An epic one-day online music marathon will bring together artists, composers and musicians from across the Midlands (and the world) this Sunday (29 November), and everyone is invited.
The NottNOISE New Music Marathon, which is funded by the University of Nottingham, is curated by Nottingham Forum for Artistic Research (NottFAR), and will feature nine concerts, 35 composers and 38 musicians from around the world.
Performed by an array of international soloists and ensembles, the hugely varied programme will journey from works for toy piano to contrabass clarinet, and Iron Age carnyx to string quartet.
Founded in 2016, NottFAR is an ongoing programme of new music concerts and outreach initiatives curated by University of Nottingham Associate Professor in Music Composition and composer Elizabeth Kelly, Assistant Professor in Music and composer Duncan MacLeod, and Assistant Professor of Performance and pianist Xenia Pestova Bennett.
The NottNOISE New Music Marathon was originally planned to be shown live earlier this year, however after collaborating with Lakeside Arts, the team are excited to bring this free programme to audiences online.
Dr MacLeod said: "We are extremely excited to be hosting these ambitious performances online. After the first lockdown, the initial plan was to postpone, but as we entered the second lockdown we decided to migrate the series online and have worked tirelessly with over 70 professional composers and musicians in pulling this programme online – which in itself is fairly unique. Moreover, the marathon is almost entirely comprised of works written by living composers."
Dr Kelly said: "If this event had happened live, it would have been attended by local individuals who attend live music events, so this is more accessible for an entirely new audience. Putting it together has been a back-breaking task, but it has been inspiring to bring together a community of artists from across the Midlands and further afield, a community who because of Covid-19, hadn't been able to perform together in months."
The full programme and details on how to watch the marathon can be found here. The marathon is digitally hosted by Lakeside Arts.
Dr Kelly added: "We also feel that this is a real opportunity to showcase the extraordinary talent in the Midlands which is very often overlooked because we are outside of London. We are making a really powerful statement on the vibrancy and resiliency of the Midlands new music scene. We have an eclectic programme and there will be something for everyone!"
