Music without borders
Meet the Synesthetic project by Nika Bauman, where music, theatre, dance, improvisation and artistic craziness meet to remind you, how gloriously intense a performance actually can be.
Lux /// Synesthetic project (c)
It is quite wonderful to walk into the world of Nika Bauman, a Vienna based flutist, who so marvellously and enthusiastically wants to unfurl the world of classical music performances. With a classical background, her fascination for those very engaging performing arts as opera, and theatre, brought the need for classical musical performances to be, well, a bit more.
The need to intensify the experience of classical music and connecting it with other modes of artistic expressions, brought Synesthetic project to life, in its inception a video production Landscape and Dances. With the classical music material as the foundation, the artists form an uncustomary performance through improvisation, contemporary dance, and visual art.
Telling of experiences familiar to everyone
Itinerary, the story of immigrants and travellers, touching on the complexity of finding oneself, an individual in a new social environment and the importance of cultural origins. With its backbone in song, as one of the most natural ways of spreading cultural heritage, artists show that the diverse cultural backgrounds are not restraining circumstances but a beautiful advantage that make this world a richer place.
In the midst of pandemic, cleverly named and inspired after Boccacio’s Black Death lockdown tales, Decameron 2.0. took shape. Ten characters, 5 living and their 5 digital personas, tell stories ranging from ancient to contemporary, connecting over shared isolation experiences. Demonstrating the importance of storytelling and its power in helping us cope with uncertain times.
Lux /// Synesthetic project (c)
The most recent project, Lux, explores the literal and symbolic meaning of light. Six musicians and a dancer play with light and shadows, contrasting music from the Age of European Enlightenment with contemporary and improvised music. Amazing enthusiasm rubs off on the public, whose attention is fully held, reminded of the magical entity the light possesses and its power to overcome ignorance.
Straight outta comfortzone
It is refreshing to hear in these productions music by the likes of Schubert, Mozart, Ravel and co. and some rarely played pearls from composers like Brouwer, Crumb, Takemitsu, Mokranjac, Bogdanović, Murtić, Antoli... Through these collaborations, musicians are frequently thrown out of the comfort zone of classical music, learning how to fall and free themselves and with them the public from usual concepts of classical concerts. Without underestimating the public Synesthetic project, the pool of eager artists, opens an alternative and very engaging way of experiencing this wonderful thing we call art.