The Corner Quartet formed within the London Improviser’s Orchestra and performs together whenever they can all be found in the same city at the same time. They have performed once already at the Horse Improvised Music Club at Iklectik and look forward to many future performances! Tonight they are joined by guests Ulf Mengersen on bass and Sofia Vaisman on cello, plus theremin player Ng Chor Guan.
Emily Shapiro is a bass clarinet and clarinet player dedicated to exploring and creating new music. Originally from Canada, Emily pursued her studies across the country, at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver Academy of Music, Concordia University and the Domaine Forget academy. She has had many incredible teachers, most notably Lori Freedman in Montreal. Emily has a special love for the sound and scope of bass instruments and constantly pushes the limits of what she can do on bass clarinet.
Alongside performing contemporary music on bass clarinet, Emily is involved in many other musical endeavours. Composing and improvising are central to her career, and she has been an active performer of Balinese gamelan for 10 years and has also explored jazz and electroacoustics. She is always seeking out new artistic experiences to enrich and motivate her work.
She is a proud member of Duo Arasari, the London Improviser’s Orchestra, the Corner Quartet and Lila Cita and has performed all over London, including iklectik, Café Oto, Hundred Years Gallery, LSO St Luke’s, the Vaults festival, the Barbican and many more.
Outside of music, Emily loves gardening, running, drinking whisky and making friends with animals.
Ulf Mengersen is a Berlin based double bass player who is very active in the European experimental and improvised music scene. He enjoys to play with small, chamber music like ensembles but is also performing with the Berlin Improvisers Orchestra. If he is not improvising, he is playing contemporary and theatre music. Last release: discoveries on creative sources.
Maja von Kriegstein studied Music at the University of the Arts in Berlin, Philosophy at Humboldt University and classical piano at Manhattan School of Music. She first entered the field of improvisation at Manhattan School of Music and later at jazz-summercourses in Germany, various Free-Jamsessions in Berlin, as well as in the summerschool for physical theatre at École Jaques Lecoq in Paris. It was already during her studies that she took part in different experimental musictheatre projects.
Since 2008 Maja is a teacher for piano-improvisation at University of the Arts in Berlin, where in 2017 she also founded the Universities Improvisers Orchestra with students from all artistic fields (classical Music, Jazz, Architecture, Fine Art, Product Design, Acting, Dance etc).
As a freelance artist Maja also enjoys bringing different artistic worlds together. She plays all kinds of instruments in Improv-Ensembles in Berlin, but also invents larger formats between Improvised Music and Performance. Her main project at the moment is her Performance/Musical Theatre Ensemble MaNN AUS OBST.
Sofia Vaisman was born in Santiago de Chile 1993. She began her formation as a cellist at age 12, before becoming a student at the conservatory of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso and Universidad Católica de Chile, where she studied a Bachelor on Music Composition. On graduation, she took private lessons on Jazz Harmony with the composer Luis Leiva.
As a composer, she has had several premieres, and as performer, she has been part of several bands and orchestras playing all kinds of repertoire. Here in London, she has played with the London Improviser’s Orchestra and participated in improvisations workshops dictated by Caroline Kraable. She is also a published poet in the Spanish language specializing in queer poetry. She is currently studying an MA of Music Composition at King’s College of London.
Sue Lynch currently runs ‘The Horse Improvised Music Club’ with Adam Bohman, Hutch Demouilpied and Adrian Northover. Has performed with Adam Bohman, Eddie Prevost, Hutch Demouilpied, Richard Sanderson, Steve Noble, Crystabel Riley, Caroline Kraabel ,Sharon Gal, John Edwards and Dave Fowler. Recently performed as part of Tarek Atoui’s ‘Reverse Collection’ at The Tate Modern. She is performing with the Psychedelic Afro Beat Sudanese band ‘The Scorpios’. In 2016 she formed, ‘Paradise Yard’-an electro accoustic ensemble, performing at Iklectik, Cafe Oto and The ICA. In 2018,she performed at 3 Klange Tag Festival, Switzerland with Hildegard Kleeb, at Womad BBC Stage and Guess Who Festival-Urecht, with The Scorpios.
Neil Metcalfe (flute), has been active on London improvising scene since the 70s. He has played with, among many others: Evan Parker, Roscoe Mitchell, Paul Dunmall, Lol Coxhill and Tony Marsh and was a member of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, considered by many to be the flagship European Improvising Ensemble. His current output includes Cds with Paul Dunmall, Alison Blunt, Hanna Marshall and the Runcible Quintet
