In May 2022, 100 years will have passed since the birth of Greek composer Iannis Xenakis. To celebrate his 100th anniversary, Awake Percussion launches a four-day Xenakis100 Festival, a musical event consisting of four concerts with performances of all of Xenakis' solo works for percussion, as well as a comprehensive collection of his chamber music. Most of the works are extremely rare treats in the Nordic countries, with some receiving their Finnish premiers.

The festival will open and close with the percussion sextets. In the opening concert we’ll hear Xenakis’ Pléïades for six percussionists showcasing a large array of instruments, and the finale of the festival will include yet another giant in the repertoire, Persephassa. The audience will be seated in the middle of the percussion set-ups to experience the full power of the massive instrumentation. In between these two monolithic works, the audience will have the unique possibility to experience all the percussion solos and an impressive number of Xenakis’ chamber music.

Awake Percussion will be acting as artistic director for the event and have invited some of the best musicians in Finland to perform. These include the percussion ensembles Osuma Ensemble and Echo Percussion. During the festival Ville Komppa, along with several other lecturers, will be giving more insight into the various concert programmes in the form of panel discussions. The topics include everything from architecture to mathematics, music and of course Iannis Xenakis. The Festival takes place June 2–5, 2022 in Tanssin talo, Helsinki Finland.

Pléïades

Thursday 2.6.2022 at 19.00

Duration 50 min, no intermission

Panel discussion at 17.30 - Ville Komppa, Jerry Piipponen, Maija Hynninen and Jarkko Hartikainen

Composition - Iannis Xenakis

Pléïades - Echo Percussion & Tuomas Siddall, perc.

David Claudio - cond.

Echo Percussion: Touko Leinonen, Aino Nisula, Jarmo Niininen, Tiia Toivanen & Elmeri Uusikorpi, perc

Rebonds

Friday 3.6.2022 at 19.00

Duration 1 h, intermission 15 min

Panel discussion at 18.00 - Ville Komppa, Walter Witick and Petteri Kippo

Compositions - Iannis Xenakis

Rebonds A - Jerry Piipponen, perc.
Dmaathen - Lauri Pekkarinen perc. & Antti Turtiainen, ob.
INTERMISSION 15 MIN
Rebonds B - Petteri Kippo, perc.
Psappha - Walter Witick, perc.

Zythos

Saturday 4.6.2022 at 19.00

Duration 1 h 15 min, intermission 20 min

Panel discussion at 18.00 - Ville Komppa, Jouko Laivuori and David Hackston

Compositions - Iannis Xenakis

Oophaa - Harri Lehtinen, perc. & Jouko Laivuori, cemb.
Kassandra - Xavi Castelló, perc. & David Hackston, voc.
INTERMISSION 20 MIN
Okho - Osuma Ensemble, djembe
Zythos - Awake Percussion, Jani Niinimäki & Xavi Castelló, perc.
Darren Acosta, trb.

Osuma Ensemble: Harri Lehtinen, Mikael Heikkilä & Janne Tuomi
Awake Percussion: Petteri Kippo, Lauri Pekkarinen, Jerry Piipponen & Walter Witick

Persephassa

Sunday 5.6.2022 at 16.00

Duration 30 min, no intermission

Panel discussion at 15.00 - Ville Komppa and Lauri Pekkarinen

Composition - Iannis Xenakis

Persephassa - Awake Percussion, Elmeri Uusikorpi & Tuomas Siddall, perc.

Awake Percussion: Petteri Kippo, Lauri Pekkarinen, Jerry Piipponen & Walter Witick