New Sounds with Cyborg Soloists - 11 March 2024 - Event Programme

We are pleased to welcome you to our 2023-24 International Concert Series at Royal Holloway.

We, at the Department of Music, cannot wait to showcase the varied talent of our students and staff, but also bringing internationally renowned musicians to the College. For 2023-24, we are back and better than ever with more student and staff opportunities through the creation of 'The Platform', an open opportunity for the community at the Department of Music to share with you what makes us so special. Alongside our popular Midweek Music and Pocket Concert Series, we are excited to continue our special partnerships with the Young Classical Artists Trust and BBC New Generation Artists and continue our alumni recital series by bringing back the epoch ensemble. We are pleased to also bring a wealth of international artists to our series, including pianists Pina Napolitano, Mary Dullea, Sholto Kynoch, Alexander Soares, and Joseph Havlat, violinst Darragh Morgan, guitarist Laura Snowden, clarinettist Jonathan Leibovitz,

sitarist James Pusey, mezzosoprano Helen Charlston, jazz group Solstice, and the London Mozart Players. 2023 also marks the final season for our quartet-in-residence, the Tippett Quartet, as we say farewell to this stellar group with their final concert at Royal Holloway.

All in all, this season is representative of the world-class talent our community at the Department of Music has fostered as we showcase our students and the range of music performance we programme and encourage; from jazz to world music, orchestral performance to solo piano, as well as presenting performers from the international stage We look forward to welcoming you to our series this year.

Nathan James Dearden Music Performance Manager & Curator of the International Concert Series

New Sounds 2024: Cyborg Soloists

International Concert Series 2023-24

Monday, 11 March 2024

Windsor Building Auditorium

with Zubin Kanga Piano

Estimated finish time: 9 00pm

There will be no interval during this event.

Please no flash photography or visual/audio recording throughout the event.

For news about our future events, please visit royalholloway.ac.uk/music/events

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EVENT OVERVIEW

This will feature the following music:

Art Banymandhub: Pandemic: It Seems Like a Blur

Hannah Lam: Arboresque

Sophia Manta: Spiral Resonance: A Composition Inspired by the Shepard Tone

Jack Frankland and Jonathan Packham: Duo performance

Zubin Kanga: Hypnagogia (after Bach)

Cyborg Soloists is an innovative music-technology research project based in Royal Holloway’s Music Department, led by Dr Zubin Kanga and supported by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship. This concert features three student composer-performers selected from Cyborg Soloists’ 2024 Call for Student Projects: Art Banymandhub, Hannah Lam and Sophia Manta They have created new works using innovative technologies including the ROLI LUMI Keys (a keyboard with pressure and surface sensors) and Showsync (software that creates live visuals that respond to the music). The concert also features a duo

performance by Jack Frankland and Jonathan Packham (Cyborg Soloists Postdoctoral Research Assistant) featuring the Genki Wave motion sensor ring, as well as a performance by Cyborg Soloists Principal Investigator Zubin Kanga.

EVENT PROGRAMME

Pandemic: It Seems Like a Blur by

Art Banymandhub

Performer(s)

Art Banymandhub – LUMI Keys keyboard, live electronics and video

Pandemic: It Seems Like a Blur explores the relationship between film footage, still image, and music composition in the depiction of memorials, using the COVID-19 National Memorial Wall in London as the inspiration behind the project. Debuting the work in March is important to the composer as it marks four years since the first UK government lockdown, with many still processing the events that occurred during this time. The project was created in February 2024 using a devised set of processes aimed at placing the composer in a state of isolation and disconnect. This preparation was as much a part of the composition as the notes produced. Furthermore, all of the sounds were composed using a single LUMI Keys midi interface by ROLI and will contain live performance alongside prerecorded sound and visuals. Pandemic: It Seems Like a Blur provides a space for reflection and processing of an event we are still processing four years since it began.

NOTE This work explores the COVID-19 Pandemic and may cause distress to some audience members. Audience discretion is advised.

Arboresque

by Hannah Lam

Performers

Hannah Lam – LUMI Keys

Nicole Yuen – violin 1

Phedra Low – violin 2

Laura Field – viola

Joshua Wen – cello

My Composition ‘Arboresque’ is inspired by structures found in nature and in particular the structural idea of a tree. The notion of organic growth is the basis for this composition. There are 3 different sections: (i) roots, (ii) the stems and (iii) the branches. Combining the innovative features of the LUMI Keys and the timbres of a string quartet, the piece explores various colours and different timbres whilst also incorporating elements of improvisation. The piece utilises features on the LUMI keys such as the slide, polyphonic aftertouch and the arpeggiator function.

