Category Archives: music

music, news, research

SMFA music lecturer Anna Neale-Widdison releases new single

Anna Neale-Widdison, 2018.

 

SMFA music lecturer Anna Neale-Widdison has released a new single Evolution which is available on all the usual music platforms such as Spotify and  iTunes. The video was filmed at the Historic Dockyard Chatham and Royal Dockyard Church, and featured University of Kent (Medway) students. It can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/GrWcMpNOMko

Evolution  is taken from Anna’s forthcoming album Wide Sky, due for release on the 23rd March, featuring performances from Syrian musicians and the members of the English National Opera (ENO) chorus. Fusing together Middle Eastern music with Western pop, and continuing the world music theme featured in her previous album River Man.

Anna is a multi-talented singer/songwriter, composer, session vocalist, and voice over artist, and has performed at most of the major music conferences, released two albums and two EP’s to critical acclaim, written songs for other artists, radio and TV advertising, and provided vocals for many TV animations, songs and adverts. As well as her composing and performing credits, Anna has lectured at the University of Cambridge, The British Museum, BIMM (Brighton & London), Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Hertfordshire. She is also a member of the Oxford Brookes’s music industry board.  Her research interests include songwriting and the music of Ancient Greece.  More info here:  http://www.annaneale.net​

music, news, research

SMFA’s Dr Ruth Herbert to give guest lecture at Humboldt University

Dr. Ruth Herbert, Photo by Richard Kaby

 

Dr Ruth Herbert, Lecturer in Music Performance in the School of Music and Fine Art,  has been invited to give a guest lecture at Humboldt University, Berlin http://hu.berlin/mbkhu as part of The KOSMOS Workshop Mind Wandering and Visual Mental Imagery in Music from 16-19th May. Ruth is one of several invited from international experts in the field of mind, music and consciousness.

Funding from Humboldt University will allow MA music student Andrea Hepworth, who has an interest in music psychology, to accompany Ruth and participate in the conference.

Ruth’s guest lecture, Everyday Musical Daydreams and Kinds of Consciousness, will feature both music we actually hear plus music that pops into our heads – including so-called ‘earworms’.

A music psychologist and performer, Ruth has diverse research interests in the fields of music in everyday life, music, health and wellbeing, music and consciousness (including ASC and Trance), sonic studies and music education. Further research interests include performance psychology, evolutionary psychology and ethology.  She has published extensively on aspects of music teaching and education and is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Sonic Studies, Musicae Scientiae and the Global Listening Centre. http://www.globallisteningcentre.org/member/ruth-herbert/. She is also a member of the Music Education Expo and Musical Theatre and Drama Education Advisory Committee, the NYJC/IoE Jazz and Gender Forum, and (latterly) the Musical Progressions Roundtable.

 

More info on Ruth  here: http://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/staff/staff-profiles/musicandaudio/Herbert.html

music, news, research

SMFA’s Dr Aki Pasoulas has work selected for International Computer Music Conference

Dr Aki Pasoulas performing with the MAAST, 2017. Photo by: A. Seddon

 

Dr Aki Pasoulas, Director of Programmes (Music), Director of Education, and Director of MAAST (Music and Audio Arts Sound Theatre) in the School of Music and Fine Art, had his electroacoustic composition Irides selected to be performed on Thursday 19 October in a concert at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2017), which is the most prestigious yearly international conference for computer music researchers and composers. Held in a different country every year, the 2017 event is in Shanghai.  More info here http://www.icmc2017.com

His works have been selected and presented at key peer-reviewed events across the globe, and his music is housed in the Phonothèque and Mnémothèque of the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges (IMEB) in the National Library of France.   More info here: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/staff/staff-profiles/musicandaudio/4Pasoulas.html

creative events, fine art, music, news

Fine Art students exhibit work at the Historic Dockyard Chatham to celebrate Black History Month

Two 3rd Year BA (Hons) Fine Art students – Solomon Dada and Amanda Rosette Nsubuga – are both showing their images of Kent’s four black Professors in an exhibition to celebrate their research interests, achievements and contribution to scholarship as part of Black History Month.

