The Squid's Ear Magazine


Lonsdale, Eden: Clear and Hazy Moons (Another Timbre)

Splitting the album between two ensembles, UK composer Eden Lonsdale's beautifully languid compositions are performed first by Apartment House, and then by the young Rothko Collective, the four pieces showing Lonsdale's development of writing for harmony, timbre and resonance into works focused on the passing of time and the integration of prominent melodic elements.
 

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Personnel:



Eden Lonsdale-composer

Kerry Yong-keyboard

Mira Benjamin-violin

Heather Roche-clarinet

Anton Lukoszevieze-cello

Sam Cave-guitar

Simon Limbrick-percussion

Bridget Carey-viola

James Opstad-double bass

David Zucchi-saxophone

Rebecca Toal-trumpet

Nancy Ruffer-flutes

Leon Human-violin

Anna Brown-violin

Dominic Stokes-viola

Sandy Scott-Brown-cello

Lucy Walsh-alto flute

Izzy Hopkins-bass clarinet

Toril Azzalini Machecler-percussion

Isaac Harari-percussion

Sebastian Flore-piano


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Label: Another Timbre
Catalog ID: at206
Squidco Product Code: 33018

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2023
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Apartment House tracks recorded at Goldsmiths Music Studo, in London, England, UK, in October, 2022, by Simon Reynell.

Track three recorded at St. Giles-without-Cripplegate, in London, England, UK, in Aptil, 2022, by Simon Reynell.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Another Timbre Interview with Eden Lonsdale

I guess a lot of people won't have heard about you, so can you tell us about your background and how you came to experimental music?

I started making music when I was 9 with my cousin, who is the same age as me. For about three years we met up every weekend and spent hours and hours making beats, writing lyrics and recording rap tracks - we were incredibly devoted to it...

At some point around age 12 there was a sudden flip. Pretty much from one day to the next I started enjoying playing the cello, which I had also been taking lessons in since I was 9. I stopped throwing tantrums every time I had to do my 15 minutes of daily practice and reshifted my musical focus. From then on I spent my weekends listening to Bach's Cello Suites or Inventions & Sinfonias on repeat, whilst following along in the score. To this day I am abnormally fascinated by the Inventions, I think...

Soon after that I started composing a lot. Préludes and fugues in the style of Bach, although it was entirely by intuition and not until years after that I received any kind of formal training in theory. I almost never finished anything because I simply lacked the ability and what I did finish was not good.

From there on the rest is history: with my very weak portfolio, I somehow got a place to study at Guildhall and as soon as I became immersed in the environment there, it became clear very quickly where my music wanted to go. Being surrounded by composers such as James Weeks, Paul Newland, Laurence Crane and Cassandra Miller, and through them finding my way into the universe of Another Timbre, Wandelweiser, Plainsound and so on. These were my stepping stones into this kind of world, although I have never thought of myself as an experimental composer. In my mind I am still writing little baroque canons.

Guildhall seems to have become an excellent centre for composition, with very good teachers, and a lot of very interesting young composers emerging. Are you still linked to Guildhall, or is that now in the past?

Of course I am still in touch with people there, but considering that I graduated just over a year ago, it feels surprisingly distant. I'm very much not an academic, so honestly I feel much happier outside of institutions where I can just get on with writing my pieces. I enjoyed the environment and the practical aspects of studying, but I feel much more like myself in my current situation where I can focus on writing for its own sake.

One thing that I love about composing is taking it piece by piece, seeing what works in the one and picking up where you left off in the next. This way the music - your body of work - can find its way into a trajectory of its own. For instance, my pieces have started to become longer since I left university, a development that may not have been possible within those confines. It feels like the music can grow in whatever direction it needs to grow and I am just along for the ride, rather than trying to squish it into some kind of corset.

Do you compose with any sort of system, or is it purely intuitive?

I have long been suspicious of this distinction that people seem to find between 'intuitive' and 'systematic' composition. To me they are not opposites but rather intrinsically connected.

What I personally never do is to sit down at the piano, writing one note, then another and another according to what I fancy in the moment but to be honest I believe it's an illusion to think that anyone works this way. I also don't know any composers who will just churn out a calculated process without any prior idea of what it might sound like and stick with the results no matter what - there is normally some give and take on both fronts.

For instance, somebody writing at the piano might have forgotten that the melody they invented 'freely' is in fact moving within the confines of an extremely limiting and utterly abstract system called equal temperament. At the same time, I use what I think of as systems extensively in my compositions, but their use has actually become entirely intuitive.

