Meet the artists involved in our upcoming event at IKLECTIK on Saturday 9 April, curated by Associate Composer Elischa Kaminer. Celebrating experimental and radical Queer Jewish new music, Elischa’s curated programme features a new work for solo violin and electronics by Sarah Nemtsov alongside his theatrical work To paint over and to make sense.
More info + tickets // Saturday 9 April >>>
Peter Tainsh
Alex Paxton
Alex Paxton is a composer and improvising-trombonist based in the UK. Alex’s work draws upon a range of classical, experimental, electronic and folk music traditions, creating a unique and explosive voice. Alex has extensively written music for community settings and for young performers. He has worked across the UK as an educator in creative-music settings and is composition tutor on the National Youth Orchestra. He has won numerous awards for his compositions and has performed his own music as a soloist with leading ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, Philharmonia Orchestra and Royal National Scottish Orchestra.
Alex will be improvising, singing and playing with Joseph and Mayah in Elischa’s work To paint over and to make sense – a work which was written with and for these three performers.
Elischa Kaminer
Associate Composer Elischa Kaminer is a composer, performer and theatre maker based in London and Frankfurt am Main. His work is located on the intersections of music theatre, sound art, electronic, concert, queer-pop and yiddish music. Elischa has a very collaborative practice, often devising works alongside the performers to incorporate their individual artistry, humour, physicality and musicality. Elischa is artistic director of Ensemble x:y and has collaborated with Mayah, Joseph and Alex extensively both within and outside this role.
Elischa has curated his programme around his theatrical work To paint over and to make sense, which was devised with and for Alex, Joseph and Mayah during a residency in Germany. Over the course of 75 minutes, the three performers investigate the art of ‘living with brokenness’* through improvisation, song and collective play against a backdrop of houseplants and seemingly whimsical props.
Gabriel Isserlis
Joseph Havlat
Pianist Joseph Havlat was born in Hobart, Australia, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Joseph has performed in major concert venues internationally both as a soloist and a chamber musician. He is a keen collaborator, and plays frequently with Australian mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, Tritium trio, Trio Derazey and the two-piano Duo Ex Libris among others. An advocate for contemporary music, he is a founding member of Ensemble x.y, and has collaborated with composers such as Michael Finnissy, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Gerald Barry and Thomas Larcher. He is also an avid composer, having written for the aforementioned ensembles, and views his compositional work as intrinsic to his musical development and his most important form of artistic expression.
Mayah Kadish
Violinist Mayah Kadish is equally at home playing baroque and contemporary repertoire, performing both internationally. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in halls such as the Barbican, Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall and LSO St Luke's. A keen collaborator, Mayah is principle violinist of Berlin-based genre-fluid ensemble s t a r g a z e and Ensemble x.y, and has worked as soloist and Concertmaster with the European Union Baroque Orchestra. Alongside a busy freelance career, she is also interested in writing music and devises works alongside collaborators.
Mayah will be opening the programme with a premiere of Kadosh by Sarah Nemtsov, a new work for solo violin and electronics inspired by a remembered melody from the synagogue in Sarah’s home town of Oldenburg in Germany.
Sarah Nemtsov
Sarah Nemtsov is an award winning composer, regularly collaborating with renowned ensembles and orchestras. Nemtsov's music captivates using complex and energetic textures, playing with the interactions between acoustic instruments and electronics in much of her work.
In her new work Kadosh, Sarah recalls a melody from the synagogue of her hometown in Germany, layering and distorting fragments of the tune with an array of effects pedals.
Join us at Iklectik on Saturday 9 April for Elischa Kaminer curates: To paint over and to make sense.
The fifth edition of our eclectic compilation, showcasing five emerging composers demonstrating their diverse creative practices with extended instrumental techniques, Artificial Intelligence and electronic manipulation.