Le Pli "Las noches 2024

Tuesday
Madera Bassoon Quartet, Zurich
The Madera Bassoon Quartet is an ensemble of four bassoonists from the Zurich region. In this special line-up, we dedicate ourselves with great fondness to classical and contemporary music. Our repertoire includes original works from Corrette to Prokofiev and arrangements from J.S. Bach to Daft Punk. The Madera Bassoon Quartet puts together interesting, exciting and melodious concert programmes.

Wednesday
Latin American Portraits, Mexico
César Armando Moriel Híjar, violin, from Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua-Mexico. He studied violin and chamber music in Spain and Ciudad Juárez as well as composition and arrangement at the Universidad Tito Puente. He has participated in various orchestras and ensembles in his region and in many international festivals as a violinist, arranger or composer, including the Puerto Rico Summer Music Festival 2019 and 2022.
In 2021 he will play in New York at the Latin American Chamber Players Festival with ARCE, his international quartet. He has taught violin at the Bellas Artes of the Universidad Autónoma and at the Centro Municipal de las Artes in Ciudad Juárez. He is currently the director of SONORALIA, a centre for arts education and artistic director of the Tito Puente University Symphony Orchestra.

Thursday
Trio Zahir
Lucía Boffo - vocals, effects, Danielle Friedman - piano, Lisa Hoppe - double bass)

In what felt like the longest year of their lives so far, the three musicians from Zahir met in Berlin: Argentinian singer Lucía Boffo, pianist Danielle Friedman, who grew up in Israel, and German bassist Lisa Hoppe, who had just returned to her country of origin.
Zahir is a trio that combines jazz-inspired song formats with free improvisation. The focus is on linking language and music on a rhythmic and dramaturgical level as well as the playful combination of form and content. Half of the lyrics were written by the band, the other half are settings of poems by authors such as Miguel de Unamuno and Walter de la Mare. The songs are performed in the languages in which the three musicians communicate with each other: Spanish and English. This allows openness for improvisational explorations with music and text alike, and there are also passages with three-part singing. Connected by their multi-layered cultural identities and cross-connections to each other. Zahir develops a music that improvises both delicate and bold nuances that feels connected to jazz.

Friday
Kosmos Vokalensemble, Basel
Kosmos Vokalensemble was founded in 2022 as a quartet by Aura Gutiérrez and Amalia Montero in Basel. It consists of professional singers with training at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and many years of stage experience. On this occasion, the group will present a selection of Latin American vocal repertoire. Four-part a cappella arrangements of traditional songs from Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile and other countries make up this programme. Representatives such as Violeta Parra, Victor Jara and Atahualpa Yupaqui are some of the composers who stand out in this musical evening with colourful and captivating rhythms and harmonies.
Amalia Montero Neira, soprano, from Santiago de Chile studied singing in Santiago and in Basel, where she specialised in the baroque repertoire. In 2018, she completed two master's programmes in early music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and then trained in Waldorf pedagogy in Dornach, Switzerland. Her stage experience ranges from sacred music to opera, musicals and popular music. She has sung under the direction of Ton Koopman, Andrea Marcon, Manfredo Kraemer and Eduardo Egüez. She is also a choir director and music teacher

Saturday
Collegium Novum Zürich
The Collegium Novum Zürich (CNZ), founded 30 years ago, has become an integral part of Zurich's musical life. The soloist ensemble stands for the programming of contemporary music that constantly seeks a context in the music history of the past 100 years.
The CNZ's Las Noches programme is through-composed and tells a coherent story that leads from a theme to an image and in turn to an imaginary place. Traces can be found everywhere, creating connections with the other stages of the journey. Two larger compositions by Hilda Paredes provide a framework, accompanied by works by Leonardo Idrobo, Emilio Pomarico, Mauricio Kagel, Carolina Noguera and Ricardo Eizirik. The short and touching oboe melody "Upingos" by Carlos Chávez takes on the function of a tour guide and appears again and again in a different light between the other pieces.

Sunday
Entongue trio, Granada / LE PLI, Zurich
17:00 The Entongue trio, consisting of two saxophonists and a pianist, is based in Granada, Spain. In 2022, the ensemble performed at the 35th International Tango Festival of Granada, which took place in the emblematic Isabel la Católica Theatre. It was also selected to give concerts in different regions of Spain as part of the Dinamiz-Artj programme. In Argentina, the ensemble has performed in concert halls in Buenos Aires and in the province of La Pampa. Entongue Trío has set itself the goal of spreading the works of new creators who deal with the development of today's tango and Latin jazz without losing sight of its roots.

19:00 The ensemble Le Pli will perform afterwards. Le Pli is a non-profit, tax-exempt organisation made up of musicians and music enthusiasts. Its aim is to promote and publicise chamber music as an innovative and diverse art form. A network of professional musicians and creative artists work on Le Pli's projects. Together they develop projects in chamber music and in the field of music education and interdisciplinary projects. The network gives rise to various ensembles that work on the projects: the flute ensemble Le Pli (active since 2014), the chamber ensemble Le Pli as a septet (active since 2019), the wind quartet (2022, 2023) and others.