Acts of Balancing and Unbalancing by Quiet Music Ensemble https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing 23 April, 2pm @ New Music Dublin en-us 2023-03-30 11:34:44 UTC 2026-01-03 03:05:19 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-uploads.storage.googleapis.com/1730456339/6a3a0631d8f5ad9896692d7ab2bc719c/QME_logo_white_text.tiff About Hahnemühle qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244741 This piece explores the sonic properties of Hahnemühle Artist papers. These are high-quality textured papers made from various raw materials; cellulose, cotton linters, and fiberglass. Each paper has a unique texture and gsm (weight) providing beautifully textured sounds when moved across different surfaces at varying speeds and pressure. This piece explores the sonic properties of these papers in combination with white noise elements from QME.]]> 2023-03-30 11:34:44 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244741 About Susan Geaney qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244742 Susan Geaney is a Kerry composer/improviser. She graduated with 1st class honours BMus degree in 2008 from University College Cork, and completed her Masters in
Composition under the supervision of John Godfrey and Jesse Ronneau in 2010. In 2008, Susan studied under American composer Pauline Oliveros where she practiced
deep listening. Her composition explores indeterminacy, extended techniques and electro-acoustics through a less is more approach; creating dense atmospheres through simple, minimal material. Intuitive listening and responding remains the primary focus of her work. Susan wrote Vacuum for The Quiet Music Ensemble in 2011 with repeat performances in The National Concert Hall, Hilltown New Music Festival and Kaleidoscope. Susan is currently working on ongoing projects in Dance and Film and is a member of Gamelan Nua

https://linktr.ee/susangeaney

]]> 2023-03-30 11:34:44 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244742 About Acts of Balancing and Unbalancing qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244743 This piece evolves from a set of glass and feedback instruments built specially for the ensemble by Kathy Hinde.

Two pairs of glass vessels balance bodies of water. Using a mechanical system, the players raise the glasses up and down, causing them to fill or empty in turn - and so the water levels change the tones of audio feedback. 

The ensemble are invited to balance and unbalance both the vessels of water and the delicate threshold of feedback. Along with these collaborative 'acts of balancing and unbalancing' the ensemble respond with their acoustic instruments.
]]> 2023-03-30 11:34:44 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244743 About Kathy Hinde qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244744 Kathy Hinde’s work grows from a partnership between nature and technology expressed through audio-visual installations and performances that combine sound, sculpture, image and light. Drawing on inspiration from behaviours and phenomena found in the natural world, she creates work that is generative; that evolves; that can be different each time it is experienced. Kathy aims to create work that gives rise to a poetic and reflective experience that enriches an appreciation of the everyday, inviting a heightened awareness of the world around us.

Kathy frequently works in collaboration with other practitioners and scientists and often actively involves the audience in the creative process. She has created light and sound installations in public spaces, including urban streets, woodlands and forests.

]]> 2023-03-30 11:34:44 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244744 qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244746 2023-03-30 11:34:44 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244746 About Aioi: leaves laden with words qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244747 Aioi: leaves laden with words is based on the Japanese Noh play Takasago, the imagery of the pine and the space between  worlds. The pine is a symbol of longevity and for liminality, for the rocking back and forth between the imagined and the real.

The score for Aioi: leaves laden with words is a set of 6 unique paintings, one for each performer - versions of the pine tree found at the back of the Noh stage. The performers improvise in response to their painting, to the story of Takasago, and the sound of wind in the pines.]]> 2023-03-30 11:34:44 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244747 About Anna Murray qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244748 Anna Murray is a mixed-media composer and artist from Ireland. She has a particular interest in language and text-based composition, the creation of sound spaces, as well as graphic and open scores combined with live electronics. Her current work revolves around an examination of music and meaning, particularly focussed on a study of Japanese Noh theatre, which she studied in Tokyo.

