Andy Ingamells

Content warning: This performance involves balloons being popped and chewing sounds, and may not be suitable for audience members with a latex allergy or misophonia

Free Event

Estimated end time: 12.20pm 

Andy Ingamells voice / chewing gum / laptop / trumpet 

Andy Ingamells (UK, 1988) 
After Oliveros, Beethoven and the girl chewing gum (2024) 12’ 

Andy Ingamells (UK, 1988) 
***SURPRISE PERFORMANCE*** (2015) 8’

For Andy Ingamells, the concert is a place where composition happens in real time. 

After Oliveros, Beethoven and the girl chewing gum combines live electronics with the everyday act of chewing gum, allowing traces of Beethoven, Pauline Oliveros and John Smith to surface, dissolve and reappear. Familiar musical materials are gently shifted as seemingly ordinary actions become compositional tools. 

***SURPRISE PERFORMANCE*** brings the act of composition into full view. Using a megaphone, Ingamells improvises instructions for performers and audience alike, gradually assembling the work from voices, violin tremolos, trumpet blasts and popping balloons. As the performance unfolds, the distinctions between composer, performer and listener begin to dissolve. 

Together, these works invite audiences into performances that are playful and unpredictable, where music emerges through listening, participation and the shared experience of everyone in the space. 

Produced by hcmf// supported by Culture Ireland 

After Oliveros, Beethoven and the girl chewing gum is featured on the album Vanity Project, released by Birmingham Record Company on 23 October 2026

***SURPRISE PERFORMANCE*** was originally commissioned by Gavin Wade, Director of Eastside Projects, for the launch event of the Birmingham Public Art Strategy 2015–2019 

Photo: Andy Ingamells © Renata Pekowska