Ensemble Phœnix Basel

Three Swiss composers, who are surprisingly still relatively unknown in Basel, are the focus of this project.

The composer, conductor, guitarist, lecturer and architect Arturo Corrales originally comes from El Salvador, but has lived in Geneva for over twenty years. He is co-founder and musical director of the ensemble “Vortex”, with whom the EPhB performed together in May 2013. Despite its experimental character, his music is strongly influenced by folklore and pop music.

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The Italian-born composer and conductor Carlo Ciceri has lived in Lugano since 2002. He was a member of the ensemble “RepertorioZero” and co-founder of the group “Crile” a research collective made up of dance theatre, new music and new media. He died in a skiing accident on 22 March 2022.

The composer, choir conductor and organist Michael Pelzel studied in Basel with Detlev Müller-Siemens and Georg Friedrich Haas. In his ensemble composition “Sempiternal lock-in”, Pelzel uses East African “inherent patterns” in the so-called “lock-in” playing technique, which is applied to the marimba-like mallet instruments Akadinda and Amadinda. Two to three percussionists play an instrument from both sides, whereby continuous chains of sixteenth notes are repeatedly combined in different ways, creating fascinating “inherent patterns”. Pelzel is thus inspired to create a highly virtuoso ensemble piece in which the percussion plays a central role.

Jürg Henneberger