Kaida
www.kaida.nl


In 1999 the flute-player Karina Erhard together with the bass clarinet-player Fie Schouten founded the KAIDA Trio. Their main goals are to explore the repertoire that has been written for flute, bass clarinet and piano during the past 25 years, to have the repertoire for their instruments enlarged and to explore the connection between contemporary written and improvised music.

Their refreshing approach to music and high level of playing are convincing: In 2003 the KAIDA Trio was awarded the special prize for improvisation at the International Gaudeamus Competition as well as the special prize Buffet-Crampon during the International Chamber-music Competition Illzach (France). In 2001 the ensemble received the the Stichting Tera de Marez Oyens Fonds prize.
Apart from playing regular concerts, the trio performed at various large festivals in the Netherlands and abroad, including the International Gaudeamus Musicweek 2002, the festival Spazio Musica in Cagliari (Sardinia/Italy), the Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt 2002, the Ciclo de Música Contemporánea 2003 at Tenerife (Spain) and the festival Music Accord 2004 in Illzach (France). Future plans include a tour of Canada in the spring of 2005.
The KAIDA Trio has not only comissioned new works from the following composers, but also has been asked to perform premieres from Calliope Tsoupaki, Vanessa Lann, Seung-Ah Oh, Filippo Perocco, Stevko Busch, Andrew Ford and Hanna Kulenty. Future projects include premieres by Chris Paul Harman and John MacCallum.
From the year 2004 onwards, KAIDA will be expanding their original trio with piano, to include not only their basic duo of flute and clarinet, but also various other musicians in different combinations.
In the spring of 2004, KAIDA gave a tour through Germany and France together with the renowned pianist Nora Mulder. They also performed and improvised with the accordion-player Theo Bodewits.
Already in those new combinations, KAIDA has inspired composers to write for them: Dominy Clements and Stevko Busch wrote pieces for flute, bass clarinet, accordion and soundtrack, Jorrit Dijkstra wrote a piece for alto-flute, bass clarinet and soundtracks and Nicolas Gilbert, Christiaan de Jong, Joe Cutler and Marco Beck are also currently writing pieces for that duo combination.

Karina Erhard flute, piccolo, alto flute
Fie Schouten bass clarinet, Bb clarinet