Recent work includes the album of music for piano and electronics, The moon sets and birds cry / 月は落ち、鳥が鳴いて; a setting of Emily Dickinson's envelope poems titled my little Force explodes; and Crosstalk, part of Crash Ensemble's Reactions series.]]> 2023-03-30 11:34:44 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244748 Tickets qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244751 2023-03-30 11:34:44 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244751 Programme qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244752 Fragile soundscapes, remarkable sonorities painted into pregnant silences and deep sonic contemplation—join Cork-based experimental music group Quiet Music Ensemble for this spellbinding afternoon concert.
​
Featuring three Dublin premieres alongside a brand new work composed by Susan Geaney, this performance embraces especially built instruments, field recordings, reflections on Noh and elements from dance and film alongside QME’s unique sonic language. QME celebrates sound as a creative, contemplative and liberating engagement with the worlds inside and outside of us.
 
Programme:
Kathy Hinde Acts of Balancing and Unbalancing (2022)
Anna Murray Aioi: leaves laden with words (2022)
Susan Geaney Hahnemühle (2023) [world premiere]
Karen Power, Mary Nunan and Atoosa Pour Hosseini we return to ground (2022)

Seán Mac Erlaine, clarinets, sonic objects
Roddy O’Keeffe, trombone, sonic objects
John Godfrey, e-guitar and electronics, sonic objects
Ilse De Ziah, cello, sonic objects
Dan Bodwell, double bass, sonic objects
Alexis Nealon, sound
 
with special guests
 
Mary Nunan, dance
Laura Sampson, chan


]]> 2023-03-30 11:34:44 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244752 Facebook event qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244753 https://www.facebook.com/events/771762877484532/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22page%22%7D]%7D]]> 2023-03-30 11:34:44 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244753 qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244754 Commissions and performance supported by Arts Council Ireland]]> 2023-03-30 11:34:44 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244754 About Quiet Music Ensemble qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244756 Founded in 2008, QME is a unique Irish group dedicated to music that explores perception and reflection through spiritually and physically quiet music. “The very notion of ‘quiet music’ is something of a revolutionary act”, said the UK Independent in 2015 and described QME’s music as exerting “a mesmeric power”. QME enmeshes natural sound with performed sound; the visual with the sonic: its performances invite us into an extraordinary ‘listening space’ that is both deep and moving.
 
The group consists of some of the top solo and chamber performers in the country: John Godfrey, founder/director/electric guitar; Seán Mac Erlaine, clarinets/saxes; Roddy O'Keefe, trombone; Ilse De Ziah, cello; Dan Bodwell, double bass; Alexis Nealon, sound engineer. 

QME has premiered commissioned and other new works from world-renowned composers such as Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros, David Toop, Jennifer Walshe, Mark Applebaum, Christopher Fox, Martin Iddon, Michael Pisaro and others. At its launch festival in 2008, QME premiered 5 new works and appeared alongside world-renowned composer/performers Pauline Oliveros and David Toop.
]]> 2023-03-30 11:34:44 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538244756 qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538261534 2023-03-30 11:50:41 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538261534 qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538277171 2023-03-30 12:03:42 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538277171 qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538291394 2023-03-30 12:15:12 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538291394 About we return to ground qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538293699 …we return to ground… is a constructed environment consisting of real and composed events. The field recordings that are central to this work capture the
underwater and largely unheard life from beneath the surface of water in different locations + types of water: bog, river, lake and sea. These creatures are living
entire lives without us, an existence that we know little about, but we have significant influence upon.

We ask the ensemble to consider the ‘flow’ of the world. How a unique environment that is influenced by a single point in time long gone remains key to many of the
life sources we will hear in this work. The water sources flowing into the bogs, rivers, seas where many of these recordings were made are sometimes hundreds of
miles away and yet they remain crucial to these tiny micro-environments. Their influence is not visible to us, but we hear it through the abundance of living species
below the water.

…we return to ground… brings just a few moments of this underwater existence into the performance space, where Quiet Music Ensemble try to communicate,
understand and build a new sonic universe together with these other lives. Like many of Karen’s works this piece challenges all of the performers and audience to
listen to all sound simply as music that we haven’t heard before.


