Machair Duo have presented their work at Hidden Door in Edinburgh (2022), Sound Scotland's soundfestival in Aberdeen (2021), and The Old Hairdresser's in Glasgow. They are experienced improvisors as well as players of contemporary classical works, with an emphasis on commissioning and developing works by emerging and UK-based composers. Their programmes have included works for duo, duo plus electronics, solo works, and structured improvisations; these have included work by Kevin Leomo, Georgina MacDonell Finlayson, Sonia Allori, Aileen Sweeney, Ben Lunn, Yaz Lancaster, and Oscar Ridout. The 2022/23 season will see Stephanie and James work together on TEXTS, which has commissioned 6 writers to create new texts for the duo, featuring US and Berlin-based guests Nick Dunston, Anna Webber, Liz Kosack and Michaël Attias, release their first album as a duo, and continue to premiere new works by composers worldwide at festivals and concerts in the UK and Europe.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Colombian-American soprano Stephanie Lamprea is an architect of new sounds and expressions as a performer, recitalist, curator, and improviser, specializing in contemporary classical repertoire. Trained as an operatic coloratura, she uses her voice as a mechanism of avant-garde performance art, creating “maniacal shifts of vocal production and character… like an icepick through the skull” – Jason Eckardt
www.stephanielamprea.com “…Banner’s bass alone sounds immensely colorful when played solo and lets tones and their sequences emerge in seemingly infinite numbers of smaller tone fragments. Everything sounds sonorous, warm and with so many unbelievably fine, tonal gradations. Banner shows again and again… what enormous variety of sound and richness of color he can express with his instrument…” – Claus Volke www.jamesbanner.com |