January 2003 - Nr. 1
Dresden VW Plant to Inspire New Music
TWIG - Young composers from around the world will travel to Germany this summer, on a commission to create new works with an unusual performance hall in mind: a Volkswagen plant in Dresden known as the Transparent Factory. As part of a competition sponsored by Dresden’s International Forum for Culture and Industry, 30 up-and-coming composers will tour the Volkswagen factory in July, the forum announced Tuesday (January 7). They will be asked to submit the score for a twenty-minute work inspired by the building by the end of 2003, with the best to be performed at the factory in February 2004.
Part production plant and part showcase, the enormous, glass-walled Transparent Factory made its debut as a performance space in October 2002, when Dresden’s Semper Opera House was forced to close because of flood damage. In a production conceived by Harry Kupfer, the plant was transformed into a stage set for the Georges Bizet opera Carmen.
The International Forum for Culture and Industry was founded in December 2002 with the aim of building links between the arts and industry. Financed by member companies and other private sponsors, the forum hopes to promote the development of young artists internationally and serve as a meeting place for artists and business leaders. This year the institute will also sponsor an international piano competition in cooperation with the Music School Dresden. Qualifying rounds will take place in Los Angeles, London, St. Petersburg and Dresden, with finalists to compete in Dresden in November.
