Meet the artists involved in our upcoming event in Manchester curated by Associate Composer Atefeh Einali, bringing together a line-up of artists with traditional instruments and diverse musical languages.
More info + tickets // Tue 22 Nov >>>
Atefeh Einali
Nonclassical Associate Composer Atefeh Einali is a composer and writer based in Manchester, UK. As a PhD student in music composition at the University of Manchester, she is also a graduate of the Art University in Tehran and her research interests include the musical possibilities of combining traditional Persian musical practices with Western contemporary musical practices. She is an active Santoor player (an instrument similar to a dulcimer, where sound is made by hitting strings with hammers) and has performed in the UK, Netherlands and Iran.
Atefeh’s work has been performed and published across the UK and overseas, including Jae-Won in Zutphen, the Netherlands in Bach festival, Alternance Ensemble in France, Trio Atem ensemble, Danel quartet and others at the University of Manchester.
In addition to curating the night, Atefeh will perform on Santoor as part of a new collaborative work Indefinite Dreams: I am alive! which she has created with writer Darryl Peers and visual artist Nikta Mohammadi.
Darryl Peers
Darryl Peers is a writer from Aberdeenshire. He is an AHRC-funded Creative Writing PhD candidate at Manchester Writing School, where he is writing his first novel. He is the co-editor of a special issue of Scottish Literary Review on queer form forthcoming in 2024 and a columnist for The Press & Journal. His fiction has appeared in American Literary Review, The Suburban Review, and other publications.
Darryl will recite a short story inspired by his collaboration with Nikta and Atefeh as part of their collaborative performance piece.
Nikta Mohammadi
Nikta Mohammadi is an Iranian artist and producer based in West Yorkshire, working across moving image, performance, sound and text. Her practice is rooted in her dreams and the splendour in mundanity of the day-to-day life. It examines the relationship between personal and political, outside and inside, private and public, documentary and fiction. Mohammadi works with themes of intimacy, loss and displacement with a playful approach to how language is constructed and used in her work. Previously she has worked with The Tetley, Institute of Contemporary Arts and Tate among others.
Nikta has been working alongside Atefeh and Darryl to create Indefinite Dreams: I am alive! – a work investigating our relationships with the place where we sleep.
Rachel Beckles Willson
Rachel Beckles Willson is a multi-instumentalist, composer and writer using her work to explore the hidden stories around us and among us. For this event Rachel will be playing the oud – an instrument similar to a lute originating from the Middle East. Her oud playing has led her into collaborations in world music performance, to research the global journeys of ouds, and to found an online platform for world music education.
Rachel’s improvised set will include a performance of The Voice, a work by Atefeh for solo violin, arranged for oud especially for this event.
Shunya
Alan Keary (aka Shunya) is a multi-instrumentalist and producer with a strong musical heritage, writing and producing music from the age of fourteen. His sound is a contortion of influences, stemming from his background in classical violin and jazz bass, and growing with the sounds of Manchester's electronic music scene.
Shunya will perform an original set to close the night.
Tony Watt
Tony Watt is a musician, composer and musical director specialising in Brazilian rhythm and percussion. Since 1995, he has been the director of Manchester School of Samba (MSS), the first samba school in the North West of England, which combines Brazilian rhythm and melody with puppetry, costume and dance, in the tradition of Brazilian Carnival.
Tony will perform on Brazilian percussion using his unique language of improvisation.
Atefeh Einali curates: Indefinite Dreams
8pm, Tue 22 Nov
SOUP Manchester
We had a wonderful time in Manchester for Associate Composer Atefeh Einali’s curated event.