Musik-Performance

Beguiling music, flickering disco lights, glaring spotlights … everything that makes a super show is furnished with a virtuoso interconnection and irony. Rituals of music culture, whether in pop or classical concerts, form the material for a play with the expectations.

»Velma Superstar« is a subtle parody about the mechanisms of event culture. The piece is particularly impressive for the inscrutable humour and the charm of the performers, who are not shy of a large portion of self-mockery. The choir of Leipzig locals has been formed especially for the two performances within this festival and provides something particularly special and unique. The performances have been preceded by an intensive, one-week rehearsal programme.

The electro-pop band Velma consists of three musicians: Christian Garcia, born in Geneva in 1968, Christophe Jaquet, born in Lausanne in 1964, and Stéphane Vecchione, born in Yverdon-les-Bains in 1971. From the need to combine electronic beats and tonal areas with classical instruments and pop elements, they founded the company, Velma, in 1996. The artists worked together with dancers and choreographers and to date have achieved the productions »Cyclique« (1999), »Applique« (2000) and »Rondo« (2002). Parallel to these, the band also composes film music and gives concerts in clubs.

»The trio from western Switzerland have a fine ear for those rhythms that are generated by the infinite round dance of cultural idling. Their specific musical theatre – with choir string quartet and band – is based on few sounds, which slowly build into the prayer wheel style urgency of minimal music« (Ueli Bernays, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 23.01.2006).