‘Nadar Ensemble’

The audience arrives, the lights go out and the musicians appear on stage. Nevertheless, Hide to Show is no ordinary concert experience. In his high-tech production, the German composer and director Michael Beil encloses eight musicians in the world of Hatsune Miku, a fictional Japanese character and virtual singer. On live video, we see the members of Nadar Ensemble preparing backstage, each alone in their own small room. They hide behind their costumes, behind curtains and recordings of themselves, so that the real person remains invisible. When the musicians appear on stage, it is unclear whether they have escaped from the fictional world or found a home inside it. A parallel with social media is easily drawn. Be disoriented by this hyperreal wonderland.

Commissioned by Concertgebouw Brugge & Nadar Ensemble, with a grant from the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung.