Doors 7:30pm | Music 8:00pm

Improvised Music Company (IMC) and Moving on Music (MOM) present the premiere live performances of new works by the 2023 BAN BAM commissioned composers Meliana Gillard, Bianca Gannon and Carole Nelson. The concerts, taking place on Saturday 20th January at Smock Alley Theatre Dublin, and in Belfast at Crescent Arts Centre on Sunday 21st January, will feature a performance from each composer and their ensemble, presenting these exciting new compositions for the first time.

BAN BAM is a biennial commission and development opportunity for female and gender-minority artists from across Ireland from IMC and MOM.

Meilana Gillard “a gutsy, inventive player" (The irish Times) will present a suite of music called ‘Chasing Comets’ which will be performed by RBG Trio (Dave Redmond-electric/double basses, Kevin Brady-drums, Gillard on tenor/soprano saxophones). The 4 movement suite, themed sound the cosmos and outerspace, is comprised of ‘I. Solar Flare’, ‘II. Supernova’, ‘III. Dark Matter’ and ‘IV. Moontide’ and is also a nod to Gillard’s love of video game music of the 1980’s. Using different effects like harmoniser and space echo, as well as a loop station, RBG Trio improvise within these movements, sometimes through-composed, other times free, presenting a variety of grooves from triumphant to mysterious with textures flowing from the very open, to thick and dense. Audiences can look forward to a feeling of fun, play and possibility throughout this short set.

The new work from Bianca Gannon “a new music luminary” (ClassikON) called 'We're all just walking each other home,' embarks on a multi-dimensional journey through themes of home and displacement. These musical postcards from her various global 'homes from home' ultimately lead to a journey within, finding 'home' as an inner state of being. In the spirit of creative improvisation, the piece adopts an equanimous, 'whatever happens, happens' approach. And yet, if we are, inadvertently, taking on roles in each other’s parallel homeward journeys, how might we proceed (and improvise) with more listening, intention, care and joy? Gannon, who performs simultaneous piano and percussion, will be joined by an ensemble of Nick Roth on saxophone, Neil O’Loclainn on double bass and Matthew Jacobson on drums.

Carole Nelson “a rare and quite likely undervalued talent” (The Irish Times) presents the premiere of new work entitled ‘The Last Song’ based on the story of the Hawiian Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird which became extinct in the 1980s. A recording was made of the mating call of what was possibly the last of its species. Performing with her two integral collaborators Cormac O’Brien on double bass and Dominic Mullan on drums, the suite will be performed in 3 parts, with a balance between composed and improvised pieces, exploring through sound the moving story of this extinction as one amongst the thousands now happening every day.

A play on ‘bean’ (bahn) the Irish word for ‘women’, BAN BAM is an initiative from IMC which began in 2017 to support and develop the work of women and gender minority artists in jazz and improvised music. The BAN BAM commissioning award, in partnership with Belfast based Moving on Music was launched in 2020.

The next open call for the BAN BAM award will be in January 2025.