Nemat Battah is a Palestinian Jordanian singer, oud player, composer and educator. She is now based in Helsinki, Finland where she is a part time lecturer, Vice-head of the Global music department in Sibelius Academy, and partly a freelance musician collaborating with several artists in Finland and Abroad. At the moment, Nemat is also developing her new solo project using Oud, voice and loop station.
Melik Turunen is a musician based in Helsinki. He is especially interested in intercultural musical collaboration, exploring new musical aesthetics and discussing artistic identities. Free improvisation is a very dear technique of music-making to him.
Noah Jordan studied Piano in the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada (1993-2005), composition and jazz piano in Capilano University in Vancouver (2008-2010). Simultaneously, he studied mathematics, physics, and linguistics at Simon Fraser University (2007-2013). Afterwards, he focused his studies on composition, mathematical music theory, tuning, and piano restoration (2018-2020). He toured and recorded in USA and Canada with the group Redrick Sultan (2010-2016) and toured as a soloist with improvisation of microtonal piano in Mexico and the USA where he gave workshops (2016-2020).
He has collaborated in interdisciplinary expositions in Israel, Iceland, France, and Italy, and in residences in Mexico and Iceland (2018-2019). Noah continues his studies in microtonality, creating new works for Just intonation piano with sound objects (in collaboration with Roxanne Nesbitt) and Just Intonation Requintos (constructed in December 2020, and another in early 2021), which are currently being released as instrumental tracks and in collaboration with the poetry of Tania Marquez Aragon for the project Borders / Fronteras.
He released the book Detrás del Horizonte in late 2021 (bilingual in Spanish and English) in collaboration with Tania Marquez Aragon and Patricio Hidalgo about the evolution of the fandango and the life of maestro Patricio Hidalgo Belli. He has recently returned from being artist in residence in West Africa studying microtonality and oral traditions, and working on photo-video-poem-music works with his project Borders / Fronteras including tracks with a 23-limit jarana, and has recently released a new album (Sept 2023) featuring pieces and improvisations with a 13-limit microtonal requinto “I Was Once a River”
Stephen Webb is a composer and interdisciplinary art maker based in Finland. His work explores surreal abstraction, placing materials outside of their assumed past, present, and future. He is interested in creating sardonic and melancholic worlds that leave audiences in distorted yet vaguely familiar spaces.
Dylan Rodgers is a recent graduate from the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Ethnomusicology program. Throughout his studies of various global musical traditions, Dylan has remained an avid composer and sonic experimentalist. As a multi-instrumentalist, Dylan performs regularly on the guitar, oud, saz, drums and synthesizers. Situating himself at the crossroads of the traditional and the avant-garde, Dylan’s work draws upon aspects of rock, folk, classical and electronic music. Since 2020, his research and experimentation have primarily been centered around the consolidation of microtonality and guitar performance. In 2022, Dylan was awarded funding by the American Musical Instrument Society for the creation of four different experimental microtonal guitars; his article ‘The Microtonal Guitar: Liberating the Guitar From the Confines of 12-Tone Equal Temperament’ details the various aspects of this project. Presently, Dylan is in the process of composing a series of electroacoustic studies centered around the intersection of harmonic polyrhythm and extended just intonation.
Rebecca Minten (she/her) is a multifaceted bass and contrabass clarinet player based in Switzerland. Her practice tries to focus on new and electronic music, transdisciplinary creations, and free improvisation but curiosity leads her to many more artistic activities.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts as well as a Master in Music Performance from the Bern University of the Arts where she’s been studying until 2023 in the class of Ernesto Molinari.
Currently, she works on electro-acoustic compositions with sound artist Luz Gonzalez, explores the potential of alternative performance formats with her collective IPSO and performs with various new music or improvisation ensembles in Switzerland and abroad. Rebecca also co-founded the balkan/klezmer band Tzupati Orchestra that has been active since 2018.
Jacob Elkin is an NYC-based musician, composer and educator. His music emphasizes a contemporary approach through microtonality and electronic spatialization.
Mr. Elkin has performed on some of the most prestigious stages of the world including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center and The Kimmel Center. He has presented lecture performances at Mozarteum University Salzburg, the University of London and The Contemporary Art Center Seoul, South Korea. He has premiered new works for trombone in chamber settings with New York Composers Circle, Mimesis Ensemble, Contemporaneous, Ensemble Mise-en and The New York Trombone Consort with David Taylor. He has premiered solo works for trombone by Hubert Howe, Dary John Mizelle, Monroe Golden, Joseph Pehrson, Jin-Hee Han, Josh Oxford and many others. Mr. Elkin has been written about in many publications including Broadway World, OperaWire, New Music USA, I Care if You Listen, Classical Music Daily and Avant Music News. His music is available on WAW and Ablaze records and has been played on WKCR New York Radio.
Jacob Elkin regularly performs on tenor trombone, bass trombone, euphonium and tuba. He is on faculty as brass instructor at The United Nations International School.
Dr. Ryo Sugiyama, violin, composition. Ryo Sugiyama, born in Nagano, Japan, studied music at Aichi University of the Arts (Aichi, Japan) and completed the doctoral degree (Doctor of Music) in field of violin performance, microtonal research, and composition. In recent years, he has composed and performed his original works, especially for violin with other instruments and sounds.
Tianjun Li (b. 1999, China), also known as Timjune, is a Helsinki-based interdisciplinary artist focusing on Photography, Sound and Performance.
Timjune’s works focus on the interplay between diverse photographic subjects, sonic elements, and his vocal practice, reflecting on living reality and human-nature relationships, creating a new poetic dimension through the process of reconstructing various elements he documented. This approach allows him to reinterpret Anthropocene and contemporary phenomena from an ethereal perspective of surrealism.
Timjune’s works have garnered attention from international art presses and have been exhibited in prestigious museums and galleries across the globe. He is also among the youngest artists to have held a solo exhibition in South China. He was recently awarded the 1st Prize in New Talents of Belgrade Photo Month 2023, and his recent work will be exhibited at OPIA Launch Event Gallery, Presented by Ólafur Arnalds, at Silent Green Kulturquartier, Berlin in October, 2023.
In addition to his artistic practice, he collaborates with the music industry, creating album artwork and visuals for international musicians and labels like Warner Music Group. His unique dreamlike vision and creative approach have earned him recognition as a rising talent in the art world.