Celebrated composer/activist Hildegard Westerkamp’s (BMus 1972) 80th birthday year is being celebrated with the release of KLAVIERKLANG, a short film that brings together Westerkamp and pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa (DMA 2007) in a beautiful, unconventional exploration of the piano.
KLAVIERKLANG (German for “piano sounds”) is a 17-minute experimental cinematic tone poem that tells a loosely autobiographical story. It follows a young girl in post-war Germany who grows frustrated with the strict rules of traditional piano lessons and eventually finds freedom through a weathered, “perfectly ruined” piano in a BC ghost town. The girl went on to become celebrated soundscape composer/activist Hildegard Westerkamp.
See the short film below:
The performance features Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, one of Canada’s foremost contemporary pianists, who interacts with the instrument in unconventional ways. Iwaasa doesn’t just play the keys; she plucks the strings and explores the piano’s internal architecture, treating it as a “creature” to be discovered.
The film uses digitally manipulated recordings of Iwaasa’s spoken reflections on the piano that interact with intricate soundscapes evoking Westerkamp’s childhood memories, accompanied by the striking visuals directed by Nettie Wild and edited by Michael Brockington.
KLAVIERKLANG has already made waves in the circuit. After premiering at Vancouver’s Modulus Festival, the film was selected for Le FIFA — the prestigious International Festival of Films on Art in Montreal. CBC Radio has called it “an intense and spectacular short film” that is “extraordinary”.
