Composer
Geert Callaert
Musical team
Mireille Capelle – voice
Karin de Fleyt – flute
Peter Merckx – clarinet
Marc Tooten – viola
Stijn Saveniers – cello
Gaetan La Mela – percussion
Geert Callaert – piano & conductor
Thanks to
Matsuo Basho
Bart Gits
Tátake!-Taiko
Japans Cultureel Centrum vzw
Luc Brewaeys
On July 25, 2021, Koen Kessels, artistic director of HERMESensemble and conductor, turns 60.
Especially for this momentum, composer and pianist Geert Callaert created the composition “Nobody is Perfect! – Koen Kessels 60”.
HERMESensemble performed this piece as a surprise for Koen Kessels. The title “Nobody is Perfect!” is a wink to Luc Brewaeys, who composed a whole series of short birthday compositions for befriended composers and musicians from Belgium and abroad. HERMESensemble recorded the whole series of birthday compositions earlier this year, together with the Odysseia Ensemble.
Textually, the composition centers around a haiku by Matsuo Basho.
Haiku are jewels: small, short, somewhat abstract with a clear vision of man’s relationship with nature. In Japanese tradition, the sixtieth birthday represents a rebirth, for only after sixty years has one completed the zodiac cycle.
A sixtieth birthday is also a milestone in the West. It invokes a brief rest to contemplate the rich qualities and merits of the path followed. It is a time to find inspiration, to continue fruitful paths and to bring in innovative ideas to further develop a rich future.
