(Julija Hartig:)
I am a driven creative person. My main tool is the violin and I am a member of several chamber music ensembles and the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra but my driving force is communication, dialogue and inspiration. I am in search of deep meaningful beauty that is not obvious and influenced by what we already know and recognise. I am curious and passionate about the language of new music and bringing the process of learning it to the audience. Always in dialogue with the audience searching for a new perspective. From an early age on, thanks to the fact that my father was a cellist and composer, I experienced the creative process and very close collaboration on writing pieces for my instrument, violin. Later on in my life, the connection to composers came very easy and naturally, and as a result of that mutual understanding and inspiration, several pieces were written or arranged for me.
My wish is to make most of them a part of the – CD ‘D a r k V e l v e t’ and in that way present them to the world – give them ‘life’ so they would be heard and a chance to maybe get to be recognised as part of a violinistic repertoire. This CD can be seen as an autobiographical story. It is a reflection of my Yugoslav and Dutch identity and on it, there will be 10 pieces by 8 composers. In addition to the selection of already composed music from 1990 on, three new works are currently being written for me especially as a part of this project.
They all have their unique musical language and way of expressing thoughts and feelings. From deeply pure honest most tender love to the unearthly sounds in search of answers. There are pieces of deep sorrow of loss, passionate greed for life and love and wildly distorted decomposed beauty. One thing is common to all of them and that they are written or arranged for me with a deep understanding of my ways of playing which is always intense, honest and expressive. I love them all like my children. There are five solo pieces, three for violin and piano, one for violin and cello and the most challenging 3 minutes roller coaster for violin, my own voice and piano.
Tibor Hartig: ‘Monolog’ for solo violin 1993
Rudolf Bruci: ‘Guslarska’ for solo violin 1993
Juan Felipe Waller: De Jaque, Sal, Gala e Luna for solo violin 1997
Tibor Hartig: ‘Dijalozi’ for violin and cello 1990
Isidora Zebeljan: ‘Oh, Die, My Love’ for violin/Voice and piano 2011
Isidora Zebeljan: ‘Dark velvet’ for violin and piano, Posthum transcription by Veljko Nenadic 2021
Calliope Tsoupaki: ‘A song for Isidora’ for a monophonic instrument 2020
Florian Magnus Maier: ‘The music of Erich Zahn’ 2021
Aleksandra Vrebalov: ‘Constellation H.’ for violin and piano 2021
Veljko Nenadic: ‘Diptych’ for violin and piano 2021
On my YouTube channel, there is a playlist containing talks with composers, my process of studying and learning the pieces called ‘Creating D a r k V e l v e t‘. With this, my goal is to bring the language of these pieces closer to the listener.
I have two wonderful musicians joining me in a couple of pieces. My 25 year long partner in sound, pianist Reineke Broekhans and the amazing cellist Maja Bogdanovic.It will be recorded by Guido Tichelman this coming March released on the label Challenge Classics and celebrated with a promotion concert in Amsterdam in the first week of July 2022! Hopefully, more concerts are following! I could not imagine recording this CD without ‘my’ Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume ‘Ex-Zimmermann’! It has been loaned to me by the Nationaal Instrumenten Fonds to which I am very grateful! This project was granted a contribution from Sena Performers Muziekproductiefonds but it doesn’t cover all the costs. Therefore, I would appreciate your help to make this dream of mine come true! If financial support is for some reason not possible for you, please consider that sharing this campaign and video is already a big help.
Composers in the crosshairs of our attention