Iva Bittová celebrates 10 years of Muziekpublique

Lees de Nederlandse versie

Iva Bittová is a highly unusual ambassador for Czech music. A singer and a violinist, her music is the result of a cross-fertilisation of folk, classical, and contemporary and is served up with a captivating stage presence and lots of guts. She is coming to the Molière to celebrate ten years of Muziekpublique.

What most defines Bittová is that she is unclassifiable. Born in 1958 in what was then Czechoslovakia, she absorbed music with her mother’s milk and inherited her multiple identity as an artist from her father, who was equally at home on a number of instruments.
Bittová’s multiple talents have found expression in a variety of projects, but these days she mainly performs solo. Not so much a carefully thought-out choice as a necessity. “With the economic crisis there is less money around, so I often appear alone,” she explains. “Last month I recorded a solo album, just my voice and the violin. Hopefully it will come out this autumn.”

No new cultural exchanges in prospect?
Iva Bittová: Well, yes: with the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble [a Dutch wind ensemble – ed.] – we recorded for the radio and it was really beautiful. Now we are going to present that project in a number of Dutch cities. And after my

concert in Brussels I am giving a workshop in Bruges for the Institute for Living Voice, in collaboration with David Moss. In all honesty, I still don’t know what I’m going to do, but that is how I see art too: you let yourself be surprised by the moment and develop connections between the participants. The most important thing is that people should open up emotionally, that they communicate with each other while singing. I’m not going to teach them any songs: they will have to improvise themselves, with very few words, for it is via emotion that we have to understand what they are trying to say.
Emotion seems to be very important in your work.
Bittová: Right. I’m not really keen on too many theories or words about how to create something. I try to talk with my audience via music. In a voice there is a whole lot of information and I know that people can detect that. That implicit emotion is the basis of the artistic experience, whether in music, painting, or dance. Recently I saw a film about the choreographer Pina Bausch. The movements of her dancers are so powerful. As if someone was crying out! After my shows people sometimes ask me if I am not embarrassed about baring so much. No. There is no point being embarrassed. On the stage you just have to be yourself.
In Brussels you will be performing with a number of guests. What should we expect?
Bittová: I am still not absolutely sure who the guests will be. Maybe my good friend David Zambrano, a dancer who lives in Brussels and with whom I could engage in a very spontaneous interaction. I love working with dancers; it is another form of expression to explore. I used to dance a lot as a child. Dance is one of the cornerstones of art. Everyone onstage has to know how to move.
Maybe you won’t have time to rehearse?
Bittová: We won’t need it: the soundcheck is usually enough to get a feeling for the other person. I like surprising myself while I improvise. That doesn’t always give the best results, but the audience likes the surprise. Interaction with other artists is what drives me artistically.”

Iva Bittová
17/3 • 20.00, €12/15/17 Théâtre Molière Naamsepoortgalerij/Galerie de la Porte de Namur, Bolwerksquare 3 sq. du Bastion, Elsene/Ixelles, 02-217.26.00, www.muziekpublique.be