photo © dejan mrdja
2024
Blake, a musician, has recently escaped rehab to return home. But he is haunted by objects, visitors and memories distracting him from his true purpose – self-destruction. Adapted from Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film based on the final days of Kurt Cobain, this new opera plunges into the torment that created a modern myth.
GBSR Duo will join the LA Phil New Music Group to form the opera's ensemble.
click here for more information
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Past concerts:
2023
Sun 3 Dec
with Ian Dearden
The groundbreaking Soundscape surround-sound system offers an opportunity to hear the movement of sound in three of Stockhausen's most ambitious multi-channel electronic works with revolutionary clarity.
From the explosive Klavierstück XV SYNTHI-FOU for multiple sampler keyboards and eight channel sound to the beatific, posthumously-realised STRAHLEN, Stockhausen's version of Klavierstück XIX for ten channels of electronically-treated vibraphones, GBSR present the bookend masterpieces of Stockhausen's electronic keyboard oeuvre, all before Stockhausen's last electronic composition, the visionary and controversial 24-layered octaphonic monster COSMIC PULSES.
Lisa Illean – Tiding II (silentium) (UK premiere)
with Michael Acker (SWR Experimentalstudio) and Lisa Illean, electronics & sound projection
Lisa Illean’s extraordinary, aquatic study of sonic transience Tiding II (silentium) is inspired by “hypnotic hours listening to the world sounding through water, my head half-submerged, patterns of distant chattering mingling with the periodic rubbing of the sea”.
Precisely calibrated combinations of saxophone multiphonics, electronic processing, metal percussion and virtuosic inside-piano work combine to evoke that environmental mormorando, layers of sound effortlessly yet unpredictably floating in and out of perception. Hushed in tone, sensations between the vast and the intimate are at tension. Sheets of electronic sound and sustained tones resemble the revolving light from a lighthouse raking the ocean’s surface. The sound floods and ebbs; interwoven layers surface and recede in a delicate balance.
Bates Mill Photographic Studio, Huddersfield
Angharad Davies – Empty Spaces II (world premiere)
also featuring Liudas Mockūnas
Angharad Davies's new work for GBSR Duo is intricately tied to her practice as one of Europe's leading free improvisers, and is based on a series of solo violin improvisations recorded in the empty rooms above a disused high street shop in Wales:
“These short pieces involved preparing the space by placing a chair in an empty room. Taking a photo of that empty chair. Then I sat on that chair and filled the room with sound. I responded to each room differently – placing sound in spaces that are familiar to me, but that have never had space or time for my own music. Alien terrains that I’ve never considered possible for framing or hosting my personal sound."
In Empty Spaces II GBSR becomes that terrain, the host of Davies's sound, as her playing entirely suffuses the work: both indirectly, in the improvisatory structures developed in close collaboration with Davies; and directly, in the incorporation of treated and untreated samples of her violin into the texture of the work. The space becomes synthetic; the emptiness transmutes; the soloist is there, but also not there.
Also featuring Lithuanian improvising saxophonist Liudas Mockūnas performing the UK premiere of his “Hydro 3”.
would you like to know more?
St Andrew's Cathedral, Aberdeen
Barbara Monk Feldman – Duo for Piano and Percussion
Christopher Fox - Earth & Sea (world premiere)
GBSR Duo present the world premiere of Earth & Sea by Christopher Fox, a work inspired by the rhythms of the tides, wind and waves.
Alongside this brand new work, they play music by Barbara Monk Feldman and Tim Parkinson: the gentle beauty of Feldman’s work inspired by the nature and landscapes of her native Canada, as the cracked seaside soundtrack of Parkinson's evokes a world that is both nostalgic and futuristic.
Co-commissioned by sound & GBSR Duo with the support of the Hope Scott Trust.
Mwldan 2, Aberteifi / Cardigan
BBC Radio 3 New Music Show LIVE
Barbara Monk Feldman – Duo for Piano and Percussion
Eva-Maria Houben - avalon orchard (with Rhodri Davies)
Also including performances by Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Jenn Kirby and Rhodri Davies
Galina Ustvolskaya - Composition №2 Dies irae
Oliver Leith - good day good day bad day bad day
The merciless, cruel sonic world of Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006) comes together with the addictive tones of British composer Oliver Leith (b.1990): “Deadpan, subversive, quietly anarchic, disarmingly heart-sore and sweet-sour music.” (Kate Molleson).