Spiral Resonance: A Composition Inspired by the Shepard Tone by

Sophia Manta

Performers

Tristan Hail – violin 1

Lilly Kurata – violin 2

Pavit Dhadyalla – viola

Niamh Sherwood – cello

Sophia's composition, "Spiral Resonance," delves into the intricate realm of auditory illusions and mathematical sequences, drawing inspiration from the concept of the Shepard tone. This auditory illusion, perpetually descending in pitch yet never reaching a definitive end, serves as the foundation for a journey through the depths of sound.

At the core of this composition lies the exploration of the Shepard tone's infinite descent, mirroring the spiralling patterns found in nature, notably observed in the nautilus shell. Much like the Fibonacci sequence guiding the growth of natural phenomena, Sophia intertwines mathematical sequences into her music, where motifs evolve and transform as rhythmic and bar thresholds are met according to the sequence.

The layering of sound textures and the utilisation of the Shepard Tone technique imbue the piece with a sense of perpetual change, with an illusion of boundless continuation. It personifies the spiral through fragmentation and rhythmic distortion of the motifs based on thirds. This crafts an auditory landscape that

captivates the listener, echoing the hypnotic allure of the Shepard tone.

Resonance plays a pivotal role in "Spiral Resonance," with harmonics and drones resonating within vast, cavernous spaces reminiscent of Pauline Oliveros' concept of deep listening. The composition pays homage to Oliveros as it invites listeners to immerse themselves in the rich tapestry of sound, exploring the nuances of each harmonic layer.

Drawing parallels to the intricacies of crypto and stock algorithms, Sophia's composition transcends mere auditory experience, offering a glimpse into the intricate interplay between mathematics, art, and nature. Inspired by the geometric precision of Frank Stella's artworks and the spiralling beauty of nautilus shells, "Spiral Resonance" emerges as a testament to the profound connections between sound, mathematics, and the natural world.

Duo performance by Jack Frankland and Jonathan Packham

Performers

Jack Frankland – drums

Jonathan Packham – live electronics

A motion-based infrastructure for live improvisatory performance using drums and live electronics, utilising the Genki Wave ring to translate physical movement into musical gestures.

Hypnagogia (after Bach) by Zubin

Kanga

Performers

Zubin Kanga – piano, Korg Prologue synthesizer, Genki Wave ring.

Hypnagogia (after Bach) is about being sleep-deprived on long-haul flights, listening to Bach in a state of halfsleep, where dreams begin to intrude on waking life, a state of hypnagogia. In one of these states, during one of many long trips to Australia, I heard the last movement of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, ‘Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder’, in the sound of the plane’s engines. The work combines a Korg Prologue synthesizer, a piano with live electronics and a Genki Wave, allowing the sounds of these instruments to be shaped through motion in the air. Bach’s soaring melody and restless harmonies are stretched across registers, multiplied and scattered using delays, broken into rippling arpeggiated patterns and re-assembled into walls of synthesised sound. Yet even at the points of greatest abstraction, Bach’s music remains indestructibly recognisable.

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS & PERFORMERS

Art Banymandhub is a Mauritian born, British raised musician and composer. Growing up he struggled to express himself with words, finding instrumental music to be his primary form of expression. In his composition and performance work, ambient and solo instrumental styles have been his focal points, taking inspiration from composers such as William Basinski and Steve Lawson. This field has proven highly under-represented in his region. His passions in music are in creating works that allow audiences to deduce their own meanings from a shared stimulus.

Hannah Lam is a composer and instrumentalist described as having a 'real and distinct compositional voice' by Bob Chilcott. Having studied composition and piano at the Junior Royal Academy of Music, Hannah is currently undertaking a joint degree in music and mathematics. She has been awarded the ORA Young Composers 2023 winner, along with being a finalist in the Young Percussion Composer of the Year, and selected for the LSO Next Generation Scheme. Her compositions have premiered at prestigious events such as the Cambridge Summer Festival and the Three Choirs Festival. Additionally, she has received compositional mentoring from composers; John

Cooney, Gareth Moorcraft, Alexander Campkin and Dani Howard.

Sophia Manta is a percussionist and composer. They previously attended the Junior Royal Academy of Music, studying percussion with Barnaby Archer and composition with John Cooney.

Jack Frankland & Jonathan Packham are an improvisatory duo based in London.

Zubin Kanga is a pianist, composer, and technologist. In 2020, Kanga was awarded a prestigious UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship to fund his latest multi-year project Cyborg Soloists, based at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he is Senior Lecturer in Musical Performance and Digital Arts. Cyborg Soloists has facilitated the creation of many new works exploring new interactions between live musicians and AI and machine learning, interactive visuals and VR, motion and biosensors, and new digital instruments. His Cyborg Soloists work was recently featured in The New York Times, The Wire, Classical Music Magazine, Limelight Magazine and New Scientist.

Zubin has premiered more than 150 works and performed at many international festivals including the BBC Proms, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK) Melbourne Festival (Australia), Paris Autumn Festival (France), Klang Festival (Denmark), Modulus Festival (Canada) and November Music (Netherlands).