]]> 2023-03-30 12:16:59 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538293699 About Karen Power qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538295995 Karen Power’s compositions utilise two primary sources: acoustic instruments and everyday sounds, spaces and soundscapes. Her works are experienced as concert
music, sound art, expanded instruments, real and imaginary sonic environments and as multi-sensory moments. She is an active improviser, who specialises in using environmental and everyday sounds/places as catalysts for constructing new sonic spaces. She performs as both a soloist and as ensemble member with notable artists such as Pauline Oliveros, David Toop, Mazen Kerbaj, Quiet Club, Strange
Attractor, Ute Wassermann and John Godfrey. As an educator, Karen lectures part-time at tertiary level, but is specifically interested in creating new music and sounds with children through active workshops, which allow them to create and perform their own compositions without monetary or class restrictions. She has developed an early years program Natural Creators. In 2017, Karen became chair of Sounding the Feminists, a collective seeking equality in music across Ireland. karenpower.ie]]> 2023-03-30 12:18:50 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538295995 About Laura Sampson qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538298201 Laura Sampson is a storyteller, sound artist and promoter based in London. Recent performance projects include In the Winter Wood (London’s Polka Theatre), Alternative
Tarot storytelling (the Crick Crack Club), and work with White Conduit Projects gallery. She has a degree in Literature from UCL, and has studied voice, performance and storytelling in Japan, the UK and the USA. A practitioner of noh since 2012, she is a member of Theatre Nohgaku and co-producer of the Noh Training Project UK. As a vocalist, she has written and narrated live at Kings Place (Noh Reimagined, 2018), and
is a regular narrator for literary event series Shivers. She has led noh chant groups at Royal Holloway University of London and Tate Modern, and is a keen experimenter with stylised speech and song in her own work. Alongside performance, she is also an event promoter, a tour booker, and an occasional radio co-host on London’s Resonance 104.4 FM. laurasampson.com]]> 2023-03-30 12:20:40 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2538298201 About Mary Nunan qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2542464443 Mary Nunan’s professional career began when she joined Dublin Contemporary Dance Theatre (1981-86). This was Ireland’s first professional contemporary dance company.
She was founder Artistic Director of Daghdha Dance  ompany (1988-1999).
Throughout her career she has created a substantial body of critically acclaimed solo and ensemble choreographies that have been performed at national and international venues and festivals including South Bank Centre (London), Podweil Theatre (Berlin), Dance ’95 (Munich), Pompidou Centre (Paris) and Festival Cervantino (Mexico). Among other dance created for camera, the screen adaptation of her dance-theatre work Territorial Claims was selected for screening at the Lincoln Centre’s Dance-for-Camera Festival in New York City. Nunan was appointed the first Course Director of the MA Contemporary Dance Performance at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick (1999-2016). She was a visiting guest tutor at the Royal College of Art, London (2016-17). She has co-curated a series of  workshops and symposia across Ireland. marynunan.com

]]> 2023-04-03 16:18:47 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2542464443 About Atoosa Pour Hosseini qme https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2542464723
Atoosa Pour Hosseini (b. Tehran, Iran 1981) is an artist-filmmaker based in Dublin. Her work, which is influenced by historical avant-garde cinema, explores questions about
illusion, reality, and perception through the media of film, video, installation and performance art. Her works have been shown in many galleries, museums, festivals, and showcases throughout the world, and forms part of the Irish and International Institutes collection as well as private collections. She holds a MA in Fine Art Media from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, and a BA in Fine Art Painting from the Azad University of Art and Architecture, Tehran. She has received awards from the Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin City Council, Culture Ireland, and Temple Bar Gallery and Studios. She is a member of Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, and a Co-Director of the Experimental Film Society, and frequently participates in discussion forums and exchanges, such as the LUX Critical Forum in Dublin. atoosapourhosseini.com]]> 2023-04-03 16:19:03 UTC https://padlet.com/qme/acts_of_balancing_and_unbalancing/wish/2542464723