The music of Ustvolskaya is tough and uncompromising. Famously reclusive, she committed her life to her compositions, of which only 25 survive. Her output is exemplified by Composition №2, "Dies irae" (1973): brutal, violent and unforgettable. Written for eight double basses, piano and a large wooden cube that in some performances resembles a coffin, it has been called music that sounds 'dead behind the eyes’.
By contrast, Oliver Leith’s good day good day bad day bad day (for piano, keyboards and percussion), evokes a conciliatory world where the spectre of anxiety and codependency always lurks unconfronted. Its picture of the musical “everyday” of George and Siwan’s living room is a tender, intimate and ambiguous elongation of domesticity into the public realm. Both pieces speak to our human capacity to engage in acts of free will, even as we may seem trapped by societal structures in our current moment of crisis.
Mica Levi - Lonely Void from Under the Skin
Mica Levi - Love from Under the Skin
Romitelli - Flowing Down Too Slow
arr. GB - Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror
GBSR Duo and 12 Ensemble combine to explore ascent and descent: visions of heaven and hell from the lonely void to the plateaux of mirror.
12 Ensemble join GBSR Duo for a programme of heavenly and hellish visions by five composers working between classical and non-classical music – culminating in Harold Budd and Brian Eno’s glittering, suspended Ambient 2 in a new arrangement by the performers. Before that, Laurence Osborn’s new work TOMB! uses the genre of the tombeau to take a sideways look at classical music’s death fixation.
Thu 8 June
7:30 pm TBC
Phipps Hall, University of Huddersfield
Lucio Tasca – D.S.F.C (unison) (world premiere)
Barbara Monk Feldman – Duo for Piano and Percussion
Tim Parkinson – Project 9000
Tom Hawkins – Multiple Repetitions (world premiere)
Aldo Clementi – Tre ricercari (UK premiere) with David Zucchi, saxophone
Part of a short residency at Huddersfield University during which we'll also be giving workshops to composition students. At this recital we'll play new pieces from two post-graduate composers alongside existing works from our repertoire, and give the UK premiere of Aldo Clementi's gorgeous Tre ricercari with saxophonist extraordinaire David Zucchi.
Mica Levi - Lonely Void from Under the Skin
Mica Levi - Love from Under the Skin
Romitelli - Flowing Down Too Slow
arr. GB - Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror
GBSR Duo and 12 Ensemble combine to explore ascent and descent: visions of heaven and hell from the lonely void to the plateaux of mirror.
12 Ensemble join GBSR Duo for a programme of heavenly and hellish visions by five composers working between classical and non-classical music – culminating in Harold Budd and Brian Eno’s glittering, suspended Ambient 2 in a new arrangement by the performers. Before that, Laurence Osborn’s new work TOMB! uses the genre of the tombeau to take a sideways look at classical music’s death fixation.
St Andrew's and Blackfriars' Hall, Norwich
Mica Levi - Lonely Void from Under the Skin
Mica Levi - Love from Under the Skin
Romitelli - Flowing Down Too Slow
arr. GB - Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror
GBSR Duo and 12 Ensemble combine to explore ascent and descent: visions of heaven and hell from the lonely void to the plateaux of mirror.
12 Ensemble join GBSR Duo for a programme of heavenly and hellish visions by five composers working between classical and non-classical music – culminating in Harold Budd and Brian Eno’s glittering, suspended Ambient 2 in a new arrangement by the performers. Before that, Laurence Osborn’s new work TOMB! uses the genre of the tombeau to take a sideways look at classical music’s death fixation.
Tim Parkinson - Project 9000 (world premiere) (performed by GBSR)
Tim Parkinson - untitled 2021b (world premiere) (performed by Tim Parkinson)
plus video works by Sophie Clements and Simon Payne
A programme of new and recent experimental single-screen and expanded video works by Sophie Clements and Simon Payne, alongside new music by the composer Tim Parkinson, performed by GBSR Duo.
