EXB-205_Web

WHAT’S ON — Music
Interview
“We want to reinvent ourselves
with each project.”
André De Ridder is the artistic director of Stargaze, an international
orchestra of accomplished musicians that like to do things differently.
Ahead of the eponymous festival, we caught up with him to find out
what makes his institution tick. By Damien Cummings
Everyone
brings skills
to the group
as individuals
but the result
is greater
than the sum
of its parts,
and that’s
fascinating.
We’ve seen Stargaze in so many
settings, from Boiler Rooms
to orchestral halls. What is
Stargaze to you? It’s a moving
target, almost chameleon-like, a
system for adapting to different
situations and collaborating with
different musicians or bands. When
we started, Stargaze was more
like a think tank: a group of likeminded
curators and a collective
of primarily classically trained
musicians with a broad mindset.
It then developed quite quickly
into a fixed ensemble of 12 people
and created satellite groups of
musicians, not just in Berlin, but
also Dutch musicians, people in
Italy and London. It’s grown into
this European network of musicians
that have grown up with both
classical but also electronic, folk
and indie music.
How important is fluidity in
organising an orchestra? We
want to reinvent ourselves with each
project. This is the third festival
we’re doing at the Volksbühne
and each one had a very different
idea behind it. We see ourselves
as both initiators of genre-defying
projects and as interpreters,
collaborators, musicians and multiinstrumentalists.
For example, the
horn player is a superb arranger and
plays the drums brilliantly. We thrive
on that and we enjoy that most.
Why did you create Stargaze?
Before Stargaze, I’d been working
as a conductor in a more classical
career with big institutions. Most of
them are fairly heavy organisms and
heavily subsidized, so it can be quite
bureaucratic. Their plan can run
three or four years in advance, and
I was like, “How do I know what I
want to do musically in four years?”
Maarit Kytöharju
Stargaze is a kind of escapism for
my more instinctive, immediate
creativity. It’s also about authorship.
Classical musicians often just get
other people’s music put in front
of them and are told what to do.
There’s this idea of the composer
in their ivory tower, who writes the
symphony, and then passes it on
to the musicians. We work more
like a band and hear the ideas; we
compose, collaborate, and then we
all own it so much more.
Classical music is often viewed
as a genre in stasis. How does
Stargaze challenge that? We
always keep our ears to the ground
in terms of what’s going on and
where there are new voices, like
up-and-coming composers who are
working in more experimental ways.
We build networks of musicians,
composers, venues, promoters and
producers across the world who
share the same passion for these
liminal zones.
And how do you manage to keep
refreshing your work? Over
the years, we’ve put a lot of effort
and time into honing trust and
developing a particular reputation,
but at the same time we try not to
repeat ourselves. It is hard because
some might say, “Oh, Stargaze,
that’s the classical group that works
with bands.” Well, we do that
sometimes, but we also created a
dance piece for Irish dance company
[Teaċ Daṁsa], and we toured it to
Australia and New Zealand, and
London. We do so many things
because we are more interested
in the whole creative process and
trying to be active through that.
Is there an issue with rigidity
in classical music? Rigidity in
higher institutions is like a business
model: you become known for doing
something exceptionally well and
get hired for that. And that’s okay.
People can make a living from it. But
the symphonic world and the opera
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