Creative Session

Hi everyone,



This week, we rehearsed the pieces we are working on, setting the material and beginning to define the structure of the pieces. Memory, Throw, Bursts, Dirge, Outerspace, Klang, Swarm, Crescendo and Tutti are the pieces we are playing in our 10 min performance and 4 min live BBC broadcast.

We are playing 4 themes in C, Bb and Eb throughout the piece that thread each movement together with the different instruments playing.

We are also looking at different ways of using percussion instruments, hitting the gong with and in a bowl of water to effect the sound vibrations when playing ti. Playing the casio keyboard with different sound levels within the piece, and playing the piano, on the keys, as well as on the strings below the keyboard, and using the foot pedals at different times for different effects in the sound.

Will and Katie are experimenting with the visuals, playing with different ways of exploring moving images and the live dance movements with the live camera and projection on the wall. Using beams of light and colour gels as part of creating live and moving images that change and transform as the dance moves in and out of the camera screen.

Next week we are working with Mira Calix and the London Sinfonietta players whom are joining us in our composition piece for the 13th dec.

Text / Video / Website

Hi everyone,

Tickets are on sale now by text message!

Text LNDSNF + your name to 82023 and your reply text is your ticket!

Take a look at our promotional video, edited by Rachel and Katie, for the London Sinfonietta's 40th Birthday event!

   

And have a look at the website, designed by Will, for more details about the event at

www.lndsnf-40.com

See you on 13th dec!
More creative blog pages to come :)

Programme for 13th dec

Hi everyone,

With three rooms to move between, the yellow room, the foyer, and the blue room there is a really exciting programme of compositions and world premiere pieces for the audience and radio listeners to enjoy! Here is the programme for the 13th dec London Sinfonietta's 40th Birthday...

Yellow room

LS Culture Collective and Street Genius (world premiere) 9pm
Mira Calix - after 12pm

Blue room 9.30pm

Dai Fujikura Eternal Escape for solo cello
Vinko Globokar Res/As/Ex/Inspirer for trombone

The foyer Live on Radio BBC 3 10pm

LS Culture Collective and Street Genius
Mira Calix new work for solo cello and electronics (world premiere)
John Woolrich fragment for solo saxophone
Dai Fujikura Eternal Escape foe solo cello
Anna Meredith new work for trombone and electronics
Jordan Hunt Lambic Stutter for flute, saxophone, trombone, cello and keyboard (world premiere of new version)
Will Gregory Interference for solo saxophone and electronics
John Cage Radio music for 1 - 8 performers, each at 1 radio performed by LS, Culture Collective and Street Genius

The performances are happening at set times at the event, however the audience are free to move between the three rooms throughout the evening. There is limited access in certain rooms and we strongly recommend arriving early for the best experience of the event,

We look forward to seeing you there!

Creative Session

Hi everyone,

We had a great third rehearsal with the Culture Collective and Street Genius. This week we were rehearsing in St Andrew's Church and we were joined by photographer Tracy Fahy, a fine artist, reportage photographer and photographic facilitator, who is mentoring Amah in photography for the event. Check out Tracey's work on her website at www.traceyfahy.com

The photos on this blog are by Amah Asomani, Street Genius.

We worked this week developing improvisations from the words we found when listening to the music with Mira Calix, also adding in actions to the music that can refelct the nature of the music.





We played with percussion instruments, a gong that Antoine has from China, and a mini keyboard from Rachel. Timo plays his guitar with a bow for some pieces, and we also played with using the bow with the gong.

Some of the improvisations extended into longer pieces and some improvisations were really short, each varying in dynamics and feeling to the piece.

Will experimented with live visual effects with the camera and projector that worked well with moving dance and light in front of the screen.



We also made a 1 min promotional video this week for the 40th Birthday coming soon.

Have a look at our website too for more info on the event, go to www.ldnsnf-40.com
Keep watching . . .

Creative Session with Mira Calix

Hi all,

For our second creative session we worked with electronic artist Mira Calix. Mira is a live performer, DJ and composer for electronic music, specialising in intimate vocals with jittering beats and experimental eletronic textures. She is signed to Warp records and created three albums with them, One on One, Skimskitter and Eyes Set Against The Sun. Mira has her own band, Alexander's Annexe with pianist Sarah Nicholls and sound designer David Sheppard, she has collaborated with the London Sinfonietta and recently been commissioned by Opera North.


We are really happy to be collaborating and working with Mira in our work with the London Sinfonietta and look forward to our future creative meetings with her soon. You can hear her music on her myspace page www.myspace.com/you_could_feel_the_sky

Also check out her website at www.miracalix.com

As a starting point for the creative session Antoine prepared a score for us to explore as a means to structure our improvisations. The score had a layout of 20 bars in which each player has a different instruction to follow of the same symbols. + is to play, - is to be silent, and = is to continue your previous instruction.