Tim Parkinson’s music exhibits a collage approach, often juxtaposing the sounds of found objects, various kinds of musical material, or snippets of speech: ‘What I want is a large and unforeseen diversity of pitches and intervals – randomness, patterns, shapes’.
Eva-Maria Houben - avalon orchard
Tim Parkinson - violin and piano piece 1998
Barbara Monk Feldman - The Northern Shore
GBSR Duo is joined by violinist Mira Benjamin for a rare performance of a major work by Canadian composer Barbara Monk Feldman. She creates music of exquisite simplicity, where sounds seem to float outside time, and The Northern Shore replicates the sensation of viewing the subtly changing light on the horizon of Canada’s Atlantic coast. The concert will open with a work by Eva-Maria Houben, whose delicate music relishes the space and silence between sounds, along with a duet by Tim Parkinson that plays on the musicians’ ability to work together but also to drift off into their own soundworlds.
2022
Morton Feldman - Crippled Symmetry
with Taylor MacLennan and Explore Ensemble
also performing new work by Beatrice Dillon and Nakul Krishnamurthy
Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre
w/ 12 ensemble
cond. Jack Sheen
Oliver Leith - Last Days
Blake, a musician, has recently escaped rehab to return home. But he is haunted by objects, visitors and memories distracting him from his true purpose – self-destruction. Adapted from Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film based on the final days of Kurt Cobain, this new opera plunges into the torment that created a modern myth.
GBSR Duo and 12 ensemble combine to form the opera's ensemble.
Aphex Twin - Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt.2
with Sound Intermedia, Joseph Havlat and Sam Wilson
The two composers of this programme had a famous falling-out in 1995, Stockhausen accusing Aphex Twin of "post-African repetitions". In these pieces they each approach the division between human and machine, and the question of compositional control, from very different directions.
Aphex Twin's Computer Controlled..., originally 'performed' by solenoid drum machines and prepared player pianos, is here presented by live performers on two prepared pianos and percussion. An electronic dance-musical language that became acoustic robot grooves, is transferred once again to human performers.
After ditching the initial idea for KONTAKTE of pianist and percussionist improvising responses to the electronic sounds (rehearsals were "a disaster"), Stockhausen notated a highly intricate, fully composed surround-sound interaction of live and electronic sounds that has to be heard live to be fully believed.
VOCES8 Centre, St Anne and St Agnes Church
Enchanted Vistas: The Music of Barbara Monk Feldman
A portrait concert celebrating the contemplative, rigorous and inquisitive music of Barbara Monk Feldman.
This will be duo’s first performances of many of these extraordinarily delicate and intense pieces since the release of their critically acclaimed recording.
“We are listening to what’s left over when habitual babble is utterly wiped away.” Gramophone
Southbank Centre: SoundState festival
Eva-Maria Houben - together on the way
Following the critically-acclaimed sell-out premiere of Eva-Maria Houben's together on the way at hcmf//, the piece receives its second performance at Southbank Centre's SoundState festival.
This performance will feature the Queen Elizabeth Hall's very rarely heard or seen 1960's neo-Baroque organ, which is perfectly suited to the fullest exploitation and exploration of the composer's extraordinary experimental organ techniques.
2021
Thu 18 Nov
9:30 pm
hcmf//
St Paul's Hall
Eva-Maria Houben - together on the way
with Eva-Maria Houben, organ
The world première of a very substantial new work composed by Eva-Maria Houben for the combined forces of GBSR and the composer herself.
commissioned by hcmf//
an hcmf// article about Eva-Maria's music is here
Sat 17th July
Music We'd Like to Hear
St Mary-at-Hill
Alvin Lucier - Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra
Barbara Monk Feldman - The I and Thou (European première)
Michael Pisaro-Liu - A mist is a collection of points
Thu 17th June
Kings Place
Joanna Bailie - Roll Call
Graham Fitkin - Chain of Command
Pauline Oliveros - Bye Bye Butterfly
CHAINES - so smol (hewwo)
Oliver Sellwood - Alias States
Nicole Lizée - Softcore (European première)
with Sound Intermedia
In an age when technology seems constantly to make inroads not only into our homes but into what we might once have considered the inviolate core of our personalities, this programme investigates human solitude and identity at the mercy of history and technology.
would you like to know more?
