Artistic Research
Suite Mixtur: Multi-cultural music theatre fragments in a new collaborative composition
This Suite is a joint creative venture between students from Vienna (MUK music university and Uni Wien academic university) and China (Zhenjiang Conservatory of Music), led by Prof. Beers from Vienna and Prof. Zhang from Zhejiang. It is a curated work, a piece of music, which can be presented and performed in individual suite movements or ‘as a whole’ in a 1-hour long concert.
In Suite Mixtur, we are working on an eclectic mixture of music that presents a different genre in each movement: new compositions by students from Vienna and students from Zhejiang, improvisations based on musical concepts by Jean Beers, and existing arias from Mozart’s Zauberflöte (Magic Flute), Berg’s Wozzeck and from the well-known Chinese Beijing-opera Su San Qi Jie (The Story of Su San).
Symposium Sinn & Präsenz in Improvisation
Lecture-Recital, 14.8.2021, Berlin
6. Symposium am exploratorium berlin Eine Veranstaltung des DENKRAUM IMPROVISATION Keynotes: Christian Grüny: Diagrammatische Improvisation und der Sinn des Heterogenen Nicola L. Hein: Das Paradigma der Präsenz und Modi der Temporalität in den Critical Improvisation Studies Mathias Maschat: Präsenz als improvisationsästhetische Kategorie Weitere Beiträge: Christoph Baumann, Jean Beers, Carl Bergström-Nielsen, Corinna Eikmeier, Reinhard Gagel, Thomas Gerwin, Jin Hyun Kim, Doris Kösterke, Urban Mäder, Mattin, Annemarie Michel, Alex Nowitz, Nina Polaschegg, Ursel Schlicht, Wolfgang Schliemann, Sabine Vogel und Andrew Wass. Video: Jean Beers lecture begins at 1:13:02
Songs About Female Struggle and Empowerment
Collage opera (in progress)
Beers: 'Nachklang' & 'Scherzo' from Piano Concerto no. 2 (2016)
Premiere performance, Piano Concerto no. 2 by Jean Beers, Eton College Chamber Orchestra, cond. Jack Rozman, soloist J. Beers, Windsor, 2016
Doctoral research project (2011-2017)
Publication: Creating Ambiguity in Music
This artistic research explores musical ambiguity, that is created through the contrast of ‘soft sound clouds’ with passages of strong motoric drive, energised by deconstructing musical fragments. Ideas of ‘deconstruction’ and ‘presence versus absence’ inspired me during this adventure. By both accepting and repurposing binary hierarchies in the context of musical memory and embodiment, I hope to expose new aural viewpoints. As a pianist myself, I realise that the physicality of performing and practicing demands my passionate dedication to instrumentalism as a composer, the identification with phenomenological embodied consciousness of sound and an empathetic approach to musical collaborations.
(Book available on Amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/Creating-Ambiguity-Music-Jean-Beers/dp/3961380945)