We looked at the dynamics and shape of the structure and decided to emphsise dynamic qualities with +, and continuous sustained qualities with = to see if the sounds and movements were affected withing the structure.
We also experimented having some one leading the improvisation as we had been exploring last week. This worked well with the dance leading as it gave a focal point for everyone to play from, we felt that this was a good way to bring the group and different art forms together when we are improvising.




In this session we also brought with us a 15 sec clip of a piece of music that inspires us and we enjoy. We played our clips and then said a few things about why we had chosen these pieces. Our initial idea for bringing these clips was into the piece as bursts of appropriated music.

With discussions with Mira we had some really exciting thoughts about the words and phrase that came out of why we had chosen the pieces.

The words are:

Hope

British racing Green

Suspension

Circus

Skyline Violet

Celebration

Serendipity Chaos

Journey

Bursts

Unexpected

Midnight Blue

Out of these words we felt that they had an overall theme of joy, happiness and celebration which went really well with our event for the London Sinfonietta's 40th Birthday. We are going to explore these ideas in our next creative session coming soon...

Creative Session

Hi everyone,

Here are the ideas from our first creative session together creating our 10 min piece for the London Sinfonietta's 40th Birthday!

We started the day with a few warm up exercises led by Jordan and then got straight into the group improvisations. Jordan was playing violin, Antoine was playing the piano, Timo was on his laptop, Katie was dancing and Amah was taking photographs.

The improvisations we were exploring were on different ideas about passing on dynamic phrasing to players in the group, this meant that as we improvising we have to be aware of each other to know who and when the phrases are being passed to you, and also to respond to each other as it happens.

The second improv was about having one player as a soloist and the other players responding to their ideas by acting as a supporting sound and movement for their piece. This improv worked well as we felt that each of us were really looking at each other and focused on the individual taking the solo as well as listening to each other as a supporting group.

The next improvisations were based on Lines and Circles and Dots. This was really exciting as they all varied in their dynamics and tempo with each variation and it was good for us to explore every instrument and dance movements, as they found different qualities in the improvisations.

We liked the idea that Amah the photographer for the piece, was part of the improvisations as well as documenting the process and taking her own photographs for the event.

Photos by Amah from this session comming soon..

See the next blog for our progress with these ideas...

The Culture Collective and Street Genius

Hi everyone,

We would like to give a warm welcome to new members joining the Culture Collective and Street Genius, and also introduce everyone in the group as well as past members. Amah, Nicole, Nabeel and Timo are joining us in the London Sinfonietta's 40th Birthday! Here is everyone's portraits... enjoy!

Amah is a new member of the Street Genius and is currently studying at City and Islington College for her A Levels in Philosophy, English Literature and Media Studies. Amah is a keen photographer and will be documenting the process and exhibiting her photography at the event in Dec.

Emrul Hassan is a member of the Street Genius and worked on the Marketing for ‘The Buildings are Alive’ . Emrul is currently studying in his foundation year at Goldsmiths University in Computer Science and is working on the advertising and marketing for the event in dec.

Nabeel Hassan is a new member to the Street Genius and is currently studying for his A Levels at Southbank College, in Media Studies, Sociology and ICT (information, communication technology). Nabeel is working on the publicity and marketing for the event in dec.

Antoine Francoise is a member of the Culture Collective and is currently studying for his MMUS in Piano and Composition at Royal College of Music. He is principle pianist with NEC, New Contemporary Music Ensemble in Switzerland and works in London with his group Mercury Quartet, for Chamber music. Antoine plays piano and Saxophone.


Jordan Hunt is a member of the Culture Collective and is a composer, violinist and performer. Jordan < performs with The Irrepressibles and has recently had his compositions performed at Royal Academy of Art and The Frieze Art Fair. He has also recorded his work with NMC label.

Katie Keeble is a member of the Culture Collective and is a freelance contemporary dancer and choreographer. She has recently danced with Ascendance Rep Company and Birch and O’Shea, visual arts and dance collaboration. Katie is a graduate of London Contemporary Dance School, and studied dance and film studies in an exchange program at Cal Arts, USA.

Nicole Robson is a new member to the Culture Collective, she is a cellist and currently playing with four bands, The Irrepressibles, The Monroe Transfer, Charly Blue and the Colours, and her band 16 wires String Quartet. Nicole is a graduate of Kings College London in Music.

Rachel Essien is a member of the Culture Collective and a freelance pod caster and production assistant, and currently working with Folded Wing Pod Cast and Marketing Company. She is a graduate from Ravensbourne University in Sound design.

Timo is a new member to the Culture Collective and is currently studying his MMUS masters in Composition and Improvisation at Brunnel University. Timo plays the guitar, laptop and percussion.

Will Crook is a member of the Culture Collective and a freelance animator. Will is currently working with a group of seven animators, designers and graphic designers in a company they have created called ‘Treat’. Will is a graduate from Kingston University in Animation Illustration.

