Gaudeamus | Podcast Curious Ears

In this episode of Curious Ears, Irish harpist, composer and improviser Rosie Murphy takes the listener on a journey through the harp's history. Rosie's career and artistic vision, being deeply rooted in the origins and significance of the harp across the globe, seeks to honour the cultures, harpists and music makers who have come before her, dating from as far back as 5,000 years ago to the prese...

This episode of Curious Ears takes the form of a captivating exploration of a Sufi tradition of music healing, in Tangier, Morocco. The tradition in question is called Hmadcha, and it's named after the mystic saint who founded it in the 17th century: Sidi Ali Ben Hamdouch. The sound piece delves into the socio-historical context of this spiritual sonic tradition, featuring field recordings that ca...

In this episode, pianist and mathematician Dr Laura Farré Rozada shares her experience within the field of music and mathematics, and introduces us to the main connections between these two worlds. The music examples featured include her own performances of piano works (both solo and with orchestra) written by Ofer Ben-Amots, Thierry Escaich, Unsuk Chin, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, Philippe Manoury, Ang...

Hardi Kurda is a composer, improviser, sound artist from Kurdistan who researches the concept of 'urgent listening': becoming aware of sounds that are always present but mostly ignored, even to the point of trying to listen to smells or silence. In this podcast, he invites the audience to practice this kind of listening, with an extended composition specially made for this podcast, using his exten...

Composer Igor C Silva, born in Porto and currently living in Amsterdam, made a new addition to our podcast series Curious Ears, in which he zooms in on collaboration as a trigger for new ideas and as an important part of his practice as a composer.

Brazilian composer, musician, designer, and artist Rafaele Andrade presents a collection and reflection of Brazilian music, its technologies and its socio-ambiental impact. In 3 acts she reflects on this topic in regards to the field of new music instruments, feminism and indigenous cultures.

Emine Bostancı and Ardashes Agoshian talk about contemporary music and traditional instruments: Kemenche of Istanbul and Cretan Lyra with sympathetic strings. Emine Bostancı (Turkey/ Netherlands) is on a mission: performing on traditional instruments, she aims to push the boundaries and bridge the gap between traditional Ottoman-Turkish and contemporary classical music. In this episode, she introd...

Julian Tjon Sack Kie is a composer, DJ and electronic music producer, operating under his own name and his alias Julian Alexander. In his podcast for Gaudeamus, he takes us through the history, local variations and the future of the music of the West African Mandinka people, all revolving around an instrument called the Kora. The featured music in this podcast in order of appearance: Amadu Bansang...

Kim Spierenburg is a violinist and composer who works with live electronics and animation. In her podcast that she made for Gaudeamus, she talks about how her disability inspired her to fuse electronics and acoustics and in that way forge her own artistic path.

Dirge Secil Kuran is a Turkish percussionist/composer/singer/performer with a broad experience in classical, contemporary music and music theatre. In her podcast 'Listen Through My Ears As A Performer' she gives an insight on how she listens to music as a performer. A look at how music sounds for a musician on a stage - which is different in many more ways than you'd expect.

LA-based soprano and sound artist Micaela Tobin composes and performs experimental operas and electronic noise music. In her podcast The Curious Voice, she dives deep into the possibilities and aspects of the precious instrument that we all carry within us: our voice. She recounts the journey of how she discovered and fell in love with the sound of her own voice, and how you can too. Including a s...

Aliona Yurtsevich is an artist, composer and director born in Belarus. For our podcast series Curious Ears, she went back to her roots to paint a musical portrait of the contemporary music scene of Belarus. Listen to the introduction here: https://soundcloud.com/user-641373079/belarusian-suit-sounding-souls-of-belarus-pt-1 BELARUSIAN SUIT: “Sounding Souls of Belarus” (2021) (sound collage-composit...

Aliona Yurtsevich is an artist, composer and director born in Belarus. For our podcast series Curious Ears, she went back to her roots to paint a musical portrait of the contemporary music scene of Belarus. Listen to pt. 2: https://soundcloud.com/user-641373079/belarusian-suit-sounding-souls-of-belarus-pt-2 BELARUSIAN SUIT: “I listen, therefore I am...” (2021) narrated collage-composition, voice,...

Nizar Rohana is a Palestinian ud player and composer based in The Netherlands, distinguished for combining virtuosity within fresh contemporary compositions while maintaining the ud’s authentic language. In his podcast for Gaudeamus, he unravels the relationship between improvisation and composition in taqsim (Arabic improvised music), focusing on temporal aspects of taqsim and on the historical i...

Peni Candra Rini is a multitalented composer, poet and vocalist. Her career began as a pesinden, a female singer in the Javanese gamelan music tradition. In this podcast Peni takes us on a listening journey very much parallel to her artistic development: starting at traditional singing, later reaching the most radical avant-garde in the island of Java, Indonesia. Her music has travelled across fiv...

Dutch pioneering guitarist and composer Aart Strootman kicks off the newest series of Curious Ears in which he explores rhythmic patterns and groove-related games in music from around the world. He gives examples from a wide range of music: from the waterdrums by the Baka women to the likes of Philip Glass and Nik Bärtsch, and Magic Malik’s jazzy rhythms to heavy metal band Meshuggah. Listen to hi...

Eliana Echeverry, Colombian composer and folk music arranger, tells us why the cumbia moves the souls and bodies of the whole American continent, and beyond. From the basics (rhythm, instrumentation) to modern elaborations, Eliana is committed to the evolution of cumbia, preserving the essence of its hybrid American, African and European origin.

Joël Bons, composer and charismatic artistic leader of Nieuw Ensemble, takes us through his own ears in a listening journey to China at the end of the 20th century. Musical creation is thriving, captivates his curiosity and will conquer many listeners soon after.

Nai Barghouti, performer and creator, shares her passion for musical ornaments from an Arabic perspective, in connection with contemporary practices. Illustrating with her own voice and lots of historical recordings, Nai makes sure to enrich our listening skills.