The Historic Dockyard Chatham, in collaboration with the University of Kent Student Success Project, are pleased to present a Private Viewing of Black History Month Art Exhibition: Celebrating Kent’s Black Professors, followed by a talk by playwright Junior Douglas on ‘The Contribution of Black and Asian Soldiers to WW.1.’ The event will be held on Wednesday October 18, 2017 from 17.30 to 19.30 at Mess Deck: Command of the Oceans. Come and meet the artists on the evening.

The exhibition will run from October 1 to 31, 2017.  Book your free ticket here: https://blackacademicskent.eventbrite.co.uk

 

More info https://www.kent.ac.uk/studentsuccess/inspirational-speakers.html

music, news

SMFA concert series launches Tuesday 24 October

 

The new SMFA concert series, featuring talented students performing a range of musical styles, starts on Tuesday 24 October at 3pm with the SMFA Ensembles. Taking place in the Galvanising Shop Performance space at the Historic Dockyard Chatham, all these concerts are free to attend and usually last for 2 hours.

You can find out more about all these events online here in our What’s On: https://issuu.com/musicfineartkent/docs/lr_university_of_kent_-_what_s_on_a

 

The next concerts are:
Weds 29th November and 6th December, 11am-2pm, Undergraduate Lunchtime Concert

Tues 12th December, SMFA Ensembles, 3-5pm

And don’t miss the Popular Music Gig at Cargo Bar, Liberty Quays on Thursday 14th December, 8pm until late.

Alumni, music, news

Workshop with two of the hottest young names on the British jazz scene

 

On Wednesday 25th October, 9.30am-1.30pm, in the Galvanising Shop Performance Space, SMFA is thrilled to present a workshop with two incredibly versatile award-winning young artists – trumpeter Laura Jurd and pianist Elliot Galvin.

This workshop is packed with improvisation, composition and creative music making.

Described by Lira Music Magazine as “two of the British jazz scene’s hottest young names … together a super unit that bubbles with musical and personal understanding”, both are prize-winning performers and prolific composers whose music crosses style boundaries. BBC New Generation Artist (2015-17) and Parliamentary Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year (2015), Laura has released two albums (the most recent Together as One, with her band Dinosaur (of which Elliott is a member), was nominated for the 2017 Mercury Prize). She recently joined the faculty at Trinity Laban Conservatoire as a composition teacher.

 

 

Elliot’s main artistic vehicle is the Elliot Galvin Trio, winners of the European Jazz Artist of the Year Award. The group have also recorded two albums, including Punch, their debut for the prestigious Edition Records label. Elliot’s commissions include works for the Ligeti Quartet, London Sinfonietta, RESOLUTION dance festival and the Theatre Company Cut Tongues. His music draws on a wide range of influences from Keith Jarrett to Stravinsky, Ligeti, Deerhoof and the Beatles as well as the films of David Lynch, the Dada movement and the literature of James Joyce. He was a founding member of the Chaos Collective.

FREE! to attend but booking via https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/events.html

 

More info:
Laura Jurd (trumpet) https://laurajurd.com/about/ and Elliot Galvin (piano/keys) http://www.elliotgalvin.com.

music, news

Bhangra and Bollywood Live!

 

On Tuesday 3rd October, SMFA presents a major Bhangra and Bollywood Event at The Deep End, Chatham Maritime, which features top UK Bhangra star, the multi award winning Kuljit Bhamra, described by London Asian Guardian as “One of the most prolific and dedicated Asian music producers to come out of Britain”

Kuljit Bhamra is one of the most inspiring and influential musicians, composers and record producers on the British Asian music scene.  He has recently been appointed Artistic Director for the Society Of The Promotion Of New Music (SPNM) and is responsible for programming events during their upcoming season (www.spnm.org.uk)

 

The event also features Kaykay Chauhan (keyboard) and vocalists Shahid Khan, Rekha Sawhney and Bindi Sagoo (dholak/perc) from the stage musical Bend it Like Beckham.  SMFA’s Lecturer in Popular Music, Richard Lightman will be joining them on guitar.

