A Concert for Opacity
In this concert, the composition students of Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium, under the guidance of composer, performer and composition teacher Marcela Lucatelli, embrace Édouard Glissant’s concept of opacity by creating an immersive experience that resists clear interpretation, instead celebrating mystery, complexity, and the unknown. Each composition is not simply a product of an individual identity but reflects a network of influences, sounds, and cultural references that interweave unpredictably, allowing the audience to encounter music as something that cannot and should not be fully deciphered.
Opacity in this context means resisting simplification. Each piece invites the audience to engage with layers of rhythm, texture, and dissonance that resist easy resolution, thus mirroring Glissant’s idea that identity and meaning should not always be transparent or fully understood. Through embracing ambiguity, the compositions challenge listeners to find value in the unfathomable, moving beyond clear boundaries of genre or narrative.
Through this musical embrace of opacity, the concert invites listeners to set aside expectations and enter a soundscape filled with surprises, textures, and secrets. Each piece extends a warm invitation to feel, wander, and even get a little lost within the music’s premises. Listeners are encouraged to experience the beauty of the unfamiliar—a unique chance to let go of preconceptions and immerse in the freedom and richness of an aural dimension that seduces rather than explains, leaving room for everyone’s unique interpretation. The concert becomes a shared journey through the mysterious and the marvelous, where every note and silence holds something to be unleashed.
Marcela Lucatelli is an internationally acclaimed composer and vocalist. She received the Carl Nielsen Talent Prize in Composition (2019) and the Pelle Prize (2021) for her groundbreaking approach. Her recent album Necromancy won the Danish Music Awards’ 2023 Vocal Jazz Release of the Year, showcasing the diverse spectrum of vocal jazz. Known for her research into alternative, decolonial compositional methods, Lucatelli teaches composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus and has lectured at prestigious institutions across Denmark and Europe.