The London Sinfonietta:

Anna Rice has been Participation and Learning Manager at the London Sinfonietta for three years, building links with partners across London and the UK to explore contemporary classical music in new ways and reach a diverse audience. Anna graduated from Goldsmiths University in 2002 with a BAMus, going on to work at the New London Orchestra to administer a large community vocal project in Gospel Oak. Following this she worked at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for two years as Education and Community Co-ordinator before coming to the London Sinfonietta, where she started the Culture Collective and Street Genius programme.

Jamie has been involved in the Culture Collective and Street Genius programme since its inception earlier in the year. His role has been to support the group in developing idea’s, curating the events and working with the London Sinfonietta. Jamie is currently Managing Director of All About the Arts and works as a consultant with London Sinfonietta, SOWF and other arts organisations in London. Jamie is a proud father of his beautiful son.

Past members:

Alika Jeffs aka AJ worked with the Street Genius for The Buildings are Alive... event in the summer, working with Emrul in the publicity and marketing to the event. He also created a word piece to go with animation, based on the thoughts and feelings of the Culture Collective and Street Genius seeing the Psycho Buildings exhibition at the Hayward Gallery.

Benji Fox worked with the Culture Collective for The Buildings are Alive…event in the summer. Benji designed and created the pre-repaired piano (cic.) as part of the interactive instillation piece and composed a piece with Antoine Francoise for animation. Benji is a graduate of London College of Communication in Sound Design.

Tom-Olaf Urb worked with Culture Collective for The Buildings are Alive… event in the summer, composing a piece with animation and as technical support on the day of the event.

We wish AJ, Benji and Tom all the best with their future work.

Our next posts for the Culture Collective and Street genius will be the creative sessions for the upcoming event of London Sinfonietta's 40th Birthday at the Royal Festival Hall, Spirit Level on the 13th Dec 2008!

The Buildings are Alive...

Hi everyone,

Its good to be back working with the London Sinfonietta, we have a really exciting project we are currently working on with the London Sinfonietta but before we start with the new work, Id like to show you some photos from 'The Buildings are Alive...' event in the summer!
Inspired by the London Sinfonietta repertoire and 'Psycho Buildings' exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in 2008, you can see more about this exhibition here http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visual-arts/hayward-exhibitions/psycho-buildings 

See our website for more info on the event...   

www.thebuildingsarealive.co.uk

The 16th Aug event with Culture Collective, Street Genius and London Sinfonietta was a great day and we had really positive feedback from the audience members who came to see us! On the day we had live performances by the London Sinfonietta players including pianist John Constable playing Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano by John Cage, cellist Tim Gill playing Eternal Escape by Dai Fujikura and percussionist Sam Walton playing Dark Ground by Tansy Davies.



We also had an animation film by Will Crook, a Culture Collective member, created to original compositions by Culture Collective Jordan Hunt, Tom-Olaf Urb and Antoine Francoise and Benji Fox and Street Genius AJ.
These were projected onto five screens placed in and around the musicians on the Clore Ballroom. You can see all the animation films and compositions on the London Sinfonietta youtube site at this address http://uk.youtube.com/user/LondonSinfonietta
The projections also had a film with interviews from the composers and the musicians playing live music, giving their thoughts about the works and their feelings as musicians playing them.



The audience were given headphones which gave them the option of listening to the live performances, and the films being shown which included the animation and interviews.


The audience were encouraged to walk around the space and interact with the installations of the performance. The installation that Benji created was a pre-repaired piano (cic.) that was a piano he constructed out of wood with keys that trigger sound bites. This was a fascinating piece and many adults and children really enjoyed playing with this installation to explore the music.



As well as live music performances, films and installations inside the Clore Ballroom there was also live dance and music performances happening outside, by the Royal Festival Hall, the Southbank and Hayward Gallery.



Here are the dancers in the piece, Masumi Saito, Nick Lawson, Katie Keeble and Jade Yung.

and playing with us is Jordan Hunt, Culture Collectice, on Violin and Sam Walton, London Sinfonietta with percussion.


We performed the piece three times outside and also once inside as a finale to the event on the Clore Ballroom together with Sam Walton playing Dark Ground by Tansy Davies and Tim Gill playing Eternal Escape by Dai Fuikura.



The Street Genius team from all the 22 organisations from the Southbank Cultural Quater also came down to the Royal Festival Hall for 'The Buildings are Alive...' event, it was great to see them all together from all the different art forms they are working with.



The scheme is funded by SOWF Some Other Way Forward, aiming to reach a new audience for young people in Southwark and Lambeth.



With AJ and Emrul ensuring everyone was happy and ready to go! they were flyering during the whole event and talking with the public along the Southbank area getting audience members to come and see what we are doing inside and outside the Royal Festival Hall.



All the photographs from 'The Buildings are Alive...' event are by photographer Justin Pipergev, 2008.

We had a great day on Aug 16th and now we are getting ready for our next event that is being held at the Royal Festival Hall Spirit Level, Southbank Centre on 13th Dec 2008 for London Sinfonietta's 40th Birthday! We'll keep you updated with the process and news about the event and see you there!