There will be a 4.30pm drumming workshop, 5.15 – 6pm Bhangra dance workshop.

Doors open 7pm. Performance 8.30pm Bollywood Band, 9.30pm – Vasda Punjab Bhangra Dancers

Tickets (includes food) from the Gulbenkian: https://thegulbenkian.co.uk/event/bhangra-bollywood-live-with-workshops/

https://thegulbenkian.co.uk/event/bhangra-bollywood-live/

fine art, music, news, research

Ontohacking Workshop conducted by Jaime del Val

Metatopia: Metaformace by Jaime del Val, Chile 2016, Copyright: Gabriel Ducros. Parque Cultural de Valparaiso.

 

On Thursday 8th June, 11am-5pm in the Galvanising Shop Performance Space at Historic Dockyard Chatham, Jaime del Val, one of the most significant artists/ philosophers in Europe working at the transdisciplinary frontiers of body, subjectivity and the algorecene will present METABODY 2017 Kent – Ontohacking Workshop: Ontopolitics of perception in the Algoricene: Ecologies of indeterminacy in the Big Data Era.

Hosted by the School of Music and Fine Art, this workshop offers participants a unique opportunity to explore some of the key questions driving current trans-disciplinary and practice based research through active participation with a leader in the field. This would enable artists and researchers alike to develop and test their research methods, and gain valuable insight into trans-disciplinary and practice based research processes and collaborative practice based investigation, thus opening up the potential of futurity, navigation and speculation within practice as research.

Jaime is the founder of http://metabody.eu/  –  a major European research project that questions the homogenisation of expressions induced by current information and control technologies.

 

For more info on the event programme go to: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/events.html?eid=25526&view_by=month&date=20170630&category=&tag=

music, news, research

Calliope album from Sara Dacey on Radio 3

 

Further to Calliope, the debut solo album from Sarah Dacey (soprano) and Belinda Jones (piano), featuring new works by British composers, being released on the 26th March by the School of Music and Fine Art’s Foundry Studios, two tracks were subsequently broadcast on Radio 3 on prime time Saturday morning. You can listen to what they say here, at about 2 hours 20mins in: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes.

The album is available on Spotify and Amazon.

 

About Sarah Dacey:
Singer, arranger and composer Sarah Dacey, is best known for being a member of one of the UK’s most groundbreaking groups, Juice Vocal Ensemble. She is a freelance classical singer and an Assistant Lecturer in Music Performance at School of Music and Fine Art, University of Kent.

More info about Sarah here: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/staff.

For more information and contact details, please visit: www.sarahdacey.com.

 

 

Related post:
https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html
https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/news.html

music, news

Dat Brass debut album released on SMFA’s Foundry Studios label on May 5th

Dat Brass – Lewis Withey, Stefan Siwiak-Jaszek, Jake Heath, Dan Mannion, Ben Smith, Michael Ruddlesden, Josiah Lee and Jack Tann.

 

Dat Brass, a high energy eight piece brass band whose distinctive sound fuses the funky melodies of hard-hitting brass with the hip-hop beats of live drums and rap, have just recorded their debut full length album at the School of Music and Fine Art’s Foundry Studios.

They perform floor filling covers of old school classics as well as lip-spitting originals, and  over the last two years have performed gigs at The Garage, Brixton Jamm & 229 The Venue, Alexandra Palace Summer Festival, Roundhouse, London Remixed Festival and Big Feastival.  Their latest release, a live covers mixtape of red hot verse and fat horn lines, went live in February 2017. Their next live gig is at the Soundcrash Funk and Soul Weekender at Camber from 12-14 May, and The Great Escape, Brighton on 18 May.

 

More info at: www.datbrass.com