Site Specific Audio-Visual Work - The River's Stomach (Songs of Empire)
theCOLAB presents KATE McMILLAN -
The River’s Stomach (Songs of Empire) a new site-specific audio-visual intervention with sound composed by Cat Hope at the Strand Lane ‘Roman Baths’. Weaving together the mediums of sound, video, objects and performance, McMillan combines true, false, real and imaginary stories that coalesce in this strange place, transforming them into a haunting exploration of the residues of colonial violence and the systemic forgetting of women’s stories.
Open the public for free over a five week period from 22 May - 02 July 2025.
Features voices of sopranos Sarah Dacey and Vera Brozzini.
Commissioned by @thecolab.art for Taking Place: Women Artists in Public Spaces conference and research project. This commission also forms part of the programme at The Artist’s Garden.
https://linktr.ee/thecolab.art
Berio and Dallapiccola with Riot Ensemble
Setting poems by James Joyce, Berio’s Chamber Music was composed on reaction to chamber works of Dallapiccola and comprise of three movements:
I. Strings in the Earth and Air, II. Montone, III. Wind of May
Dallapiccola’s Due Liriche di Anacreonte is a beautiful setting of two poems by the Greek lyric poet Anacreon.
This performance is part of Riot Ensemble’s residency at the Royal Academy of Music.
Venue: Angela Burgess Recital Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London
Free tickets can be booked here: https://www.ram.ac.uk/book/instance/70603
Night Songs
An evening of classical song exploring women’s relationship to the night including 5 new commissions, in aid of the charity, Refuge.
Tickets available from Eventbrite:
£15/£7, under 18’s free
Darkness offers us sanctuary, secrecy and an opportunity to witness the magnificence of the solar system but it can also be incredibly dangerous. Our negative experiences of the night as women often leads to us being deprived of its beauty and magic. This concert is an offer of rebellion and positivity, an artistic reclaiming of the night.
Sarah Dacey (Soprano) and Belinda Jones (Piano) perform art songs by both living and historical composers, including 5 new commissions from Kerry Andrew, Lucy Mulgan, Laura Bowler, Yshani Perinpanayagam and Freya Waley-Cohen.
This project is supported by the Hinrichsen Foundation and the Vaughan Williams Foundation. This concert is also a fundraising event for the charity Refuge.
Melanie Wilson: Oracle Song, The Pit Theatre @ Barbican, London
A poetic and intricate listening experience that sees the award-winning artist collaborate with an AI machine to explore the complexity of human and animal relationships.
Award-winning artist Melanie Wilson collaborates with an AI machine learning tool to explore the conflicted terrain of human and animal relationships through sound.
This poetic, intricate listening experience weaves together language, multi-part vocal composition, field recording and electronic sound to map the fragmentary experience of the biodiversity crisis with kaleidoscopic force.
Created using endangered animal voices from the UK and beyond, the score was developed through a five-year research process into machine learning for composition, supported by PRiSM, The Centre for Practice and Research in Science and Music, at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Oracle Song seeks to take the audience from a place of climate anxiety and grief into a shared landscape of listening and connection.
https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2025/event/fuelfest-oracle-song-by-melanie-wilson
Melanie Wilson: Oracle Song, The Pit Theatre @ Barbican, London
A poetic and intricate listening experience that sees the award-winning artist collaborate with an AI machine to explore the complexity of human and animal relationships.
Award-winning artist Melanie Wilson collaborates with an AI machine learning tool to explore the conflicted terrain of human and animal relationships through sound.
This poetic, intricate listening experience weaves together language, multi-part vocal composition, field recording and electronic sound to map the fragmentary experience of the biodiversity crisis with kaleidoscopic force.
Created using endangered animal voices from the UK and beyond, the score was developed through a five-year research process into machine learning for composition, supported by PRiSM, The Centre for Practice and Research in Science and Music, at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Oracle Song seeks to take the audience from a place of climate anxiety and grief into a shared landscape of listening and connection.
https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2025/event/fuelfest-oracle-song-by-melanie-wilson
Melanie Wilson: Oracle Song, The Pit Theatre @ Barbican, London
A poetic and intricate listening experience that sees the award-winning artist collaborate with an AI machine to explore the complexity of human and animal relationships.
Award-winning artist Melanie Wilson collaborates with an AI machine learning tool to explore the conflicted terrain of human and animal relationships through sound.
This poetic, intricate listening experience weaves together language, multi-part vocal composition, field recording and electronic sound to map the fragmentary experience of the biodiversity crisis with kaleidoscopic force.
Created using endangered animal voices from the UK and beyond, the score was developed through a five-year research process into machine learning for composition, supported by PRiSM, The Centre for Practice and Research in Science and Music, at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Oracle Song seeks to take the audience from a place of climate anxiety and grief into a shared landscape of listening and connection.
https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2025/event/fuelfest-oracle-song-by-melanie-wilson
New Music Weekend, Durham University
Concert: Riot Ensemble – ‘Changing Light’
Sarah Dacey (soprano); Marie Schreer (violin);
Naomi Pinnock: Vestige; Marie Schreer: new work; Ashkan Behzadi: az hoosh mi…; Bent Sorensen - Six Songs; Salina Fisher - Hikari; Sarah Dacey - new work; Kaija Saariaho - Changing Light; Eric Egan - new work
From Ashkan Behzadi’s captivating homage to the ecstasy of love to the enchanting music of the late Kaija Saariaho, join Riot Ensemble’s Sarah Dacey and Marie Schreer as they meander through light and silhouette, sound and silence, sensation and memory. The duo will present music for voice and violin in a tribute to the power of contrast and dialogue as they share works from the repertoire as well as three new premieres by Eric Egan and the musicians themselves.
'Signal in Kolobrzeg'
A performance of Strijbos & Van Rijswijk’s landscape opera, ‘Signal’, on the Central Beach in Kolobrzeg as part of the “I SEA YOU’ Festival.
This opera is composed upon the instrument and sound art piece S.I.G.N.A.L., a spatial soundwork that the audience can roam around in, spanning large environments.
The beautiful work of Strijbos & Van Rijswijk can be read about via their website:
https://www.strijbosvanrijswijk.com/project/landscape-opera-signal/
Riot Ensemble Concert in Liverpool
An evening concert of contemporary repertoire in the beautiful Tung Auditorium.
The programme includes Philip Cashian’s ‘The Dark Horsemen and other Tales’ for voice and viola.
Wigmore Hall Recital
Sarah will be performing with Riot Ensemble at the Wigmore Hall. The programme includes a new commission from composer Jocelyn Campbell.
https://www.nmcrec.co.uk/composers/jocelyn-campbell
Strijbos & Van Rijswijk
an outdoor promenade performance in the grounds of University of Graz.
Time of performance tbc.
Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone
An installation arts and music programme featuring community musicians from Folkestone and the surrounding area.
This event is produced by Fat Lady Opera.
Manchester University
A workshop of pieces by postgraduate students of Manchester University with fellow members of Riot Ensemble, Violinist Marie Schreer and Clarinettist Ausias Garrigos.
Trinity Laban
A workshop of compositions written by students of Trinity Laban with Riot Ensemble.
Trinity Laban
A workshop of compositions written by students of Trinity Laban with Riot Ensemble.
Trinity Laban
A workshop of compositions written by students of Trinity Laban with Riot Ensemble.
Manchester University
A workshop of pieces by postgraduate students of Manchester University with fellow members of Riot Ensemble, Violinist Marie Schreer and Clarinettist Ausias Garrigos.