I am fascinated by systems and processes because they are responsible in most cases for what intrigues me about music. Sound has the ability to turn your experience of time almost into an experience of physical space, that you can enter and investigate freely, like a parallel universe that obeys its own laws of nature. Everything in our world can be said to appear the way it does because of a set of intangible fundamental laws and equally, soundworlds appear the way they do because of the systems that were used to create them. Systems provide these laws and processes are ways of moving through these systems based on the laws they establish, just as humans developed walking upright on two feet as a means of moving in response to the gravity of the earth.

Many people somehow think of classical tonal composition as the epitome of 'intuitive' writing, but in reality tonality is one of the strictest systems ever used in composition. Processes - such as sequences - are very common in tonal music as a means of moving through the space established by the system. My point is that whatever one thinks of as being either 'intuitive' or 'systematic' is never only that and always holds the other within.

Tell us about 'Clear and Hazy Moons' and the Rothko Collective. Was the recording taken from a live performance, and what was the context?

Rothko Collective are a very young group of players that I met and became friends with towards the end of my studies. Dom Stokes, the violist who runs the group, quickly made a name for himself amongst the composers for being really invested in new music - he'd always give a very committed and musical performance.

In 2021 he asked me to write a piece for his newly founded group Rothko Collective, which went really well, so we did it again the following year. 'Clear and Hazy Moons' was written for a live performance at the church of St.Giles Cripplegate in London in April '22, and the recording was made on my handheld zoom during the dress rehearsal.

Finally, what about the three pieces that Apartment House play on the CD: 'Oasis', 'Billowing' and 'Anatomy of Joy'? How did they come about?

Of those three pieces 'Oasis' is the oldest and was actually the last piece I wrote while I was still a student, for a project with plusminus ensemble. Shortly after I finished it, Anton Lukoszevieze got in touch and said that Apartment House wanted to play it. That was the first time I was in touch with Apartment House - a group I whose work I had been admiring from afar for a long time - so it was very exciting.

The other two pieces are both from 2022, 'Billowing' being the first piece I wrote that year. It was made for a friend's group called the listening project and was premiered at a pub in Whitechapel, a space it was probably not best suited to... I had to write the piece in a short amount of time, so I decided to make it out of a single line, which I subjected only to very basic techniques: augmentation, diminution, transposition, chopping up and a few more. The melody I used for this was something I wrote down when I was at Huddersfield CMF in 2019 - a sketch for an eventually abandoned saxophone quartet. I am now quite aware that it is not dissimilar to a certain melody by Stravinsky...

Finally 'Anatomy of Joy' was written in September 2022 specifically for this recording and doesn't so far have a life outside of this disc. It is quite closely related to 'Billowing' in that they share the same instrumentation and I used that opportunity to deepen ideas that had emerged during my first engagement with this line-up. In essence the techniques I used are all the same as in 'Billowing', again using a single melody to structure everything, except that the melody here is longer and more complex and is continuously chopped up and rearranged from the very start.

One thing I find intriguing about the selection of pieces on this CD is that they were all written roughly within a year of one another, but span a period of time in which my music changed quite significantly. 'Oasis' came out of a stretch where my music was focused mainly on vertical parameters like harmony, timbre and resonance and was searching for a listening experience that is totally anchored in the present moment.

'Billowing' was the first step in a new direction that tried to reengage fully with the passing of time by integrating prominent melodic elements.

'Clear and Hazy Moons' is curious because it lies right between these two and has different sections that fall onto either side of this development.

What I am currently after are pieces that can be experienced in multiple simultaneous ways or have dimensions that allow for different readings and interpretations. For instance, pieces that are essentially static but always in a state of flow, or pieces that are essentially flowing and always in a state of stagnation. Being the youngest piece on this record, 'Anatomy of Joy' is the most representative of this and in many ways to the most successful piece at achieving what it was intended to be.



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
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Artist Biographies

"Eden Lonsdale is a composer based between London and Berlin.

His music focuses mainly on exploring the inter-connectedness of harmony and timbre. Often using very limited materials, his dense and immersive sound-worlds attempt to draw the ear into the smallest details and hope to inspire the listener's self-guided exploration into the music's manifold layers.

He has written concert music for and with soloists such as Satoko Inoue, Toby Hughes, Anton Lukoszevieze and Heather Roche as well as ensembles including EXAUDI, Apartment House, Plus-Minus Ensemble, Orkest de Ereprijs, IPSE, Orchester im Treppenhaus, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Barcelona Modern Ensemble, RIOT Ensemble, Roadrunner Trio and ICTUS.

