Chamber Fest at the RIAM: Garth Knox 3-Day Residency

Image credit: D.Vass

Friday 2 May

E5: Garth Knox String Quartet Composition Workshop 
Venue & Time: Vernon Studio, RIAM at 12:00pm 

Acclaimed violist/composer Garth Knox demonstrates and discusses his quartet Satellites commissioned in 2015 by the Kronos Quartet as part of Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. The workshop features RIAM’s undergraduate Sonic Quartet performing extracts from the last movement of Satellites which features extended bow techniques including the ‘whip’ and the ‘helicopter’, producing a huge range of other-worldly sounds. The workshop also features Garth working with 5 RIAM student composers – Jacob Abela, Sofia Ferria, Rohan Harron, Mark Shilov and Juliette Hannon – on works for string quartet and strings. 

E6: Extended String Techniques Workshop with Garth Knox and William Butt 
Venue & Time: Vernon Studio, RIAM at 3:15pm 

Garth Knox leads a workshop exploring extended contemporary string techniques for viola and cello, with RIAM cello professor William Butt demonstrating extracts from Garth Knox The Little Galway Bay Suite. In this interactive workshop, violists and cellists can try out newly invented techniques that expand the capabilities of what string instruments can produce.

Saturday 3 May

​E7: Garth Knox Masterclass
Venue & Time: Whyte Recital Hall, RIAM at 10.00am

Violists and chamber musicians work with Garth Knox in a masterclass, including on Knox's own work Viola Spaces No. 8 Up, Down, Sideways, Round.

Sunday 4 May

CF16: Garth Knox in Focus 
Whyte Recital Hall, RIAM at 2:00pm

PROGRAMME

Garth Knox: Dimensions from Satellites for string quartet 
Sonic Quartet: Maxim Novojilov violin, Julia Antolec violin, Shane Quinn viola, Doireann Ní Aodáin cello 

Garth Knox: Jonah & the Whale for viola and tuba 
Garth Knox viola, Adam Buttimer tuba 

Garth Knox: Still Points for two violas 
Garth Knox viola, Ruth Gibson viola 

John Cage arr. Karen Phillips: Dream for viola ensemble
Garth Knox with violists from the BMus, MMus and Young Artist Programme

Garth Knox: Primrose Polka for viola ensemble 
Garth Knox: Marin Marais Variations for viola ensemble 
Violas: Garth Knox, Robin Panter, Katie Ní Mhaoláin, Shane Quinn, Jeanette Bogado, Elena Ryan, Karl Murtagh, Erin Thornton

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Garth Knox is at the forefront of the new music scene in many fields. Drawing on his vast experience as viola player of the Arditti Quartet and the Ensemble Intercontemporain and his close collaboration with most of the leading composers of today, he has become a unique performer of music of many different styles, ranging from minimalist understatement to the cutting edge of new techniques and new technologies. More recently thanks to his interest in the viola d’amore and the medieval fiddle, his repertoire has opened up to the music of the past (medieval, baroque) which he persuasively brings into the present, and his irish/scottish roots enable him to dialogue with traditional Celtic music without complexes. 

Watch Garth Knox demonstrate and discuss his quartet Satellites for a special workshop presented by the Weill Music Institute of Carnegie Hall.

Watch Garth Knox playing his Viola Space 'No Pitch No Problem' which uses the viola as a percussion instrument (the work will be featured in E6: Extended String Techniques Workshop)

Tickets

Events are free for all and the concert is free for students and €5 for general admission. 

Visit the RIAM website to book.