Collegium Novum Zurich - overcome

Jannik Giger New work for film and ensemble (2026, world premiere, commissioned by the CNZ, supported by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and the Fondation Suisa)
Concept and composition: Jannik Giger
Film set and concept: Demian Wohler
Camera: Rebecca Meining
Acting: Llewellyn Reichmann
Liza Lim Garden of Earthly Desire (1988)
Composition students of the ZHdK New music for silent films of the 1910s and 1920s (2026, world premieres)

Zoi Tsokanou Conductor
Collegium Novum Zürich

The visual arts have always been a source of inspiration for music, and since the advent of moving images, it has been impossible to imagine them without music. The CNZ explores various forms of mutual influence between (film) art and music. Jannik Giger undertakes an in-depth examination of the finely interwoven transitions between authenticity and fiction. The music amplifies, alienates and manipulates the emotions generated. Exposing reality as a fragile construction, the feelings portrayed are scrutinised. Liza Lim in turn refers to Italo Calvino's The Castle where Fates Intersect, in which the interpretation of tarot cards develops into a series of overlapping stories, a kaleidoscopic game with centuries-old memories of Western culture. Finally, we set students from the ZHdK composition classes the task of writing their own music for short, experimental silent films from early film history.

A collaboration with the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), the Institute of Incoherent Cinematography (IOIC) and the Archipel festival.