His pieces have been performed at festivals such as EstOvest (Torino), Blurred Edges (Hamburg), Distat Terra (Patagonia), The Dutch Harp Festival (Utrecht) and the London Culture Mile as well as broadcast on BBC Radio3's 'New Music Show'.

He studied composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) with Malcolm Singer, Cassandra Miller and Julian Anderson and at the Kunstuniversität Graz with Klaus Lang."

-Eden Lonsdale Website (https://www.eden-lonsdale-sound.com/)
3/27/2024

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"Kerry is a musician who lives in east London. He trained as a pianist and now also performs on keyboards and live electronics.

Kerry has performed at Audiograft, Chisenhale Arts Club, Kämmer Klang, Rational Rec, Borealis Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, ISCM World Music Days, Kings Place, City of London Festival, Music We'd Like To Hear, Nonclassical and in groups Apartment House, ELISION, Plus-Minus Ensemble and Ensemble Offspring.

Kerry studied piano with Stephanie McCallum at the University of Sydney (where he also studied composition) and at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He completed a doctorate at the Royal College of Music where he studied piano with Andrew Ball and researched Performance practices of music for piano with electroacoustics. He has also dabbled with the other side, playing with bands Apopalyptics, Casiokids and Half-handed Cloud and the Welcome Wagon.

Kerry also directs music at Grace Church Hackney (which meets in Hoxton), where they are happy to use ancient chants, traditional hymns and new works with choirs, bands, electronics, objects and the like."

-Kerry Yong Website (http://kerry-yong.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Mira Benjamin is a Canadian violinist, researcher and new-music instigator.

She performs new and experimental music, with a special interest in microtonality & tuning practice. She actively commissions music from composers at all stages of their careers, and develops each new work through multiple performances. Current collaborations include new works by Anna Höstman, Scott McLaughlin, Amber Priestley, Taylor Brook and James Weeks.

Since 2011, Mira has co-directed NU:NORD - a project-based music and performance network which instigates artistic exchanges and encourages community building between music creators from Canada, Norway & the UK. To date NU:NORD has engaged 79 artists and commissioned 62 new works. Through this initiative, Mira hopes to offer a foundation from which Canadian artists can reach out to artistic communities overseas, and provide a conduit through which UK & Norwegian artists can access Canada's rich art culture.

Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Mira lived for ten years in Montréal, where she was a member of Quatuor Bozzini. Since 2014 she has resided in London (UK), where she regularly performs with ensembles such as Apartment House, Decibel, and the London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists, and is currently the Duncan Druce Scholar in Music Performance at the University of Huddersfield.

Mira is the recipient of the 2016 Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. The prize is awarded annually to a Canadian musician in recognition of their contribution to the artistic life in Canada and internationally."

-St. Martin in the Field Website (http://mirabenjamin.com/about/)
3/27/2024

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"Born in Canada, clarinetist Heather Roche trained in England, lived in Germany for 7 years and now lives in London.

She has performed at some of the major European festivals, including musikFest (Berlin), BachFest (Leipzig), Musica Nova (Helsinki), Acht Brücken (Cologne), the International Computer Music Conference (Huddersfield, Ljubljana), the Dias de Música Electroacústica (Seia, Portugal) and the Agora Festival (Ircam, Paris). She has also performed solo programmes at the Zagreb Music Biennale, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the New York Electroacoustic Symposium, at CIRMMT (Montreal), Unerhörte Musik (Berlin), Eavesdropping (London), and with the Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST).

She has performed with ensembles and orchestras including Musik Fabrik (Cologne), the WDR Orchestra (Cologne), mimitabu (Gothenburg), the London Symphony Orchestra (London), ensemble Garage (Cologne), ensemble interface (Berlin), the Riot Ensemble (London), the Alisios Camerata (Zagreb), and ensemble proton (Bern). She also plays across the UK in a trio with Carla Rees (flutes) and Xenia Pestova (piano) and in 2015 formed an duo with the accordionist Eva Zöllner, with whom she has played across Germany, the UK and in Portugal. She is a founding member of hand werk, a 6-person chamber music ensemble based in Cologne, and worked with the group from 2010-2017.

She has solo CDs out on the HCR/NMC and Métier labels. Please see the Discography for further details.

In 2014 she was awarded a DIVA (Danish International Visiting Artists Fellowship), and lived in Copenhagen for two months.

