Aisha Orazbayeva, Kathryn Williams (1), Matthew Shlomowitz, Shila Anaraki

Decontamination #12
Fragmentation And Distortion

In this short concert, violinist Aisha Orazbayeva and flautist Kathryn Williams perform solo music by Salvatore Sciarrino alongside radical interpretations of early music. Sciarrino’s often fleeting, fragmentary, inherently exploratory music that pushes instrumentalists to their limits is matched with early music imagined through extended techniques and maverick performance practice.

Decontamination #13
Lecture About Sad Music And Happy Dance

The third of Matthew Shlomowitz’s provocative lecture pieces, Lecture About Sad Music and Happy Dance, is a collaboration between himself, dancer-choreographer Shila Anaraki and violinist Aisha Orazbayeva. He asks: ‘How can abstract music and dance elicit emotional responses from audiences? What can evolutionary biology tell us about emotional reactions to art? Do the sonic qualities of sad music relate to the physical qualities of sad dance? How does the happy dance of France compare with the happy dance of Indonesia? What emotion does sadness plus surprise combine to make? Why do we want to see art that makes us feel sad, and why does sad art sometimes make us happy?’