LAB15: Dominic Lash, Misha Penton, Vassilis Chatzimakris

Wednesday 18 April, 12-4pm (12-2pm, CM107 / 2-4pm CM137)

This month we welcome Bristol-based double bassist, improviser and composer Dominic Lash to talk about his work with Éliane Radigue on her Occam Ocean series. Dominic will play the piece and discuss the working process for making the piece with Radigue. In the first half of the lab, Misha Penton will present her recent work as a composer-performer on embodied vocality, and Vassilis Chatzimakris will discuss the development of his work on interfacial scores.

12-2pm / CM107

Vassilis Chatzimakris: What’s in an intefacial score?: Notated information where performing means are left open

Vassilis Chatzimakris is a composer, sound artist, performer and improviser. His compositional practice combines Indeterminacy, Open Forms and Extended Notations, while his compositions encourage the interdisciplinary engagement of the participants. He is currently a PhD candidate in Composition at Bath Spa University, School of Music and Performing Arts, conducting practice-based research in indeterminate composition for interdisciplinary performances under the supervision of Prof. James Saunders. Before starting his PhD, he has completed his studies in Performance Design and Practice at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, and a Joint BA and MA in Music Composition at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He has taken composition lessons, workshops and seminars by James Saunders, Michalis Lapidakis, Dimitri Papageorgiou, Alexis Porfiriadis, Gerhard Staebler and Kunsu Shim.

Misha Penton: Vocality, Performance, Media, et cetera

Misha Penton will discuss and present excerpts from recent works including the site-sepciifc performance and media project Threshold. Misha’s research explores embodied vocality and the creation of ‘postopera’ works utilizing structured improvisation and collaborative performance devising techniques.

Misha is a contemporary opera singer, experimental vocal composer, director, and media artist. Recent projects include Anecdote of the Spirit, an experimental work created for the Rothko Chapel Houston; Threshold, a site specific experimental postopera created for a cavernous old rice factory in Texas; and The Medusa Project, an experimental monodrama which premiered at The Women Composers Festival of Hartford. Upcoming projects: The Lighthouse, a collaborative opera project with composer Brent Fariss with New Music Co-op Austin; and Inhale Starlight, a new performance work created for Asia Society Texas. mishapenton.com

2-4pm / CM137: Dominic Lash – Éliane Radigue’s Occam Ocean XVII

Dominic Lash with perform and discuss Éliane Radigue’s solo double bass piece Occam Ocean XVII, which he developed with the composer between 2013 and 2015. Topics covered will include the process of developing the piece, its life since its premiere and the issues of listening, of aesthetics, and of performance practice it raises, particularly in relation to Lash’s activities as an improvising musician.

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