Experimental flautist Kathryn Williams creates works out of constraint and limitation. Making tangible connections between her instrument and body, she interrogates ideas of accessibility and physical limitation. Recently, she’s been developing her flute playing in direct contact with her asthma, interrogating the ways in which risk can be reduced to players while creating new, progressive sounds.
Williams’ flute playing is high-concept and super situational: at hcmf// 2018, she performed PIXERCISE, a performance-workout hybrid presented at the University of Huddersfield’s sports hall. In 2019, she followed it up with Coming Up For Air, a record with over 40 new pieces of music written for her to play in one, single breath. The work spans serene melodies, long sustained notes and one-second tone blasts; performed live, the project becomes solo music theatre, Williams jumping up and down on the spot and yelling surreal poems between blows, amongst other composer instructions.