Percussionist

Beethoven’s symphony features birdsong melodies he transcribed, while the great 20th-century Finnish composer Rautavaara’s work is a “Concerto for Birds and Orchestra”, with the recorded sounds of curlews, shore larks, whooper swans and others the soloists running throughout. Mayrhofer’s Recycling Concerto was written for the virtuosic percussionist Vivi Vassileva. Together they have collected and tuned an enormous battery of percussion from repurposed rubbish, which Vassileva makes full use of over the course of this powerful and thought-provoking work.

EPSG:4326

Recycling Concerto

Barbican Centre

Saffron Hall

Beethoven’s symphony features birdsong melodies he transcribed, while the great 20th-century Finnish composer Rautavaara’s work is a 'Concerto for Birds and Orchestra', with the recorded sounds of curlews, shore larks, whooper swans and others the soloists running throughout.

Britten Sinfonia: Recycling Concerto

To dream what, in all its improbability, defies comprehension: This freedom and imaginative power underpin Unsuk Chin’s music. Light and colour are the aggregate states of these sounds, which – in the process of engaging with one another – continually change their consistency, hinting at these dream-landscapes’ vast expanses. Just as Enno Poppe, with his transitions between rigorously structured design and axes that reach out towards unbounded time, conjures an unrestrained, almost dizzying sound experience in his listeners.

Unlimited Time

Wiener Konzerthaus

Works by Maurice Ravel, Chick Corea, John Psathas and others.

Duo-Energy

St.-Gertrud-Kirche Lübeck - Ev.-Luth. Kirchengemeinde St. Gertrud Lübeck

Live Vasileva

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Little Rock? Hollywood! The first part of the evening takes us into the dazzling musical world of the dream factory. Master arranger Robert Russel Bennett titled his symphonically brilliant medley of immortal melodies by "the great George" Gershwin in Hollywood . This is followed by music by the living Hollywood legend Danny Elfman, composer of the soundtracks to The Simpsons, Batman, Spider-Man and countless others. After 2019, Vivi Vassileva, a German star percussionist with Bulgarian roots who electrifies audiences around the world, will be joining us as the soloist in his brand new percussion concert. Little Rock? Not only was Hilary Clinton born in the capital of the US state of Arkansas, but also a great woman in American music history sixty years earlier: Florence Price, the first African-American composer to make her voice heard. Her masterful fourth and final symphony from 1945 was not played for the first time until 2018. It is conducted by Gregor Mayrhofer, who has previously assisted Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic and worked with soloists such as Khatia Buniatishvili and Daniil Trifonov.

Percussionist

Vivi Vassileva

Events

Past events

12 - 13 Mar, 2026

Recycling Concerto · Britten Sinfonia

Mar 12, 2026

Britten Sinfonia: Recycling Concerto · Barbican Centre

Future and recently performed repertoire

Percussion in Symphony No. 7 by Beethoven

Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival

Drums in Drum Concerto by Elfman

Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra

Percussion in Recycling Concerto by Mayrhofer

Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival

Percussion in Körper for ensemble by Poppe

Klangforum Wien

Percussion in Double Concerto for piano, percussion and ensemble by Chin

Klangforum Wien

About

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