Octandre Ensemble

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, New Dots have asked 3 composers to curate sets inspired by this fantastical book, all to be performed by the Octandre Ensemble.

Lisa Illean will contextualise Lewis Carroll as a figure embraced by the French and English Surrealist movements. She has written a new piece after Mallarmé as well as arranging works by Ravel and Scelsi.

Kim Ashton starts from the 'The garden of live flowers' in Alice Through the Looking Glass and has written a new setting of a poem by Elisabeth Bletsoe. His set also includes a world premiere by Benjamin Graves, commissioned specially for this programme, as well as works by Peter Wiegold and Kaija Saariaho

Darren Bloom has curated a set of exquisite minatures, reflecting Alice's series of curious encounters. He's written 2 new dream pieces and combined them with works by Birtwistle, Christopher Fox, Kurtag and Jonathan Harvey