Since 2016 she has acted as the Reviews Editor for TEMPO, a quarterly journal for contemporary music published by Cambridge University Press.

Her website is host to one of the most widely read new music blogs on the Internet. In 2017 it had 75,000 hits from around the world. She successfully crowdfunded in 2014 in order to host her first composition competition. Six young composers were chosen out of 270 applicants to write new pieces, which were premiered in 2016.

She is a fervent advocate of collaboration, and her PhD research at the University of Huddersfield (under the supervision of Dr. Philip Thomas) explored the nature of dialogue within performer-composer relationships. She has given workshops in instrumental technique and/or iPad use in performance all over Europe, for example in London, Munich and Copenhagen.

Heather completed her Masters of Music (Orchestral Training) in 2006 at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, studying under Joy Farrall and Laurent Ben Slimane, in addition to conducting with Sian Edwards. Following her degree she completed residencies with the International Ensemble Modern Academy, at IMPULS in Graz and with ensemble recherche in Freiburg, the Darmstadt Summer Courses 2008 and 2010 and the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Innsbruck, Austria. She has performed in masterclasses with Michael Collins, Ernesto Molinari and Shizuyo Oka, to name a few. She completed her BMus in 2005 at the University of Victoria, Canada, studying under Patricia Kostek."

-Heather Roche Website (https://heatherroche.net/about/)
3/27/2024

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"Cellist Anton Lukoszevieze (born 1965 in the UK) is one of the most diverse performers of his generation and is notable for his performances of avant-garde, experimental and improvised music. Anton has given many performances at numerous international festivals throughout Europe and the USA (Maerzmusik, Donaueschingen, Wien Modern, GAS, Transart, Ultima, etc.etc.). He has also made frequent programmes and broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, Danish Radio, SR2, Sweden, Deutschland Rundfunk, WDR, Germany and ORT, Austria. Deutschlandfunk, Berlin produced a radio portrait of him in September, 2003. Anton has also performed concerti with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the 2001 Aldeburgh festival and the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with many composers and performers including David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, Amnon Wolman, Pierre Strauch, Rytis Mazulis, Karlheinz Essl, Helmut Oehring, Christopher Fox, Philip Corner, Alvin Curran, Phill Niblock and Laurence Crane, He is unique in the UK through his use of the curved bow (BACH-Bogen), which he is using to develop new repertoire for the cello. From 2005-7 he was New Music Fellow at Kings College, Cambridge and Kettles Yard Gallery. Anton is the subject of four films (FoxFire Eins) by the renowned artist-filmmaker Jayne Parker. A new film Trilogy with compositions by Sylvano Bussotti, George Aperghis and Laurence Crane premieres at The London Film Festival, October 2008. In November will premiere a new hour long work by Christopher Fox for cello and the vocal ensemble Exaudi commissioned by the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and will also present new solo works for cello and live electronics. Anton is also active as an artist, his work has been shown in Holland (Lux Nijmegen), CAC, Vilnius, Duisburg (EarPort), Austria, (Sammlung Essl), Wien Modern, The Slade School of Art, Kettles Yard Gallery, Cambridge Film Festival and Rational Rec. London. His work has been published in Musiktexte, Cologne, design Magazine and the book SoundVisions (Pfau-Verlag, Saarbrucken, 2005). Anton Lukoszevieze is founder and director of the ensemble Apartment House, a member of the radical noise group Zeitkratzer and recently made his contemporary dance debut with the Vincent Dance Company in Broken Chords, Dusseldorf."

-Kalvos Damian (http://www.kalvos.org/lukosze.html)
3/27/2024

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"English guitarist and composer Sam Cave is one of the guitar's leading exponents of new music.

Sam's performances have taken him to some of the most exciting venues and festivals in the UK and abroad with appearances at St John's Smith Square, City Showcase Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Nonclassical, The Institute of Contemporary Arts, LSO St. Luke's, AVGARDE concert series in Norway, the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre, Kings Place and the Tianjin May Festival in Tianjin, China. Sam has been a Park Lane Group Young Artist and has recorded for both 'Another Timbre' and 'Metier' record labels. His playing has been broadcast on both 'Late Junction' and 'The New Music Show' on BBC Radio 3. Sam is a member of the leading new music groups Octandre Ensemble and Apartment House and has performed with many other groups at the forefront of new music including Riot Ensemble and Explore Ensemble.

