Supernovae is a new large-scale musical project produced by Konstantyn Napolov, in collaboration with composer Christiaan Richter and artistic director and pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama. This more than 70-minute performance brings together two pianos and four percussionists of the Napolov Percussion Group in an explosive and colourful sound world where contemporary music, rhythm, space, and theatrical imagination come together.
Inspired by the phenomenon of supernovae — the powerful explosions through which stars release enormous amounts of energy and light at the end of their life cycle — Richter explores the relationship between creation and destruction, silence and eruption, the individual and the collective. The composition unfolds as a cosmic journey in which layers of sound accumulate, collide, and transform into new musical landscapes.
Supernovae transcends the traditional concert stage. The explosion of sound does not take place only on stage but expands throughout the entire concert hall. More than 100 multicultural percussion instruments form a living instrumentarium, played by both the musicians and the audience. This creates a unique spatial experience in which the boundaries between performer and listener begin to dissolve.
The combination of two pianos and four percussionists creates an exceptional palette of colours, rhythms, and textures: from subtle, almost transparent sound fields to monumental rhythmic eruptions. Supernovae brings together the creative worlds of Richter, Mukaiyama, and the Napolov Percussion Group in an interdisciplinary work where virtuosity, physical energy, and strong visual imagination are central.
This unique concert experience invites the audience not only to hear music, but to experience it physically and emotionally — as a cosmic explosion of sound, movement, and space.
