Pianist Hans L\u00fcdemann is returning to Swarthmore College to hold two performances in December. Previously, L\u00fcdemann taught at Swarthmore as a Cornell Visiting Professor during two academic years: 2009-2010 and 2015-2016. In his first year at Swarthmore, L\u00fcdemann taught \u201cJazz Today\u201d and \u201cAfrican Music,\u201d while in his second year, he taught \u201cImprovisation\u201d and \u201cJazz History.\u201d One of the reasons why L\u00fcdemann was invited to teach at Swarthmore was his connections to other artists.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was able to invite several of the artists I collaborate with to Swarthmore for concerts and workshops such as the TRIO IVOIRE with Aly Keita, singer Chiwoniso, violinist Mark Feldman and the trio ROOMS,\u201d L\u00fcdemann said. \u201cThe final performance was a collaboration between the TRIO IVOIRE, saxophonist Andrew Neu, and the College Jazz Ensemble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently, L\u00fcdemann is not teaching regularly, except for occasional guest lectures and workshops. Instead, he is touring as a solo pianist in China, playing concerts in four cities\u2014Shenzhen, Ruijin, Guangzhou, and Beijing. Furthermore, L\u00fcdemann is associated with an artist with the record labels BMC and Intuition, and with publisher Schott (the original publisher of Beethoven). He is expecting two new releases next year. For 2019-2020, L\u00fcdemann will be very busy working on solo recitals, touring South Africa, and composing an opera to premiere in 2020.<\/p>\n
Although L\u00fcdemann is currently stacked with various projects, his main desire in music has never changed. \u201cMy main interest always was, and still is, to invent and to create original music and to follow an artistic path of my own,\u201d L\u00fcdemann said. \u201cI have also always been interested in exploring different musical sources and to draw from those sources.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, December 5th at 12:30pm in Parrish Parlors, the Department of Music and Dance with the Departments of German and Media Studies will present a special lunch hour concert featuring L\u00fcdemann and saxophonist Andrew Neu, who is also director of the Swarthmore College Jazz Ensemble.<\/p>\n
Neu is looking forward to reconnecting with L\u00fcdemann and anticipates a spontaneous concert. \u201cWe performed together several times during his tenure here, and we always had very natural chemistry,\u201d Neu said. \u201cWe haven’t planned what we’re going to do yet, but that’s not unusual for jazz artists.\u201d<\/p>\n
For L\u00fcdemann, he does not know what to expect for his upcoming performance because he never performs twice in the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be improvisation with emotional and atmospheric depth and there will be composed pieces and parts that are very melodic and concentrated,\u201d L\u00fcdemann said. \u201cAt times the music can be meditative and introspective, in other moments very lively and expressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly should be an intense, fun, entertaining, and hopefully also moving experience, and the concert will also depend on the communication between artists and public, that plays an essential part in the creative process,\u201d L\u00fcdemann continued.<\/p>\n
In addition to the lunch hour concert, L\u00fcdemann will have a performance incorporating Swarthmore student monologues on Thursday, December 6th from 7:00-8:00 pm at Parrish Parlors. This performance originates from a collaborative project between L\u00fcdemann and German writer Antje Ravic-Strubel. \u201cThe intention is to develop ideas in a workshop situation that combine the declamation of texts with musical concepts,\u201d L\u00fcdemann said. \u201cIt is a new project initiated by German professor Ute Bettray, and I am very curious myself if it will evolve into something very precise and composed, or if the formats we develop will be more of an improvised nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI always found that Swarthmore was an inspiring place to be, and a great place to develop and sharpen one\u2019s senses and skills, while being embedded in a very cooperative and social environment. I hope Swarthmore still is and will continue to be this kind of a place, and I am glad to become part of that again, even if it is just for some days this time,\u201d L\u00fcdemann concluded.<\/p>\n
\nDavid Chan ’19<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pianist Hans L\u00fcdemann is returning to Swarthmore College to hold two performances in December. Previously, L\u00fcdemann taught at Swarthmore as a Cornell Visiting Professor during two academic years: 2009-2010 and 2015-2016. In his first year at Swarthmore, L\u00fcdemann taught \u201cJazz Today\u201d and \u201cAfrican Music,\u201d while in his second year, he taught \u201cImprovisation\u201d and \u201cJazz History.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":7533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7534,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7532\/revisions\/7534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}