INNER LIFE

Composer

Wim Henderickx, Inner Life (2023)

Musical direction

Diederik Glorieux

Musicians

HERMESensemble
Mezzo soprano: Mireille Capelle
Flute: Karin de Fleyt
Clarinet: Peter Merckx
Viola: Marc Tooten
Cello: Stijn Saveniers
Keyboard: Geert Callaert
Percussion: Gaetan La Mela/ Karel Opsteyn

Nemø ensemble
Mezzo soprano: Esther-Elisabeth Rispens
Electric guitar: Pieter-Jan Vercammen
Saxophone: Arno Roesems
Viola: Anne-Merel Meijer
Cello: Nina Vanhoenacker
Keyboard: Ward de Jonghe
Percussion: Wim Pelgrims

directing and scenography

Aïda Gabriëls

A production by

HERMESensemble and Nemᴓ ensemble, Muziektheater Transparant
Co-production: DE SINGEL, Madam Fortuna, Perpodium

Choir direction

Bart Patoor / Céline Di Maccio: Madam Fortuna
Esther-Elisabeth Rispens / Annelies Gebruers / Heidi De Nef: Municipal Conservatoire Mechelen

Directional assistance

Ferenc Balcaen

Dramaturgy

Kevin Voets

Light design

Peter Quasters

Sound engineer | Sound design

Bart Celis

Soundscape

Jorrit Tamminga

Thanks to

Madam Fortuna, Luc Nys, Inspiratum, BBC Willibies Antwerp vzw

Supported by

Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government

Inner Life is as much a composition as it is an alchemical formula – or a game. It is a recipe for an artistic experiment in which all possible musical personalities and groups can participate.

Wim Henderickx composes a new score, with a duration of seven times seven minutes, for a basic instrumentation of seven ‘initiates’. The score is partly through-composed, partly open-ended. Precisely notated in some places, graphically rendered in others. The piece is ‘web-structured’: on the one hand, it consists of musical objects – some melodic, some timbrel in nature, some concrete, others aleatory. On the other hand, different ‘performance strategies’ or paths are proposed.

The composition starts from a basic line-up of seven performers, but has several ‘gateways’: passages to other performance layers, which performers can interpret. A performance of Inner Life is always different. In principle, the work can be played by seven performers. But Inner Life is also suitable for involving many more people in the alchemical crucible, including larger groups of performers. Choirs, brass bands, and musical societies of different levels can participate and collaborate in a living laboratory, experimentally creating a new work of art and experience.