We’re delighted to announce that our new Musicians in Residence for 2024-5 are Isaac Shieh and Calum Perrin.
Isaac and Calum have been recruited from within the current cohort of Paraorchestra musicians and composers. Throughout the next twelve months they will undertake a paid residency that includes mentorship, resource, and space to develop their artistic practices and ideas in a supportive environment designed to facilitate collaboration and exploration.
Calum and Isaac are perfectly poised to be our new Musicians in Residence. Both are already very advanced in their outside-the-box thinking, and their suitability for the scheme could not be clearer. We are delighted, and wait with bated breath to see what the year will bring.
– Charles Hazlewood, Artistic Director of Paraorchestra
Isaac Shieh
Isaac Shieh is a musician and researcher specialising in the natural horn. His work takes him around the globe; exploring repertoire and instruments from the early 18th Century through to the present day.
In addition to being a member of Paraorchestra since 2021, Isaac is Co-Principal Horn of Oxford Bach Soloists, and a member Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, Isaac works regularly with Britten Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Chineke! Orchestra amongst others.
Isaac is currently pursuing a PhD at Royal Academy of Music in which he aims to extend the hand horn playing tradition by commissioning twelve new works by twelve composers that reflect the capabilities and aesthetics of our time.
In my residency, I want to fully explore my musical voice as a collaborator, and how my physical and gestural approaches to music can reflect through composing for dance and movement. I am particularly interested in exploring the impact disability has on people, and how their lived experiences of disability can be reflected through the synergy of music and dance.
– Isaac Shieh
Calum Perrin
Calum Perrin is an artist, composer, and performance maker drawing on music, performance, installation and documentary-making traditions to create projects which explore the intersections between subject and sound; fact and fiction; concrete and abstract.
Calum’s recent work includes Anatomies – a composition commissioned by Paraorchestra as a creative response to our project The Anatomy of the Orchestra, as well as sound design for Chromophonia, Unread, and Northumberland’s Electric Coast on BBC Radio 3, and Bells That Still Can Ring and Radio Waves on BBC Radio 4 and numerous stage works including Risk Lab (Theater Rampe Stuttgart, Deutsches Theater Berlin) It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure (Soho Theatre, Underbelly), Dugsi Dayz (Royal Court Theatre) and Ten Days in a Madhouse (Jack Studio Theatre).
I’m interested in exploring the intersection between music and contemporary art, focusing on the ways that musical processes, compositional strategies and temporality can be applied to the visual arts, as well as researching the visual art and interdisciplinary practices of modern and contemporary composers.
– Calum Perrin
“Our Musician in Residence scheme is a real highlight of Modulate, our artist development programme for D/deaf, disabled, or neurodiverse Paraorchestra musicians and composers. This funded residency is a unique opportunity for our musicians and composers to delve deep into their practice guided by our supportive artistic and producing teams.
We’ve seen first-hand the impact having this level of investment has had on our previous residents, yet we know this level of professional development for disabled musicians across the sector is still few and far between so we’re delighted to be running it again and working with Calum and Isaac over the coming year.
– Hannah Williams Walton, Programme Director
All of Paraorchestra’s work is made possible by the support of our core funders: Arts Council England, Bristol City Council, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The Mark Leonard Trust, The Linbury Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation, the John Ellerman Foundation, and Bristol City Council.
