Carlota Cáceres, in the second “Vang” concert

Percussionist Carlota Cáceres stars in second “Vang” concert of the season.

The second programme of concerts Vang. Músicas en vanguardia of the current season will tomorrow feature the Spanish percussionist and professor at the Conservatory of the Balearic Islands Ana Carlota Cáceres (Badajoz, 1989). The instrumentalist will offer at Madrid’s CentroCentro a programme entitled Sshhilencio inspired by John Cage’s famous visit in 1951 to the anechoic chamber at Harvard University, where he expected to hear absolute silence but was surprised to discover two sounds: one very high-pitched and the other very low: “When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system, and the low one my circulating blood”. As a result of this discovery, the following year, on 29 August 1952, the pianist David Tudor premiered Cage’s 4’33”.

The programme prepared by Cáceres includes Grito mudo, by Alberto Bernal; Ritual I::commitment::BiiM, by Jessie Marino; Adagio, by Carolyn Chen; Having never written a note for percussion, by James Tenney; Ear Pieces, by David Helbich; Velleza (world premiere by La Dalia Negra); Cuatrotreintaytres (world premiere by Carla Nyman); ? Corporel by Vinko Globokar; the aforementioned 4’33” by John Cage; Song no. 3 by Cathy Van Eck, and Silence must be by Thierry de Mey.

Although the concert has Carlota Cáceres as the absolute protagonist, in the performance of Carolyn Chen’s Adagio, she will be joined by Paula Grande, Achaman González and Elena Raman. Cáceres explains that the show is part of the new European trends “in which the musical performer is also a performer”, so that although in the concert there is “little sound, there is a lot of activity”, and silent projections, both of texts and moving images. Sshhilencio, with this title, is the first time it’s going to be performed – although “there are pieces that I have performed in other contexts”: On her website you can see performances of the classic by the Slovenian-French composer Vinko Globokar ?Corporel (1985) and Song no. 3 (2010) by the Dutch-Belgian composer Cathy van Eck. Cáceres defines the show as “an experience and a gamble” that she hopes to repeat on more occasions.