Bernhard Mikuskovics @ 1. Overtone Festival, Kiev, Ukraine 2011: Review

Along with jew´s harpists from Russia and didgeridoo- and jew´s harp players from Ukraine i was invited together with my Austrian fellow musician and colleague Bernhard Hanreich to perform and to hold lectures about jew´s harping and overtone singing at the 1. overtone festival at Kiev, that happened this year between the 5th and the 6th of November at Ukraine.

On the first day of the festival the programm started at Ivan Gontschar museum of Ukrainian folk art with a jew´s harp session. After this the Russian jew´s harpist Aksenty Beskrovny held a short speech about the international jew´s harp society and then lectures about instruments out of the world of overtones (jew´s harp, didgeridoo, overtone singing) led into the afternoon. In this frameset i had the chance to speak about the quality of the Austrian jew´s harp playing method in an international context and illustrated afterwards together with Bernhard Hanreich various techniques and styles of overtone singing to the audience in a separate lecture.

Following this the programm in the afternoon finalized with a competition "Best jew´s harpist of the festival participants", that was elected by a five headed jury out of twelve participants. This jury consisted of me, Bernhard Hanreich and the Russian jew´s harpists Aksenty Beskrovny, Vladimir Markov und Nikolai Sobolev.

Local and international soloists and bands performed in the frameset of the evening programm and i was lucky to play a duo jew´s harp performance with Aksenty Beskrovny and a set with different overtone instruments and overtone singing afterwards with Bernhard Hanreich.

The program of the second day of the festival consisted of master classes that took place in a yoga studio: Nikolai Sobolev (master class: solo jew´s harp playing with the Yakut jew´s harp “Khomus”), Bernhard Mikuskovics (master class: Austrian jew´s harp playing method using multiple jew´s harps), Bernhard Hanreich (master class: overtone singing) and master classes in didgeridoo playing methods held by Ukrainian artists.

The festival closed with the proclamation “Best jew´s harpist of the festival participants“ followed by the handing-over of diplomas by the organizer and a final jew´s harp session.

Due to the high grade of interest and knowledge of the participants the whole event had more the character of a symposium then of a festival. The timeline of the event and of the program was dense but well structured so there was plenty of time for communication and discussion and we all had a really great time!

Left: Festival Start / Jew´s harp Session -> Right: My jew´s harp lecture

Left & right:  My lecture about overtone singing together with Bernhard Hanreich

Left: Jew´s harp competition of participants -> Right: My jew´s harp duo performance with Aksenty Beskrovny (Moscow)

Left: My duo-performance with Bernhard Hanreich -> Right: Trio-performance with Yaroslaw Kaminskiy (Ukraine) & Bernhard Hanreich

Left & right: My jew´s harp master class 

Left: Festival Ending with handing-over of diplomas