Creative concert: student short films set to live music

As part of the inter-university project "Music for Silent Films," students from Kassel and Frankfurt are working on new short films with new musical compositions. For those in Kassel, this means that while students from the Kunsthochschule Kassel provide the film material, students from the Institute of Music at the University of Kassel compose sometimes narrative, sometimes experimental music. In Kassel, this creative collaboration takes place under the working title "CreativeLab."

"The raw film material comes without sound and is often still dramaturgically unordered, so the composers are completely free to be creative," explains Roman Beilharz, a lecturer at the Institute of Music at Kassel University. The collaboration of the creative disciplines welds together, he adds. "These 'tandems' have already created lasting partnerships for further film projects," says Beilharz.

The CreativeLab contributions to the concert in November will be performed by students at the University of Kassel, in some cases with performative participation by the filmmakers. The Frankfurt film scores, on the other hand, will be conducted by the students themselves and premiered for projection by the Kammerphilharmonie Frankfurt. Guests at the event can expect a mix of classical narrative and experimental works. Prior to the concert on November 9 in Kassel, a performance will take place on November 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the concert hall of the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (HfMDK).

Background

The Kassel collaboration between music and art students is not entirely new: Since 2015, music students at the University of Kassel have been composing for filmmakers in the art school's "Film and Moving Image" and "Animated Film" classes as part of Beilharz's media practice event at the Institute of Music. In 2017, the University of Kassel became a cooperation partner in the project "Music for Silent Films," which Prof. Ralph Abelein of the HfMDK initiated in 2008.

Only in the summer semester 2019, Roman Beilharz and Prof. Jan Peters from the Kunsthochschule Kassel started the subordinate project "Music for Silent Films-CreativeLab" to interlock the collaboration of musicians and filmmakers even closer.

Dates and location:
07 November 2019, 7:30 pm, Concert Hall of the HfMDK in Frankfurt am Main
09 November 2019, 7:30 pm, Concert Hall of the University of Kassel

More information:
https://www.hfmakademie.de/de/events/konzert_musik_fuer_stummfilme_an_der_universitaet_kassel

Contact:

Roman Beilharz
University of Kassel
Institute of Music
Mönchebergstraße 1
34125 Kassel
Tel: +49 561 804-4389
Email: beilharz[at]uni-kassel[dot]de