Sef Albertz
*4 March 1971
Works by Sef Albertz
Biography
NEW: Take a look at ALBERTZ's COMPOSER BROCHURE and discover more of his fascinating music and artistic trajectory.
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“Sef gathers that vast spectrum of the human spirit that allows, in Art, to confront and fraternize tradition with the audacious of contemporaneity to create a cosmopolitan vision of Venezuelan identity”. With these words, the legendary Venezuelan Maestro Alirio Díaz described the versatile creative world of his countryman Sef Albertz (*1971).
After carrying out his studies in music and electronic engineering in his native Venezuela, Albertz moved in 2000 to Germany, where he completed his artistic postgraduate studies as a composer (Musikakademie Kassel) and guitarist (Musikhochschule Münster) with outstanding results: “An integral musician with an immense culture” as recognized by his colleague Leo Brouwer, the well-known Ibero-American composer and guitarist.
With over a hundred works composed, Albertz’s compositional output includes solo, chamber, electroacoustic and orchestral music. Some relevant works:
- ‘The world through Emilia's dreams‘ for Piano & Orchestra │ Commissioned by Kammerphilharmonie der Universität Stuttgart │ Premiere: Bürgersaal Vaihingen, Stuttgart 2020
- ‘Ludovicus and the Allegories of the Sea’ for Piano │ Commissioned as part of the Germany-wide initiative ‘Beethoven bei uns’ │ Premiere: Weimar 2019
- ‘Con ecos de otras voces, desde lejos, desde muy lejos’ for Fl., Cl., Perc. & Piano │ Commissioned by Junta de Andalucía & ‘Manuel de Falla’ Chair (Spain) │ Premiere: XVI Spanish Music Festival of Cádiz (2018)
- ‘Piano Concerto’ │ Premiere: MDR Festival of Lights 2016, Leipzig
- ‘Southern Lights’ for Piano, BigBand & Orchestra │ Commissioned by Central German Broadcasting │ Premiere: MDR Festival of Lights 2016, Leipzig
- ‘Ciaccona’ (after Bach), for Piano & String Orchestra │ Premiere: Leipzig BachFest 2016
- ‘Danza, Escena & Joropo’, for Solo Piano │ Premiere: Steinway Klavierhaus 2015
- ‘La noche juega, sin palabras, en la mirada’ for Violin, Cello, Piano & Percussion │ Premiere: German National Library 2013
- ‘Azul-Luz en la estación’, Fantasia for Guitar & Orchestra (new version) │ Commissioned by Instituto Cervantes (Spain) │ Premiere: Opening concert of the Festival ‘Con Guitarra!’ 2011, Leipzig
- ‘Songs without words’ (after Mendelssohn), for Guitar & String Orchestra │ Commissioned by GfzM e.V. & UNESCO │ Premiere: Gewandhaus zu Leipzig (Mendelssohn-Jahr, Sept. 2009)
The music of Sef Albertz has been performed in Brazil, Chile, Cuba, England, Germany, Holland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Venezuela, etc.
Albertz was founder and artistic director of the Festival Con Guitarra! (“A fine Festival…a Jewel”, Leipziger Volkszeitung). He’s also literary active with poetry books & essays.
The compositional projects of Sef Albertz have been commissioned and sponsored by national and international institutions such as:
- Central German Broadcasting
- Gesellschaft für zeitgenössische Musikvermittlung GfzM e.V. (Germany)
- Instituto Cervantes (Spain)
- Junta de Andalucía (Spain)
- ‚Manuel de Falla‘ Chair (Spain)
- LARA Foundation for Culture, FUNDALARA (Venezuela)
- Leipzig Kulturamt
- MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra
- UNESCO, etc.
Current compositional works include two extensive cycles of multimedial works supported by grants from 3 renowned institutions of German cultural life:
- Musikfonds e.V.
- Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen
- German Society for musical performing and mechanical reproduction rights (GEMA)
The creative work of Albertz is recorded on several CD albums:
- Con Guitarra! (With Guitar!, 2011)
- Infancia (Childhood, 2012)
- Hommage (Tribute, 2013)
- Seasons (2015)
- Platero & Ich (Platero and I, 2016)
Recents recording projects include the first worldwide publication of two new albums comprising his piano oeuvre: ‘Resplendences around Bach’ (“...a skillful dramaturgical connection to a fascinating musical world, a delightful combination of progressive and traditional elements...southern temperament and profundity” - MDR Press) and ‘In the Secret of the World’ (“Such a super exciting recording. So much sounded so familiar. A beautiful mixture of different influences. In a way, a very modern but still very familiar sounding album full of musical discoveries, one must say” - Feuilletöne). All these projects together with his long-time artistic accomplice, the German pianist Anna-Maria Maak, with whom Sef Albertz creates an artist couple that reconstructs the tradition of musical collaboration, as once did Clara and Robert Schumann or Yvonne Loriod and Olivier Messiaen, but in their own particular way. According to Estonian-American conductor Kristjan Järvi, “A great composer...a fantastic performer...a powerful work!”.
