Sounding Here: Many homes between

As a shake-up from the usual format, Sounding Here asks what happens if two projects are in dialogue and meet each other?

July’s edition brings together two performances which approach the topic of belonging, developed by two pioneering artists, Marie Schreer (DE/UK) and Dorota Matejová (SK/NL) in creative dialogue with 10 composers and 2 poets across almost as many countries of origin.

This intercultural programme features violin, traverso, voices, poetry, movement, improvisation and video – the performances speak to unique experiences of movement, adaptation, and a search for home. To activate this question we welcome actress-activist Nikki Manuputty (NL/IDN/ZW) to co-facilitate with Sounding Here curator, Christine Cornwell (US/UK/NL). As with all Sounding Here evenings, expect close encounters with performance and space for your reflections to be shared as we enter this meandering experience together.

“Until Between”
This programme and accompanying album recording, curated by violinist Marie Schreer, is based on notions of origin and belonging, geographically, emotionally and linguistically. It is centred around three new works by Marie Schreer, Aaron Holloway-Nahum, and Ashkan Behzadi, as well as a new poem by Taher Adel. The programme is an exploration which will connect to Dorota Matejová’s programme in this special edition of Sounding Here.

"The idea for this project arose from a desire to understand and articulate feelings of disconnection versus belonging and being transient versus being rooted. These contemplations are experienced by many who navigate various cultures, languages, and histories and I am forever fascinated by everyone’s individual stories and views. Is it possible to truly, fully belong in multiple places at once, or must we always choose one place to call ‘home’?"

Marie Schreer – composer, violin, voice
Aaron Holloway-Nahum – composer, electronics, video
Ashkan Behzadi – composer
Taher Adel – poetry

“DOMOVY: 2 HOMES”
I am the blossom
and I am the shadow
living in one body,
not balancing the sides
but rather letting them
grow together
intertwined
as I myself cherish
both light and darkness,
as one does not hold
a meaning without
the existence of the other.

The project was initially inspired by the poem DVA DOMOVY (TWO HOMES) by the author-performer Dorota Matejová, referring to the changed sense of home as a result of living in-between two countries, Slovakia and Netherlands. The project started as her search and contemplation on where and what her home is and how to express these questions and longing for answers.

After inviting 7 composers to collaborate, the project has developed into a multilayered collective expression and contemplation on home in its broadest sense; home as a place, a feeling, a sound, a song, imagination or symbol. These poetic, metaphorical and concrete layers of meaning were gradually transformed and materialised in a series of compositions making the current form of the performance, where the purely acoustic sonority of the traverso alternates, overlaps or blends with the performer´s own (singing and spoken) voice and the layers of pre-recorded audio material, intertwined and connected through physical movement and Dorota´s poetry. The programme is an exploration which will connect to Marie Schreer’s programme in this special edition of Sounding Here.

Dorota Matejová – traverso, piccolo, voice, poetry, movement
Composers – works for traverso, voice, audio tapes
Anne La Berge (NL/US)
Christine Cornwell (US/UK/NL)
Daniel Matej (SK)
Dorota Matejová (SK/NL)
Legions Nonbinaryrussia (RU)
Paul Zaba (UK)
Vojtěch Šembera (CZ)
Wilson Leywantono (IDN)

About Artists
"Praised by The Strad as ‘a champion of music of various genres,’ UK-based violinist Marie Schreer is a captivating force in both the world of contemporary music and the Western classical tradition. As a soloist, she has premiered works at renowned festivals such as the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Nordic Music Days and performed with orchestras such as Royal Northern Sinfonia and United Strings of Europe. With an insatiable curiosity for collaboration and curation, Marie is currently touring her new programme "until between" exploring themes of home and identity with new works from Aaron Holloway-Nahum, Ashkan Behzadi, Taher Adel and herself, culminating in a CD release in autumn 2025. As co-Artistic Director and violinist of the Ernst von Siemens Prize-winning Riot Ensemble, Marie plays a pivotal role in shaping the ensemble’s bold and fearless approach to contemporary music. She also holds the position of Section Leader of Second Violins with The Hallé in Manchester, and is in high demand as a guest principal and leader with orchestras and ensembles across the UK."

Aaron Holloway-Nahum (b. 1983) is a composers, conductor, recording engineer and sound artist working at the intersection of contemporary concert music and multi media (especially video and spatialised electronics).
His music is characterized by its intimate portraiture of its performers, experimental narrative structures, ornate timbres, and absurdist humour. Aaron’s music has been performed in nearly twenty countries. He was one of two composers on the 2018/19 Peter Eötvös Foundation inaugural mentoring programme and his commissions include the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Plural Ensemble, The Pannon Philharmonic, HOCKET, the London Sinfonietta, Third Coast Percussion, Ensemble Chartreuse, duo Harperc and the Atea Wind Quintet.

