Sinfonia Smith Square
Smith Square Hall
Coming Soon
Sold out
Hear three of the brightest voices in contemporary classical join forces with one of the UK's most vibrant orchestras.
We’re premiering a set of boundary-pushing orchestral commissions by three of nonclassical’s Associate Composers: Kendra Chiagoro-Noel (NWAKKE), Harry Górski-Brown, and Nneka Cummins.
Nneka is a composer and music producer from Liverpool, based in London. Their practice has a current focus on groove-inspired music, exploring deconstruction and the expansion of sonic worlds through the use of extended techniques and electronic sampling. Nneka often uses flowing organic melodies and integrates freer evolving lines within the grooves they create.
Nneka is a Sound and Music New Voices Composer 2022 and was a Philharmonia Composer Academy fellow 2022/2023. Their work, 3 Planets premiered at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in May 2023.
Nneka was the winner of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s Rushworth Composition Prize 2021 and their piece, Metal Tapestry was performed by Ensemble 10/10, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s new music group in October 2022.
Nneka completed their Masters in Composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in June 2022 and was a recipient of the Gareth Neame Scholarship, the Trinity College London Scholarship and was awarded the Director’s Prize for Excellence in Composition in 2021.
Prior to Trinity, Nneka was a self-taught composer, holding a first-class undergraduate degree in Law from Durham University and is a qualified solicitor.
Glasgow-based multi-instrumentalist Harry Górski-Brown studied violin performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland during which gravitated towards experimental composition. He often includes elements of electroacoustic and traditional music in his work. Recent ventures include; I.Been a badboy:- cut me loose_ – a short audiovisual film made after winning the Craig Armstrong Prize for RCS composer graduates and FISHER PRICE PIPES – a mix of two old Gàidhlig songs set for voice, small pipes and electronics.
Current activities include Elephant, you shake your sheep! – a commission with French artist Annabelle Playe for Cryptic, Glasgow featuring bagpipes and electronics, and a tape for Glasgow-based label GLARC featuring small pipes and some old Gàidhlig songs. FRIENDLY BOOTS sometimes makes an appearance and has previously taken part in the nonclassical Battle of the Bands.
HGB produces music in two duos; Josiah & Ludwig – a fiddle and guitar folk duo rooted in the contemporary, and noise.pocket – a blender mix of electronic and visual stimulation with wordsmith Paddy Hog. He plays fiddle for Shetland saxophonist Norman Willmore and likes growing vegetables.
NWAKKE is a London-based artist, DJ, and musician working with dance, writing and video. This performance identity is a means for discovery and world-building; researching experience, history, forms of knowledge and nature. Thinking about care – Thinking about relationship – Thinking about freedom and safety.
A recent graduate from the Central St Martins, Performance: Design and Practice BA, NWAKKE’s work incorporates elements of experimental theatre as an integrated process in their sound compositions.
Through multi-genre songwriting and production, soundscape creation and improvisation, NWAKKE seeks to craft deep listening experiences that speak to emotional honesty, bodily sensation and storytelling.
Informed by their African Caribbean heritage and inquiries into health and psycho-somatic wellness, their work focuses on making sense of and expressing the pre-verbal, incorporating dance and music spiritualities, to hold the complexity and interconnectedness of space, time, land & body.