The Last Laugh

The Last Laugh (F.W. Murnau, Germany, 1924)

One of the crowning achievements of the German expressionist movement, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s The Last Laugh (Der letzte Mann) stars Emil Jannings as an aging doorman whose happiness crumbles when he is relieved of the duties and uniform which had for years been the foundation of his happiness and pride. Through Jannings’s colossal performance, The Last Laugh becomes more than the plight of a single doorman, but a mournful dramatization of the frustration and anguish of old age’s mêlée with modern times.

Music by Bart de Vrees (composition, percussion and electronics), Maarten Ornstein (bass-clarinet and saxophone) and Miriam Overlach (harp)

For this masterpiece of silent cinema Bart de Vrees gathered a trio of musicians who are at home in the field of composed music, (free) improvisation, jazz, electronics and cinema. There will be no traditional score for the film, but a collaborative work with written notes, leaving ample room for improvisation. While following the atmosphere of the film, we’ll often also provide it with a counterpoint or counter color through more abstract music or sound.

Bart de Vrees
Bart de Vrees (1974) studied composition and (classical) percussion at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Being a percussionist, composer, improviser and performer, de Vrees holds a unique position within the Dutch cultural field, working with both traditional (acoustic) instruments/voices and with new media such as (live) electronics and video. His work is a constant search to integrate or desintegrate music, sound, words, movement, objects, theatre, visual arts and new media. For many years he has collaborated with a large number of artists from all kinds of artistic disciplines and styles. As a percussionist he works with symphony orchestras and ensembles, plays chamber music, solorecitals and performs in dance/theatre productions. De Vrees composed pieces for various ensembles (ao. Asko/Schönberg, Nieuw Ensemble, Collegium Novum Zürich, Adapter Ensemble, Insomnio Ensemble, Modelo62), theatre productions (ao. Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, Slagwerk den Haag) and musicians (ao. Diamanda Dramm, Brandt Attema, Miriam Overlach). His music is performed in festivals both in the Netherlands (ao. Holland Festival, November Music, Gaudeamus festival) and abroad (ao. Innovations en Concert (Montreal, Canada), Innersounds (Bucharest, Roumania), Ilios (Norway)), Time of Music festival (Vilnius, Lithuania), International Computer Music Conference (ICMC). He is currently working on a new composition for Asko/Schönberg and Capella Amsterdam and on a new work for video and various instruments titled Posthuman Digital Neurosis.

Maarten Ornstein
Maarten Ornstein had worked with a long list of leading musicians from all over the planet. He is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and founding member of Splendor Amsterdam. Maarten studied tenor saxophone and bass clarinet at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and bansuri and Indian music at Codarts Rotterdam.

Miriam Overlach
Miriam Overlach treedt op als soliste en kamermusicus, is oprichter van Ensemble Lumaka en Composing for Harp en houdt zich intensief bezig met hedendaagse muziek, muziektheater en performance. Sinds 2018 is zij hoofdvakdocente aan het Conservatorium van Antwerpen. Zij won eerste prijzen op het Concours ‚Martine Géliot‘, het Vriendenkrans Concours van het Concertgebouw en het Nederlands Harp Concours en is laureate van het ‘Deutscher Musikwettbewerb’. De afgelopen jaren gaf zij veelvuldig solo - en kamermuziekrecitals in Nederland en Duitsland. Met haar Ensemble Lumaka (fluit, strijkers, harp) won Miriam het Almere Kamermuziekconcours en de publieksprijs van ‘Het Debuut’. Lumaka bracht verschillende kamermuziek-cd’s uit. Hun nieuwste cd ‘Sepia & Amaranth’ (2017), werd in het tijdschrift‚ Luister’ met een 10 gerecenseerd. In verschillende eigen producties komen tekst, architectuur en muziek uit het Interbellum samen en nemen de luisteraar mee op tijdreis naar de jaren twintig. Miriam speelt regelmatig met het Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, het Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest en het Nederlands Kamerorkest als ook in hedendaagse muziekensembles zoals Ensem- ble Modern Frankfurt en het oh ton-ensemble Oldenburg. Sinds haar studietijd heeft Miriam zich bezig gehouden met improvisatie en trad op met o.a. Anthony Braxton en in producties van Corrie van Binsbergen met Toon Tellegen of Hans Dagelet.