live improvisation on quarter tone bass flute and electronics

Carla Rees - Bass Flute (Kingma System)
Michael Oliva - Electronics

ImproMix

Composer and Sound Designer from Blackpool interested in resonance and dissonance - from contemporary classical to extreme metal, and everything in between.

Studied BMus in Composition and Ethnomusicology at Royal Holloway, University of London. Now working in live theatre production across the north west.

Award-winning composer & performer John Oliver creates electronic sound art music, writes music for classical musicians of the world, and performs chamber music as a guitarist. His compositions have been performed extensively in his native Canada, as well as in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and heard worldwide on over 30 commercial and indie recordings.

rarescale is a flexible-instrumentation contemporary chamber music ensemble, which since its formation by Carla Rees in 2003 has gained an international reputation for its work promoting and creating new repertoire for alto and bass flute. 

The group performs regularly in the UK and abroad and has international links with several composers. Since its formation, rarescale has premiered several hundred new works, including many written specifically for the ensemble.

rarescale runs an annual masterclass course for composers and instrumentalists, and records for its own label, with five discs currently available. Many of the pieces composed for rarescale are published by Tetractys Publishing

Sungji Hong’s music has been described as “a work of iridescent freshness” (BBC Music Magazine), “the sound is utterly luminous” (Fanfare Magazine), “it had fantasy, colour and drive” (Nottingham evening post), “outbursts of rhythmic energy” (The Irish Times), and "a virtuoso exploration of the technical and sonorous possibilities” (Daily Telegraph).

She has won the Franz Josef Reinl-Stiftung (1st Prize), the Magistralia (1st Prize), the Seoul Spring Festival Composition Competition (1st Prize), the Jesus Villa-Rojo (1st Prize), the European Competition of the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki (1st Prize), the Temple Music Composition Prize (1st Prize), the Crwth Competition (1st Prize), the international competition for original ballet music at the ISCM World Music Days – Slovenia (1st Prize), the Montserrat International Camera Music Composition Competition (1st Prize), the Theodore Front Prize (IAWM) and the Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize (ACL).

Her works have been commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation (Harvard University, USA), the Tongyoung International Music Festival (Korea), the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (Korea), the Keumho Asiana Cultural Foundation (Korea), the Foundation for Universal Sacred Music (USA), the International Isang Yun Music Society (Germany) and the MATA Festival (USA). Her music has been performed in over 42 countries and 145 cities throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. Her music has been widely broadcast in more than 17 countries (35 channels) and has been recorded and released on the Soundbrush, Elektramusic, Atoll, Dutton label and by ECM Records. 

Sungji Hong, born in South Korea in 1973, studied composition in Seoul before moving to England where she completed her Master in Music at the Royal Academy of Music in London and a PhD in composition with Nicola LeFanu at the University of York in the UK.