Saturday, December 7, 2024
The MPS studio in Villingen, a recording studio founded by Hans-Georg Brunner-Schwer, heir to the SABA-Werke, with a spirit of innovation and enthusiasm for music, has been writing international jazz and music history in Villingen in the Black Forest since the 1960s. Since then, MPS has vouched for the title “most perfect sound” and is closely associated with names such as Oscar Peterson, Joachim Kühn, Friedrich Gulda, Bill Evans, Monty Alexander and Milt Buckner. Today, the recording studio is a listed building and has been run by the MPS-Studio e.V. has been operating it. The association runs the studio as a living museum, including regular studio concerts in the historic rooms.
Against the backdrop of the recording studio’s long and significant history, the “TRIO EXPANDED” program reexamines the traditional formation of the trio with piano or other keyboard instruments – which also played a central role in MPS productions and was prominently occupied by protagonists such as Oscar Peterson. Three extraordinary international trios – “ELEPHANT9” from Norway (13.9.), the “RON MINIS TRIO” from Israel (16.11.) and “GUSH” from Sweden (7.12.) – have been invited to the MPS studio for a concert to present their experimental take on the traditional formation.
The three international bands will each be joined by a trio of mainly students from Baden-Württemberg music universities. They are invited to play in the supporting program.
In addition to a fee of EUR 900, the student trios will receive a live recording of their performance at their free disposal. A Bösendorfer Gand Imperial and a Hammond organ B3 from 1957 will be available on site and for the performance. The judging will be carried out jointly by the respective musicians of the three trios named above, former MPS employees and the board of MPS-Studio e.V.
To apply for the first of the performances, we ask for a project description incl. short CV of the musicians (max. 2 pages) and up to three sound samples as web links. We expect applications for each concert, for the concert with GUSH (Mats Gustafsson) up to and including October 27, 2024 as an e-mail to projects@mps-studio.de. Applications must follow the following example system in the subject line: “GUSH_Bewerbung_[Name des studentischen Trios]”.
The TRIO EXPANDED program is made possible by the generous support of the Villingen-Schwenningen Department of Culture and the Baden-Württemberg Foundation.
