large scale music theatre work situated on the city streets. It is constructed from many smaller performances that emulate life found in these places. Sounds and actions from public places form the basis of the compositions.

More information about Staring at the bin will appear shortly on this website, including videos shot in Berlin featuring the Ensemble DieOrdnungDerDinge and myself.

The second project was developed by the Music Theatre Collective – Music for Chameleons, which was formed by Anja Füsti, Isabelle Kranabetter, Anna-Sophie Mahler, Pascal Martin, Johannnes Öllinger, Meriel Price, Damian Rebgetz and Cathy van Eck in 2013. As a starting point we took the appearance of John Cage in the game show I’ve got a Secret. More information about this project and the collective Music for Chameleons will follow shortly.

This summer saw two outings for Ari Benjamin Meyer’s Symphony X, the German premiere in K21, Düsseldorf and the World premiere of the accoustic version in KW, Berlin.

Both performances were of the installation version created together with artist Tino Sehgal.

The performance in Düsseldorf was part of the SCHALL UND GLUT series from tanzhaus nrw.

Symphony X is a love letter to neo minimal no-wave music, a style that came into being in New York City in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. In this very physical work, compositional procedures influenced by composers such as Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham meet elements from post punk, minimalism and contemporary music. Musical situations at a steady 120bpm are exposed to a permanent web of construction and deconstruction, leading the audience’s expectations astray. The German newspaper ‘Die Zeit’ called it “a completely new music that doesn’t even have a name yet.” The composer and musician JG Thirwell aka Foetus describes the work this way: “a vividly evolving, involving minimalist meditation that is propelled by a rock backbeat. It pummels thru a dizzyingly unrelenting series of progressions, existing somewhere at an intersection of Branca, Glass, and Love Of Life Orchestra.”

While symphonic music has changed drastically over the course of the last 250 years, the formats of its presentation, the concert, basically has not. Tino Sehgal, an artist who has redefined the format of the exhibition, creates a spatial and temporal framework for the symphony, which is as ever-changing as the music itself and can be described as a ‘choreographed space’. (From the Springdance website)

Redux is Meyer’s 17 member ensemble for which I am the baritone saxophonist. To hear an excerpt of Symphony X click here

The follow up concert to Haldern with Stargaze and My Brightest Diamond took place at the Kilkenny Arts Festival in August. The Set Theatre was packed and once again it was a fantastic concert in which we presented songs from Shara’s new album This is my Hand. The next night we performed a fabulous version of Terry Riley’s In C in St. Candice’s cathedral with special guests such as Bill Frisell.

In August 2014 I played a fantastic gig with My Brightest Diamond and Stargaze on the main stage of Haldern Pop festival. Although the weather was awful (making me feel homesick) the atmosphere was outstanding. It was an amazing experience to play together with My Brightest Diamond and the wonderful Stargaze musicians. To watch us playing Before the Words click here

In Pocket Symphonies, the opening concert of the Doofe Musik (Stupid Music) Festival at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, I performed Telekom II with Kathi Wagner. As the baritone saxophonists of the Redux Orchestra, this baritone duo was written for us by Redux’s creator and head, Ari Benjamin Meyers. The duo of Kathi and myself inspired Ari to write Symphony X which has been developed into a large scale installation together with Tino Sehgal and premiered at the Springdance festival Utrecht in 2012.

Aside is Johann Michael Schneider and Meriel Price. Together they explore the uncomfortable, the forbidden and the hidden facets of musical performance.

Each performance is tailor made for its setting and challenges the expectations of each specific audience.

The premiere took place in April 2014, in the 150% Made in Hamburg Theater Festival, part of the evening Reclaim Your Opera at the Mojo Club. Reclaim Your Opera (whch is the culmination of our previous project Reclaim Your Preview) was kindly supported by The Rusch Stiftung, KKWV of the UdK, Berlin and KLANGZEITORT, the institute for new music of the UdK and HfM Hanns Eisler

21st December 2013 – Late Night at the Philharmonie

One of the most fantastic concert experiences of my life. Last concert of the season, great festive atmosphere and a fabulous programme of Bernstein and Stravinsky. Was a pleasure to play with the clair-obscur saxophone quartet to create the sax section for the Berlin Philharmonic. To watch the concert on the digital concert hall click here

The second outing of the music theatre short I’m Feeling Unwell took place at Labor Sonar in the KuLe Theater, Berlin in December 2013.

I’m Feeling Unwell was developed with the poet Jack Underwood who wrote the poem of the same name as part of our larger project, Stimuli. Stimuli places composers Larry Goves, Luke Bedford, poet Jack Underwood and myself as video/animation artist as well as performer in a chain of stimuli and reaction. For more information on Stimuli, which will be premiered in 2015, look under the Stimuli header on this website.

Following the sucess of the premiere in Radial System, Berlin, we took Henri Pousseur and Michel Butor’s Votre Faust to Theater Basel in November 2013. Performing with the ensemble Work in Progress I was part of this amazing opera in which the audience has the opportunity to decide the course of the opera. Performing from within a large cage, sharing the stage with chickens, goats, a travelling fayre and a cider fountain, it was quite the spectacle! Take a look…

For the opening concert of the KlangKunstBühne Festival 2013 I created two new music theatre works.

I’m Feeling Unwell based on a poem by Jack Underwood and Inside Out.

Both works deal with the inner life of a performer, exploring the inner workings that rage behind the polished facade. Things best left hidden begin to show through.

This is the preview for our performances of Reclaim Your Opera at the Mojo Club, Hamburg for the 150% Made in Hamburg Theatre Festival 2014.