More Information under: www.sefalbertz.com
About the music
In the own words of Sef Albertz: "My compositional style is an amalgam of elements from different cultures, in which extra-musical influences, the rethinking of tradition and my own system of sound organisation challenge the audience without disturbing the listening experience. Everything in my life is a composition, a creative process that always brings in itself something beautiful, deep and stimulating at the same time. It’s my ‘life maxim’. So, quite consciously, I can say that I’m in a full-time occupation. Composing is my passion”.
REVIEWS:
On Album In the Secret of the World (Albertz’s Piano works II)
“A beautiful mixture of different influences. In a way, a very modern but still very familiar sounding album full of musical discoveries” (Feuilletöne, 2021)
On Album Resplendences around Bach (Albertz’s Piano works I)
“...a skillful dramaturgical connection to a fascinating musical world, a delightful combination of progressive and traditional elements [...] southern temperament and profundity” (MDR Press, 2019)
On Sef Albertz's compositional style
“Sef gathers that vast spectrum of the human spirit that allows, in Art, to confront and fraternize tradition with the audacious of contemporaneity to create a cosmopolitan vision of Venezuelan identity” (Maestro Alirio Díaz, Venezuelan Musician)
High praise for Sef Albertz's transcultural concept
The new evening-length piano cycle by our composer Sef Albertz «Some Enlightened Alleys» has been highly praised by audiences, press and renowned insiders alike.
The pianist and Universal Edition musical ambassador Anna-Maria Maak has conceived together with the Venezuelan-German musician an interdisciplinary concept - the SEA project - which represents a new way of the piano recital combining music, theatrical actions, texts and electronic sounds: A sea of ideas and expressions where the audience can immerse into the artistic phenomenon of music in a stimulating, accessible and novel way. It is a transcultural approach to the compositional process.
Thus, one of the leading figures in the study of transculturality in the German-speaking world, the philosopher Prof. Wolfgang Welsch, has commented:
“Transculturality takes place in two ways. On the one hand (the prime example of migration), it results from a person moving from one culture to another and henceforth integrating elements of both. On the other hand, transculturation is achieved entirely without migration, when elements of other cultures are acquired through an educational process and henceforth shape the identity of the person concerned. The composer Sef Albertz embodies both aspects in his musical work. He grew up in Venezuela, came to Germany and combines Latin American and European inspirations in his compositions (Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, but also the musical traditions of Andalusia and Spain). And what I particularly admire: when he moves transculturally, it has nothing to do with appropriation (which is regarded as dubious today), but is about enrichment, complementarity and coming together. In Berlin, I was able to attend a piano recital (performed by the wonderful Anna-Maria Maak), where highly exciting transcultural wanderings could be experienced. I look forward to his next concert with great anticipation”.
Since mid-September, Anna-Maria Maak has been on tour presenting Albertz’s work in cities such as Berlin, Schkeuditz, Hamburg, Leipzig and Vienna. Regarding the premiere of the cycle, MDR Kultur has also reviewed:
"[...] Transforming serious music into something enjoyable is the speciality of Anna-Maria Maak and Sef Albertz [...] The music is everything at once: philosophical and poetic, sophisticated and simple, thoughtful and passionate. It is drawn from the full source".
The music score of «Some Enlightened Alleys» will be available from Universal Edition coinciding with the piano recital that the publishing house has organised for November 22nd at 7 p.m. in the Bösendorfer Salon at the Musikverein in Vienna.
More details about the event can be found at:
https://www.boesendorfer.com/de/wien/konzerte-und-veranstaltungen/salonkonzert-ue
Anna-Maria Maak’s concert will be preceded by a lecture at 5 p.m., in UE’s Emil Hertzka Salon (also at the Musikverein), in which the pianist herself will talk about the transcultural aspect of Sef Albertz’s creative work.
A video teaser of Maak & Albertz's project can be found here:
