A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend an improvisation workshop with the fantastic guitarist John Russell of ‘Mopomoso’ – a group who promote freely improvised music in all its forms. Had someone told me I would be attending this whilst I was at Music College I probably would have laughed; improvising always struck me as terrifying and the idea of playing something without knowing beforehand what it was would have gone against everything I was comfortable with. But as I have come to realise some of the best and most successful music is often unintentional and comes from a truly organic desire to express something. That’s not to say that I went in confidently and with no worries at all, but perhaps with an open mind and a hunger to discover what makes improvised music come to life.
After wandering around the campus of Oxford Brookes University I finally stumbled upon the drama studio, home to the Oxford Improvisers and there we spent the next few hours engaging with eachother and really hearing individual personalities coming through. From the more traditional – violin, melodica and cello to the less usual; a lady had brought along a watering can and bucket of water. Under the experienced ear of John Russell we explored a range of ideas and at the end put together an exclusive showcase of the sounds we had created together.

I felt completely liberated by the end of the session and have come away with tools and experiences which I have already put into practice without even realising it! Surely something about the lady and her watering can must have rubbed off on me because a few days later we had such a creative session in which we put together a 3min beatboxing extravaganza. I felt that I had discovered a new way of embracing the instrument and really experimenting not solely in a classical frame of mind, (timbre, texture, colour) but in a truly physical way too, finding new angles and even ways of blowing the thing!
New music really is about discovery and it was a privilege to be invited into such an honest environment in which to be utterly inspired!

MOC x

What an epic two weeks it has been for MOC! After the two day Education Expo we went straight into an intense period of devising with our physical theatre specialist Emma Miller working towards Nonclassical event as the artist representing Platform 33 on 3rd April at The Macbeth in Hoxton. Alongside the rehearsals and final preparations we also wanted to give our followers an idea of what they could expect to see on the night and were tweeting ‘clues’ to whet their appetites including the one below!

It was brilliant to be able to perform a dress rehearsal two days before on the Easter Bank Holiday Monday to a select audience of friends and family for some final feedback. Performing alongside the very talented violinist Thomas Gould was a great privilege and we knew that what we were presenting was a complete contrast so we had to really grab the audience with our first piece. Expecting a classical music minded audience had affected this first piece and we began the performance by playing with them a little and suggesting a more traditional performance would take place. However, quickly this is interrupted by the appearance of Emma and her character and the two musicians finally discover a shared way they can communicate.

The second piece saw us setting the stage for a live creation, featuring Emma in five different character guises; from the childish schoolgirl to eccentric Frenchman exploring their contrasting treatment of the canvas and the different sound worlds which developed. Here is a character who proved to be very popular on the night!

After finishing late on Wednesday night we just had time to crack open a celebratory bottle of prosecco backstage before heading to mingle with the audience and supporters who had come! What a fantastic night and wonderful to see so many friendly faces there too!

After finishing late on Wednesday night we just had time to crack open a celebratory bottle of prosecco backstage before heading to mingle with the audience and supporters who had come! What a fantastic night and wonderful to see so many friendly faces there too!

On Thursday we treated ourselves to a cultural outing to Sadlers Wells where the short run of Sutra had caught our attention. It was an incredibly captivating performance, featuring monks from the Shaolin Temple, with a set by Anthony Gormley and music composed by Szymon Brzoska. It was so exciting to see a performance of such imagination and skill, the unity of the monks and the way in which they worked with the set made up of 21 wooden boxes was incredibly engaging and at times breathtaking.


MOC x

Last week was one of the most interesting and exciting for MOC – exhibiting at the first ever Education Expo at the Barbican had been on our minds since the end of last year when we booked our 2X1m plot of land! What would we do with the space and how could we sell what we do in a clear and concise way amidst all the musical instrument stalls, well-known musicians’ friends such as Suzuki Institute, ISM and even the Marine Army Band!

After arriving at the space it became clear that we had to do something different to stand out – selecting a canvas that had been painted by the dancer in our first project seemed fitting along with large prints of our Education Pack, a little jar for business cards and a TV to show off our photographs and videos! The transformation was quite something:

At 10.00 the next day, the doors opened and we were off! A constant stream of people visited our stand, curious and otherwise interested to talk to us more about Music Off Canvas and what we offer. Perfectly positioned by the café, our stand drew some valuable responses.

 “That stand just has personality!” said one passer-by and “wow, how refreshing to see something so creative!”

Other comments were perhaps less welcome than others but definitely entertaining; “it looks like an elephant drew it” has to be a highlight!

We wanted to present an interactive space where people could really appreciate from a practical level the essence of collaborative practice that is core to our work. A blank canvas was positioned with numerous arts materials next to our stand as a space where people could get involved and learn about the relationships between colour, texture, gesture and musical composition.

For the first half of the day, the canvas begged to be drawn on but people were too shy to make that first mark! A few braver characters later and we had managed to engage people in the process as we improvised musically to their direction.

By the end of the two days we had a full canvas of people’s imaginative musings, including a shark and a surfer, which we hadn’t expected!

What a masterpiece!

Our visitors included freelance musicians, primary and secondary school teachers, university lecturers from China and Canada, a professor of performance anxiety, heads of education departments from RCM and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and even the wonderful flautist and true inspiration of Hannah’s – Atarah Ben-Tovim. Hannah was over-the-moon to be embraced by the very lady who had inspired Hannah to play the flute at the age of 8, with thanks for inspiring her with the Music Off Canvas initiative!

After a marathon day of discussing, selling and chatting with fellow Expo exhibitors we made our way across to the cafe (only a mere few steps) to enjoy an after work drink with other stand holders. We spent an enjoyable hour or so discussing workshops and lifestyle with the two marine army exhibitors who had travelled up for the Expo from Southampton and rather unkindly been stationed in Greenwich! Vanessa’s two weeks ‘work experience’ with the Royal Corps of Signals in Blandford came up in conversation naturally!


The following day we set to preparing for the onslaught of potential customers and interested musicians and although the second day was perhaps more subdued than the initial flurry of activity that came with the first, there was no less interest and plenty of enquiries to keep us on our toes!
Luckily we had one of our collaborators, movement specialist Niamh McKernon to help us out! We are currently working very closely with Niamh to discover further territory for the Education Branch of MOC, looking at the benefits and values of collaborative practice and how we can share those with others.

When the event came to a close we breathed a sigh of relief but beaming with happiness from the amount of inspiring conversation we had with people about creativity in the music industry. We were truly touched to see how MOC ‘creating collaborative art through the meeting of minds’ really is making a difference.

Off then to quickly taxi back the TV we had borrowed from Hannah’s home and on to rehearse with Emma Miller for our upcoming performance with Non-Classical/Platform 33 crossover event. Back on with the creative hats then!
http://www.musiceducationexpo.co.uk/

Last Friday 1st March, Music Off Canvas took to the stage to present five world premieres written by the hugely talented young composers from the Purcell School for Young Musicians.

A Blank Canvas…
The project started back in January when we travelled to the Saatchi Gallery to explore the current exhibition:

“GAIETY IS THE MOST OUTSTANDING FEATURE OF THE SOVIET UNION”. 

The composers were given free reign of the exhibition as they hunted down the artwork they wanted to respond to. We handed them a worksheet to fill out with questions to help direct their thoughts, such as ‘How could you reflect or project the artwork in your composition? Does the artwork remind you of a specific musical genre? What will the performers wear? ’ but perhaps most effective, a large space on the paper for visual brainstorming….

Exploring the Boundaries…

Just over a week later, we visited the composers for our first workshop. We showed them famous examples of composers work which has been influenced by other art forms, such as Xenakis influenced by architecture and Schoenberg influenced by the expressionist paintings of Kandinsky. 

Following thorough instrument demonstrations from MOC to show the capabilities of our instruments (whistle tones, key clicks, multiphonics, you name it) we played through the first draft of ideas which the composers had been working on. 

Very impressed! They had each responded so individually to their art work and were so sure of their ideas… certainly a great start!

Bringing the Canvas to Life

The project had a specific MOC brief; the composition had to instruct some sort of choreographic element to the performance. To think in sounds and aural textures is one thing, but to think about the visual aspect too is something a composer might not necessarily address, otherwise leaving it to the performers. As cross-arts practitioners we believe it is important to experiment with these visual aspects in exploration of further dimensions that can be added to a composition. These visual aspects have no boundaries, from addressing where performers might stand in relation to the artwork and what costumes they might wear, to prescribing physical movements at specific points in a piece. 

Ideas were presented somewhat tentatively to begin with so we freed them up with an exercise borrowed from one of our collaborators, artist Tamarin Norwood. They were to express gestural markings in response to their artwork. Great. Fun.

Then the experimentation began! We played face to face, back to back, back to front, head to toe, on the floor, on the ceiling.. (well, not quite!)

The Canvas Is Filled!
The composers had been beavering away over half-term and came bright-eyed and bushey tailed to our next workshop session. The pieces were all beautifully written and full of unique identity, painting a new picture in response to their stimulus. They had even notated choroegraphed elements too:

AND they had been thinking about what costumes we could wear! Thanks to composer Sophie Sparkes, we spent our Thursday evening splatting paint all over clean white shirts, thus:

Preparing for the show…
The day had arrived. After lots of hard work, we were excited to finally arrive at the Saatchi Gallery, bags bulging with costumes and all!

In the meantime, the Saatchi Gallery had emailed us:

THIS EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED. 

Come again?

THIS EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED.

Right.

Blimey! It really is quite incredible that a concert full of contemporary works was sold out and come 18.15 there was even a queue all the way down to the road for additional standing ticket sales!

Maybe a listing in the Evening Standard had something to do with it…

So, we had our work cut out but a great team of partners behind us to make this event really special…

Presenting the works…
The audience were loosened up with their two free Russian cocktails and the atmosphere in the room was buzzing, everyone pleased to have their prized tickets and eager to find out how the talented young composers had responded to the vibrant artwork that was surrounding them.

The first two works in the program were inspired by the work below, Criminal Government (2008) by Gosha Ostretsov, in which cells hold realistic figures in bloodied business suits, some with limbs missing and all with abstract-shaped heads. The work represents government officials being dehumanized or punished, like prisoners of war.

Sophie Sparkes - We Are Figments Of Others
Sophie wanted to portray the idea of identity being shifted and transferred to one another, achieving this musically with moments of unity in contrast with manic independence. Physically, Sophie clearly instructs the performers of which cells to stand in front of, mimicking the positions of the figures inside them and then later becoming more animated to the point where there is a switch of persona and thus physical positioning.

Nathaniel Coxon - Introduction and 5 Preludes to a Criminal Government
This work dedicates a movement of the piece to each cell in the artwork. With the performers wearing black clothing in dimmed lighting, the whole piece has an overall sombre tone, one movement containing a haunting oboe solo entitled “Funeral March”. Intelligently woven into this atmosphere are faster movements with driven metre creating a Russian sound world through well explored diversity of the wind instruments.

The third piece in the program was based on a different artwork Sex In The City (2008) by the same artist. Working in the Paris fashion world in the 1980s and 90’s, Ostretsov became involved with costume-art and performance and his interest in comic-strip and superhero culture led him to make grotesque latex masks, which play a central role in his exploration of power. In this work, Ostretsov knowingly subverts the idea that comic-strips had not yet been assimilated into Russian Art and are not considered a medium with which to convey anything serious.

 Jordan Stockdale - Kalpa 5
Wearing costumes which blended in with the artwork, MOC surrounded the art and gradually swayed with the vibrato as if to come to life. Once the performers were ‘active’ they moved to the front of the room to play the majority of the piece which explores innovatively experimental dovetailing and note colouring between the instruments. At the very end of the piece, MOC merge back into the artwork both in sound and movement.

During the interval, we performed a piece inspired by the works of Yelena Popova with their transparent, softened geometric forms, recalling the aesthetics of Russian constructivism and minimalism. They display a series of paintings on linen which range in size and combine graphic pattern and unpredictable shapes with a delicacy of touch and colour.

Gabriel Williams - Layers
Gabriel composed a series of beautiful chords to be played as the audience were walking around the gallery space. He wanted MOC to start playing in rhythmic unison, physically facing inwards towards each other. The performers then gradually became dislodged and phased freely with each other as they themselves wondered around the gallery too. The audience were free to talk and experience these layers of sounds as the musicians came closer to them and then disappeared into the distance. The result was beautifully free and had a very strong correlation to the artwork.

The last piece MOC performed was inspired by the works of Valery Koshlyakov who makes large-scale cardboard paintings and collages of architectural monuments which offer a re-reading of the symbols of empire. Covered in paint drips, his flattened-box panels look wet, urgent, quickly rendered and they show iconic subjects from a Soviet empire.

Anna Disley-Simpson - Figments

 Anna wanted to convey the blatent irony of these grand buildings painted on to cardboard. Using very direct and beautiful melodies, Anna seemed to overlap the parts as they passed it over to one another, just like the overlapping cardboard and paint. MOC were directed to stamp, key click and slide their feet around on the floor which created dry, textural sounds complementing its simplicity. Anna made cardboard headpieces for MOC to wear, visually overlapping the artwork and the performers too.

You can watch the videos of the performances (coming soon) on our websitewww.musicoffcanvas.com 


After the show…
Phew! We had played our hearts out and were pretty quick off the mark to rush downstairs to find any left over cocktails! (Not the composers mind, believe it or not, they are only 17!)

We have had most rewarding feedback saying that the concert changed the way in which some people saw and understood the artwork, brought to life in a way that would never otherwise be possible. The composers said that “MOC and the Saatchi project has given us so many ideas” and one friend even took his family back to the Saatchi Gallery at the weekend to show them the exhibition!

So, it is proven then… collaboration between the artworlds broadens horizons and offers people more avenues in which to connect with and experience the arts. 

This, is what it is all about.

MOC x

Hello to all our readers, and here is our R&P from the 11th February to present.

Things are getting exciting for our upcoming performance next Friday 1st March at the Saatchi Gallery! Recent news is that Absolut Vodka will be sponsoring the event, which means ticket holders receive two FREE Russian cocktails! Yes Two! Excellent, you can’t go wrong with a bit of vodka and what better to compliment the current exhibition ‘Breaking the Ice: Moscow Art 1960’s-1980’s’ ?! 

MOC will be opening the event at 19.00 with four pieces written for flute, oboe and bassoon, by the composers of the Purcell School for Young Musicians. The concert then goes on to explore some pieces written by composers of Queenswood School and then finally, a performance of Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony conducted by James Ross. 

So with the concert fast-approaching, we were excited to pay the composers a visit last Monday for our second workshop of the project, where they were to present the first draft of their pieces. The composers Anna Didley-Simpson, Nathanial Coxon, Jordan Stockdale, Sophie Sparkes and Gabriel Williams were all eager to have their work played…

“Nothing better than having music you’ve written come to life when people play them so beautifully :)’ tweeted Anna.

Well, we felt there was nothing better than to see how five people can react so individually and creatively to the same exhibition! The pieces sounded fantastic and each one painted its own new picture in response to the art work. It truly is a fascinating thing to be part of the creative journey, seeing developments from the initial visit to the gallery through to notes on a manuscript. 

As mentioned in our last R&P, we made sure that the brief for the project was true to the vision of MOC, after all it is important for composers to know who they are writing for. We have encouraged choreographic elements to be included in the piece, such as where we might stand in relation to the art work and also for some thought to be given to the outfits which we might wear. This kind of territory is not explored too broadly in music so happens to be new ground for the composers. Last week we experimented with playing a simple musical phrase in various physical positions around the room to show how it can change the effect of the music. This exercise seemed to liberate the composers and ideas started to flow! One suggestion was to have us dress up in corrugated cardboard… we have since been collecting boxes.

We return back to Purcell on Monday to rehearse the completed pieces and can’t wait to see what we have to play with.

Catch the performance this Friday 1st March, 18.45 at the Saatchi Gallery as we unveil the creations.

Last Friday we had another inspiring session with Movement Specialist Niamh McKernon. We met Niamh back in December and since the New Year, have been sharing our knowledge in our specialist fields and exploring links between Laban’s ‘Eight Efforts’ and music.

To explain a little: Laban breaks down the way we move using three different areas of analysis - space, weight and time. Space can be either direct or indirect, weight can be strong or light and time can be sudden or sustained. When you put these all together, you end up with eight efforts that classify styles of movement as well as something of the personality of the person making the movement.

1. Direct, strong, sudden = Punch
2. Indirect, strong, sudden = Slash
3. Direct, strong, sustained = Push
4. Indirect, strong, sustained = Wring
5. Direct, light, sudden = Dab
6. Indirect, light, sudden = Flick
7. Direct, light, sustained = Glide
8. Indirect, light, sustained = Float

Most of us generally inhabit one or two of these efforts and the others are usually not as comfortable for us.  But as we start experimenting with these different efforts, we can learn to use all of them.  Practising and using the efforts makes it possible for us to create wildly different physical performances, whilst still remaining true to our own unique and special quality.

Music can also be analysed through space, weight and time. The way instrumentalists play a musical phrase can change according to the choices given to the balance between its space, weight and time. We are therefore exploring the ‘Efforts’ as a potential method of cross-arts language.

Our explorations have so far been led by Niamh, getting to grips with the physical representations of the ‘Efforts’. Niamh has been kind to us perhaps not-so-limber musicians, starting sessions with relaxing yoga before moving onto the harder things! Last Friday it was our turn to share some musical exercises and the cross-overs are quite fascinating. We have found that a lot of the time, the quicker one can pick up on the ‘Effort’ quality of a fellow performer, the more powerful the communication. We can’t wait to discover more territory before sharing our discoveries with other fellow performers through workshops.

Lastly, following on from our visit to the venue for our performance in April for Nonclassical/Platform33 at the Macbeth in Hoxton, we had an action packed creative session with mime artist Emma Miller full of ideas! We played around with several scenarios, plucked out of thin air to see where they may take us and improvised around them. One of them included being conducted by a giant cucumber! We certainly giggled a lot and have now come up with a good first draft for a piece. As ideas become more certain, we may share a few of them on here with you… keep an eye out!
That’s all for now but check in on us again next week for a lowdown on the Saatchi performance. Must remember not to drink too many of those cocktails!

MOC x

Hello to all our readers, and here is our R&P from the 4th February. It’s been a very busy and exciting week for the three of us and we have hardly had a chance to stop and write about all that’s been going on, so apologies that this is reaching you a little later than planned.

First up on the week’s agenda it’s time to diarise, as we can officially confirm our next performance date, Friday 1st March at the Saatchi Gallery. We will be performing new works by the young composers of The Purcell School, who are writing pieces for MOC, inspired by the work on display in the current exhibition at the Saatchi ‘Breaking the Ice: Moscow Art 1960’s-1980’s’. On Monday we travelled up to Purcell to have our second brainstorming session with the composers, following on from our visit to the gallery last week. We are encouraging the composers to think of creating ‘performance art’ as opposed to simply a piece for flute, oboe and bassoon, to be performed in traditional format - seated behind music stands. Thus, we have asked them to think about the extra elements of choreography, staging, costume, lighting etc, and to consider including some freer sections which could have an improvisatory element, where we can leave our stands, and the constraints they bring.

The ideas the composers have come up with so far are really exciting, including the use of neon lights and fake blood, and putting us in prison! They are also thinking about how the musicians will reflect the medium used, stamping on the wooden floor to reflect the tempura on cardboard used by Valery Koshlkyakov inGrand Opera, Paris 1995, and walking independently around the space, joined by the music yet also free to move note at random, depicting the mood created by Yelena Popova’s Untitled 2011 (mixed media on linen).

Monday was a busy day for us, as in the morning we headed up to north London to run three workshops at Oakleigh Special School with the Live Music Now scheme. Before Christmas we gave a series of workshops to the junior school, based around the theme of landscapes, and this second visit we were working with the older children and our topic was animals in the jungle. It is incredibly rewarding to share and make music with children who have SLD (severe learning difficulties) and PMLD (profound and multiple learning difficulties), as their reactions are so spontaneous and uninhibited. Our workshops in this setting are improvisatory at the core, and we also incorporate any themed songs that the children are familiar with, as repetition is an important aspect in their development. Two effective ways to connect with the children utilise their one-on-one helpers, who know the children so well, one being to tap along to the pulse of our music on the child’s body, the other to shake percussive instruments close to them, allowing the child to feel the texture of the instrument. We also go right up to the children with our instruments so that they make a visual connection to the sound heard, and to allow them to feel the vibrations of the sound waves.

On the previous Saturday we had another rehearsal for our upcoming performance in collaboration with Emma Miller, and the piece is starting to take shape. It’s great to be composing again, and exploring the capabilities of our instruments. We were buzzing after the rehearsal, and headed down to the venue for the upcoming performance, The Macbeth http://www.themacbeth.co.uk. Nestled in the heart of Hoxton, The Macbeth is an old pub come music venue with a great deal of character and charm. Over the years it has hosted, among others, Florence and the Machine, Gallows, Annie Mac, Pete Doherty, Toddla T, Gang Of Four, Roots Manuva, Fucked Up, IS TROPICAL, Drums Of Death, Saves The Day, Rolo Tomassi, Dan le Sac and Scrubious PiP, The XX, The Count & Sinden, Fake Blood and Franz Ferdinand. Now that we’ve seen the venue, we can think about appropriate staging, and other exciting elements the space inspires.

That’s all for now, so follow us next week to find out how our next meetings with Niamh, Emma and the Purcell composers go, plus, the three of us get creative with candle sticks, and reveal our Martian melodies!

This week our R&P meeting took us again to the Festival Hall, this time just Hannah and I were able to make it, as Vanessa was away on an orchestral residency as part of her year in the Southbank Sinfonia. 

Projecting back, this has been a great week for MOC! First up was a mime double bill, as we attended two London Mime Festival events, in what was it’s final week. On Wednesday, we went to see Hans de Hieri by Zimmerman and de Perrot, at the Barbican Theatre, which was amazing (see brief musing on the performance below)! 

Then, on Friday we went to watch the much hyped Gandidi Juggler’s perform their latest show, Smashed, which was inspired by the lengendary choreographer Pina Bausch. The show opened with nine performers juggling with apples, on a stage bare of props except for nine chairs, giving no hint of what was to come! The hilarious, and rather bizarre show, displayed some really impressive, and unexpected juggling moves, a particularly unusual one being juggling whilst smacking a man’s naked bottom! The show did become quite repetitive, as even with their expert skill, there is only so much you can do with an apple! Then, about fifteen minutes before the end, crockery, which had been at the back out of sight, was neatly arranged on stage, and we anticipated some dare devil juggling would follow. We could not have been more wrong, the reason for the title was revealed, as everything was smashed to pieces, and the performers went bezeurk, among comments they shouted “juggling at the Royal Opera House, pretentious rubbish!” It was so unexpected, and so funny! The show then ended with the jugglers then stuffing as much apple as possible into their mouths! It was definitely unlike anything I have seen before! Here’s a short clip of the show, and a review from the guardian. 

http://vimeo.com/51011132
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/jan/19/smashed-review

Prior to the show on Friday, we had a very exciting rehearsal with Niamph, the inspiring movement specialist and theatre performer we are working with. We have been discussing possible avenues for collaboration, and the qualities which movement and music share. Niamph introduced us to laban language, which in brief is the result of the work of Rudolph von Laban, to document all forms of human physical movement. Laban created eight ‘effort qualities’, representing the natural movements of human daily life; wringing, slashing, punching, gliding, floating, flicking, dabbing, and pressing. In our rehearsal, Niamph taught us how to move for each of these, and we attempted to copy her, which was very funny, they are much harder to do than she made them look! We then experimented with how the emotional state we felt performing each quality affected our musical style whilst playing. After the meeting we came away excited about exploring this further, and we will be blogging about how the collaborative process develops.

Back to the meeting, and first on this week’s agenda were funding opportunities. As many of you are I’m sure very aware, funding applications take a long time to do, so we are highlighting deadlines now, and delegating tasks. In our first session with our MBF business mentor Julia Payne, she highlighted the importance of delegating tasks to succesfully run a business, playing on the strenghts of each member, and as we have started to imput this more, we are realising how valuable the stategy is.

We ended by looking through a few potential performance opportunities, and making a note of people to contact. There are always exciting things going on in London, you just need to spend a bit of time researching where they are.

Next week we will be having our R&P meeting on the run, as we head up to the Purcell School for our first rehearsal with the young composers preparing for our performance at the Saatchi Gallery in March. Other highlights are a return visit to Oakleigh School in North London, to run our second improvisatory workshop through the Live Music Now scheme, and our next rehearsal with Niamph, so keep following to hear how it all goes.

One last note, our Platform 33/Non Classical performance with Emma has moved back to Thursday 4th April, due to unforseen circumstances, so put that in your diaries. We can also now reveal that the venue is The Macbeth in Hoxton. 

MOC x

Mime Time - part 2

We can’t recommend Hans de Hieri by Zimmermann & de Perrot highly enough! In the director’s note, they describe the show as “…building on the insight that humans are surprisingly similar when it comes to basic needs and desires. Does life often seem to fail simply because we, as individuals, try so hard to be unique and different?”

The five cast members approach this question, by way of a number of hilarious characters who live within the world of a revolving house! The 80 minute show keeps you transfixed as they dance across the stage, perform amazing acrobatic feats, amuse with puppetry, and make you laugh out loud as they humourise characters we are all familiar with. We especially liked the gospel preacher! 

On the side lines is a DJ, dressed the part in full tuxedo, who keeps the music flowing and even mixes the audience sounds.
Here’s a link to the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvgSXM7pYNA&feature=player_embedded
It’s on until tomorrow at the Barbican Theatre…so go and see it if you can!

For today’s R&P meeting we returned to our favourite haunt, the Royal Festival Hall of the South Bank Centre. This is such a great space to meet, an amazing artistic hub, with regular free live performances going on, and a changing gallery of contemporary art on display. Whenever I’m there (which is pretty often actually), I’m reminded of why I really love being an artist in London!

We’ve have had a great week, attending Platform 33’s birthday party (see our blog below), going to watch ‘Harlekin’ by Devero as part of the London Mime Festival (see Vanessa’s review below), and starting work on out next collaboration with physical theatre artist Emma Miller, with whom we’ll be performing at Platform 33 on the 6th March. It’s great to be collaborating and creating again!

Our first brainstorming session with Emma was so exciting, and pretty hilarious too, and some great ideas came out of the session which we look forward to expanding. Before Christmas our compositional mentor Errolyn Wallen set us the challenge of creating a signature jingle to sum up our instrument to a martian! Definitely one of the best tasks I’ve ever been set! We have decided to expand and improvise on these in our next rehearsal with Emma, and see if any musical ideas come out that could be incorporated into our performance.

Back to today, and up first on the agenda was further planning for our appearance at the Music Education Expo in March(www.musiceducationexpo.co.uk), including the organising of a giant MOC banner, TV screens to play a showreel of us in action, and the printing of loads of publicity flyers! It’s quite a task, but we’re looking forward to having our first MOC stall!

We’re really keen to apply to do a creative residency, allowing us some dedicated time to explore and develop new compositional avenues, and potentially also work on a new collaboration. Dartington is somewhere we are particularly keen to spend our residency, an exciting place with art and music everywhere, encouraging creativity at every turn. This week we plan to investigate potential spaces that could accommodate us, and possible dates that they and we are available.

Looking ahead and MOC are getting out and about this week! We’re off to two more London Mime Festival events, ‘Hans was Heiri’ by Zimmermann & de Perrot on Wednesday at the Barbican, and Gandini’s ‘Smashed’ on Friday at The Linbury Studio of the Royal Opera House. We’ve also got our first improvising session with movement specialist and theatre performer Niamh McKernan, so lots to report on next Monday!

Thank you Platform 33 for hosting a fabulous birthday party last night, we had such a great time! For those of you not able to make it, here’s a little bit about the what you missed!
The venue for the festivities was The Nursery, Arch 61, an intimate warehouse-style building, hidden in the deepest depths of Southwark, under the railway line, and the low rumble of the trains added to the cool urban feel of the space.

The night began with the Internationally acclaimed recorder ensemble Consortium 5, who are signed to NonClassical and released their debut album, Tangled Pipes, with them in 2010. I never knew the recorder family was so big, and included such bizarre looking relatives! In their 20 minute set they expertly performed repertoire from across the genres, and I particularly enjoyed ‘Screech’ by Kerry Andrew, exploring different bird sounds, the first movement is especially cool.

Next up were the brilliant London Brass Dectet, a tour de force of brass players from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, performing a taster of the repertoire for this ensemble, from Jim Parker to Richard Wagner.

And then for something completely different, in came the Capoeira Performers! Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art, inspired by dance, acrobatics, fighting and games, and the troupe gave a dazzling display, cartwheeling across the stage, and dancing beautifully choreographed fights. Their set ended with some amazing salsa dancing, followed by the chance for us all to get up and have a go!

Just time to grab a mulled wine before the next act, Thrales, London’s premier rapper sword dance group! The group filled the room with an explosion of energy, accompanied by a firey folk-recorder player, which made tapping your feet along to the beat irresistible. 

The final act of the night were Mayibuye, a traditional South African township funk band, and their lively performance was the perfect way to get the party goers in the spirit for some dancing into the early hours with Dj’s Gabriel Prokofiev, Nwando Ebizie and Ciaran Mayes.

Platform 33 promise to ‘showcase the most incredible artists from completely different genres’, and they definitely lived up to it last night. Follow them on facebook/via their website, to make sure you don’t miss out on attending their next event! See you there!

MOC x

http://platform33.co.uk