Georgia Rodgers

Georgia is studying towards a PhD in Music Composition at City University, London, working part-time under the supervision of Dr Newton Armstrong. She specializes in music for acoustic instrument and electronics, with a particular interest in the construction of space, the perception of sound and the human experience of listening.

Georgia holds a BSc in Physics with Music and an MSc in Digital Composition and Performance, both from the University of Edinburgh. In summer 2014 Georgia will take part in the Sound and Music Higher Education Programme working on a piece for tuba and electronics with Oren Marshall. Georgia also works as an acoustician for a firm of consulting engineers based in Camden. She lives and works (and was born) in north London.

Partial filter for tuba and electronics (9 minutes, 2014): my aim in this piece was to approach the tuba from an unusual angle in order to reveal hidden characteristics and really explore its sound world. I’ve concentrated on the sound made when the player breathes through the tuba without playing a pitch - a filtering of air through the volume of the instrument. Electronic processing techniques are used to magnify these sounds and focus in on the slight changes in grain which occur when the player make tiny adjustments to his breathing. Later we arrive at simple pitched sounds which swell and fill the space, before returning to filtered noise. I value a slow approach to listening. I think that our awareness of the morphology of a sound is heightened when it unfolds gradually. 

Cut it out for piano and electronics (9 minutes, 2014) started by recording works for piano which were processed electronically to highlight particular aspects of their sound. These were cut together to create a fixed electronic part which is mixed with the live piano in performance. The live piano part is derived from the scores of the original works with repetition, deviation and extended sustains. Different versions of the same sound combine to present a shifting and fragmentary whole which inhabits multiple acoustic spaces at once.

Beat Furrer

Beat Furrer was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland in 1954 and moved to Vienna in 1975. To all intents and purposes he is an Austrian composer.
He studied composition with Roman Haubenstock-Ramati and they developed a close friendship based on mutual esteem which lasted until the older composer’s death in 1994. Thanks to Otmar Suitner, who taught him conducting, Furrer has been in a position to perform works by his professor on a regular basis. He is credited, for example, with the world première of the revised version of Haubenstock-Ramati’s opera Amerika in 1992.

In 1985, Furrer founded the new music ensemble Klangforum Wien, which he led a number of years both as artistic director and conductor. It testifies to his leadership as well as of that of his successors that the ensemble is still going strong and has established itself on the international scene as one of the best groups of its kind world-wide. (Universal Edition)

Oren Marshell

Oren Marshall is a pioneering player of acoustic tuba and electric tuba who, crossing between classical, jazz, improvised and world music, has collaborated with the likes of Derek Bailey, Charlie Haden, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Moondog, Radiohead, Hermeto Pascoal, The Pan-African Orchestra and the London Philharmonic.

He has played with every major orchestra in London as well as with the Bolshoi Theatre Soloists, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Ballet. As a member of London Brass (whom he joined in 1987) he has made numerous recordings, toured worldwide several times, played 6 Proms concerts and performed for The Queen, Prince Charles, the German Chancellor, the President of China and The Pope.
Amongst the many Duos Oren has played are performances with Jazz pianist John Taylor, New York Beatboxer Adam Matta, UK Beatboxers Shlomo and Hobbit, Prepared-Piano player Hauschka, Percussionist Evelyn Glennie and multi award-winning vocalist, Bobby Mcferrin.
As a solo artist, Oren has played all over the world and his ground-breaking solo work lead to multiple nominations for the BBC Innovation in Jazz Award.

He has also shared the stage with artists such as Gil Scott Heron, Roy Ayers, Moby, Vinicio Caposella, Murcoff, Tomasz Stanko and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. He leads and writes for the Charming Transport Band, bringing together master musicians from Ghana and Nigeria and innovators from London’s jazz and improvised music scenes. Oren is currently Head of Brass Studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London and teaches on the Leadership course at the Guildhall School of Music and on the Jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music.

Juliet Fraser

Soprano JULIET FRASER specialises in the gnarly edges of contemporary classical music. She regularly appears as a guest soloist with ensembles such as Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Remix, Talea and Quatuor Bozzini, and is a core member of EXAUDI vocal ensemble, which she co-founded with composer/conductor James Weeks and which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year. She is an active commissioner of new repertoire and has worked particularly closely with composers Laurence Crane, Pascale Criton, Bernhard Lang, Cassandra Miller and Rebecca Saunders. Juliet’s discography reflects the full breadth of her repertoire: she has recorded early music with Collegium Vocale Gent and EXAUDI for release on Harmonia Mundi, Outhere and Winter & Winter, and solo albums of contemporary repertoire for NEOS, Kairos, HCR and Hat Hut. Juliet is the founder and artistic director of the eavesdropping festival in London and co-director of all that dust, a little independent label for new music.

https://www.julietfraser.co.uk

Mark Knoop

The Hermes Experiment

The Hermes Experiment is an ensemble of four young professional musicians passionate about contemporary and experimental music, inspired to create something innovative and unique.

Based in London, The Hermes Experiment comprises Héloïse Werner (soprano), Oliver Pashley (clarinet), Marianne Schofield (double bass) and Anne Denholm (harp), who met whilst studying music at Cambridge University. Capitalising on their deliberately idiosyncratic combination of instruments, the ensemble performs a variety of experimental compositions and arrangements, as well as venturing into live free improvisation.

The Hermes Experiment seeks to promote contemporary composers, regularly commissioning new works. The ensemble also strives to create a platform for collaboration with other artists, and future plans include a ‘musical exhibition’ with photographer, Thurstan Redding.

The Hermes Experiment are winners of the Nonclassical Battle of the Bands 2014, and took part in the 2014 UK Young Artists Festival in Leicester.