Resonances: Low Flutes, Low Clarinets & Comedy

Carla Rees:
Ben Gaunt, feat. comedian Sean Morley Disquieting Spellsphere

rarescale (Carla Rees, flutes & Sarah Watts, clarinets):
Dan Kessner Genera Magna
Sohrab Uduman Sound me closely

This concert features a duo from the rarescale ensemble who specialise in creating new chamber music repertoire for low flutes.

The set opens with an intriguing work for solo alto flute by Leeds composer Ben Gaunt with a video created by Sheffield-based comedian Sean Morley. rarescale then performs works which exploit the full range of the low instruments by American composer/flautist Daniel Kessner and Keele University composer Sohrab Uduman.

WATCH CONCERT

PART OF NottNOISE NEW MUSIC MARATHON.

To see full line up, please visit the main festival page  

About the artists (click to expand)

Carla Rees is a performer (low flutes, Kingma system and baroque flutes), arranger and composer. Her career focusses on collaboration and developing the dialogue between composer, performer and flute maker in order to extend and enhance the repertoire. She has premiered several hundred works in the UK and internationally. She runs an innovative distance-learning music degree programme at the Open College of Arts, and teaches the flute at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her works are published by Tetractys Publishing. carlarees.co.uk

rarescale is a flexible-instrumentation contemporary chamber music ensemble, which since its formation by Carla Rees in 2003 has gained an international reputation for its work promoting and creating new repertoire for low flutes. The group performs regularly in the UK and abroad and works in close collaboration with a wide range of internationally acclaimed composers. rarescale.org.uk

Sean Morley is a temporarily permanently indoors comedian living in a flat above a hairdressers in Sheffield. Known for unusual interactive performances, his 2019 solo show Soon I Will Be Dead And My Bones Will Be Free To Wreak Havoc Upon The Earth Once More was listed one of the best shows at The Edinburgh Fringe by publications including The Scotsman and Time Out Magazine. Now Sean is making weekly digital collaborative art online at twitch.tv/seanmorl.

About the composers (click to expand)

Ben Gaunt studied composition at Royal Northern College of Music, and the University of Sheffield where he was awarded a PhD. His music has been performed multiple times at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and venues around the world, by professional soloists and ensembles (including Carla Rees, London Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble 10/10, Ligeti Quartet, and many others). He was shortlisted for a British Composer Award in 2017, and his music has been released by NMC and published by UYMP. He plays synth in the jazz quartet Beyond Albedo, and teaches at Leeds Conservatoire and Open College of the Arts.

Born in Los Angeles in 1946, composer-conductor-flutist Daniel Kessner received his Ph.D. with Distinction at UCLA in 1971, studying with Henri Lazarof. His more than 160 compositions have received over 950 performances worldwide, and 28 works are recorded commercially. His scores are available from Theodore Front Musical Literature. As a performer, he has given flute-piano recitals with his wife, Dolly Eugenio Kessner, in France, Italy, Holland, Germany, El Salvador, England, Romania, Portugal, Norway, and the Czech Republic, and has performed in numerous chamber music concerts. He has appeared as guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, the Black Sea Philharmonic of Romania, the Moorpark Symphony Orchestra, the Trondheim Sinfonietta, and the Professional Orchestra of the Universidade do Minho, Portugal, among others. .

Sohrab Uduman studied clarinet at Surrey University and composition with Vic Hoyland and Jonty Harrison, at Birmingham University, where he received a PhD in 1993. Awards include an international prize at the Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music, The Bourges International Competition for Electro-acoustic Music, the George Butterworth Award, the Oskar Back Foundation Prize for Young European Composers and the Prix Annelie de Man. His music has featured at many festivals, including the Oxford Festival of Contemporary Music, The Spitalfields Festival, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Cheltenham International Festival of Music, Darmstadt, Britten Festival Brugges and Agora Festival at IRCAM, Paris.

Interview:

THE COMEDY OF ALTO FLUTE

Composer Ben Gaunt and comedian Sean Morley join University of Nottingham composer Elizabeth Kelly to discuss their unique collaboration on Disquieting Spellsphere for Carla Rees on alto flute.

WATCH HERE