The hcmf// shorts programme showcases emerging artists, new works and innovative interpretations of contemporary repertoire, many of which turn out to be true highlights of the festival. These free-to-attend concerts, spread across venues as varied as the performances, typically comprise a full day at hcmf//, with 2024’s edition taking place on Monday 18 November.
As part of hcmf// shorts, we share an annual open call for five early-career UK-based artists to perform at the festival. In addition to producing and platforming their concert (plus providing a fee and covering travel and accommodation), we offer successful applicants mentoring to support their professional development, inviting them to join our Fielding Talent cohort.
After receiving a fantastic amount of responses to the hcmf// shorts open call this year, we are very pleased to announce the successful applicants whose works will appear at hcmf// 2024. The final five were determined by a selection panel consisting of Graham McKenzie, Cath Roberts and Aaron Holloway-Nahum.
Graham McKenzie, Artistic Director of hcmf//, stated: “Each year I never fail to be bowled over by the quality of the applications to our hcmf// shorts programme and the range of talent that it uncovers from across all genres of music, and from all corners of the U.K. The selection process was incredibly tough, and my thanks to Cath and Aaron for their expertise and insight, and I am genuinely excited to present this year’s artists to our wonderful hcmf// audience who each year turn up in huge numbers!”
Musician, artist and organiser Cath Roberts commented: “It was a privilege to read and listen to so many amazing proposals. Selecting the final group of artists was incredibly tough considering the huge number of applications, but together we’ve assembled a really exciting programme that I can’t wait to hear live!”
Aaron Holloway-Nahum, Artistic Director of Riot Ensemble, said: “The entire process of programming these five shorts was inspiring, challenging (of course!) and altogether really great fun. The breadth of creativity and depth of imagination being shown by musicians is breathtaking. I’m thrilled with the variety of work that will be platformed at hcmf// and the emerging artists who will receive mentorship they so warrant. Above all, I’m excited to hear the results on November 18th!”
Read on for an introduction to the five successful applicants and learn about the music they’ll bring to Huddersfield this November.
Atefeh Einali
Santoor player and composer Atefeh Einali studied at the Art University of Tehran before embarking on a PhD in music composition at the University of Manchester. She has worked with performers, composers and conductors across the Southbank Symphony Orchestra, CoMA London, Bridges Orchestra in Frankfurt and more. Additionally, she was Associate Composer for a scheme at nonclassical in 2022.
For the 2024 shorts programme, she will perform Indefinite dreams: I am alive!, an improvisational piece for santoor accompanied by film. Inspired by the works of Meredith Monk and expanding on improvisational approaches to traditional Iranian music, Einali will explore the theme of the ‘bed’ through her playing, reflecting on the ‘bed’ as her only home as a migrant. The accompanying film, created by Yorkshire-based artist Nikta Mohammadi, is a meditation on the ‘bed’ as a home for dreams, desires and losses.
David Lorenzo Sappa
David Lorenzo Sappa is a London-based sound artist, experimental musician and researcher, whose work incorporates DIY kinetic and interactive sound objects, improvisation, field recordings, oral histories and quantum listening. With an interest in sound for its tactile, textural and somatic qualities, Sappa’s projects consider sound as modes for interrelatedness and interplay, exploring dynamics between our social, psychological and material entanglements within different environments. The British Library, Deptford X Festival and Maker Music Festival are just a few of the places these works have been exhibited.
At hcmf//, Sappa presents Foreshores Rising: a performance utilising animistic kinetic sound sculptures built by the artist. Created from items scavenged from the banks of the Thames, such as clay fragments, ship nails, shrapnel and iron hooks, these sculptures and objects will be improvised with live through FX processing as a means for the past to haunt the present.
Furrowed and Alexander Painter
Performing under the name Furrowed, producer and sound artist Dylan Beattie wields a modified vinyl record lathe, etching sound directly into material using experimental ‘record cutting’ approaches. Multi-instrumental performer and composer Alexander Painter has worked with Furrowed since late 2023, adding to an already impressive list of collaborators including the likes of Gazelle Twin, Orlando Weeks, William Doyle and Tony Njoku.
During this year’s festival, the pair will perform Tattooing (wind and strings). The piece involves Painter’s saxophone and cello ‘tattooing’ a blank disc using a handheld device, with the grooves then traced by tonearm pickups. Locked grooves, ‘malfunctions’ and sound fragments produced in the performance are then further manipulated and transformed into dynamic sounds.
Linda Jankowska
Yorkshire-based musician Linda Jankowska‘s practice orbits around long-term collaborations and multifaceted modes of working with sound. Primarily a violinist, she operates at the delta of instrumental performance, improvisation and composition. She has performed at a range of international festivals as a chamber musician and as a soloist, also recording for Carrier Records, Another Timbre and more. Additionally, she is a founding member and co-artistic director of Distractifold Ensemble.
Jankowska will perform new work Parable of the Prize of Heaven in the 2024 shorts programme, combining electronics with domestic objects, video and more. Featuring field recordings of church spaces and quotes from Octavia Butler and Søren Kierkegaard, the piece serves as both reflection on and question of the nature of life organised through religion.
Marie Schreer & Taher Adel
UK-based violinist Marie Schreer is a compelling interpreter of new works and a prominent exponent of the Western classical tradition. She is co-Artistic Director and violinist at Riot Ensemble, Section Leader of Second
Violins at The Hallé, founding member of improvising ensembles Mainly Two and Anarchist Reading Group, and co-runs the record label Turquoise Coconut. As a soloist and as a chamber musician, she has performed and recorded alongside renowned artists such as Lars Vogt, Georgia Mancio and Evan Parker.
This year, Schreer will perform the world premiere of a new work she has commissioned from Iranian composer Ashkan Behzadi and British-Bahraini poet Taher Adel. The composition sets a six-verse poem interpreting ‘home’ through six Arabic translations of the word, drawing inspiration from global displacement, immigration and Adel’s personal heritage. Each of the six movements composed by Behzadi is dedicated to a child who has lost their home or life during the current conflict in Palestine and Israel. Schreer will be joined by Adel for the world premiere this November.
hcmf// shorts takes place on Monday 18 November in Huddersfield as part of hcmf// 2024.
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Photos: Atefeh Einali (Yaffa Judah), David Lorenzo Sappa (courtesy of the artist), composite of Alexander Painter (Rob Orchard) and Furrowed (Bethan Roberts), Linda Jankowska (Ji Yang), composite of Taher Adel (Christopher Hall), Marie Schreer (Carla Rees) and Ashkan Behzadi (Kaveh Kowsari)
about the selection process
The hcmf// shorts selection panel always consists of at least three people (at least two of whom are external to hcmf//), who score and shortlist the applications independently before coming together to make a final decision. All panellists assess every single application (hcmf// does not make any initial pre-selections), except in the event of a conflict of interest (for example, a pre-existing connection with an applicant). In this case, panellists declare a conflict and abstain from assessing the relevant application.
hcmf// shorts: open call 2024 is part of the Sounds Now project co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union