2020
Sat 21 Nov
hcmf// BBC New Music Show live broadcast
Arne Gieshoff - Spillikins (world premiere)
Angharad Davies - Rydal Mount (with Angharad Davies, violin)
Live broadcast from Maida Vale for the 2020 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, in collaboration with Angharad Davies and also featuring repertoire performed by Heather Roche, solo clarinet. Presented by Tom Service and Kate Molleson.
Sun 17 May
Vale of Glamorgan Festival
This performance has been cancelled due to Coronavirus.
We have been continuing to work with the Peter Reynolds Composer Studio via online workshops and home recordings.
Watch the Vale of Glamorgan Festival at Home vidcast to see GBSR performances and interviews with GBSR, Anne Denholm and John Luther Adams. Presented by Steph Power.
Thu 18 June
St Mary-le-Bow, London
This performance has been cancelled due to Coronavirus.
2019
Tue 3 Dec
7 pm
City Music recitals
City University of London Performance Space
Christian Wolff - For Morty
Barbara Monk Feldman - Duo for Piano and Percussion
Jo Kondo - Aquarelle
CHAINES - so smol (world premiere)
Nicholas Moroz - Intralatent
Olly Sellwood - Alias States (world premiere)
Nicholas Moroz is supported by the PRS Foundation's Open Fund and the Hinrichsen foundation, and using public money by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, www.artscouncil.org.uk
CHAINES is supported by the RVW Trust.
Mon 2 Dec
7:30 pm
EXPO Oxford
Jacqueline du Pré Concert Hall
Nicholas Moroz - Intralatent
Nicholas Moroz is supported by the PRS Foundation's Open Fund and the Hinrichsen foundation, and using public money by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, www.artscouncil.org.uk
would you like to know more?
7:30 pm
Music at Oxford series
Jacqueline du Pré building, Oxford
Steve Reich - Clapping Music
George Antheil - Piano sonata no. 2 'The Airplane'
Hannah Lash - C
Barbara Monk Feldman - Duo for piano and percussion
Liam Mattison - ADULTHOOD
David Lang - Scraping Song
Charles Ives - 'The Alcotts' from Piano sonata no. 2 'Concord, Mass. 1840-60'
Gregory Rose - Boudica
Howard Skempton - Duet for piano and woodblocks
Mark David Boden and Gregory Rose generously supported by the RVW Trust.
Liam Mattison 2018 RPS Composition Prize winner.
3:30 pm
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
hcmf// shorts
Huddersfield Town Hall
Nicholas Moroz - Intralatent (world premiere)
Nicholas Moroz is supported by the PRS Foundation's Open Fund and the Hinrichsen foundation, and using public money by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, www.artscouncil.org.uk
Fri 18 Oct
1 pm
Barber Concerts series
Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham
Steve Reich - Clapping Music
Mark David Boden - Soliton
Hannah Lash - C
Liam Mattison - ADULTHOOD
Barbara Monk Feldman - Duo for piano and percussion
Gregory Rose - Boudica
Howard Skempton - Duet for piano and woodblocks
Mark David Boden and Gregory Rose generously supported by the RVW Trust.
Mon 26 Aug
2 pm
Presteigne Festival
St Andrew's Church, Presteigne
Steve Reich - Clapping Music
Liam Mattison - ADULTHOOD (world premiere)
Hannah Lash - C
Mark David Boden - Soliton (world premiere)
Gregory Rose - Boudica (world premiere)
Luke Bedford - Faraway Canons
Joe Duddell - Parallel Lines
Mark David Boden and Gregory Rose generously supported by the RVW Trust.
Liam Mattison 2018 RPS Composition Prize winner.
