Charles B. Griffin
At a conference in Helsinki in October 2008, I met Swedish composer Martin Larsson, who told me about a pilot project he was running in Norberg, Sweden with guitarist Patrik Karlsson called New Music Incubator (literally, Networking Camp, which sounds better in Swedish than English) for Composers and Musicians, a 5-day intensive workshop where 5 composers and approximately 25 musicians come together. The composers each write a new piece every day for some combination of musicians, followed by an evening performance of the works and a final concert some months later in Västerås Concert Hall. Geared toward post-graduate professionals and not limited to contemporary classical music, it’s an opportunity to explore, to simplify, to step out of one’s comfort zone, and to expand one’s network.
I invited Martin and Patrik to come to Latvia and speak to members of the Latvian Composers Union about the possibility of expanding this project so that participants could apply from throughout the Baltics and Scandinavia with the goal that the camp would next take place in Latvia, with me as the local administrator. We successfully applied to Kulturkontakt Nord for €10,000 to hold the camp outside Liepāja, Latvia in the summer of 2010.
This July I will go to Sweden as a composer participant so I can experience the camp first-hand. All the better to administrate next year, my dear.
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Charles Griffin recently returned to the U.S. after spending 5 years living and working in Latvia. His compositions and arrangements have been performed at festivals and concert halls throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia, Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Recent projects include commissions from pianist Ana Cervantes and the Colorado State University Percussion Ensemble.
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