Kalun Leung is a Canadian trombonist and sound artist who has taken part in the Britten Pears Arts Young Artist Programme. Here he talks about his experience during the Composition, Alternative Performance and Performance Art course.

“I'm fortunate to have attended two consecutive schemes as part of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme: the Composition and Performance course, where I participated as a trombonist, and CAPPA (Composition Alternative Performance and Performance Art), where I was part of a cohort of sound and music makers. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Toronto, I currently reside in Montreal, working in improvised and new music contexts. I also lived in New York City, where I completed my most recent degree and subsequently joined the university staff to help launch a new graduate program for Performer-Composers.

From my experience attending programs in North America and Europe, I have found that “schemes” are unique to the UK. These schemes, as I've observed, reflect a culture of nurturing young artists to prepare them for professional careers. I'm fortunate to have been accepted into the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme (BPYAP), considering both my age and location, which often disqualify me from European programs with age cut-offs and local residency requirements.”

“BPYAP is exceptional in many ways, with no age or location criteria for applicants, but also in their programming, specifically the CAPPA program which I last attended. I wanted to share my enthusiasm for Britten Pears, as it has been a throughline in the last two years of my life, and it has had a significant influence on my career and artistic development. It led to the creation of several new works for the 2024 Aldeburgh Festival, and I’ll share the story of how Sam Longbottom and I created the concert installation “36 Tunes for 100 Years”.

A fellow artist in the cohort, Kirsten, bought a book about local lore at the bookstore across from Elizabeth Court in Aldeburgh. Interested in the Suffolk region and looking for inspiration for our Aldeburgh Festival debuts, we skimmed the book and found a short paragraph about a local parish that had the last barrel organ in public use in the UK. To our delight, the church was an hour away from Aldeburgh near the small village of Shelland.

On one of our previous trips, Sam and I bonded over our love of organs and wind-powered instruments – both of us coincidentally brought duffle bags filled with tubing, balloons, and valves, with no knowledge that we would bring the same materials for experimentation. He even brought a rank of organ pipes rescued from an old church; I brought a bunch of slide whistles and old brass bells. It became immediately obvious that we needed to create a work inspired by this barrel organ.

Between our sessions together at Snape, we planned our installation remotely and managed to book a visit with the third-generation organ grinder who agreed to give us a private tour. The organ was built in 1810 and has three original “scrolls”, each with 12 tunes, a total of 36 tunes. Similar to a music box, when the barrel is rotated, indents activate the valve for their respective notes. Each note (or notes) played in turn at speed reveals the melody (and harmonies), which ebb and flow depending on the consistency at which the grinder rotates the lever. The lever also operates the air bellow, so considerable strength is needed to maintain a decent-sounding song.

Despite being a mechanical machine with intentions of perfection, it had many interesting sonic peculiarities. Some notes lingered longer than expected, chords were out of tune, and there were some mystery ghost notes that seemed totally out of place. We loved these peculiarities; if John Cage taught us anything, it’s to embrace the unexpected. Given its construction in 1810, it’s no surprise that some of the scroll’s staples might have bent or gone missing over time, naturally decaying and creating these curious peculiarities.

We wanted to capture the indeterminate nature of this beautiful barrel organ and came up with the idea of using the rescued organ pipes and balloons to create a deconstructed and spatialized rendition of one of the barrel organ tunes. We chose Old 100th, which coincidentally was also set to music by Benjamin Britten in Jubilate Deo (1961). It would be part of the opening day of the Aldeburgh Festival and take place on the Hepworth lawn adjacent to the boardwalk at Snape Maltings.

With the program staff’s blessing and support, Sam and I began constructing the apparatus required to connect close to 100 individual organ pipes to balloons and arranged a version of the tune using three ranks of organ pipes that we had since acquired. The weather was perfect, albeit a bit windy, and with the help of staff members Matt and Betsa and most of the CAPPA cohort, we successfully mounted the installation and set the pipes in motion under a picturesque sunset.”

“As each organ pipe was activated, and as each organ pipe began to die because the balloon had deflated, the pitches changed in unexpected ways, just as the barrel organ had over centuries of natural decay. The deconstructed melody, which started as a full sustained chord, slowly became melodic as each individual pipe dropped out one by one. Kids and adults alike walked around and created their own sonic experience, balancing the different pitches as they desired, much like the organ grinder who had some agency in the speed at which the tune would play.

I can’t think of anywhere else where this could have been dreamt up and nurtured in the way that it was, and it’s a testament to how the program was designed – spread over four sessions in a year, intentionally open scheduling that allowed for workshops and lectures to evolve based on the participants needs, a diversity of practices represented among the faculty and cohort from improvisation to performance art, a culture of collective devising where emergent work can flourish, and a dedicated staff and organizational openness that makes us believe that anything is possible. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to be part of such a vibrant and supportive artistic environment – thank you Larry, Angharad, Seaming To, The House of Bedlam, Matt, Betsa, and all the staff that made this program possible!”

Find out more about Kalun Leung or explore our Britten Pears Young Artist Programme.