Mon 24 - Tue 25 June
University of Southampton
Hartley Residency featured performers
Programme of workshops, talks and performances
2018
Sat 27 October
7 pm
LSO St Luke's
BBC R3 Open Ear
Betsy Jolas - Music for Joan
Oliver Leith - good day good day bad day bad day (mvmt 8)
In this edition of Radio 3's Open Ear we joined House of Bedlam, BirdWorld and Jessica Aszodi for an evening of experimental and contemporary music. The evening was presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch and recorded for broadcast on Radio 3.
Thu 11 October
1:10 pm
Warwick Arts Centre
Howard Skempton - Agreement
Luke Bedford - Faraway Canons
Philip Glass - Piano Etude no.12
Betsy Jolas - Music for Joan
Hannah Lash - C
Chistian Wolff - For Morty
Howard Skempton - Drum Canon no.2
Oliver Leith - good day good day bad day bad day (mvmt 8)
This programme juxtaposes highly systematic compositions with entirely intuitive works, from both sides of the Atlantic.
Sun 30 September
5pm
The Print Room, Notting Hill
Way Out East - Rolf Hind composer portrait
Octandre Ensemble
A Syllabary (2017)
The City of Love (2002)
King David (2008)
Way Out East (2016)
We joined forces with Stefan Baur and Loré Lixenberg for the first complete performance of Rolf Hind's Way Out East, a blisteringly virtuosic explosion of fractal polyrhythms, rhythmic shouting and homemade instruments. Part of the wonderful Octandre Ensemble's composer portrait of Rolf Hind featuring many many gems.
Thu 30 August
1:05 pm
St Mary le Bow
Oliver Leith - good day good day bad day bad day
The second performance of Oliver's astonishing chef-d'œuvre took place at St Mary le Bow in a lunchtime concert.
Oliver Christophe Leith is supported by the PRS Foundation's The Open Fund and the RVW Trust.
Sun 24 June
3 pm
St John's Smith Square
«KONTAKTE in context»
John Cage - Music for Amplified Toy Pianos
Mauricio Kagel - Transición II
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Kontakte
with Sound Intermedia
At the dawn of the 1960s, the idea of combining electronic sounds and processing with live instruments dawned quite differently on three of the greatest composers of the day. The sonic experiments of the three phenomenal works arising from this foment, all written within a year of one another, are here presented side by side. John Cage's investigations into the sounds of the everyday rub shoulders with Kagel's journey into the dark recesses of the piano's subconscious, before Stockhausen's masterwork takes the listener through the deconstruction of acoustic sound into outer space.
This concert is supported by the London Contemporary School of Piano.
Thu 24 May
7:30 pm
St John's Smith Square
Eric Wubbels - doxa (European première)
Morton Feldman - Dance Suite (for Merle Marsicano)
Oliver Leith -
good day good day bad day bad day (world première)
Three kindred but truly original composers explore the sonorities of piano and percussion. A massive new work by Oliver Christophe Leith, the European première of doxa by American composer Eric Wubbels, and a substantial unpublished work of Morton Feldman.
Oliver Christophe Leith is supported by the PRS Foundation's The Open Fund and the RVW Trust.
Fri 20 - Sun 22 April
St John's Smith Square
Occupy the Pianos Festival
The duo was heavily featured in 2018's edition of «Occupy the Pianos», including the world premiere of a new piece written for the duo by Luke Bedford, a world premiere from Zoë Martlew, a UK premiere from Rolf Hind, solo performances from both players, George conducting an all-star performance of Peter Maxwell Davies' Miss Donnithorne's Maggot, and more.
