Saturday 9 February 2019, 7.30pm
XENIA PESTOVA
Collection de petites pièces - 36 Enfilades pour piano et magnétophone
Collection of small pieces or 36 strings for piano and tape recorder (1984-85) —45 minutes. Premiered: Montpellier Festival International de Radio France, Jardin de la DRAC, 27 juil. 1985.
“No sooner have they started and are already over. Sometimes, they don’t even start, they have no beginning. So, is this a suite? Maybe it’s theatre. Is it that old dream — to never finish, or to always start over again? In the end, all those small pieces form a whole one...” – Luc Ferrari
Association PRESQUE RIEN [La Museen Circuit MEC 01 (vinyle), CD La Muse en Circuit – Musidisc 242232 ED13171 – 2004]
Described as “a powerhouse of contemporary keyboard repertoire” (Tempo), pianist and composer Xenia Pestova Bennett has earned an international reputation as a leading proponent of uncompromising music. Her work spans a wide range of sound worlds, styles and genres from classical to contemporary art music, free improvisation, experimental electronica and avant-pop.
Xenia has performed at large festivals, for live broadcast, in major concert halls, and countless weird and wonderful venues and spaces. She has commissioned and recorded dozens of new works, collaborating with major innovators in contemporary music and exploring classical music boundaries with electronics, toy pianos, synthesizers and the Magnetic Resonator Piano.
https://xeniapestovabennett.com
has been a central figure in the British and international spontaneous music scenes for over fifty years, freely improvising on piano, objects, electronics and other things with people like Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Han Bennink and John Zorn. Long-standing groups have included Alterations (with David Toop, Terry Day and Peter Cusack), The Melody Four (with Lol Coxhill and Tony Coe, both RIP) and London Improvisers Orchestra.
He has written songs, composed for large and small ensembles, and scored short films, feature films, TV shows and commercials. He was part of the editorial teams of ‘Musics’ and ‘Collusion’ magazines, writes about music in various contexts, and was a senior lecturer in music at the University of Westminster.
Steve has worked with Christian Marclay on various Marclay mixed media pieces. He has also worked with The Slits, Najma Akhtar, Stewart Lee, Ivor Cutler, Prince Far-I, Alan Hacker, Tania Chen, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Faradena Afifi, Blanca Regina, Ray Davies, Mandhira De Saram, The Flying Lizards, Zeena Parkins, The Portsmouth Sinfonia, Ilan Volkov, Rachel Musson, Vic Reeves, Lore Lixenberg, Valentina Magaletti and many others.
Beresford has an extensive discography - around 500 releases - as performer, arranger, free-improviser, composer, conductor and producer. He was awarded a Paul Hamlyn award for composers in 2012.
In 2021, Bloomsbury published a book by Andy Hamilton: ‘Pianos, Toys, Music and Noise: Conversations with Steve Beresford’.
In 2022, Siglio published the book ‘Call and Response’, which partnered photographs by Christian Marclay with notated improvisations by Beresford.
