Life So Simple: From Birth To Death

Life so simple… from birth to death

Select Movements from Michael Folmer Hansen’s Symphonies No. 0-3 about love, maternity, service, struggle and acceptance orchestrated by Emilio Guarino and performed by Contemporaneous.

Compositions by Michael Folmer Hansen and Emilio Guarino

Tickets are Pay-What-You-Want and proceeds will be donated to,">span>, who provide arts and mentorship programming for youth in underserved communities.

MICHAEL FOLMER HANSEN is a Danish composer living in the Australian Alps.

Michael’s Roland SH-2 and MC-202 synths, Boss DR-55 drum machine and fretless Rickenbacker knock-off were stolen in 1984. The items were uninsured and he is still seeking revenge, doing a Gauguin in 2015 and dropping his suit and tie for the life of an artist. He is having fun and exacting revenge by creating music under his own name and the monikers folmR and Sthurmovik.

Co-producer of the Phillip Glass Buddha Machine, Michael is also a life member of Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio.

After more than a hundred albums on his own and with collaborators Michael’s output is equal parts prolific and eclectic, hard and soft, and in the neo classical output includes 2 operas, a choral work, a piano concerto, a collection of etudes and 4 symphonies.

EMILIO GUARINO is a performer and producer with experience that ranges from orchestral performance to contemporary electronic music, modern improvisation, and multi-disciplinary collaborative works.

As a bassist, he has performed or collaborated with a wide variety of creative personalities that include conductors, composers, soloists, and producers. Highlights include performances with Sir Simon Rattle, Matthias Pintscher, Renée Fleming, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Todd Machover, The MIT Media Lab, and Glenn Kotche of Wilco.

Emilio has also been invited to appear at major festivals including the Stavanger Kammermusikk Festival (Norway), The Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), The International Society of Bassists biennial conference, and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s contemporary ensemble-in-residence, SoundLAB, at the Barnes/Stokowski Festival.

CONTEMPORANEOUS is an ensemble of 25 musicians whose mission is to bring to life the most transformative music by living composers through performances, commissions, recordings, and educational programs. Described as "exact and detailed, but also lively and openly dancing" (The New York Times) and "leading new music towards its better self" (I Care If You Listen), Contemporaneous particularly champions the creation of large-scale works and “dream projects,” which composers might not otherwise have opportunities to realize due to scale.

Based in New York City and active throughout the United States, Contemporaneous has premiered over 200 new works, and has been presented by such institutions as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Park Avenue Armory, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall, PROTOTYPE Festival, Merkin Concert Hall, MATA Festival, St. Ann’s Warehouse, and Bang on a Can and has worked with such artists as David Byrne, Donnacha Dennehy, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Dawn Upshaw, and Julia Wolfe. Contemporaneous' programming has also received acclaim from community members, artists, and press of all kinds, with the ensemble’s recent performance of Stranger Love being listed as one of 2023’s “best classical music performances” by the New York Times.

Artwork illustrated by HEGO

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