High note Cezary’s Picks · a proposal to compose music to ‘Chernobyl’, miniseries of the HBO...
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ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020 15 High note Cezary’s Picks By Cezary Owerkowicz Special to the Arab Times I n the deck of cards Joker takes everything; unexpected, unpre- dictable, just crazy. This is the power of Joker. Is it like a vol- cano? Iceland is the land of ice; it means cold land but is known also for hot geysers and volca- noes... totally unpredictable. Have you heard of the Eyjafjallajokull’s (sorry, I can’t pronounce it!) a vol- cano in Iceland which erupted ten years ago, in 2010 on March 20 to be precise and spewed hot ash un- til June 23)? It affected the economic, politic and cultural activities in Europe and across the world. It prevented several leaders from around the world such as Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy among others from attending the state funeral for the lech President Lech Kaczynski in Poland. Hun- dreds of events were cancelled and hundreds of thousands of travelers were unable to reach their destination. It is im- possible to forget the amazing good perfor- mance of the Iceland soc- cer team in the FIFA World Cup Finals when it became the first team to ever compete in the FIFA World Cup Final from the least populated country. Moreover, the team fielded semi-professionals, but showed a strong will to fight and win. As old Vikings were? They undermined few ‘common theories’ regarding sportsmen, sometimes fantastic but some- times so spoiled, and last but not the least – brilliant career of un- exceptional singer and songwriter, Bjork. I wrote about her a few times. Her family name is: Gudnadót- tir, also not easy to pronounce. However I have to try my best to study Icelandic names. Two weeks ago I predicted the Oscar Award for The Original Score to ‘Joker’ a movie made by Hildur Ingveldardóttir Gudnadóttir. Even my best will and efforts, I hope that she will be known as – Hildur. However she won: for herself, for ‘Joker’, and for female compos- ers! Just she was The First in the History. Remembrance She is 37, and was born on Sept 4, 1982 in Reykjavik, capi- tal of Iceland. Her father was a clarinetist, conductor, composer and teacher, her mother an Opera singer. Her two brothers are mem- bers of music ensembles. “My first musical remembrance was as daddy practiced ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ by Nicolas Rimsky Korsakov, and it amused me, so I tell him to play it forever,” she says. “As a small girl I often fell asleep on the floor of the practice room of the Music Academy.” Her mother, when she was preg- nant with her, said that she will give birth to a cellist. And true to her words the daughter started to play cello when she was five. (Can you imagine a tiny girl playing a big instrument as big as cello? Cute…) When she was ten she made her first public appearance in a concert (alongside her mother, of course). ‘I liked to play cello, but always I had a major problem with submission’, she remembers. ‘Music is a form of communi- cation and expression; nothing should be imposed.’ Maybe because of it, after graduation at the Reykjavik Mu- sic Academy, she went to Berlin, to study composition. Except that she studied also at the Iceland Academy of Fine Arts as well as at Berlin Fine Arts University. She never intended to compose film music but for a long time was interested in synchronizing music with story. d began to cooperate with her father’s friend, Iceland composer, Johann Johannsson, He was twice nominated for The Best Score Oscar Awards. She helped him with music to Canadian movie director Denis Villeneuve’s films. She has developed her own style of work. When she received a proposal to compose music to ‘Chernobyl’, miniseries of the HBO drama in 2019 she submitted her own author’s idea. She went on filming near the already closed Igalina Nuclear Power Plant, the twin sister of original Chernobyl Plant, situated in Lithuania and she was recording certain sounds. On its base she composed music to that series. She didn’t want to artificially emphasize the action created drama. She cared about honesty and respect for the disas- ter victims. Symbol Simultaneously with ‘Chernob- yl’ she began her work on ‘Joker’. Hildur reminds of the story of the people affected by man-made disease, which broke her heart. Music was created before filming because of this Joaquin Phoenix played many scenes with head- phones like to Hildur’s music – music dictated the tempo and rhythm of play, choreography and emotional change. Hildur became the third ever woman awarded The Best Score of ninety-one in the history of Academy Awards – earlier award- ees were Rachel Portman in 1996 for ‘Emma’ and Anne Dudley in 1997 for ‘The Full Monty’. In this case she became a symbol of fe- male participation in Hollywood and Academy Awards, especially nowadays, when we remain fo- cused on equal rights for both genders. The composer approves her symbolic status as ambassador of female professionals and their position. She raised the matter of unacceptable statistics. The New York Times info shows from 250 movies of American box-office in 2018, ninety for percent were composed by a study done by Center for the Study of Women in TV and Film. Hildur supports the associations involved in deep change of such situation. One of them is Alliance for Women Film Composers, es- tablished in 2014 by Laura Karp- man (‘Odyssey’). Its members act on education, organization of panels and support of women in film industry.’ A bit more women compose music to document the ‘independent’ cin- ema. Phenomenon However it is still a very ‘mas- culinized’ industry. There are few reasons for it. First – historical: from the beginning of cinema pro- duction music was composed by males and they had also male suc- cessors; secondly – in the case of huge, big-budget production there is lack of producers’ imagination. To such cinema there were ‘Top Five’ already famous men, and for women there was a job in roman- tic comedies only. It is a negative phenomenon.’ Hildur is thirty-seven already, and since twenty years does film music. She has recorded five solo albums, composed music to four- teen movies and eight TV produc- tions. She is the first lady who won the Golden Globe for ‘solo’, alone and not shared with somebody. In addition to this she was awarded Emmy, Grammy and BAFTA. It is like winning all ma- jor tournaments, the Top Grand Slam in tennis. Smiling, energetic she was the focus of attention of all cinema people from both sides of the screen. She beat in Oscar competition such celebrities as John Williams, nominated for Star Wars (Skywalker, Revival), and Alexandre Desplat (Little Wom- en). After warmly expressing her thanks for family and support- ers, Hildur in her address ‘Girls, women, mothers and daughters, who have heard music playing in their minds and hearts, please, let us know about you, we have to hear your voices! Let us wait for women voices. P.S. Kasia Laska, Polish actress who dubbed Elsa’s song ‘Into the Unknown’ from the nominated movie ‘Iceland 2’, performed with Idina Menzel and her seven col- leagues female singers during the Oscar Awarding Ceremony. A re- ally hot performance… They were like Iceland geysers but Hildur reminds me rather of the Iceland volcano. ❑ ❑ ❑ Editor’s Note: Cezary Owerko- wicz is the chairman of the Kuwait Chamber of Philharmonia and talented pianist. He regularly or- ganises concerts by well-known musicians for the benefit of music lovers and to widen the knowl- edge of music in Kuwait. His e- mail address is: cowerkowicz @ yahoo.com and cowerkowicz@ hotmail.com Oscar-winner Hildur, the symbol for women voices Volcano from Iceland Owerkowicz Fishermen returning home during sunset. (Ahmad Al-Failakawi – KUNA) A group photo from the event. Billava Sangha Kuwait executive team meets Indian ambassador Billava Sangha Kuwait (BSK) President, Krish- na S. Poojary and Management Committee members met Ambassador of India to Kuwait, H.E. K. Jeeva Sagar and First secretary, Rahul at the Embassy of India, Kuwait on Thursday, Feb 20. The honorable ambassador was briefed about the association, the various activities carried out by the association in the past and the activities planned for the year 2020. During the meeting, the ambassador appreciated the service provided to the community members in Kuwait. He conveyed his best wishes to the organization. The meeting concluded with a group photo. Continued on Page 16 Latest Continued from Page 14 Each and every Kerala pravasi in Kuwait is requesting voluntar- ily come together as a member for fulfilling needs and rights back in Kerala on being united. GKPA is a Non-political, non-religious and non-regional global platform for Kerala expatriates, registered as society in Kerala and serving the community in 14 countries and 14 districts in the Kerala. (GKPA Reg: KTM / TC / 118/2018) Mangaf- Fahaheel Area Team Contact : 66985656- 66675665- 69638951-60357933-96968983 Abbassiya Area Team Contact: 50751131-65594279- 66653904-99721860-66278546 March 27 SIF ‘Sastra Prathibha’ awards: Science International Forum (SIF) Kuwait has an- nounced the results of its 6th edi- tion Sastra Prathibha Contest in Kuwait. Top scoring 18 students were declared ‘Sastra Prathibha’ from the students who appeared the exam in three categories. The winners of the Sas- tra Prathibha title are Reine Mary John (Class 4), Sahassra Gatamanani (Class 4), Madhav Prasanth (Class 4), Aditya Arun Kartha (Class 5), Jalaludeen Akbar (Class 5), Shuvangi Das (Class 5), Manha Anees Shina (Class 6), Mathew George (Class 6), Riddhiraj Kumar (Class 7), Angelina Elizabeth Poulose (Class 7), Isaam Thalhath (Class 7), Ashwin Sajan Pillai (Class 8), Anushikha Sreeja Vinod (Class 8), Taha Rafik Chikte (Class 9), Gokul Sreenivasan (Class 9), Vaishnavi Rajesh Pai (Class 10), Prakhar Gupta (Class 10), Shreya Lizzy Thomas (Class 10). The prestigious ‘Acharya J.C.Bose Sastra Puraskar’ for the best school is secured by Indian Education School, (Bhavans). click
Transcript of High note Cezary’s Picks · a proposal to compose music to ‘Chernobyl’, miniseries of the HBO...
ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020
15
High note
Cezary’s Picks
By Cezary OwerkowiczSpecial to the Arab Times
In the deck of cards Joker takes everything; unexpected, unpre-
dictable, just crazy. This is the power of Joker. Is it like a vol-cano? Iceland is the land of ice; it means cold land but is known also for hot geysers and volca-noes... totally unpredictable. Have you heard of the Eyjafjallajokull’s (sorry, I can’t pronounce it!) a vol-cano in Iceland which erupted ten years ago, in 2010 on March 20 to be precise and spewed hot ash un-til June 23)?
It affected the economic, politic and cultural activities in Europe and across the world. It prevented several leaders from around the world such as Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy among others from attending the state funeral for the lech President Lech Kaczynski in Poland. Hun-dreds of events were cancelled
and hundreds of thousands of travelers were unable to reach their destination.
It is im-possible to forget the a m a z i n g good perfor-mance of the Iceland soc-
cer team in the FIFA World Cup Finals when it became the first team to ever compete in the FIFA World Cup Final from the least populated country. Moreover, the team fielded semi-professionals, but showed a strong will to fight and win. As old Vikings were? They undermined few ‘common theories’ regarding sportsmen, sometimes fantastic but some-times so spoiled, and last but not the least – brilliant career of un-exceptional singer and songwriter, Bjork. I wrote about her a few times.
Her family name is: Gudnadót-tir, also not easy to pronounce. However I have to try my best to study Icelandic names. Two weeks ago I predicted the Oscar Award for The Original Score to ‘Joker’ a movie made by Hildur Ingveldardóttir Gudnadóttir. Even my best will and efforts, I hope that she will be known as – Hildur. However she won: for herself, for ‘Joker’, and for female compos-ers! Just she was The First in the History.
RemembranceShe is 37, and was born on
Sept 4, 1982 in Reykjavik, capi-tal of Iceland. Her father was a clarinetist, conductor, composer and teacher, her mother an Opera singer. Her two brothers are mem-bers of music ensembles. “My first musical remembrance was as daddy practiced ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ by Nicolas Rimsky Korsakov, and it amused me, so I tell him to play it forever,” she says. “As a small girl I often fell asleep on the floor of the practice room of the Music Academy.”
Her mother, when she was preg-nant with her, said that she will give birth to a cellist. And true to her words the daughter started to play cello when she was five. (Can you imagine a tiny girl playing a big instrument as big as cello? Cute…) When she was ten she made her first public appearance in a concert (alongside her mother, of course). ‘I liked to play cello, but always I had a major problem with submission’, she remembers. ‘Music is a form of communi-cation and expression; nothing should be imposed.’
Maybe because of it, after graduation at the Reykjavik Mu-sic Academy, she went to Berlin, to study composition. Except that she studied also at the Iceland Academy of Fine Arts as well as at Berlin Fine Arts University.
She never intended to compose film music but for a long time was interested in synchronizing music with story. d began to cooperate with her father’s friend, Iceland composer, Johann Johannsson, He was twice nominated for The Best Score Oscar Awards. She helped him with music to Canadian movie director Denis Villeneuve’s films.
She has developed her own style of work. When she received a proposal to compose music to ‘Chernobyl’, miniseries of the HBO drama in 2019 she submitted her own author’s idea. She went on filming near the already closed
Igalina Nuclear Power Plant, the twin sister of original Chernobyl Plant, situated in Lithuania and she was recording certain sounds. On its base she composed music to that series. She didn’t want to artificially emphasize the action created drama. She cared about honesty and respect for the disas-ter victims.
SymbolSimultaneously with ‘Chernob-
yl’ she began her work on ‘Joker’. Hildur reminds of the story of the people affected by man-made disease, which broke her heart. Music was created before filming because of this Joaquin Phoenix played many scenes with head-phones like to Hildur’s music – music dictated the tempo and rhythm of play, choreography and emotional change.
Hildur became the third ever woman awarded The Best Score of ninety-one in the history of Academy Awards – earlier award-ees were Rachel Portman in 1996 for ‘Emma’ and Anne Dudley in 1997 for ‘The Full Monty’. In this case she became a symbol of fe-male participation in Hollywood and Academy Awards, especially nowadays, when we remain fo-cused on equal rights for both genders.
The composer approves her symbolic status as ambassador of female professionals and their position. She raised the matter of unacceptable statistics. The New York Times info shows from 250 movies of American box-office in 2018, ninety for percent were composed by a study done by Center for the Study of Women in TV and Film.
Hildur supports the associations involved in deep change of such situation. One of them is Alliance for Women Film Composers, es-tablished in 2014 by Laura Karp-man (‘Odyssey’).
