NME (ensemble)

The New Music Ensemble (NME) is a CIO (charity incorporated organisation) of creators and makers of contemporary new music and performance art, based in London UK. It brings together individuals and groups with different cultural backgrounds, educational histories, skills and experiences,[1] with the aim to design relevant contributions to an artistic contemporaneity and the world at large, with conceptual considerations including a strong social and political awareness.

For other uses, see NME (disambiguation).
Official organisation logo

It was first created in 2014 as a student led ensemble at Goldsmiths, University of London, by former music student Rodrigo B. Camacho, for the need of opportunities for student composers and performers to collaborate and perform their work; developing a space for the discussion, development and presentation of this. In the academic year of 2015 the group consolidated and gained shape within and outside the university, through the various efforts of its initial collaborators and supporters wishing to take it forward.

Currently the committee members constitute: Rodrigo B. Camacho (Project Director), Sara Rodrigues (Artistic Director), Roxanna Albayati (Manager), Mahsa Salali (Concert and Publicity Manager) and Gabriele Cavallo (Editorial Director).[2]

The production team includes Marat Ingledeev (web developer and designer), Jaime Gil Larios (Graphics and Filming Director), Ezra-Lloyd Jackson (Photographer), Nicole Trotman (Stage Assistant) and Lewis Wolstanholme (Copywriter).

New Music Ensemble Society

Establishing a core community within the university environment, the New Music Ensemble is part of the Goldsmiths, University of London, Students Union as a Society. The NME Society main activities are the running of theme based concerts on campus throughout the academic year, hosting pieces composed and performed by Goldsmiths students and alumni, along with regular workshops to experiment with improvisation, graphic scores, extended techniques and methods of composition, as well as open rehearsal sessions for the discussion and development of new pieces.[3]

The group wishes to foster not only the creation and dissemination of new pieces of work but also to immerse its community, consisting both of internal members and external bodies (audiences, partners and other relatives), in a thought-rich, familiar environment, where discussions about the issues pertinent to the artistic of the practitioners and thinkers of this organisation, can be developed and productively held. Working outside the tradition of contemporary classical music composition and performance, the group has detached itself from the limitations of the field and has moved into the larger arena of general performative arts. Some of the disciplines encouraged are:[4]

  • Dance and Choreography
  • Poetry and Performative Literature
  • Performative Installation
  • Experimental Theatre
  • Fixed media (active perception models)
  • Fine Art / Visual art
  • Live Electronics
  • Experiential Art
  • Improvisation

Performances: venues and partners

Working outside Goldsmiths, the ensemble's core members (consisting of various performers and composers) present work in various venues, particularly in London, including festivals and art-humanities research led projects:

  • PLACE

The NME are one of the two ensembles working within the project PLACE, produced by Wamãe (an organisation for the creation and management of cultural projects). PLACE is an interdisciplinary project for artistic, cultural and scientific interchange, based on a methodology of creation-investigation with a participatory component and of involvement with local communities. The project operates internationally in the fields of artistic creation and scientific investigation.[5]

The NME has collaborated with the SWSS through a bottom-up approach to composition, where a member from SWSS created a piece about her reality working as a prostitute and the relation to reviews written by clients. "The society is the first UK university group that will focus on the aid and support of those within the sex industry."[6] The society follows views in line with the Amnesty International’s draft-policy (July 2015) on respecting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights of sex workers.

References
  1. "NME | About us". nmensemble.com. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  2. "NME | Team". nmensemble.com. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  3. "New Music Ensemble". www.goldsmithssu.org. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  4. "New Music Ensemble". www.goldsmithssu.org. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  5. "PLACE – WAMÃE". wamae.pt. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  6. Dazed (11 August 2015). "Student sex workers need safe spaces too". Dazed. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
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