Kinderkonzert by Lucia Hepp & Graham Waterhouse

A live performance developed by Graham Waterhouse and Lucia Hepp in collaboration with children and performed this weekend at Insel Hombroich.

Kinderkonzert plays around and in a sculpture, a cubical of loden wool by artist Lucia Hepp. It is sort of an anti-resonant body sucking up the very echoey space. The glass pavilion is like a sound expander and, in contrast, the sculpture is almost reminiscent of a muffled recording studio and became a safe and protected chamber for the children who performed.

They play a composition by musician and contemporary art music composer Graham Waterhouse. Equinox, presented in the first half of the broadcast is a composition exploring contrasts and played by Graham himself on the cello. And then you hear Graham, Lucia and the children building up a prakticello, which is a very rare and special kind of cello. Graham and Lucia developed a cello score especially for this occasion using two of these square-shaped and completely foldable instruments together in unison.

The sculpture is a sort of enclosed stage for a musical dialogue between two prakticellos, pleasingly accompanied by the minds, ears and voices of children, who still have the ability to walk around the worlds of imagination and reality more easily, and are therefore able to connect invisible wonders invisible to the rest of us, and make us attentive to sounds which open windows.

They explored these sound chambers amidst a the extraordinary museum Insel Hombroich who hosted us.

Many thanks to Kinder Insel Kinder, Graham Waterhouse, Clara Schmermund for the photos, serendipity, Museum Insel Hombroich, and Resonance Extra.