Isidora Edwards

ISIDORA EDWARDS is a Chilean cellist, improviser and composer, currently a PhD researcher  at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she is actively exploring the ways in which  women shape their performative praxis in sound under patriarchal biases. As a soloist and in  collaboration with artists from different disciplines and ensembles, she has been part of  many international experimental music and contemporary dance festivals. Isidora holds a  MMus in Creative Practice from Goldsmiths and graduated and as a music performer from  the PUC Music Institute, Chile. She lives in London with her son Nicanor and is an ANID Becas Chile scholarship holder.

Beibei Wang

Beibei Wang is a uniquely vibrant percussion talent. With a background in both Classical and traditional Chinese percussion, she brings characteristic flair and dynamism to her performances, presenting repertoire as diverse as contemporary classical to free improvisation with equal elegance.
Beibei has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as BBC Symphony Orchestra, China Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra dell’ Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and lead the BBC Concert Orchestra on their 2018 China tour. She has appeared as soloist on some of the world’s most prestigious stages including the Barbican Centre, Elbphilharmonie, Grafenegg Festival, and Southbank Centre.
http://beibeimusic.com/

Cath Roberts

Cath Roberts is a musician, artist and organiser whose work explores free improvisation, composition and the music at their meeting point. The primary outlet for this is the band Sloth Racket, formed in 2015 by Cath on baritone saxophone and compositions, which has toured widely and released several albums. More recently, improvisation using live electronics and objects has led to a solo release plus the beginning of several new collaborations.

Cath has a long-standing duo with guitarist Anton Hunter (Ripsaw Catfish), as well as regular collaborations with Tullis Rennie, Benedict Taylor, Graham Dunning, Bill Thompson and others, and bandmate duties in several groups including Alex Ward’s Items 10 and 7, Madwort Sax Quartet and Article XI.

As an organiser, Cath has co-run LUME with Dee Byrne since 2013, producing concerts, tours and festivals and releasing music on their offshoot label Luminous. Tom Ward, Colin Webster and Cath organise BRÅK, an improvised music series taking place in Brockley, South East London. Cath’s visual work can be seen on many Luminous releases, Sloth Racket tour flyers and LUME publicity materials, and appeared in 2021 in the form of a giant, fragmented graphic score created for a hcmf// commission, And then the next thing you know.

https://cathrobots.co.uk/

Photo by Dawid Laskowski

DEE BYRNE

Dee Byrne is a saxophonist, composer and improviser with an interest in jazz and experimental music. Dee collaborates with artists from the UK and Europe who occupy the area of contemporary jazz, avant-garde and free improvisation. Her sextet Outlines serves as a vehicle for Dee’s exploration of group improvisation and original composition. Other bands include European Quintet Ydivide, Loz Speyer's Inner Space, UK/Swiss band MoonMot, London Improvisers Orchestra, and Orchestra New, an improvising ensemble led by Caroline Kraabel.

Emily Shapiro

Emily Suzanne Shapiro is a bass clarinetist and clarinetist dedicated to exploring and creating new music. Originally from Canada, Emily pursued her studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver Academy of Music, Concordia University and the Domaine Forget academy. Emily has a special love for the sound and scope of bass instruments and constantly pushes the limits of what she can do on bass clarinet. Alongside performing contemporary music on bass clarinet, Emily is involved in many other musical endeavours. Composing and improvising are central to her career, and she has been an active performer of Balinese gamelan for 10 years and has also explored jazz, klezmer, rock and electroacoustics. She is always seeking out new artistic experiences to enrich and motivate her work.

She is a proud member of Duo Arasari, the London Improviser’s Orchestra, the Corner Quartet and Lila Cita and has performed all over London, including iklectik, Café Oto, Hundred Years Gallery, LSO St Luke’s, the Vaults festival, the Barbican and many more. She founded and curates the Mellifera arts platform, a monthly interdisciplinary arts performance event and the Lonely Impulse Collective, and online daily solo improvised music project.

Outside of music, Emily loves gardening, running, whisky and making friends with animals.

Emi Watanabe

Emi Watanabe was born in Japan where she trained in traditional flutes. Emi plays three different types of traditional flutes – Ryuteki, Nohkan and Shinobue. She has been invited to perform with numerous musicians since she moved to the UK in 1995.

Rosa Theodora

Rosa Theodora is a London-based musician who plays the piano, bass, synth and percussion. She recently graduated from SOAS University of London with an MA in Music in Development, and in 2016 she graduated from the University of Leeds with a BA in English and Music. She is currently involved in a number of projects, including Paradise Yard Ensemble (electro-acoustic ensemble), Existential Dress (marimba punk duo) Noon Garden (psych-pop), Los Bravos (Peruvian psychedelic cumbia), and is also in the process of composing a piece to be featured on the Tour de Moon’s Moon Music EP, which will be transmitted to the moon and back using Earth-Moon-Earth technology.

Shima Kobayashi

As a concert artist of chromatic harmonica, Shima has played throughout Japan and abroad, pioneering a new repertoire for the chromatic harmonica since winning the world championship in 1995.
Since settling in the UK in 2003, in addition to her harmonica career, she has expanded her activities to include music education, workshops and improvisation projects. 
shimaharmonica.com

Sue Lynch

Tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute and composition. Sue Lynch currently runs ‘The Horse Improvised Music Club’ with Adam Bohman, Hutch Demouilpied and Adrian Northover.Performs with Adam Bohman, Eddie Prevost, Richard Sanderson, Anna Homler, Steve Noble, Crystabel Riley, Caroline Kraabel and Sharon Gal.

In 2016 she formed, ‘Paradise Yard’, an electro acoustic ensemble, featuring women improvisers, performing at Iklectik, Cafe Oto and The ICA. In 2018, she performed at 3 Klange Tag Music &Word Festival, Switzerland with Hildegard Kleeb, at Womad BBC Stage and, Tusk Festival and Guess Who Festival with Psychedelic Afro Beat Sudanese band, The Scorpios. Solo performance at Pied Nu Festival, Le Havre 2019. Recent releases with FMR records with ‘Dial’, a quartet featuring, Sue Lynch, Dawid Frydyk, John Edwards and Dave Fowler and ‘Secant/Tangent’ (dxdy recordings) with Crystabel Riley and Nathan Moore.

https://suelynch.bandcamp.com/

Shama Rahman

"Love It All. Brilliant!"-Gilles Peterson
'The triumphant expression of a unique vision and inimitable sound' - Songlines 4* Review

'Imagine DeadCan Dance and Björk getting together in a folk club, to make jazzy trip-hop records...with sitars.’ Songwriting Mag

"The result is a wonderful, genre-bending opus, illustrating an artist confidently reaching new musical and storytelling heights. Shama comfortably takes her sitar out of the traditional context, demonstrating a versatility rarely heard. Shama is an artist who deserves attention; a storyteller who embraces artistic expression in all its forms"-Folk Radio

Sitarist/Singer/Composer, Actress/Poet and Neuroscientist of Creativity, Dr Shama Rahman has albums 'Let The Light In' (2020), 'Truth BeTold' (2018), 'Fable:Time' (2014).

Her albums modernise the Sitar, arranged centrally within layered harmonies, electronics soundscapes and complex grooves to showcase it in different genres and instrumentation...[more]