10 months flown! Guildhall Masters tick! Musical ventures in Palestine and NEW ALBUM (!)..

wowwee.. 10 months have just flown by and i see the calendar will clock over to December next week.. Blimey! i feel i should back track a little considering the time past..

It's been a busy year this one. I finished the masters at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, my final project being a collaboration with tap dancer and choreographer Junior Laniyan. Readers may remember my post from november last year about the london tap jam.. well, Junior and i created a half hour show of live music (performed on piano, harp, bass clarinet and violin) and 5 tap dance extraordinaires! the next plan is to develop it into a full length show..

Musicians I work with were Ausiàs Garrigós Morant on bass clarinet, Katya Herman on harp and Eugene Feygelson on violin.. such fabulously talented people to work and play with.. And the amazing tap dancers were Junior Laniyan, Ryan Campbell-Birch, Thomas Kempf, Eilidh Ross and Avalon Rathgeb. Such a great project to immerse myself in.. cannot wait until the next installment..

here's a pic of me from the technical rehearsal..

and a little montage from rehearsals..

ok, so next story, as part of the masters back in march, my fellow students and i had a venture to Palestine, for a music exchange with Beit Al Musica and the Edward Said Music Conservatorium. this was the second part to our initial collaboration in London in October last year, however this time we visited their homeland and surrounding areas, immersing ourselves in their culture.. what an amazing time we had, meeting and playing with really fantastic musicians, running workshops for conservatoriums there, amongst touring about a little in Bethlehem, Ramallah, the Dead Sea and Jerusalem on the final day..

i swam in the dead sea!

the exchange group...

i was also commissioned in May this year.. a solo piano work, written, recorded and hand-scribed by yours truly.. the perfect job!

On the completion of my masters, I also said goodbye to the collection percussion instruments I've become so close with over the past couple of years..

a sad goodbye to all the percussion instruments..

By this time I was in good need of a holiday, so a trip to Portugal was in order..

Porto, Portugal..

And more recently I played with Ruthless Jabiru, the All-Australian Orchestra in London conducted by Kelly Lovelady, performing at Union Chapel in London.. here's a couple of pics from the rehearsals..

OK.. so... finally, I'd like to end with the announcement of a brand new CD, called Heavy Forest Air.. it's a live spontaneous musical collaboration between Eugene Skeef on all things percussive and myself on vibes & marimba. Recorded by Jared Miller in the Rolston Recital Hall at The Banff Centre, Alberta Canada, it was an impulsive venture in this magnificent hall filled with percussion instruments, that began as an experiment following an intensive three month winter music residency. I highly recommend it as it's an absolute gem of an album! buy it here.. http://www.sunwrae.com

thanks and see you all very soon...
Australian audiences stay tuned for a visit in March / April 2014... finally!

ps. poly was put up online this year..
pps. for any vibraphone players out there~ the sheet music of Decipher the Crooked Ways for solo vibes is now available to buy.. please contact us for more details!

Palestinian musicians & Arabic music inspiration, London Tap Jam and Strindberg..

OK, so it seems inevitable that this blog will be a monthly one.. which funnily enough has been happening anyways. i'll keep this post writing short, because there'll be more pics and videos to come, so this is just a taster.. and please check out my previous posts if you haven't before. there's loads of stories!

So this past month, however craazily busy, has been fabulous on all fronts creative and inspirational. and despite the weather settling into winter mode (hats, scarves and gloves all round) and the clocks changing so it's dark by 5pm, i think it'll be a month to remember.

The first three weeks of October saw me writing for a small theatre production by Foreign Affairs, a new theatre company based in London. The play was a new translation of 'simoom', written by the most famous Swedish playwright Strindberg, produced alongside the Scandinavian department at University College London (UCL) to celebrate his centenary.

the actors.. Junior Laniyan, Erica Chestnut and Jamie Pigott

In the third week of October, as part of my masters course, we had a residency off-campus in Hackney, hosting a group of Palestinian musicians, from Beit AlMusica Conservatoire in Shefa’amr and The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Ramallah (Palestine). 

Titled Narrow the Distance, the week long project was a cultural, collaborative and creative exchange project that brought together the Palestinian musicians as well as the various musicians from my Masters course at Guildhall (from the UK, The Netherlands, Greece, America and Australia of course, that's me). It was an intense week of music making, loong hours from morning til night, but very inspiring, creating music collaboratively from the smallest of ideas, rhythms and melodies, culminating in a gig at the Hackney Cut in Hackney Wick, a new live music venue on the London map. 

It was a very special week, creating some great music and magical moments.. here are a few pics from the week (i was a bit slack in taking too many photos, but hopefully some more will be passed on to me!).. 

in rehearsal..

Maya, Nizar and Amer

Akram Haddad

Nizar Kabbany

Mid week we were blessed by the company of Youssef Hbeisch on percussion and Ahmad Al-Khatib on oud, for a workshop on Arabic music and rhythms, after seeing them perform the night prior with the one and only John Williams on guitar, at Cadogan Hall in Chelsea. 

Here's a few pics from the workshop, the first explaining the basics behind Arabic scales, made up of a series of tetra-chords.. the second of Youssef Hbeisch explaining his use of Arabic rhythms in performance.. and the third of them playing together.. i have a video of this, however it's too big for the blog upload.. sorry!

Arabic scales in motion..

Youssef Hbeisch and Arabic rhythms..

Ahmed Al-Khatib and Youssef Hbeisch

and a couple of quick videos behind the scenes...

and a few pics from the gig itself...

On the following Sunday after the gig, I went to a tap dancing masterclass by Guillem Alonso, from Barcelona (yes that's right, with my new tap shoes, I'm reminiscing my dancing days as a youngster.. primarily to draw inspiration from the incredibly complex rhythms that come out!). That evening, October 28, I went along to the 6th birthday of the London Tap Jam, hosted by Junior Laniyan, one of London's finest tap dancers. The London Tap Jam is held at Ronnie Scott's jazz club once a month, featuring a live jazz trio & guests instrumentalists, alongside a myriad of improvising tap dancers.. it was a great evening all round.. 

I'll sign off this blog with a few short videos from the evening.. 
junior...

michael...

guillem...

there were some fab female tappers too and an amazing sand dance by Guillem Alonso, however once again the videos were too big to upload :-(

over and out for now.. more news to come soon!! 
on the horizon.. argentina!! whoop!