Sam studied at the Royal College of Music in London with Gary Ryan and Chris Stell with financial assistance from The Countess of Munster Musical Trust. He has also studied with Vincent Lindsey-Clark, Michael Zev Gordon, Michael Finnissy, Gilbert Biberian and Craig Ogden and graduated from the University of Southampton with first class honours and the Edward Wood memorial prize in music. In 2020 Sam completed a PhD in composition at Brunel University, London under the supervision of Christopher Fox and John Croft.

As a composer Sam's work has been performed in the UK, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Lithuania, Italy, Australia and the USA by some of the most exciting young ensembles and soloists working today. He is an LSO Soundhub Associate Composer for 2017-21 and his music is published by Babelscores.

Now also an educator in much demand, Sam is currently a tutor at Brunel University, London, he has been a guest lecturer in composition for guitar at Coventry University and a lecturer in composition and orchestration at Kingston University."

-Sam Cave Website (https://www.samcave.com/bio)
3/27/2024

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"Simon Limbrick's involvement in music embraces performance, composing and education.

He was a member of the cult systems orchestra The Lost Jockey and Man Jumping, recording for EG Editions and creating scores for leading dance companies, Second Stride, London Contemporary Dance, Rosemary Lee and Sue MacLennan. He has been in demand as a percussionist performing all over the world with the Nash Ensemble, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Endymion Ensemble, Composers' Ensemble and Fibonacci Sequence as well as recording with artists such as Alabama3, Gavin Bryars Pete Lockett and for Blue Note Records. He has been guest principal with the LSO and worked under conductors, Leonard Bernstein, Oliver Knussen, Simon Rattle and Tom Ades. He has featured on film and television including documentaries about Steve Reich and Kenneth MacMillan's award winning Judas Tree.Compositions created for him include works by Javier Alvarez, Brian Elias (Kenneth MacMillan's last ballet The Judas Tree), Vic Hoyland and Andrew Poppy. He has performed the world-premieres of solo pieces by James Dillon, Frederic Rzewski , Claude Vivier, Philip Cashian, Thea Musgrave, Harry de Wit, Howard Skempton, Michael Wolters and Ed Kelly. His solo performances have been broadcast by the BBC, RAI, Radio France, Dutch TV and radio.

Recently, he performed his own concerto Bulls Yard and Stockhausen's Zyklus at the Sage, Gateshead,(see review) solo steel-pan in Brian Elias' Judas Tree at Royal Opera House, London, in 2010 and directed his mixed-media project, dot-machine, a web-based musical construction accessible on www.marimbo.com. He created a 24 hour long piece surfaces with the composer James Saunders, with financial assistance from the Arts Council of Great Britain and premiered at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2011.

In education, Simon has led workshops since 1982, and been a returning resident artist in festivals and organisations, including Blackheath Concert Halls, Aldeburgh Music, Sound It Out , Spitalfields Festival. Workshop projects have been led by him throughout Europe. As a fully-qualified teacher, he has led Music and Performing Arts in Secondary Schools for five years. He has led school and community projects for Aldeburgh Music. As Artistic Director, he helped establish In Harmony Norwich, creating mixed-ability orchestral pieces for professional and young student players. Until the School of Music closed in June 2014, he was Director of 'Musician in the Community' and 'Creative Leadership' courses at University of East Anglia.



As a composer, Simon has gained an MA in Electroacoustic Composition from City University and collaborated as a composer on a number of large scale works, including a project at Fort Dunlop, Birmingham, with Rosemary Lee and site-specific work with Dutch composer/sound sculptor Harry de Wit in Holland and Brussels.He has produced film scores for TV and film festivals and composed music for theatre productions at the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Companies. Groups he has created pieces for include Mary Wiegold's Songbook, Roger Heaton Group, Ensemble Bash, Network of Sparks, Endymion Ensemble, Richard Durrant, Ritmatic, Hooloo. The Brighton Youth Orchestra performed machina lumina , for string ensemble and vibraphone throughout 2009. His composition Machine for Living for Landesmusikrat/Splash was recorded at Deutschlandradio. He has produced recordings for wergo and others.Currently composing a large piece for jazz brass and marimba.

He has created the CDs, Steam, Hooloo, Clean, Ritmatik, Dot-Machine, Hammer, Rise and Fall, , between and Relay, which are frequently broadcast and available on well-known download sites. NEW RELEASE of a double CD RELAY, of contemporary steel-pan music in Sept 2014. Sound Composer for the film 3 Church Walk by the director Emily Richardson premiered on 18th Oct 2014 at The London Festival, BFI, London."

