CANCELLED: Marco Fusi (viola/viola d'amore) …touching strings

Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event is now cancelled. Please accept our apologies for any disappointment and inconvenience.

Programme

• Yu Kuwabara, Toward the Brink of Water Or the Verge of Dusk (2020) for solo viola d’amore, UK premiere
• Timothy McCormack, …stretched across its axes (2024) for solo viola, UK premiere

The programme brings together two major solo works that explore the sonic and physical edges of string performance. Yu Kuwabara's Toward the Brink of Water Or the Verge of Dusk (2020) is a study in resonance and suspended time for viola d’amore. The writing explore the instrument’s extended register, allowing bells-like plucked strings to elicit sympathetic resonances, and varied bow techniques and pressures to shape a sound environment that feels both deeply ritualistic and personal, intimate. After the interval, the UK premiere of Timothy McCormack's …stretched across its axes (2024) offers a markedly different scale and intensity. Over forty-five minutes, the solo viola becomes a site of sustained physical negotiation, with sound and gesture tightly interwoven. Rather than relying on abrupt contrasts, the piece unfolds through slow transformations, material resistance, and the audible labour of performance. The pairing sets two distinct approaches side by side: one quietly spectral, the other durational and corporeal.

Marco Fusi will also be delivering a seminar entitled Instrumental Agency in Contemporary Viola and Viola d’Amore Performance on Wednesday 25 March at City. Please note, registration for the concert and seminar are separate; details of the seminar are available on the City website.

About Marco Fusi

Marco Fusi is a violinist/violist, a researcher in music performance, and a passionate advocate for the music of our time. Among many collaborations with emerging and established composers, he has premiered works by Jessie Marino, Tim McCormack, Yu Kuwabara, Evan Johnson and Kristine Tjøgersen, among others.

Marco has performed with Pierre Boulez, Elena Schwarz, Lorin Maazel, Susanna Mälkki, Alan Gilbert, and frequently plays with leading contemporary ensembles including Klangforum Wien, MusikFabrik, Meitar Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, Ensemble Linea. He has recorded several solo albums, published by Kairos, Stradivarius, Col Legno, Da Vinci, Geiger Grammofon, New Focus Recordings.

Marco also plays viola d’amore, commissioning new pieces and collaborating with composers to promote and expand existing repertoire for the instrument.

After his Masters in Violin and Composition at the Conservatory of Milan, Marco received his PhD from the University of Antwerp / docARTES program with a dissertation on the performance practice of Giacinto Scelsi’s works for string instruments. He is currently Assistant Professor of Artistic Research at HEMU Lausanne and Associate Researcher at the Orpheus Instituut of Gent.