UK premiere ‘Spaces of Blank’

BBC Symphony Orchestra

London’s Spitalfields Summer Festival will host the UK premiere of Michel van der Aa’s Spaces of Blank on 18 June 2011. The internationally acclaimed singer Stephanie Marshall will appear at the elegant Christ Church Spitalfields venue, supported by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Lawrence Renes.

A 30-minute song cycle for mezzo-soprano, orchestra and soundtrack, Spaces of Blank sets texts by Emily Dickinson, Rozalie Hirs and Anne Carson to construct a virtual journey through anxiety-inducing empty spaces, combining oppressive intimacy and overwhelming expansiveness to ominous effect.

Spaces of Blank has been recorded for Van der Aa’s Disquiet label by Christianne Stotijn and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and is available through the Disquiet web-store.

Read more at the Spitalfields Music festival website.