-Simon Limbrick Website (http://www.marimbo.com/cv.html)
3/27/2024

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"Bridget Carey studied jointly at the Royal Academy of Music and London University and has pursued a varied freelance career based in London, and has developed a particular reputation in the field of new music.

For 15 years she premiered new chamber opera for the Almeida, whilst working in dance scores with Siobhan Davies and Rambert companies, classical contemporary with Opus 20 and Music Projects/London and new complexity with Ensemble Expose. From 1995-2005 she was viola player with the Kreutzer string quartet. More recently, her chamber music interests include Okeanos and the RPS award-winning experimental music group Apartment House, with whom she continues to add to her chamber music discography. She has been a member of Britten Sinfonia for the last 20 years, and is a regular guest with London Sinfonietta and BCMG, among others."

-Okeanos Website (http://okeanos.co.uk/wp/?page_id=1017)
3/27/2024

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"James Opstad is a United Kingdom bassist, composer and one third of duck-rabbit music."

-James Opstad Twitter Feed (https://twitter.com/james_opstad)
3/27/2024

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"Praised for his "urgently visceral" playing (TEMPO), London-based Canadian saxophonist David Zucchi enjoys a varied career as a performer of classical, contemporary, experimental, and improvised music, collaborating regularly across the UK, Europe, and Canada.

David collaborates regularly with accordionist Iñigo Mikeleiz-Berrade (as the Mikeleiz-Zucchi Duo, winners of the 2021 ROSL Mixed Ensemble Prize), soprano Patricia Auchterlonie (as Honkus), Syzygy, Alex Paxton's Dream Musics ("The most joyous sound I've heard in ages" - New York Times), Ian Wadley (as Yesterday Shelf), Wynton Guess, and Ross K. He has been featured by Nonclassical, Arraymusic, the Composers Platform, Daylight Music (Union Chapel) and the Royal Overseas League, appears on recordings from NMC, Another Timbre, Birmingham Record Company, and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Resonance FM's The News Agents. Recent appearances as a soloist and chamber musician include the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, St. John's Smith Square, Cadogan Hall, London Contemporary Music Festival, Sounds Like This! Festival (Leeds), Verbier Festival (Switzerland), Vale de Cambra Music Festival (Portugal), the Glenn Gould Studio, and the Canadian High Commission in London.

With a keen interest in the performance of contemporary and experimental music, David has premiered and been the dedicatee of many works by emerging and established composers, including Alex Paxton, Paolo Griffin, Roxanna Albayati, Robin Haigh, Adam Sherkin, Brian Elias, Caroline Bordignon, Christopher Fox, Michael Hughes, and Piyawat Louillarpprasert. He has appeared with leading UK contemporary music ensembles including Ensemble x.y, Explore Ensemble, Apartment House, and An assembly.

He has given workshops and masterclasses in the UK and Canada, most recently at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he lectured on the performance of contemporary music, and has delivered sessions on professional skills at the Royal College of Music.

David was born in London (UK), and grew up in Toronto (Canada). He is a graduate of the Royal College of Music's Master's and Artist Diploma programmes, where he studied with Kyle Horch as an Edward and Helen Hague Scholar. Previously, David attended the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, where he studied saxophone with Wallace Halladay and composition with Alexander Rapoport. Upon graduating, he was awarded the William and Phyllis Waters Graduating Award, the Faculty's top graduating prize. David has attended the Universitée Européenne de Saxophone in Gap, France and was selected to participate in the London Sinfonietta Academy. He is currently a PhD student at the University of Huddersfield's CeReNeM, supported by the Canadian Centennial Scholarship Fund's Belle Shenkman Award.

David has received additional support from the Canada Council for the Arts, David and Marcia Beach Summer Study Award, the Women's Musical Club of Toronto, the William and Phyllis Waters Graduating Award from the University of Toronto, and the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award."

-David Zucchi Website (https://davidzucchi.com/about/)
3/27/2024

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"Rebecca Toal is a versatile and accomplished freelance trumpet player based in London. She is proud to have performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Britten-Pears Orchestra and brass ensembles, Arch Sinfonia, and at the BBC Proms with The Juilliard School and the Royal Academy of Music. Alongside exploring the symphonic repertoire, Rebecca is particularly interested in both baroque and contemporary music. She has further developed this enthusiasm through projects and performances with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Belsize Baroque, Academy of Ancient Music, and the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, Apartment House, London Sinfonietta Academy, An Assembly, and the Echo Ensemble respectively.

