Category: performances
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naked empty silence in Hannover
My new piece for cello (Martha Bijlma), electronics, and Jean-Francois Laporte’s self-made compressed-air-driven instrument the Bol was premiered on November 19th 2023 at the Rampe in Hannover, Germany. This was part of the Zeitlupe series initiated by the Hannoversche Gesellschaft für Neue Musik. In these concerts, a new work is presented twice, with other works…
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insonic counterpoint at ZKM
On September 25th 2021, Susanne Achilles and I again performed Jean-Claude Risset’s Duet for One Pianist. This was a recapitulation of the 2019 concert at the Philharmonie Essen so included pieces by Clarence Barlow, Conlon Nancarrow, and Ludger Brümmer, along with the installation pieces I made with my colleagues Günter Steinke, Thomas Neuhaus, and Dirk…
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seven rotations of seven for three premiere
The premiere of my seven rotations of seven for three (triple doubles) for three violas and electronics was premiered at the NOW! Festival on October 30th 2021. The piece had a bit of a difficult gestation period. I was planning on using my new live electronics system vivos for this piece but that would have…
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hyperboles 6 for Ensemble S201
On June 11th 2021 at the RüBühne, Essen, Ensemble S201 gave the premiere of the sixth installment of my hyperboles series before repeating the concert on August 12th at the Europäische Kunstakademie Trier. Like hyperboles 3, for saxophone quartet, this version departs from the initial conception of purely algorithmic music for solo instrumentalist and computer.…
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Pandora
On October 29th 2019 I presented one of the most interesting concerts I’ve ever organised. Along with my colleagues at the NOW! Festival / Philharmonie Essen / Folkwang University, we placed four Yamaha Disklaviers and one Boesendorfer 280VC (a concert grand Disklavier with the same mechanics as the Yamahas) around the audience in the Alfried…
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Salim Javaid’s ONpodcast (in German)
On November 5th 2020 I discussed composition, improvisation, and performance with Salim Javaid in preparation for a podcast release for the ON – Neue Musik Köln Station. ON – Neue Musik Köln · ONpodcast #30 Arbeitstitel: Improvisation vs Komposition mit Salim Javaid (und Michael Edwards)
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ma bel
ma bel, my new piece for Jean-Francois Laporte’s compressed-air instrument, the babel table, was premiered in Canada at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal on October 4th 2019. The featured image above is of Jean-Francois (left) along with Quasar Quartet comrades Jean-Marc Bouchard and Marie-Chantel Leclair. What they’re staring at is a laptop. Using MaxMSP,…
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orchestration algorithm in
“days with glass edges”days with glass edges (chasing the butterflies in my wallpaper), for fifteen-piece ensemble and 4-channel electronics, was premiered at the NOW! Festival by the Folkwang Modern ensemble conducted by Eva Fodor in the Essen Philharmonic on October 26th 2019. A documentation recording is given above and here is a short pre-performance discussion with my…
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Premiere of Durchhaltevermögen in Münster
In May 2018 I was in Münster with edimpro colleagues Dimitris Papageorgiou and Karin Schistek to give improvisation workshops to students at the Hochschule für Musik. Mieko Kanno was with us to perform a lovely new work by Dimitris for electric violin and computer called deti. That work showcased Mieko’s research project ‘Modelling a Virtual…
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HOTPO
On July 12th 2018, Portuguese saxophonist Henrique Portovedo premiered HOTPO, my new piece for alto saxophone, ensemble, and electronics. The performance was part of the World Saxophone Congress and was given in Blagoje Bersa in Zagreb, Croatia. The Cantus Ensemble was conducted by new music saxophonist extraordinaire Lars Mlekusch. Here’s the programme note: Hinting at…
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elsewhere, with Mike Svoboda
elsewhere by Edwards/Hayes/Michalakos/Parker/Svoboda Back in May 2012, while Mike Svobodo was visiting Edinburgh to do some workshops with University of Edinburgh postgraduate students, some locals, including myself, did a free-improvisastion concert with him. We recorded it and finally got around to mixing and mastering it before releasing it on bandcamp in 2017. It’s a single-track…
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hyperboles 3 in Montreal
Quasar Quartet, Le Gesu, Montreal, Canada, 19/1/17: It was disappointingly warm in Montreal. I’d promised Martin temperatures of -20C and below (it reached -33C on my last trip) but it hovered around zero for the duration of our seven-day stay this time (reduced by a day due to cracks in our airplane’s windscreen—glad that happened…
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for rei as a doe, with video, in Genova
I’ve just returned from teaching algorithmic composition for a week at the Conservatorio Statale di Musica “Niccolò Paganini” in Genova, Italy. It was a pleasure to meet and work with Professor Roberto Doati’s composition class, as well as to play with some of them in a concert on September 7th that begain with a free improvisation for a group of…
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timing accuracy in hyperboles 2
Those present at the St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh performance by Mieko Kanno of my hyperboles 2 (“until the cherries burst in the orchard”) on 20/5/16 were very patient. I told the audience that this violin plus computer piece would last 52 minutes but after the performance Dario Sanfilippo, who did the lights, told me it was more like…
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Bangkok Thoughts: post-concert Q&A
Whilst searching online forY/Our Music, Salee Art Every’s excellent film about Thai music, I stumbled across a complete recording of the post-concert question and answer session we did at Museum Siam on November 29th 2015, after the premiere of my jitterbug project. I’m always amazed at the concentrated and extended attention Thai audiences pay at events such as these.…
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Masterclasses in Venice
The week of March 28th 2016 saw me giving saxophone and electronics masterclasses with Gianpaolo Antongirolami at the Conservatorio di Musica “Benedetto Marcello” in Venice. We were guests of Massimo Marchi and Paolo Zavagna, professors of electronic music (and excellent hosts) in Venice. I’d be hard pressed to think of a more beautiful place than this to…
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Portrait concerts in Aveiro, Portugal
It was a pleasure to be a guest and one of the featured composers of the AVEIRO_SÍNTESE 2016 festival and the Dias De Música Electroacústica in Portugal earlier this month (5-10 April). We did a portrait concert in Aveiro and Seia featuring five pieces of mine (two 4-channel fixed media, three instrument plus electronics) spanning the years…