Kathryn Williams and Ed Cooper, one of the duos selected from our Call for Collaborative Music Projects, will be performing their new work for flute and guitar at one of the University of Leeds’ ‘concerts+’ series.

Commissioned by Cyborg Soloists, Williams and Cooper’s new piece uses Soundbrenner wearable metronomes and stethoscope microphones created especially for the work. The performance will be livestreamed, but if you are able to attend in person, there’ll be an opportunity for audience members to engage with the materials after the performance.

Free concert, no booking required - full details can be found on the University of Leeds website

View the livestream on YouTube →

Zubin Kanga performs Philip Venables’ Answer Machine Tape, 1987 at Paris Autumn Festival.

Answer Machine Tape, 1987 is a major new work for piano and multimedia by Philip Venables, created in collaboration with dramatist Ted Huffman and programmer Simon Hendry. It focuses on New York visual artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz and the turbulent period leading up to the death of Peter Hujar – his former lover, close friend and fellow artist – from an AIDS-related illness in 1987. The work’s focal point is Wojnarowicz’s answering machine tape from the days leading up to Hujar’s death, featuring calls from Hujar, other artists, friends and lovers, exploring his life, that period of the New York art scene, queer history and the AIDS crisis.

Answer Machine Tape, 1987 uses new sensor technology – the Keyscanner created by the Augmented Instruments Laboratory – allowing the piano to function not just as an acoustic instrument, but as a typewriter to transcribe, comment on and illuminate the messages. This is a work that is enigmatic and meditative, opening a door for the audience and beckoning them to take a step inside. We eavesdrop into a private world; messages are transliterated into a musical fabric, becoming character studies, becoming reflections on a community, becoming attempts to decipher meaning. Transcription, and its failure in the face of extreme difficulty, becomes a poignant metaphor for the AIDS crisis and its devastating effect on a generation.

For tickets (from 9 September 2022) and links to the full festival programme, visit the Paris Autumn website

Zubin Kanga presents the premiere performance of Laura Bowler’s SHOW(ti)ME, an investigation into the multiplicities of the physical and virtual self through the lens of piano performance and practice. Excavating the intimate relationship between performance and instrument, SHOW(ti)ME gradually draws back the mask of performance, revealing the performer’s vulnerabilities through an explosive magnification of the minutia of piano practice.

The performing self is extended and contorted through a collaging of multimedia practices: live camera, pre-recorded camera, MiMU gloves, live and fixed electronics.

Free event. See the hcmf// website for full details here →

Cyborg Soloists’ Director, pianist Zubin Kanga presents the UK premiere of Answer Machine Tape, 1987 at hcmf// 2022. Answer Machine Tape, 1987 is a major new work for piano and multimedia by Philip Venables, created in collaboration with dramatist Ted Huffman and programmer Simon Hendry. It focuses on New York visual artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz and the turbulent period leading up to the death of Peter Hujar – his former lover, close friend and fellow artist – from an AIDS-related illness in 1987. The work’s focal point is Wojnarowicz’s answering machine tape from the days leading up to Hujar’s death, featuring calls from Hujar, other artists, friends and lovers, exploring his life, that period of the New York art scene, queer history and the AIDS crisis.

Answer Machine Tape, 1987 uses new sensor technology – the Keyscanner created by the Augmented Instruments Laboratory – allowing the piano to function not just as an acoustic instrument, but as a typewriter to transcribe, comment on and illuminate the messages. This is a work that is enigmatic and meditative, opening a door for the audience and beckoning them to take a step inside. We eavesdrop into a private world; messages are transliterated into a musical fabric, becoming character studies, becoming reflections on a community, becoming attempts to decipher meaning. Transcription, and its failure in the face of extreme difficulty, becomes a poignant metaphor for the AIDS crisis and its devastating effect on a generation.

For tickets (from 9 September 2022) and links to the full festival programme, visit hcmf//’s website

Zubin Kanga performs Philip Venables’ Answer Machine Tape, 1987 at November Music in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands.

This major new work for piano and multimedia has been created in collaboration with dramatist Ted Huffman, programmer Simon Hendry and Zubin Kanga. It focuses on New York visual artist David Wojnarowicz and the turbulent period leading up to the death of Peter Hujar, Wojnarowicz’s close friend and fellow artist, from AIDS-related illness in 1987. It uses a transcription of Wojnarowicz’s answering machine tape in the days leading up to Hujar’s death, featuring calls from Hujar, other artists, friends and lovers, to explore not just his life, but that period of the New York art scene, queer history and the AIDS crisis.

Using the KeyScanner, new sensor technology from the Augmented Instruments Lab, the piano will function both as an acoustic instrument and as a typewriter to transcribe sections of tape onto the screen, as well as acting as a controller to add electronic sound and light, combining in an integrated solo multimedia performance.

The result is a powerful and poignant work that reflects on queer history and what it is to be a queer person today.