Ashkan Behzadi, a recipient of 2025 Ernst von Siemens Composer Prize and a 2021–2022 Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition, is an Iranian-Canadian composer based in New York. He earned his DMA in composition at Columbia University, where he studied with Fred Lerdahl, George Lewis, and Georg Friedrich Haas. Prior to this, he graduated from McGill University with a bachelor’s degree in composition and music theory, studying composition with Chris Paul Harman and Brian Cherney. Ashkan also holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Tehran University, where, at the same time, he took composition and music theory lessons with Alireza Mashayekhi. Ashkan’s music has been commissioned and performed by various international performers and ensembles, including Ensemble Recherche, TAK Ensemble, Oerknal Ensemble, Ensemble Mosaik, Yarn/Wire, JACK Quartet, Grossman Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, Ensemble Alternance, Ensemble UnitedBerlin, Exaudi, Ekmeles, Wet Ink, Talea Ensemble, and le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM).

Taher Adel, a British-Bahraini poet, novelist and spoken word artist, holds an MA in Creative Writing and Poetry from the University of East Anglia and a BEng in Biomedical Engineering from City University London. He has served as a judge for the Stephen Spender Poetry Prize and was appointed the Poet in Residence for Wells-next-the-Sea in 2019. His literary contributions include titles such as ‘I Don’t Know What Language I Dream In’ (Burning Eye Books, Sept ’23), ‘The Names’ (translated into Arabic by Rewayat Reads), ‘The Chosen Names’ and ‘The Divine Names’ (both from Sun Behind The Cloud). Taher’s works have been showcased in various esteemed publications and platforms, including Ambit, SMOKE Magazine, The New European, Gulf Daily News, Glassworks Magazine, Tedx, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, BBC Radio 4, Poetry London Magazine, and Poetry Salzburg Review.

Dorota Matejová is a musician, traverso player, physical performer, poet and composer of music-movement-poetic works, living and performing between Bratislava (SK) and Rotterdam (NL). Her performance practice ranges from early, new and experimental music through interdisciplinary, movement and physical theatre to spoken poetry. She is interested in de-constructing the known music performance formats and finding new ways how to be "on stage" with focus on physicality, connection and vulnerability while shifting the boundaries between the performer and the audience. She graduated from early music departments at conservatories in Amsterdam and The Hague, studying with acclaimed traverso players Jed Wentz, Kate Clark and Wilbert Hazelzet. Originating from her love-at-first-sight for the traverso sound and her passion for questioning tradition by placing the existing music standards into new contexts, she interprets and commissions new compositions for the traverso, exploring its extended sonorities which was also a subject of her ongoing research THE LIMITS OF TRAVERSO; Exploring the Sound Possibilities of Traverso through Contemporary Music (2020). Her love for the traverso in new contexts reflects in her projects Fantasias & Abstractions (2022-2023), Fantasias & Abstractions for Traverso Solo (2023-2024), her latest project 2 DOMOVY : 2 HOMES (2024-2025), imprints into silence (2025) and many more site-specific and location-based performances. With her music-movement-poetry solos she has performed in WORM (Rotterdam), Kunstinstituut Melly (Rotterdam), Studio MAPA Nederland (Haarlem), Splendor (Amsterdam), Slovak national gallery (Bratislava), and more.
About the facilitators:

Nikki Manuputty is “As an actress and theatre creator, I move between theatre, film, education and social projects, always with a keen eye for representation, inclusion and creative accessibility. As a woman of colour with a physical disability, I see the world through a different perspective—and that is exactly where my strength lies. My work challenges, questions and opens doors. For me, representation is not an aspiration, but a necessity. Because true inclusion starts with making room for everyone at the table.”

Christine Cornwell “Is a Latin-American-British composer, performer, educator, and creative producer based in Rotterdam. Her work connects free improvisation and co-creation to (collaboratively) challenge hierarchies and boundaries between audience, performer, and space. As a violinist, performer, and facilitator, her
practice is centred around listening for opportunities for conceptual connections and what is brought into a project by performers to be inspired to create musical work.

Artists’ Links
www.pupavy.com/
www.marieschreer.com/
www.aaronhollowaynahum.com/
www.ashkanbehzadi.com
www.taheradel.com/
www.thestrad.com