Rebecca graduated with a first class Master of Arts degree from the Royal Academy of Music in 2020, and prior to this, she also studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she received her Bachelor of Music Honours degree. She is extremely grateful to have been supported by Help Musicians UK, Countess of Munster Musical Trust, The Wolfson Foundation, The Craxton Memorial Trust and scholarships from both of her alma maters.

Teaching also plays an important role in Rebecca's life, and as well as teaching privately, she also works for Music Education Islington, Enfield Music Service and participates in projects with Newham Music Service. Rebecca completed the LRAM teaching diploma at the Academy and is registered with the DBS update service. She also feels proud to have contributed towards a 100% pass rate for her student's' graded exams.

Rebecca is passionate about discussing and raising awareness of mental health issues, and as such is training to become a qualified counsellor. She also co-hosts the podcast Things Musicians Don't Talk About, which aims to destigmatise conversations that are often considered taboo within the Arts.

In her down time, Rebecca is a newly-enthused but clumsy climber, and she lives in North London with her partner and their three insane cats. She hates talking on the phone and loves the gossip on her neighbourhood online forum."

-Rebecca Toal Website (https://rebecca-toal.squarespace.com/trumpet)
3/27/2024

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"Nancy Ruffer was born in Detroit and received a Master of Music degree from The University of Michigan. She received a Fullbright-Kays Scolarship in 1976 to study at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and she has remained in London working as a freelance flautist specialising in contemporary music. Composers who have written for her include Michael Finnissy, Chris Dench, John White, Christopher Fox, Ian Wilson and Graham Fitkin. In 1984 she was awarded the Kranichsteiner Prize for Performance at Darmstadt and she was elected an Associate of the R.A.M. Nancy Ruffer is principal flute of the ensembles MusicProjects/London, Matrix, Almeida Ensemble and Topologies as well as performing with ensembles of the Royal National Theatre.

In addition she records regularly for the BBC and performs in festivals and concert halls throughout Britain and abroad. In 1999 she toured Canada performing works by, among others, Ferneyhough and Dillon, and in 2002 she toured Georgia and Tennessee with pianist Helen Crayford, performing works by British and American composers.

Ms Ruffer was awarded the Kranichsteiner Prize for Performance at Darmstadt in 1984 and was appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music."

-Divine Art Records (https://divineartrecords.com/artist/nancy-ruffer/)
3/27/2024

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"Leon started playing the violin and piano aged 7 and attended the Centre for Young Musicians (CYM) and the Junior Royal Academy. He was taught by a former leader of the CBSO, Peter Thomas, and currently studies with acclaimed Violinist Stephanie Gonley at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he was fortunate enough to receive a scholarship. Leon was a part of the National Youth Orchestra where highlights included a performance of The Rite of Spring in the BBC Proms. In 2018, he went on to lead the London's Schools Symphony Orchestra for two years which allowed him to work inspirational conductors including Richard Farnes, Sian Edwards, and Ryan Wigglseworth and soloists such as Pacho Flores, Rachael Nicholls, Tom Bowes and Elena Urioste. Last year he made his solo debut in the Barbican directing Bach's Violin Concerto in E major with the LSSO. Leon also enjoys the challenge of playing contemporary music with his group Rothco collective, who commission new works as well as playing pieces by composers such as Caroline Shaw and Bryce Dessner. Earlier this year, the Rothko Collective won the prestigious non-classical competition 'Battle of the Bands,' curated by Gabriel Prokofiev and will now host their own event and release an album.

Recent highlights include playing with The Britten Sinfonia in the Aldeburgh Festival and recording and performing in the revival of Mercadante's Il Prosciutto in the Barbican. This summer, Leon took part in the Nova-classical music festival in St Austell, Cornwall. He was honoured to join the Morley College Chamber Orchestra last October where he played Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's 4th Ballade for Violin and Orchestra."

-Rothko Collective (https://www.rothkocollective.co.uk/an-overgrown-path)
3/27/2024

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"Anna is a British violinist born in London in 2003. She is currently studying for her undergraduate degree in violin performance on a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the class of Krysia Osostowicz. Anna has won numerous awards for her playing including the John McAslan violin prize at the Junior Royal Academy of Music where she also held a scholarship. Chamber music has been a core part of Anna's musical training and something she has sought out at every opportunity, benefitting from coaching by members of the Endellion, Allegri, Brodsky and London Haydn Quartets.

