SPARK 12 | Concert with Video Art | Music by Messiaen | Video by Lillevan | Discussion "Seeking the Mysterious in Art and Science"

Photos © Chris Keller

18-19h                                                        Concert with video art     


Olivier Messiaen                   The Complete Preludes for Piano (1929)

                                                                SooJin Anjou, piano

                                                            Original video* by Lillevan

                                               *World premiere; commissioned by SPARK

                                  This concert is dedicated to the memory of Ferenc Rados.

19.15 - 20.15h                                   DISCUSSION         

                                         “Seeking the mysterious in art and science”

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”   - Albert Einstein

Panel: Lillevan, Daria Bunina, Georg Braune
Hosted by SooJin Anjou and Nikolaus Rajewsky 

Pianist SooJin Anjou enjoys an astonishingly varied international career as soloist, chamber musician and partner in diverse interdisciplinary projects. Born in South Korea, she was educated in the United States, Hungary and Germany.  She graduated from the Juilliard School as the only person in its history to win both of Juilliard’s undergraduate commencement prizes, for achievement and leadership in music and the liberal arts. While still a student, she was prominently featured in Asahi-TV’s documentary “New York, New Yorkers” , which was televised in many parts of Asia and released on DVD.  

SooJin Anjou is an avid performer of contemporary music, and composers have been entrusting their work to her since she was 15. She has premiered works by, among others, Valentin Silvestrov, Elena Kats-Chernin and David Del Tredici.  Her world-premiere recording of the complete piano works of electronic music legend Morton Subotnick was released to great acclaim, eliciting such praise as “magical and beguiling” (Wire Magazine, London).

As soloist, she made her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut at  age 16 with Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto. She is a laureate of the Robert Schumann International Piano Competition (Zwickau, Germany) and the Orléans International Piano Competition (France).   Her broad repertoire includes more than 40 concertos, ranging from Bach to Berio, as well as the complete works of Ravel.

Lillevan is a leading video and media artist renowned for his innovative collaborations with musicians across a wide spectrum of genres—from opera and contemporary classical to improvised and experimental music. His original video works have been shown at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium) in New York, the Opéra Garnier in Paris, the Barbican Centre in London, the Seoul Arts Center, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and the Berlin Philharmonie (main hall).

Among his notable collaborators are Morton Subotnick (a pioneer of electronic music who commissioned one of the first modular synthesizers in 1963), the electronic musician Christian Fennesz, Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt), and the Zeitkratzer Ensemble (Berlin).

A founding member of the groundbreaking visual music group Rechenzentrum, Lillevan has performed and exhibited at all the major media festivals worldwide, including Ars Electronica (Linz), Transmediale (Berlin), and Sónar (Barcelona). He has been commissioned to create new works for institutions such as the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Expo 2000 (Hannover), the Museum Ludwig (Cologne), the Montreal International Film Festival, and the Bregenz Festival.

In 2013, Lillevan initiated Sinfonia Trópico, an eco-arts festival in Colombia—the most biodiverse country in the world—designed to support local artists and youth from underprivileged regions. Through workshops and collaborative projects, he teaches new artistic skills and encourages participants to draw inspiration from the natural world, fostering a sustainable and creative dialogue between art, community, and environment.