Elaine Mitchener

photograph by Jana Chiellino

Elaine Mitchener is an experimental vocalist and movement artist whose work melds different vocal styles encompassing free-improvisation, contemporary new music, sound art, music theatre and dance. She has worked and performed in a wide variety of contexts with leading artists including: Apartment House, Moor Mother Goddess (aka Camae Ayewa), Van Huynh Co, Steve Beresford, Sonia Boyce, John Butcher, Attila Csihar, Alexander Hawkins, Tansy Davies, George Lewis, Christian Marclay, Phil Minton, Pat Thomas, The Otolith Group, Evan Parker, Alasdair Roberts, David Toop, and Jason Yarde. She is co-founder of experimental jazz quartet the Hawkins/Mitchener Quartet (with Neil Charles, Stephen Davis and Alex Hawkins).

Jason Yarde

Saxophonist Jason Yarde has been a veteran of the Louis Moholo’s bands for near 3 decades. He is himself one of the most sought-after musicians of his generation, and has been a member of groups led by Andrew Hill and Jack DeJohnette and has worked with Hugh Masekela, amonst many others. He is also a renowned arranger, producer and composer, having been widely commissioned (including by the London Symphony Orchestra).

Neil Charles

Double bassist Neil Charles trained classically and is also a busy electronic producer and composer. He regularly performs, records and tours with numerous jazz, classical and contemporary music bands and ensembles like Sun Ra Arkestra, Alex Hawkins, Mingus big band, Charles-Mitchener duo (with Elaine Mitchener) and has played with Terence Blanchard, black top, Shabaka Hutchings, and China Moses.

Abstruckt

Formed in 2014, Abstruckt are one of the most exciting new percussion ensembles to come out of the UK. With a focus on theatrical performance, this ensemble reworks its repertoire to fit the space, creating an immersive experience for the audience.

As well as performing core works, such as Reich’s Mallet Quartet, Cage’s Living Room Music and Xenakis’ Okho, Abstruckt are passionate about pioneering new repertoire for percussion, and have premiered seven new works in the last year alone. Highlights of the ensemble’s performances in the UK have included the award-winning Multi-Story, BBC Radio 3 Open Ear, numerous Nonclassical events and composer collaborations with Listenpony & the 840 Series. (@Abstruckt)

Béatrice Laplante

Béatrice Gaudreault-Laplante studied with Philippe Magnan, Lise Beauchamp, Éric Speller and Matthias Arter. In 2012, she received her Master’s diploma from the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin and is now focusing on Théâtre Musical at the Bern University of the Arts.  Béatrice has played in the KKL Lucerne, Berlin Philharmonie, and the Gewandhaus Leipzig with Sir Simon Rattle, Heinz Holliger, Pierre Boulez, and Peter Etvös, among others. She is oboist from Ensemble Contrechamps Genève since 2017. In addition to classical repertoire, Béatrice is also passionate about modern works.

Rebecca Glover

Rebecca Glover (UK) is a multidisciplinary artist working across sound, foley, sculpture and performance. She has just completed a postgraduate in Sound Arts with EPAS in Ghent. Previous studies include Edinburgh College of Art (2009), Alt MFA (2013), St Oswald’s School of Painting (2006). Earlier this year she was research artist in residence at De Bijloke Muziekcentruum (Ghent) and Overtoon (Brussels) and previously at Florence Trust (London). Recent presentations of her work include KIOSK (Ghent), De Bijloke Muziekcentruum (Ghent), Live Sound and Foley for Yorkshire Silent Film Festival, Pump House Gallery (London), Gouvernement (Ghent), Florence Trust, Hewing Whittare Project Space, Diaspore Space, SHELF Wales, Deptford X (London), Radiophrenia at CCA (Glasgow), Project Radio (UK).

Alvin Lucier

Alvin Lucier (born May 14, 1931) is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University, Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which included Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and Gordon Mumma. Much of his work is influenced by science and explores the physical properties of sound itself: resonance of spaces, phase interference between closely tuned pitches, and the transmission of sound through physical media. (Wikipedia)

Nemanja Radivojevic

Nemanja Radivojević was born 1981 in Novi Sad, Serbia.  After graduating in guitar at the Academy of the Arts in Novi Sad, he pursued his studies first in Geneva (MA in theory of music) and then in Bern where he obtained his MA in Composition with Xavier Dayer.

The sound world of Radivojevic’s music participates in a quasi-baroque formal construction, where the carnal pleasure is (re)discovered, and ideals of purity are rejected. Liberated from the fear of materiality and of the corporality, his music is engaged in playful artifice in which masks seem to be more truthful then the faces they hide.

Radivojević’s music has been presented at the festivals such as Lavaux Classic in Cully, Festival Archipel in Geneva,  Lucerne Summer Festival, Opening Festival in Trier, Cluj Modern Festival, Belgrade International Review of Composers, Musikfestival in Bern, Les rencontres d’été in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. ​

His compositions have been performed by the Ensemble Proton Bern, MDI Ensemble, Contrechamps, Ensemble Recherche, Asko/Schönberg, Ensemble Interface, Lucerne Festival Alumni Ensemble, Matka, Hodiernis, AdHOC Ensemble, Ensemble Studio 6, Gradilište Ensemble, Oerknal, Boston New Music Initative, clarinetist Richard Haynes and guitarist Ruben Mattia Santorsa.

He is the author of music for ten theater pieces directed by his father Ratko Radivojević.

Taylor Le Melle

photograph by Daniella Valz Gen