Liam Byrne viola de gamba
Clare O’Connell cello
Tom Rogerson composer & keyboards

Main image: Liam Byrne, Tom Rogerson, Clare O'Connell

Three experts in their craft take inspiration from the gap between text and practice in early music to explore contemporary improvisation, using instrumentation and synthesis to transcend the centuries.

This unique performance, born out of a residency at Britten Pears Arts, brings together three artists united by a shared interest in the permeation of historically informed traditions into more modern practices.

Liam Byrne spends most of his time playing either very old or very new music on the viola da gamba. An obsession with the instrument’s most obscure 16th- and 17th-century repertoire is a recurring theme in his work, whether in devising Baroque performance installations for the Victoria & Albert Museum, or in collaboration with the Appalachian fiddler Cleek Schrey, or creating new electronic works with Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurðsson.

Cellist Clare O’Connell’s practice has developed into a mixture of performing, writing, arranging and curating projects in which she collaborates with musicians and artists who inspire her. Her arrangements explore the parallels between composers ancient and modern, allowing the music to speak on its own terms unconfined by historical context, and give the listener another lens through which to experience a piece of music.

Tom Rogerson (piano/keys) is an improviser and composer whose music explores the interface of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, composition and improvisation, and of old and new forms and styles.

Snape Residencies are supported by PRS Foundation's The Open Fund.