With the programme now in its third consecutive year, we are excited to introduce our two 2023-24 Paraorchestra Musicians in Residence, Liza Bec and Asteryth Sloane (formally known as Xia-Leon Sloane)
Both Asteryth and Liza have been recruited from within the Paraorchestra cohort and will begin a 12 month paid residency with us this month.
“This is such a rare and precious opportunity. I intend to treasure it and make the most of every single moment”
Reflecting Paraorchestra’s own mission to innovate within orchestral music; our Musicians in Residence are encouraged to think creatively on what live music can be for a 21st Century musician and / or orchestra. Over the next year Liza and Asteryth will be supported via resource, mentorship, and collaborations in this unique opportunity to explore and develop their creative practice.
Liza, who joined Paraorchestra via our Musician Callout in April 2021, is an innovative contemporary composer, producer, and multimedia narrative author blurring the boundaries between science and music. They were awarded the cross disciplinary Fusion Fund by Help Musicians UK to create a narrative audiovisual work and have built their own instrument, the roborecorder, which is on display in the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.
“During this residency I aim to complete my first album and novel, integrating custom technologies inspired by the story to put the listener at the very heart of the experience. I’m currently a mentee on the ECSA/AEC composer development scheme and it’s my aim to then tour the resulting theatrical performance across the avant garde festivals of Europe. I’m so grateful and honoured to be given the gift of creative time, space and unparalleled support from the most amazing team I’ve ever worked with. This is such a rare and precious opportunity. I intend to treasure it and make the most of every single moment.”
– Liza Bec
Asteryth is a composer and aspiring therapist and also joined us via our 2021 Musician Callout. Graduating from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2022 with a Masters in Composition and Musicology, Asteryth’s music emerges from themes of nature and identity, responding to the beauty and fragility of the living Earth and embodying aspects of queer and autistic experience. Xia hopes to undertake training as a therapist, supporting healing through trauma-informed verbal, embodied, and creative approaches.
“It’s a huge honour to be joining Paraorchestra’s Musicians in Residence programme this year. I will use the generous support offered in the scheme to relight my creative practice after a period of silence. I hope to find new ways of exploring and embodying ecological beauty and crisis by incorporating field recordings into music; to write collaboratively for trans voices at a time when they are often silenced; and to explore, as part of my path towards therapeutic work and my own healing, ways in which music might embody trauma and be part of a healing process, acting as a safe vessel before these wounds can be reached by words.”
– Asteryth Sloane
“I’m so excited about Lizzie and Asteryth. The Musicians in Residence scheme was absolutely created for humans like this; two astonishing and massively exciting musical brains. And I can’t wait to see what it yields.”
– Charles Hazlewood, Artistic Director
To date the Musicians in Residence Programme has supported five Paraorchestra musicians on their artistic journey: Tilly Chester, Patrick Phillip, Jonny Leitch, Rylan Gleave, and Hattie McCall Davies. Each artist has taken their own unique path, from combining viola composition with aerial performance, to smallpiping in contemporary contexts.
“We’re really proud of our Musicians in Residence scheme; an entirely unique opportunity to explore and take risks in a supportive and safe environment. It’s a real joy to observe each residents’ ideas – and often confidence too – evolve and come to fruition over the year. Opportunities for professional development for disabled musicians in the sector are extremely limited. And for musicians balancing a varied freelance portfolio career with the reality of having to earn a living; taking time out to work on their artistic practice is rarely a reality.”
– Hannah Williams Walton, Programme Director
This scheme is just the start of a much broader programme of skills-based training, mentorship, and partnership opportunities, available to our musicians who identify as disabled, that launches later this year.
Continued support from our funders ensures the Musicians in Residence programme’s ongoing success and that of our wider artist development programme and artistic projects.
With thanks to Arts Council England, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The Mark Leonard Trust, The Linbury Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation, and The Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation.