Visit the November Music website for full details of the performance and ticket sales

Read Peter Page’s review of this performance in The Cusp →

Zubin Kanga performs the UK premiere of Neil Luck’s 40-minute work for piano, electronics, two videos and MiMU sensor gloves, Whatever Weighs You Down. An intense and bizarre meditation on weights, senses, inertia and dreams, Whatever Weighs You Down features Deaf performance artist Chisato Minamimura as an onscreen co-performer in an intense gestural dialgoue with Kanga’s piano and sonified movements using the MiMU gloves. Composer-performer James Oldham also appears as a chaotic second onscreen protagonist.

World premieres by Nina Whiteman and Nwando Ebizie, combining the piano with a Moog synthesizer and sensor technology from Movesense and Holonic Systems, alongside Kanga’s own Steel on Bone, and a solo performance by Luck complete the programme.

Nina Whiteman – Cybird Cybird (World Premiere)
Nwando Ebizie – I Will Fix Myself (Just Circles) (World Premiere)
Zubin Kanga – Steel on Bone
Neil Luck – New Work (World Premiere)
Neil Luck – Whatever Weighs You Down (UK Premiere)

Visit Cafe Oto’s website for full details and ticket sales →

Zubin Kanga premieres new works by Nina Whiteman and Alex Groves alongside Luke Nickel’s hhiiddeenn vvoorrttiicceess, his own Steel on Bone and Alexander Schubert’s WIKI-PIANO.NET in this programme for Music in the Round.

The programme uses a range of technologies from Cyborg Soloists industry partners. Whiteman uses Movesense sensors with Holonic Systems software alongside AI-manipulated field recordings from her daily commute to explore alien sonic environments through gesture. Groves uses ROLI’s LUMI keyboards, Nickel uses Soundbrenner’s haptic metronomes to feed tempi from rollercoasters onscreen to Zubin Kanga as he performs at the piano. Kanga’s Steel on Bone uses the motion-sensing capabilities of MiMU gloves to manipulate sounds from inside the piano.

And, finally, Alexander Schubert’s WIKI-PIANO.NET from 2018 explores the nature of internet culture with a score that can be shaped by audience contributions. Make your own contribution to this performance by adding or editing material for this piece at wiki-piano.net.

Nina Whiteman - cybird cybird (world premiere)

Alex Groves - Single Form (Swell) (world premiere)

Zubin Kanga - Steel on Bone (2021)

Luke Nickel - hhiiddeenn vvoorrttiicceess (2022)

Alexander Schubert - WIKI-PIANO.NET (2018)

Book tickets from Music in the Round’s website →

A programme of music by CoMA’s Sheffield, Manchester & Allcomers participants including work by Cyborg Soloists composer Mark Dyer.

Join CoMA (Contemporary Music for All) for this programme of works that interweaves explorations of the human voice into the unique colours of an open ensemble. CoMA Sheffield and CoMA Manchester are joined by composer Mark Dyer (of the Cyborg soloists project), and will present his piece Mensura for voices and Soundbrenner wearable metronomes alongside other works by Sheffield and Manchester based composers, including a world premiere by Peter Bourne.

The programme will also include two pieces by the CoMA Allcomers Ensemble made up of players from all around Sheffield who have joined the ensemble for the day.

Free conceret. Full details, including how to participate in the CoMA Allcomers Ensemble, on the Music in the Round website →

Zubin Kanga premieres Neil Luck’s Whatever Weighs You Down, a multimedia work for piano, video, electronics, and the MiMU sensor glove, with which Kanga can trigger live electronics and visuals using techniques that have parallels to the ways audiences with disabilities interact with multimedia. Deaf performance artist Chisato Minamimura, who integrates British Sign Language into her performances, participates on a screen as a parallel performer. Whatever Weighs You Down both disorientates and clarifies by exposing to the audience the slipperiness, truths, and fallacies of multimedia constructions.

Part of Gaudeamus Festival’s Final Night programme. Tickets available from the Gaudeamus website.

Josh Spear and Caitlin Rowley’s piece for solo percussionist and live electronics, From the Exquisite Dark, premieres as part of ‘Visitors - Acts ’n Sounds 09’, a performance of works by Bastard Assignments in collaboration with Ensemble Garage, including premieres by Edward Henderson and Timothy Cape, as well as pieces by Natacha Diels and Eduardo Frank.

From the Exquisite Dark uses the low-latency audio response of a Bela Mini nanocomputer with multichannel expansion to respond to signals from contact microphones attached to an assortment of objects. As percussionist Yuka Ohta drags, strokes, hits and swirls various objects, the sounds we hear from them are not the sounds we expect. The piece uses the uncanny effect of this cognitive dissonance to playfully consider ideas about the cycle of consumerism.

More information available about the performance (in German) on the Facebook event here →

From the Exquisite Dark was commissioned by Ensemble Garage and has been created with the support of Cyborg Soloists.