specific concert information:
Fri 20 Apr
7:30 pm
St John's Smith Square
Occupy the Pianos Festival
«we come together»
Frederic Rzewski - Coming Together
Steve Martland - Mr Anderson’s Pavane
Peter Maxwell Davies - Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot
Loré Lixenberg - voice
Elaine Mitchener - voice
Nancy Ruffer - flute
Stuart King - clarinet
David Alberman - violin
Zoë Martlew - cello
Craig Apps - percussion
Siwan Rhys - piano
Rolf Hind - piano
Ben Smith - piano
George Barton - conductor, percussion
Sat 21 Apr
2 pm
St John's Smith Square
Occupy the Pianos Festival
«polymorphous polymaths»
Zoë Martlew - #skincare (world premiere) (A brief moral apocalypse for two pianos, two percussionists and voice. Bathroom selfie meets existential philosophy)
Luke Bedford - Faraway Canons (for bass drum and piano) (world premiere)
Loré Lixenberg - bɜː(r)d IV (world premiere)
Loré Lixenberg - voice
Zoë Martlew - cello
Craig Apps - percussion
George Barton - percussion
Rolf Hind - piano
Siwan Rhys - piano
Sat 21 Apr
7:30 pm
St John's Smith Square
Occupy the Pianos Festival
«eastern cow theatre»
Rolf Hind - Way Out East: "Varanasi Haiku", "This Is The Cow" (UK premiere)
Mauricio Kagel - Scenes from Staatstheater
Loré Lixenberg - soprano, director
Stefan Baur - saxophones
George Barton - percussion
Siwan Rhys - piano
CoMA and amateur musicians
Sun 22 Apr
2 pm
St John's Smith Square
Occupy the Pianos Festival
«you will endure forever»
Jonathan Harvey - Tombeau de Messiaen (with electronics)
Horaţiu Rădulescu - Sonata no. 3
Claude Vivier - Shiraz
John Adams - Hallelujah Junction
Eliza McCarthy - piano
Siwan Rhys - piano
Joseph Havlat - piano
Thomas Ang - piano
Sun 22 Apr
4 pm
St John's Smith Square
Occupy the Pianos Festival
«still music»
Rob Burbea - Amara Vigil
Alvin Lucier - Silver streetcar for the orchestra (solo triangle)
Rolf Hind - Walking music from Lost in Thought
George Barton - percussion
Rolf Hind - piano
Eliza McCarthy - piano
Thu 5 April
1:05 pm
St John's Smith Square
Francesca Le Lohé - Saida Portraits
John Luther Adams - Four Thousand Holes
with Nicholas Moroz - sound projection
Sun 18 February
4 pm
St John's Smith Square
Principal Sound festival
Earle Brown - Hodograph I
Jürg Frey - Circular Music no.4 for celesta
Luigi Nono - 'No hay caminar' soñando
Anton Webern - Variations for piano op. 27
Morton Feldman - Why Patterns?
Jenni Hogan - flute
Clemens Merkel & Alissa Cheung - violins
Thu 25 January
1:10 pm
Warwick Arts Centre
Steve Reich - Clapping Music
Francesca le Lohé - Saida Portraits
Howard Skempton - Duet for piano and woodblocks
- In Tandem
- Dance VI from Gemini Dances
John Luther Adams - red arc / blue veil
2017
Thu 2 Feb
8:30 pm
Holywell Music Room, Oxford
John Luther Adams - Three Canticles of the Birds
Georges Aperghis - Quatre pièces fébriles
Joe Duddell - Parallel Lines
Sat 18 Feb & Sun 19 Feb
12 pm
Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg
Rolf Hind - Lost in Thought
Tue 11 Apr
1 pm
St Mary-at-Hill, London
Steve Reich - Clapping Music
John Luther Adams - Three Canticles of the Birds
Howard Skempton - Duet for piano and woodblocks
- Dance VI from Gemini Dances
Thu 7 Jul
1 pm
St Barnabas, Ealing
Steve Reich - Clapping Music
Gareth Farr - Three Little Pieces for Eve
John Luther Adams - Three Canticles of the Birds
Howard Skempton - Duet for piano and woodblocks
- Dance VI from Gemini Dances
Alexej Gerassimez - Piazonore
Thu 17 Jul
3 pm
St John's Smith Square
Young Artists' Showcase
John Luther Adams - Three Canticles of the Birds
Joe Duddell - Parallel Lines
2016
Fri 15 Jan & Sat 16 Jan
6 pm & 12 pm
Pontio Centre, Bangor
Rolf Hind - Lost in Thought
Sun 4 Apr
St John's Smith Square
Principal Sound festival
Morton Feldman - For Philip Guston
(with Jenni Hogan)
Mon 5 Dec
1 pm
St Olave's, London
James Tenney - Never Having Written a Note for Percussion
John Cage - Child of Tree
John Luther Adams - Three Canticles of the Birds