Voor Elise

music theater (2015)
Tomoko Mukaiyama

Concept

Voor Elise is a performance about the piano and learning to play the piano. Two pianists from the conservatory friskily show how anybody is able to play the piano – tough or shy, confident or insecure, young or old. They revisit memories of being children. How did they experience music? Is it possible to see music? They let the piano and the music take them on a trip.
The two young pianists only converse with each other through piano music and movement. You hear music without seeing anybody play, and you see a pianist playing without hearing any music. Thus the pianists create an alienating play of sound and silence. Voor Elise is a concert with big and many many small piano’s, musical fantasy, sound illusion, dancing and of course with Beethoven.

Besides the recurring theme of Für Elise, Frédéric Chopin, György Ligeti and Conlon Nancarrow are part of the repertoire in Voor Elise. This producution was created in collaboration with the Nederlands Jeugd Orkest Summer Academy.