Thursday 21 March 2024, 7.30pm
eavesdropping returns to Cafe OTO for another four-day festival, curated by Juliet Fraser, which includes four evening double-bill events and a weekend-long forum of talks, roundtables and provocations. We hope to stimulate your ears and your imagination by presenting new work by eight artists working at the experimental fringes of a variety of genres. The programming within each set is artist-led: repertoire is only announced on the night. During this year’s forum we will explore the topic ‘Experiments in Failure’. The vibe is low-key and friendly, whilst definitely being thought-provoking.
PLEASE NOTE: doors open 7.30pm; music starts 8pm (and ends by 10pm).
eavesdropping
eavesdropping is a platform for the sharing of new music and new ways of thinking about music. Excited by experimentalism, we create opportunities for artists and audiences to practise engaged listening and compassionate debate. Our activity includes a festival, a forum, a podcast, and training and development workshops. Our mission is to build community through an ethics of curiosity and care, in the belief that ripples do make waves.
https://www.eavesdropping.london
ELIZA MCCARTHY is a London-based pianist dedicated to performing new and experimental music. She plays in concert halls, art galleries, car parks and living rooms across the UK, Europe and US as a soloist and band member. She has worked with, commissioned and premiered music by John Adams, Thomas Adès, George Crumb, Tansy Davies, Kit Downes, Andrew Hamilton, Nico Muhly and Laurie Spiegel, among others. Eliza regularly collaborates with Mica Levi (Under the Skin, Jackie) and their album Slow Dark Green Murky Waterfall was released in 2018 on Slip. Recent performance highlights include Morton Feldman’s 90-minute solo piano work Triadic Memories at the Southbank Centre and, in June 2023, the US premiere of Limina, a piano concerto written for her by Donnacha Dennehy, at National Sawdust with New York-based ensemble Contemporaneous. Eliza has released music on NMC, Milan Records, Slip, Diatribe Records, Entr’acte, Foom, WW Records and Clay Pipe Music.
The Germany-based Brazilian drummer, singer, composer and producer MARIÁ PORTUGAL has been active in the São Paulo music scene for more than 20 years. She recorded, performed and toured throughout South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania with artists such as Elza Soares, Metá Metá, Arrigo Barnabé, Quartabê, Maggie Nicols, Anthony Braxton, Fred Frith, Nick Dunston and Tomeka Reid. As a composer, she has been performing and composing original music for dance, theatre and cinema. Since 2021 she has been one of the curators of the Soundtrips-NRW free improvisation program.
