Press Releases

For Belgian clarinettist Annelien Van Wauwe music and yoga are the two pillars of her life as a musician and teacher. With this in mind, composer and compatriot Wim Henderickx has written Sutra for her – a concerto for basset clarinet, electronics and orchestra (co-commissioned by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and BBC Radio 3) inspired by the Yoga Sutras, the first scriptures of Yoga.

The work will be world premiered on 31 March 2022 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins at Glasgow’s City Halls. Annelien has also recorded Sutra with NDR Radiophilharmonie conducted by Andrew Manze as part of an album entitled Flow, which also includes Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major. The album will be released on 1 April 2022 in conjunction with the premiere on the Pentatone label, for which Annelien records exclusively.

Mastering the art of breathing is very much a pre-requisite for playing a wind instrument but the obvious connection with yoga is rarely discussed in musical training and wellbeing – a gap Annelien is endeavouring to fill in her work as not only a sought-after teacher of clarinet, but also of yoga.

Sutra represents all she believes in and practices. She says of Henderickx’s concerto: “The work is just like yoga and music – based on connection. It connects its performers and listeners to a higher reality and can be felt on a deeper level. Sutra combines extreme virtuosity with intense musical experiences and is comparable to a spiritual meditation. Peaceful, meditative and quiet passages are combined with powerful outbursts. Throughout the work, electronics create a spatial atmosphere. They create resonance between the orchestra and the soloist and unify the four separate parts of the concerto to a whole. The movements are inspired by some of the main pillars of yoga practice such as breath, concentration and meditation. The work ends in what Henderickx calls an ‘ intense spiritual union’, unifying the soloist, the conductor, the orchestra and the audience.”

Henderickx is one of several contemporary composers to have written works for Annelien, as a soloist or as part of the Brussels-based chamber ensembles BREEZE and CAROUSEL, which she co-founded.

The Borletti-Buitoni Trust gave Annelien one of its coveted awards in 2018 and supported her Belle époque debut SACD with Pentatone, an album that won her Germany’s foremost classical music prize, Opus Klassik Young Artist of the Year in 2020.

World premiere performance 31 March 2022 7.30pm City Halls Glasgow, Scotland
Wim Henderickx Sutra
Annelien van Wauwe clarinet
Martyn Brabbins conductor
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcsso/events/by/date/2022/03

Album Release 1 April 2022 Pentatone PTC5186973
Flow – Annelien Van Wauwe clarinet with NDR Radiophilharmonie conducted by Andrew Manze
Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622
Wim Henderickx Sutra

Annelien Van Wauwe clarinet
www.annelienvanwauwe.com
www.carousel-ensemble.com
www.breeze-winds.com

• Prizes and awards include Opus Klassik Young Artist of the Year 2020, joint first prize at the 61st International Music Competition of the ARD in Munich in 2012 and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2018
• Joined BBC New Generation Artist scheme 2015-2017
• Performs regularly with leading orchestras including Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Bavarian Radio Symphony, SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Brussels Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras
• Chamber music partners include Pavel Kolesnikov, Cédric Tiberghien, Amihal Grosz, Tabea Zimmermann,Schumann Quartet, Aris Quartet and Amatis Trio
• Halls in Europe where she regularly appears include Tonhalle Zurich, Bozar Brussels, Philharmonie Berlin, Konzerthaus Berlin, Konzerthaus Vienna, Wigmore Hall and Concertgebouw Amsterdam, as well as international festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festspiele, SchleswigHolstein Musik Festival, Kissinger Sommer and Radio France Festival in Montpellier
• Made her BBC Prom’s debut in 2017 and in 2018 performed Mozart’s clarinet concerto at a televised BBC Prom with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard
• Co-founded the Brussels chamber music ensemble “Carousel” and the woodwind quintet “Breeze”
• Signed by Dutch label Pentatone in 2018 with her debut award-winning album Belle époque. Other recordings include the sonatas by Weinberg and Prokofiev (Genuin) with pianist Lucas Blondeel, for which she won the Flemish Radio Klara Award in 2015
• Contemporary composers who have written works for Annelien include Manfred Trojahn who dedicated his Sonata V to her in 2017 and Wim Henderickx who wrote Sutra, a clarinet concerto based on breath and meditation (co-commissioned by BBT and BBC Radio3 for premiere in March 2022)
• Studied with Sabine Meyer in Lübeck. Other teachers include Yehuda Gilad in Los Angeles, Pascal Moragues in Paris, Alessandro Carbonare in Rome and Wenzel Fuchs and Ralf Forster in Berlin. Studied historical clarinet with Eric Hoeprich and Ernst Schlader
• Teaching posts include principal clarinet teacher at the Royal Conservatories in The Hague and she regularly gives masterclasses

a hugely engaging performer

The Arts Desk

one of the most exciting and original clarinettists of her generation

BBC Music Magazine

one of those personable and gifted young artists to whom prizes and awards cling like burrs to a pullover

Ivan Hewett, Daily Telegraph

WIM HENDERICKX (born 1962) is a Belgian composer of Contemporary classical music based in Antwerp. He studied composition and percussion at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp and sonology at IRCAM and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. His music is characterised by non-western elements with changing timbres and structures inspired by eastern philosophy.
www.wimhenderickx.com

Download a pdf of this press release

Sutra Press Release February 2022