Specs On! 2016

Specs On! is an international festival and platform for art music focusing on structural discrimination. We will present you music from barroque to electro acoustic.

We are very excited to announce that we will be holding free discussion panels by Stefan Forsberg (Intendant Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Sweden), Astrid Pernille Hartmann (KVAST), and Mary Ellen Kitchens (Archiv Frau und Musik).

Programme

Friday 21.10.

19:30 Opening Concert - Ren Rehnqvist - Alpaca Ensemble

Saturday 22.10.

14:00 See how we work - free admission

16:00 Contemporary Perspectives I, 40f

17:30 Work Session - free admission

19:00 Romantic Perspectives

21:00 Electronic Perspectives

Sunday 23.10.

14:00 Contemporary Perspectives II - Sylvia Hinz, Ellen Sjö Sander

16:00 Baroque Perspectives - Operabyrån

17:30 Discussion - free admission

19:00 Cultural Perspectives - The Ballad of East Meets West

Tickets through specson.eventbrite.de 10€ / 6€

Festival Pass: 50€ / 32€

Our artists this year inculde:

Operabyrån, Ensemble 40f, Sylvia Hinz, Maria W. Horn, Ellen Sjö Sander, Paul Livingston, Jean Broekhulzen, Hannah Moss, Emiko Okuyama, and Jess Rucinski.

About Specs on!

Why do we need a festival about norms? Which norms?

While looking at the programmes of classical music today, one can easily think that to be able to be a composer one has to be a white man (and preferably dead). And if you want to lead an orchestra, you also have to be a white man. The norm in classical music is a man, especially for prestigious positions. In the list of top conductors, only 5 women feature in the top 150, according to Bachtrack, and you have to delve to #260 to reach the fifth female composer. Does that mean that there aren’t any women in music? Or other genders? Certainly not. Some of the older ones were well known and famous during their lifetime, but they have fallen into oblivion. The ones who are still alive receive less recognition than their male colleagues.

Even though the number of female composers and conductors have increased over the years, the discussion around why they don't reach the top segment of their discipline is missing. We need a thorough and broad debate of cause and consequence with our gender spectacles firmly put on.