ALL OUR Looking ahead to a festival of fine music
AMID THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS EVENTS AND FESTIVALS ARE BEING CANCELLED OR POSTPONED. HUDDERSFIELD CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL (HCMF//) IS STILL ON FOR NOVEMBER. HERE LOOKS AT THE HISTORY OF A VERY MODERN FESTIVAL
IT’S strange to talk about hcmf//’s past. The richest moments in its history have happened looking to the future. Founded as Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 1978 by music lecturer Richard Steinitz, the festival has always thought forward - for more than 40 years, it’s been putting contemporary music in a different context, inviting renowned artists to stray from conventions and capital cities.
It has since made Huddersfield the home fixture in European experimental music, giving residencies to some of the most radical composers and artists of our generation.
Conceived as a five-day festival showcasing some of the biggest figures in contemporary music, the festival’s first ever year fought off unforeseen challenges - including extreme weather that left travelling artists with no option but to cancel - to deliver the promise of a permanent Yorkshire date in the contemporary music calendar.
Seven years later, hcmf// would double in size, making the transformation to the ten-day affair it is now and carrying along its way appearances from legendary composers Iannis Xenakis. It later hosted some of the most daring, controversial musicians to ever live. John Cage visited the festival in 1989, his love for exploring the town exemplifying the way artists begin to feel at home in it; Karlheinz Stockhausen, perhaps the most influential artist to ever grace electronic music, had visited a year earlier.
In its modern set-up, hcmf// is scattered through the heart of Huddersfield, still taking place over ten days in an expanded roster of theatres, bars, town markets, churches, and the glorious industrial setting of Bates Mill. The audience is a mashup of local music fans and travelling heads, all of them coalescing on the festival’s hcmf// shorts day - free to attend, this 12-hour filibuster of rolling events now attracts over 2,000 listeners on a yearly basis.
And while hcmf// brings international music to Huddersfield, it also helps make Huddersfield international, positioning it as the hub for a thriving global music scene.
hcmf// Is about change, both artistically and politically. The festival appointed Graham McKenzie artistic director in 2006; he has spent his tenure building upon, but also challenging, its foundations.
Since then, programming has interrogated the shifting definition of composer, as well as the ways in which ‘musician’ has changed as an identity. Motivated by the precarious world around us, and increasingly-resourced with new media and technology, artists have brought striking statements to the festival recent residences have come from audiovisual composer Christian Marclay and experimental minimalist Hanna Hartman, while performances have included last year’s Iced Bodies, a striking mediation on police brutality in the USA.
hcmf//’s history can also be traced through its programming. Celebrated composer James Dillon was awarded the festival’s historic Young Composers’ award at the inaugural edition of the festival, and has gone on to enjoy numerous commissions and premieres in future years. He’ll have new music presented at the festival in 2020. hcmf// is committed to following musicians on their artistic journey, helping them evolve their musical vision as it travels across the globe - and back to Huddersfield.
Crucially, the festival remains an advocate for the development and equality of new talent, dedicated to giving a voice to those who need it. In 2017 the festival joined Keychange, an initiative created to encourage festivals around the UK to achieve gender parity across their programming.
hcmf// has already exceeded its targets; in 2019 52% of all works presented at the festival were written by women, a rise from 32% in 2017.
This work is ongoing; in order for change to take place on programmes, it must take place off of them, too. hcmf// reflects this in the creation of new opportunities for the women and gender minorities of the future.
In 2020, the festival will play host to Sound Pioneers, a new mentorship program for women in electronic music, led by Yorkshire
Sound Women Network. As in the rest of its work, the festival seeks to create a legacy for Keychange, challenging ongoing marginalisation in the music industry by keeping it in sight.
hcmf// is known for its international reach, but it belongs to a family of musical and cultural initiatives that can only be found in Kirklees. Through the festival’s new talent development scheme, the Young
Curators’ Programme, the festival went looking for local innovation, seeking out curators, promoters and producers working around Huddersfield.
hcmf// is now working with six local artists, offering them tailormade mentorships and a space in which to present new works. The towns and venues of Kirklees are filled with new art and music; hcmf// hopes to join the dots between them, connecting the region’s culture while providing a much-needed platform to those artists who are trying to make things happen within it.
The festival’s Young Curators will join a programme that is, as ever, thinking about what comes next. Appearing as hcmf// 2020’s Composer in Residence, Israeli-American artist Chaya Czernowin continues a recent trend at the festival of showcasing music that portrays ‘otherness,’ taking us beyond our normal expectations and experiences.
If there’s anything 1978 about the 2020 edition of the festival, it’s that same desire to throw a curveball: rather than feed into what already happens in contemporary music, hcmf// tries to nudge it along, to place it elsewhere.