guai-num-bi:
A generic denomination for hummingbird in Tupi, the language spoken by the Tupinambá tribes, indigenous people living in the Brazilian coast during the 16th century.
mythology:
In 1560 the portuguese jesuit, Father José de Anchieta, sent a letter explaining what he had seen in the new world. In it he referred to the guainumbi: "There are many birds, among them: the Guainumbi, the smallest of them all. They feed from dew and all say one of them comes from butterflies." In the Tupinambá culture they were thought to be "messengers from the other life".
LISTEN TO SOME RECORDINGS:
Information about upcoming concerts will be published here, including links to tickets and additional details. Next concerts will be in October/November 2018 in Cambridge, UK
In other news the piece Guainumbi I and II will be performed by Lucas Jordan in Zurich, Switzerland and Aveiro, Portugal in July 2018. The latter as part of FLUTE: Hands On Research 2018 at the Universidade de Aveiro.
NEWS:
ABOUT:
GUAINUMBIENSEMBLE
After an intense collaboration by composer Igor Maia and flutist Lucas Jordan that resulted in the piece for solo flute called "Guainumbi", the two decided to continue this work and founded the Guainumbi Ensemble: A young and dynamic new music ensemble with a focus on exciting collaborations inspired by the little, though powerful, bird and its otherworldly mythology: the Guainumbi
THE MUSICIANS:
ELENA CAPPELLETTI - cello
Elena started her musical studies in Italy where she obtained a bachelor degree at the “G.Verdi” Conservatory, in Milan. She then completed a Master degree at the Royal Academy of Music and a chamber music Master at the Hochschule fur Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover.
She is member of the Alauda Quartet, with whom she was awarded a Junior Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music. The quartet was selected as Park Lane Group artists in 2015 they gave their debut recitals at the Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall and St. Martin-in-the-fields in London. They were also selected Concert Artists with Making Music for 2016-17. As well as their concerts in the UK the Alauda Quartet have enjoyed performing in various music festivals across Europe and Asia holding regular tours in Spain, Italy, Serbia and Germany.
They gave their debut recital at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing in 2014 and
at the Vienna Konzerthaus in 2016 and just released their first CD featuring premiere recordings of the string quartets by Italian composer Roffredo Caetani (1871 - 1961) with Brilliant Classics.
She is prize winner at the competitions “Rotary club Roma”, “Concorso nuovi orizzonti” Arezzo and “concorso internazionale di musica di Viterbo”
She is part of several orchestras across UK and Italy (Philarmonic chamber orchestra of London,Orchestra del Maggio Musicale fiorentino, “G.Verdi” symphony orchestra in Milano, Teatro Petruzzelli Bari, Teatro San carlo Naples, Teatro Massimo in Palermo) and in 2015 she was accepted for the orchestral training programme of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra. Elena performed as soloist with the “Latina Philarmonia” orchestra in Italy and the Cali Symphony Orchestra in Colombia and the Cuban Symphony Orchestra in Havana, Cuba. For more information click on her image to visit her website.
NAFIS UMERKULOVA - piano
Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Nafis Umerkulova began playing the piano at the age of 5. She started performing from the age of 7. In 2004 Nafis moved to UK to continue her musical education at the Purcell School of Music, later at the Royal Academy of Music (2006) and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (2010). During these years she studied with William Fong, Tatiana Sarkissova and Aaron Shorr and had been awarded a full scholarship at every place of study. Nafis participated in Masterclasses with Dmitriy Bashkirov, Lev Natochenny, Pascal Devoyon and many others. Her numerous performances in UK include solo and chamber music recitals in Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Winchester Cathedral, Glasgow City Halls, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall, including a broadcast on BBC TWO. She is a winner of the Edith Steinitz Prize and a 3rd prize winner of the
International BRANT Piano Competition. In 2012 Nafis moved back to London, as she was awarded the Arthur Haynes Scholarship to pursue the Advanced Independent Study programme at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire, studying with Deniz Gelenbe. In the same year she also won the prestigious Myra Hess Award generated by Help Musicians UK. Most recently Nafis has been invited to undertake the Advanced Performance Diploma course at the Birmingham Conservatoire, for which she was awarded the Denis Matthews Trust Scholarship. She also receives lessons with professor Mikhail Olenev at the Moscow Conservatory. Nafis is deeply grateful to the Fagus Anstruther Memorial Fund and Help Musicians UK for their support. For more information click on her image to visit her website.
LUCAS JORDAN - flute
An innovative and prize-winning flutist and composer in search of ever growing expressivity in both fields, Lucas Jordan crosses musical boundaries and redefines them with the aim of reconnecting music with today's society. Recognized for developing unique and exciting projects, such as “Città Invisibili”, “d♯Gents | re:staging music” and “Wenn heute sich mit gestern vermischt” (2009 - 2011; with support awarded by the “momento stiftung”), he is the Artistic Director of “das kurze festival” in Zurich, Switzerland, which will see its edition number two in 2018. As a flutist he has performed throughout Europe and the Americas working closely with international musicians, dancers, actors and composers such as Helmut Lachenmann, Jörg Widmann, Rhian Samuel, Mario Ferraro, Klaus Huber, Isabel Mundry and many emerging young composers. This has lead to performances at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, the National Flute
Association’s Convention in Washington D. C., the Resolution dance festival at the Place in London, Dance On All Floors Festival in Rotterdam, the Tanzfabrik in Berlin and ‘Surprise’ concert series of the Tonhalle Zurich in Switzerland. A prize-winner of the composition competition of the Camerata Zurich he has been commissioned several new works, which have been performed throughout Europe and Asia.
Born in Brazil, Lucas Jordan studied flute at the Royal Academy of Music with William Bennett, Emily Beynon and Patricia Morris (piccolo) after studying flute and composition at the Zurich University of the Arts with Matthias Ziegler, Philippe Racine (flute), Pamela Stahel (piccolo), Isabel Mundry and Andreas Nick (composition). He is grateful to have been awarded generous scholarships from the LYRA Stiftung and Alfred und Isle Stammer-Mayer Stiftung (Switzerland). For more information click on his image to visit his website.
IGOR MAIA - featured composer
Igor Maia (1988) is a Brazilian composer based in London. His compositions are influenced by both 21st century avant-garde and Brazilian traditional music. He has received degrees from the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague (Holland) in 2010 and the State University of Campinas (Brazil) in 2013.
He also participated in many Festivals and Courses with teachers such as Brian Ferneyhough, Martin Matalon, Jukka Tiensu, Toshio Hosokawa, Francesco Filidei, Marcel Reuter, among others.
Currently he is a PhD Student at King’s College London under supervision of Profs. Silvina Milstein and George Benjamin, funded by the CAPES Foundation of the Brazilian Ministry of Education.
For more information click on his image to visit his website.
