I DIDN’T HEAR WHAT YOU SAY (UPCOMMING IN 2026 SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER)

I DIDN’T HEAR WHAT YOU SAY! is an artistic development project led by composer Pierre Jodlowski, conceived as a new work for two upright pianos: one performed live and one mechanized Disklavier. The project starts from a critical reflection on the piano’s symbolic “royal” status—its dominance in concert culture, the star-system of virtuosity, and a repertoire often confined to the past—and confronts this heritage with artistic counter-models drawn from visual art, theatre, and cinema, where the piano is frequently dismantled, displaced, or destroyed as an icon. Jodlowski extends this inquiry into a theatrical and sonic dispositif that questions the performer’s role, the instrument’s authority, and the power dynamics between human agency and automated playback.

On stage, the two pianos are arranged back-to-back, creating a visible split between the human performer and an apparently autonomous counterpart. Motorized lids, embedded speakers, amplification and real-time audio/MIDI processes allow the Disklavier to “answer,” interrupt, resist, or provoke the performer, producing a multilayered dialogue between gesture and machine response, acoustic sound and transformation, historical reference and new sonic “colors.”

The outcome will be a 25–30 minute piece built on dramaturgical revelation and surprise, with a parallel installation version in which visitors activate the system and encounter an ambiguous, interactive conversation between two “thinking” objects, supported by an archive-based documentation space that traces the research process and the project’s critical perspective on pianistic culture.

CREATIVE TEAM

Composer – director Pierre JODLOWSKI

Choreographer – consultant Greta Grinevičiūtė

Pianist – researcher Julija Bagdonavičiūtė

Engineer – Deividas Dzikevičius

Producer – Darius Vizbaras

Coproduction by KOSMOS THEATRE and Companie éOle