Barcelona Poetry Festival. With Miquel Desclot and Horacio Curti

Within the framework of the Night of the Museums and within the programming of the Barcelona Poetry festival, the poet Miquel Desclot will recite a selection of the poems that are included in the poetic anthology On a pillow of grass which includes an extensive selection of classical Japanese lyrics, from the 4th century to the present, with haikus and tanks chosen and covered by Desclot.

The poetic recital will consist of three parts and between each part there will be a musical interlude performed by the shakuhashi flutist, Horacio Curti.

PARTICIPANTS

Miquel Desclot

He published the first book of poetry, with the Lullian title of Ira it’s sad passion, as winner of the Amadeu Oller prize for unpublished works, in the spring of 1971. During the half century that has passed since then, he has continued publishing his own verses, such as Songs of the moon in the hat (1978), Aucas and scarecrows (1987), As if always (1994), Fantasies, variations and escape (2006), and poetic versions, such as Lambeth prophetic books, de William Blake (1987-89), I have herbs everywhere. From Japanese lyric (1995), Song book by Francesco Petrarca (2016), I have punished life by living it, de Vincenzo Cardarelli (2020) or The beautiful lady without mercy. Poetic interpretations of English (2021), as well as compilations by Jacques Prévert, William Wordsworth, Umberto Saba, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Robert Frost and Wilhelm Müller. In 2020 he won the Carles Riba poetry prize with the book Wake me up when I’m not sleeping.

In the field of theater, he has translated several works by William Shakespeare for different companies, collected in the volume Choice of works (2017), and seven comedies by Molière, collected in Seven comedies and one ballet (2022), and works by Carlo Goldoni and Guillaume Apollinaire.

He has also published poetry for children, collected under the title The word tamer (2012), and books about music, The golden age of music (2003 and 2022).

Horacio Curti

Doctor in Ethnomusicology, he is a professor at the Escuela Superior de Música de Cataluña (ESMUC) and a collaborating researcher of INET at the Universidad de Aveiro from where he researches sound aesthetics of Japanese music and artistic research.

He learned about the shakuhachi flute in the Himalayan region and traveled to Japan to study it under the guidance of Kaoru Kakizakai within the Kokusai Shakuhachi Kenshukan. He has played and taught in Asia, several countries in Europe and North and South America, developing an artistic activity that includes work within traditional Japanese classical music, as well as free improvisation and contemporary Western classical music.

He has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the National Orchestra of Spain and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège (Belgium), and regularly collaborates with dance, poetry and theater. Beyond ephemeral creations, he has published two solo albums (It is and Home is now), the book-CD Zen Stories: Little stories to wake up (together with Marta Millà) and edited the book Eolssigu! The Sounds of Korea.