The Riot Ensemble (SOLD OUT)

Tickets £28 // Concession £21 // Under 30 £5
Advance booking required

The Riot Ensemble

Aaron Holloway-Nahum conductor
Gareth Davis bass clarinet (Fast Darkness I)

Chaya Czernowin (Israel, 1957)
Fast Darkness I: I can see your turned eyes from inside your body (2020) 32′ UK Premiere

Clara Iannotta (Italy, 1983)
They left us grief-trees wailing at the wall (2020) 19’ UK Premiere

Bára Gísladóttir (Iceland, 1989)
Animals of your pasture (2021) 20’ UK Premiere 

Jenny Hettne (Sweden, 1977)
Whispering c(h)ords, quietly falling (2021) 10’ World Premiere 

Hannah Kendall (UK, 1984)
Tuxedo: ‘Hot Summer No Water’ (2020) 5’

Tonia Ko (USA/ Hong Kong, 1988)
Soothe a Tooth (2020) 5’

The Riot Ensemble becomes a better name for this lot every year. The London-based music group has become exponentially more out there through time, getting a bit closer to the chaos they promise to incite with every concert programme. This year, their hcmf// performance is a different kind of leftfield surprise, embracing the low-lying, slow-moving sounds of Chaya Czernowin and Clara Iannotta, along with the focused resonances of Jenny Hettne and Bára Gísladóttir. As always, Riot brings energy and compassion to the pieces, poring over each detail in kind. 

As part of this concert, the Riot Ensemble will also deliver performances of two of last year’s Zeitgeist Commissions, performed by soloists from the group. Violist Stephen Upshaw collaborated with composer Tonia Ko on Soothe a Toothe, an imagined soundtrack for ‘clenched jaws, cracked teeth and dry tongues’ that uses repetitive melodic patterns to describe the anxieties we manifest on our bodies. The piece is joined by Hannah Kendall’s Tuxedo: Hot Summer No Water, which makes use of auxiliary police whistle instruments and spiritual songs in its suggestion of both conflict and community, and is performed by cellist Louise McMonagle. Premiered as part of hcmf// 2020‘s online programme, this is the first live performance for both of these pieces.

Produced by hcmf// supported by the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung

Fast Darkness is commissioned by Riot Ensemble, Transit Festival, Wien Modern and hcmf//

Animals of your Pasture is commissioned by the Riot Ensemble

Whispering c(h)ords, quietly falling is commissioned by the Riot Ensemble

Tuxedo: ‘Hot Summer No Water’ is co-commissioned by the Riot Ensemble and hcmf// in partnership with Zeitgeist Online Gallery

Soothe a Tooth is co-commissioned by the Riot Ensemble and hcmf// in partnership with Zeitgeist Online Gallery

Photo © Matthew Johnson