Zubin Kanga premieres Philip Venables’ Answer Machine Tape, 1987, commissioned for Cyborg Soloists, at Time of Music Festival in Finland. This major new work for piano and multimedia has been created in collaboration with dramatist Ted Huffman, programmer Simon Hendry and Zubin Kanga. It focuses on New York visual artist David Wojnarowicz and the turbulent period leading up to the death of Peter Hujar, Wojnarowicz’s close friend and fellow artist, from AIDS-related illness in 1987. It uses a transcription of Wojnarowicz’s answering machine tape in the days leading up to Hujar’s death, featuring calls from Hujar, other artists, friends and lovers, to explore not just his life, but that period of the New York art scene, queer history and the AIDS crisis.

Using the KeyScanner, new sensor technology from the Augmented Instruments Lab, the piano will function both as an acoustic instrument and as a typewriter to transcribe sections of tape onto the screen, as well as acting as a controller to add electronic sound and light, combining in an integrated solo multimedia performance.

The result is a powerful and poignant work that reflects on queer history and what it is to be a queer person today.

Visit the Time of Music Festival website for more information and to book tickets to this premiere performance.

The first of Nina Whiteman’s Cybird Trilogy, Fuming uses machine learning to examine her daily walk along a busy arterial road. This performance positions Fuming within a programme of new works that explore how machine learning is changing and challenging human creativity.

For programme details and tickets, visit the Eventbrite page

A multimedia extravaganza, this unmissable concert by pianist, composer and technologist Zubin Kanga will incorporate roller-coaster visuals with themes ranging from the cult of Celtic river goddesses to the simplicity of wind in the trees. Zubin will perform on piano, newly invented digital instruments and interactive devices, in works composed by Christopher Fox, Luke Nickel, Georgia Rodgers, Louis D’Heudieres and Zubin himself.

Find full information and book tickets at the Kettle’s Yard website →

Dr Zubin Kanga presents this public seminar, ‘The Cyborg Performer: The Performer’s Role in Creating and Realising Works using New Digital Instruments’. He will discuss his role in developing new works using new digital instruments including MiMU sensor gloves, ROLI keyboards, Soundbrenner haptic metronomes, and TouchKeys key sensors.

The challenges of adapting and extending instruments for new uses, the effects of new instruments on the collaborative process with composers, and the changing field of digital organology will all be explored.

Full details about the seminar can be found on the City University Events website →

Cyborg Soloists: Hidden Vortices features new works created as part of Zubin Kanga’s music-technology research project Cyborg Soloists, supported by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship and hosted at Royal Holloway. Zubin will perform and discuss new solo piano and multimedia works by Joanna Ward, Luke Nickel, CHAINES (Cee Haines), and his own composition, featuring a range of technological extensions of the piano and the performer including MiMU movement-sensor gloves, a new robotic piano mechanism, Soundbrenner haptic metronomes and ROLI keyboards with surface sensors. Mark Dyer (the project’s postdoctoral research assistant) will also present a performance by students of his new work, Mensura, featuring an ensemble wearing Soundbrenner Pulse devices, deriving games of tempo and rhythm from their shared heart rates.

Joanna Ward: Full and Hollow for remotely activated piano (designed and built by Sam Underwood and Richard Sewell)
Mark Dyer: Mensura for voices and Soundbrenner Pulses
CHAINES: Escape TERF Island for ROLI keyboards, touchpads and live electronics
Zubin Kanga: Steel on Bone for piano, MiMU gloves and live electronics
Luke Nickel: hhiiddeenn vvoorrttiicceess for piano, Soundbrenner Cores, electronics, video and strobe lights

Free admission, booking required. Find out more and book tickets →

CoMA Manchester premiere four works by local artists including the world premiere of Mark Dyer’s Mensura, commissioned by Cyborg Soloists.

The programme also includes two NonClassical commissions from Simon Knighton and Atefeh Einali, an interpretation of artist Lorna Green's new video Big Stones and a performance of i'm not a robot from Nina Whiteman.

Book tickets through EventBrite

Find out more about Mensura by Mark Dyer

This performance will be preceded by an All Comers event for anyone of any level of musical ability. Find out more about the CoMA Manchester All Comers event

Zubin Kanga performs the world premiere of the completed version of Hammerklavier, a major piano and film work created by composer Michael Finnissy and filmmaker Adam de la Cour. Hammerklavier is inspired by Finnissy’s memories of the great Soviet pianist Sviatoslav Richter performing Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata in 1975, and by Richter’s secret queer life. 

This 40-minute version of the work matches the scale of Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’, transforming each movement in reverse order. Adam de la Cour’s film draws on concert films of Richter, as well as queer cinema of the mid-20th-century in a complex dialogue with the music.  

The performance will be preceded by an introductory talk and discussion with the co-creators, discussing Finnissy’s approach to transcription, de la Cour’s experimental film techniques, the work’s exploration of Richter’s pianism and sexual identity, and the relationship between piano and film.

Book free tickets at the Royal Academy of Music website