BAN BAM New Works Premiere

Christine Tobin - voice, keys
Kate Shortt - cello
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Joanna Mattrey - viola
Larissa O’Grady - violin
Nick Roth - saxophone
Simon Jermyn - bass

Christine Tobin Pseudologia Fantasica (World premiere)
Joanna Mattrey Battle Ready II (World premiere)

Launched in 2020 to support and highlight the work of female and gender diverse composers in jazz and improvised music in Ireland, BAN BAM is a commissioning and development award from Improvised Music Company. The 2025 recipients, composers Joanna Mattrey and Christine Tobin, are celebrated on this programme, which comprises world premieres of their new works. 

With themes of conflict, loss of home and cultural identity, Joanna Mattrey’s Battle Ready II asks that the performers  play for those who have no voice. The work includes composition, improvisation, spoken text and video, and features a central quartet of saxophone, violin, viola and synths. Joanna Mattrey performs alongside Nick Roth, Larissa O’Grady and Simon Jermyn, drawing on their fluency in improvisation and notated music, while oscillating between coordinated written events and sweeping improvised textures and gestures to create a powerful live experience. 

Christine Tobin’s new work Pseudologia Fantastica explores themes of disinformation, and the misappropriation of new technologies and information networks to spread lies that destroy democratic conversation, undermining our perceptions of the world. In the history of communication, we have never been so connected—yet we often find ourselves divided, mistrustful and weighed down by dark uncertainty about the future. Presented by Tobin with accompaniment by cellist Kate Shortt, the piece includes spoken word and song.

Presented by New Music Dublin & Improvised Music Company
Sponsored by RTE/NCH/Arts Council Ireland