Shelly Knotts and Annie Mahtani: Women Make Music
Shelly Knotts is a Birmingham based composer of instrumental and fixed and live electronic music. She is currently studying with Scott Wilson and Vic Hoyland at the University of Birmingham where she is focussing on composing for instrumental ensembles with live electronics, and electroninc music with elements of performance.
Her music has been performed by BEAST in Birmingham and Leicester and at Inventionen Festival 2010 in Berlin. She has performed with BiLE(Birmingham Laptop Ensemble) across the UK and at NIME2011 in Oslo. Her instrumental compositions have been performed by University of Birmingham New Music Ensemble, University of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Carla Rees (Rarescale). She has twice taken part in composition workshops with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and in 2008 her composition Chordophonia was published on a CD accompanying the Leonardo Music Journal.
Shelly’s recent activities include a collaboration with performance poet Kurly McGeachie, contirbuting to SOUNDkitchen’s collaborative STONEsoup project and composing for and performing with BiLE (Birmingham Laptop Ensemble). Shelly also performed as part of a live laptop duo with kurdish musicians Fouad Ibrahim and Zirak Hamad at SOUNDkitchen’s Balkan Fusion Night of 17th March 2011.
http://shellyknotts.wordpress.com/about/
Annie Mahtani is a Birmingham based composer and sound artist. Her music is created from realworld sounds which are then transformed, manipulated and restructured, exploring the juxtaposition of real, abstract and surreal sound worlds. Annie studied composition at the University of Birmingham completing a PhD with Jonty Harrison in 2008. She has been a visiting lecturer in composition there for a number of years.
Annie has collaborated with dance, theatre and on site-specific installations. Recent projects include Lago de Mamori, a 16-channel sound installation using material recorded whilst participating in Mamori Sound Project in the middle of the Brazillian Amazon; Birmingham Sound Matter, a collaborative composition project with Birmingham-based sound artists and composers directed by Francisco Lopez and commissioned by Modulate; Commissions from Rosie Kay Dance Company as composer for Asylum (2004), Supernova (2008), and 5 Soldiers (2010).
Annie’s work has been performed extensively in concerts and festivals in the UK, Canada, USA and across Europe, receiving an honorable mention at the 35th International Competition of Electroacoustic music and Sonic Art – Bourges 2008.