Illuminations here signifies the desire to illuminate what is deliberately forgotten or ignored; what is kept »in limbo« in an undefined place; what makes someone a social and political orphan. »Illuminations« songs give voice to such orphans: the work is based on their own statements, part protocol, part energetic speech. The songs themselves are protests: voiced polyphonically in recordings, loudly through megaphones, and shared and documented internationally via smartphones. The three »Illuminations« songs do not seek out subtle zones of expression, but turn piano keys into a chorus of trombones and electric guitars. The music for this work has its origins in the tradition of the political protest song and the rock song. Illuminations is also the title of a volume of essays by Walter Benjamin, which served as a latent source of inspiration.

Ying Wang (*1976 in Shanghai, China) studied composition with York Höller, Rebecca Saunders, and Johannes Schöllhorn at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, as well as electronic music composition, and then contemporary music at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt. In 2012, she was at IRCAM in Paris. In addition to the fellowship of the German Academy Rome in 2020, she has received many other grants, including from the SWR Experimental Studio and the Edenkoben Herrenhaus. Her numerous awards include the Giga-Hertz Prize in 2013, the IRINO PRIZE for chamber and orchestral music in Tokyo in 2014, and the Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis in 2017. Ying Wang has collaborated on her compositions with renowned orchestras such as the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, and the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Helsinki. She lives in Berlin.
www.yingwang.de
soundcloud.com/ying-wang-composer

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