Art Inside Music 22.10.2015

Art Inside Music    VIDEOS  | PHOTOS

 Thursday 22nd October 2015, 6pm and 6.45pm (£5 general; £2 student)

Performance lab inside G2, Engineering Building - illustrated lecture/full performance: 40 mins

Arno Babajanian (1921 - 1983) Piano Trio in F# minor (full performance: circa 23 mins)

I. Largo – Allegro espressivo – Maestoso • II. Andante • III. Allegro vivace

Elaine Chew (piano), Hilary Sturt (violin) and Ian Pressland (cello)

Alessia Milo (spectral art)

Part of Some Things Rich and Strange, an Inside Out Festival and Music@QMUL event

PROGRAM NOTES   [ For the full evening's program, see Some Things Rich and Strange ]

Arno Babajanian (1921-1983) is a national hero in his native Armenia. Born in Yerevan, Babajanian’s extraordinary musical talent was recognised at age five by composer Aram Khachaturian who suggested he be given proper music training. Following studies at Yerevan Conservatory, then in Moscow with Vissarion Shebalin, he returned to teach at Yerevan Conservatory from 1950-1956. It was during this period (1952) that he wrote the Piano Trio in f# sharp minor. It received immediate acclaim and was regarded as a masterpiece from the time of its premiere. The Piano Trio is considered one of his most important works. In three substantial movements, it is filled with memorable melodies, and unusual juxtapositions of notes to form strange sonorities. The piece is full of passion—at times soulful and others stormy—with excellent writing for all three instruments. 

Elaine Chew is Professor of Digital Media at Queen Mary University of London, where she is affiliated with the Centre for Digital Music and serves as its Director of Music Initiatives and co-Lead of the Cognition, Creativity, and Expression research theme. Previously, she was a faculty member at the University of Southern California, where she founded and directed research at the Music Computation and Cognition Laboratory, first as an Assistant Professor, then a tenured Associate Professor. She received PhD and SM degrees in Operations Research at MIT, a BAS in Mathematical and Computational Sciences (honors) and in Music (distinction) at Stanford, and FTCL and LTCL diplomas in Piano Performance from Trinity College, London.

Graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal College of Music with solo, chamber and contemporary music prizes, Hilary Sturt performed on both violin and viola with Ensemble Modern for the next 20 years. She has been guest leader of many British ensembles and chamber orchestras, and is currently a member of the Rasumovsky Quartet and Apartment House, winners of the Philharmonic Society Award for the Most Outstanding Chamber Music in 2011. Hilary is much in demand as a teacher, adjudicator and conductor throughout the UK. She is Head of Strings at St Paul's Girls' School, Professor at the Royal College of Music, a Diploma examiner for the Associated Board and an examiner for AQA exam board. Last summer Hilary recorded the new 2015 syllabus Grades 1-4 for the Associated Board. 

As a young cellist, Ian Pressland was a member of the Hampshire Country Youth Orchestra and studied cello with Elizabeth Braddock, Joseph Koos, Florence Hooton, Colin Walker and Donald Mcall. Whilst at Trinity College of Music London, he won various prizes, including the Sonata Prize, the Louise Bande and Sir John Barbirolli prizes for cello. On leaving the college, he taught and worked as a freelance cellist before becoming a member of the BBC Concert Orchestra. For 10 years he coached at and became Assistant Director of Pro Corda (The National Association for Young Chamber Music Players). During this time, he was invited to become player / manager at The London Festival Orchestra following which he set up his own arts promotion company. In 2004 he became Managing Director of the London Chamber Orchestra (LCO). Ian now combines his part-time work as a consultant to the LCO with his long-time membership of the Rasumovsky String Quartet and other playing, coaching and teaching. He has enjoyed many years as coach and principal cellist of The Forest Philharmonic Orchestra, where he is also on the Board of Directors. Ian considers himself fortunate to play a cello made by Joseph Hill in 1760; this was purchased with the generous help of a loan from the Musicians Loan Fund in memory of Jacqueline du Pre.

Alessia Milo is an architect and PhD candidate in Media and Arts Technology at Queen Mary University of London. She researches the influence of architecture on how we make sense of a spatial sound field. She is interested in creating digital architectures inspired by sound where sonic interactions can alter spatial situations and interpretations. Milo received her first class honors degree in Architecture from Valle Giulia - Universitá di Roma "La Sapienza" with an experimental thesis in acoustics. She has worked and collaborated as architect and visualiser with Archea Associati, CAVE in RTWH in Aachen, VIS from SNS of Pisa, Human Harp and Di Mainstone, Matteo Fraboni. For this performance, she will illuminate the musical scene with a set of vectorial drawings created in Processing, designed specifically for Arno Babajanian's Trio, playing with time, light, darkness, colours, frequencies, and their spectral energy.