Abstract
Whether the North American continent is the mythically extolled land of unlimited possibilities may well be disputed today, for a variety of reasons – but in the art music of the 20th century, America produced a whole series of refreshingly free-thinking and obliquely innovative composers far removed from European stylistic dogmas. In this year's Opera-nova-Project we take the title of Roman Haubenstock-Ramati's music theater «Amerika» as an opportunity to perform a concert with the ingenious madmen of American musical modernism - from the unconcerned musical experimenter Charles Ives to the anarchic musical innovator John Cage, from the European-reflective Elliott Carter to the exotic sounds of George Crumb and the Californian minimalism of John Adams. Also included are the hilariously complex and wittily rattling Studies for players piano, which maverick Mexican-American Conlon Nancarrow punched into his musical rollers.