As a member of the Rothko collective since its formation, Anna is passionate about changing the way we view classical music as well as reaching wider audiences."

-Rothko Collective (https://www.rothkocollective.co.uk/an-overgrown-path)
3/27/2024

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"Dominic is a violist, composer, and creative who has established himself as one of London's leading young contemporary artists. His passion and musical facility for all things contemporary has led him to work with groups at the forefront of the new-music scene, such as the Riot Ensemble, "The supergroup of top soloists playing new music", the Manchester Camerata, O/Modernt, including appearing on BBC radio 3, on a broadcast from the Barbican's Milton Court concert hall.

He has been lucky enough to work with some incredible composers, and has premiered chamber and solo works in some of London's prestigious venues - such as King's place and the Barbican centre - with music by the likes of Naomi Pinnock, Alec Hall, and Edmund Finnis

The ultimate goal, always, is to open up music to a wider audience, make it more accessible and change the way society views classical music. Along with his ensemble, Rothko collective, he has commissioned over 15 new works, was awarded first prize in nonclassical's competition for emerging talent, given highly acclaimed performances and released a studio and a live album.

He is eternally grateful to all members of the collective - without you, this would not be possible."

-Rothko Collective (https://www.rothkocollective.co.uk/an-overgrown-path)
3/27/2024

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"Lucy grew up on the Isle of Arran in Scotland where she started to learn flute at the age of 8 with local teacher Lucy Cartledge. At age 14 she started taking the ferry over on Saturdays to attend the Junior Department at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with teacher Sheena Gordon, where she won the Gilbert Innes Prize for Woodwind and the Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. Lucy also spent 2 years at the Music School of Douglas Academy in Glasgow. She is now in her 3rd year of undergraduate studies at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she learns with teachers Sarah Newbold and Ian Clarke. Studies at Guildhall so far have led to exploration into contemporary flute technique and improvisation/composition."

-Rothko Collective (https://www.rothkocollective.co.uk/an-overgrown-path)
3/27/2024

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"Toril Azzalini-Machecler is a percussionist and composer now in his third year of undergraduate at the Royal College-Rothko Collective (https://www.rothkocollective.co.uk/an-overgrown-path)
3/27/2024

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"Born in Madrid and raised in London, Isaac Harari is a multi-talented percussionist and drummer who has been shaping his life around artfully hitting things since the age of seven. His musical training began on the piano at age five, but it was when he began to play the drums two years later that he struck upon the thing he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He began lessons in orchestral and solo percussion in 2011, going on to join the Royal College of Music's Junior Department in 2017. He was a two-time London finalist in the Yamaha Futurebeat competition in 2017 & 2018. In 2020 he was a BBC Young Musician category finalist, and won a full scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music as an undergraduate that same year. In 2023 Isaac was awarded the prestigious Yamaha Music Europe Foundation Scholarship. He has also been selected as a member of the 2021 World Percussion Group artist roster, a semi-finalist of the Southern California Marimba International Artists' Competition, and a semi-finalist of BBC Young Jazz Musician 2022.

Isaac regularly gives concerts and records with Sirocco Duo, Jam Division, Rothko Collective, High Wire Baroque and the RCM's percussion quartet PERC'M. He has given solo recitals in the Royal Albert Hall's Elgar Room and in the RCM as a Gordon Turner Competition finalist, and recitals with Sirocco Duo in St Mary's, Barnes, and the Cuckfield Music Festival, of programmes including a world premiere. He has performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Duet Philharmonic, Horsham Symphony Orchestra, the RCM Symphony Orchestra and the Thames Valley Youth Orchestra in major venues including the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Purcell Room, St. John's Smith Square and Blackheath Halls. For two years, he was a member of the National Youth Percussion Orchestra. As a drummer, he has performed repeatedly at the 606 Club.

Isaac was both the 15-18 Group Winner and Overall Winner of the Leonardo Aggio Trust Awards in 2020. Over the years he has been supported by the AYM Chris Isaac Award and the Universal Music UK Sound Foundation, and is an Awards for Young Musicians alumnus and mentor on the Talent to Talent programme."

-Isaac Harari Website (https://isaacharari.com/about.html)
3/27/2024

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Track Listing:



1. Oasis 14:38

2. Billowing 18:27

3. Clear and Hazy Moons 19:59

4. Anatomy of Joy 24:09

Related Categories of Interest:


Compositional Forms
Large Ensembles
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
New in Compositional Music

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Another Timbre.


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