Its members act on education, organization of panels and support of women in film industry.’ A bit more women compose music to document the ‘independent’ cin-ema.
PhenomenonHowever it is still a very ‘mas-
culinized’ industry. There are few reasons for it. First – historical: from the beginning of cinema pro-duction music was composed by males and they had also male suc-cessors; secondly – in the case of huge, big-budget production there is lack of producers’ imagination. To such cinema there were ‘Top Five’ already famous men, and for women there was a job in roman-tic comedies only. It is a negative phenomenon.’
Hildur is thirty-seven already, and since twenty years does film music. She has recorded five solo albums, composed music to four-teen movies and eight TV produc-tions. She is the first lady who won the Golden Globe for ‘solo’, alone and not shared with somebody.
In addition to this she was awarded Emmy, Grammy and BAFTA. It is like winning all ma-jor tournaments, the Top Grand Slam in tennis. Smiling, energetic she was the focus of attention of all cinema people from both sides of the screen. She beat in Oscar competition such celebrities as John Williams, nominated for Star Wars (Skywalker, Revival), and Alexandre Desplat (Little Wom-en).
After warmly expressing her thanks for family and support-ers, Hildur in her address ‘Girls, women, mothers and daughters, who have heard music playing in their minds and hearts, please, let us know about you, we have to hear your voices! Let us wait for women voices.
P.S. Kasia Laska, Polish actress who dubbed Elsa’s song ‘Into the Unknown’ from the nominated movie ‘Iceland 2’, performed with Idina Menzel and her seven col-leagues female singers during the Oscar Awarding Ceremony. A re-ally hot performance… They were like Iceland geysers but Hildur reminds me rather of the Iceland volcano.
❑ ❑ ❑
Editor’s Note: Cezary Owerko-wicz is the chairman of the Kuwait Chamber of Philharmonia and talented pianist. He regularly or-ganises concerts by well-known musicians for the benefit of music lovers and to widen the knowl-edge of music in Kuwait. His e-mail address is: cowerkowicz @yahoo.com and [email protected]
Oscar-winner Hildur, thesymbol for women voices
Volcano from Iceland
Owerkowicz
Fishermen returning home during sunset. (Ahmad Al-Failakawi – KUNA)
A group photo from the event.
Billava Sangha Kuwait executive team meets Indian ambassador
Billava Sangha Kuwait (BSK) President, Krish-na S. Poojary and Management Committee members met Ambassador of India to Kuwait, H.E. K. Jeeva Sagar and First secretary, Rahul at the Embassy of India, Kuwait on Thursday,
Feb 20.The honorable ambassador was briefed
about the association, the various activities carried out by the association in the past and the activities planned for the year 2020. During
the meeting, the ambassador appreciated the service provided to the community members in Kuwait. He conveyed his best wishes to the organization. The meeting concluded with a group photo.
Continued on Page 16
LatestContinued from Page 14Each and every Kerala pravasi
in Kuwait is requesting voluntar-ily come together as a member for fulfi lling needs and rights back in Kerala on being united. GKPA is a Non-political, non-religious and non-regional global platform for Kerala expatriates, registered as society in Kerala and serving the community in 14 countries and 14 districts in the Kerala.
(GKPA Reg: KTM / TC / 118/2018)
Mangaf- Fahaheel Area Team Contact : 66985656- 66675665-69638951-60357933-96968983
Abbassiya Area Team Contact: 50751131-65594279- 66653904-99721860-66278546
March 27SIF ‘Sastra Prathibha’ awards: Science International Forum (SIF) Kuwait has an-nounced the results of its 6th edi-tion Sastra Prathibha Contest in Kuwait. Top scoring 18 students were declared ‘Sastra Prathibha’ from the students who appeared the exam in three categories.
The winners of the Sas-tra Prathibha title are Reine Mary John (Class 4), Sahassra Gatamanani (Class 4), Madhav Prasanth (Class 4), Aditya Arun Kartha (Class 5), Jalaludeen Akbar (Class 5), Shuvangi Das (Class 5), Manha Anees Shina (Class 6), Mathew George (Class 6), Riddhiraj Kumar (Class 7), Angelina Elizabeth Poulose (Class 7), Isaam Thalhath (Class 7), Ashwin Sajan Pillai (Class 8), Anushikha Sreeja Vinod (Class 8), Taha Rafi k Chikte (Class 9), Gokul Sreenivasan (Class 9), Vaishnavi Rajesh Pai (Class 10), Prakhar Gupta (Class 10), Shreya Lizzy Thomas (Class 10).
The prestigious ‘Acharya J.C.Bose Sastra Puraskar’ for the best school is secured by Indian Education School, (Bhavans).
click
