Roxanna Albayati is an interdisciplinary artist and music educator. Her practice centres around combining experimental music with performance art, exploring topics surrounding identity, sense of belonging and the body. Her music merges cross-cultural improvisation with Iranian classical music and the physicality of performance. Although predominantly a cellist, Roxanna also uses her voice, ghaychak and her body to materialise and realise her experimentations, fascinated by the process and natural evolution of discovery. Her teaching, artistic and research practices often cross paths, where, through constantly embodying a/r/tographic principles, Roxanna places herself at the centre of inquiry, in order to strengthen and inform the basis for creative and educational practices.
She is one of the co-curators of ZANĀN, a female led experimental music collective which focuses on the sense of belonging and expression of artistic identity among diaspora cultures. She is also a founding members of the New Maker Ensemble, a group dedicated to experimenting with various forms of new music and performance art. Roxanna also performs with her experimental improvisation duo ЯК, who won the Gladys Puttick Improvisatin Competition in 2019. In 2022, she was the the artist in resident at Zaratan Arte Contemporânea (Lisbon, Portugal), working on her solo multimedia project, as well as at Halaqat - Goethe Institute (Brussels, Belgium), working on a group music residency. Roxanna has performed her original works and improvisations at events such as METRIC IP (EAMT, Tallinn, Estonia), Shared Narratives Online Conference, Intercultural Practice and Music Symposium (University of Hull) and Sound Festival (Sound Scotland). She has also performed in venues and events such as IKLECTIK (London), King’s Cross ‘Tête-à-tête’ Opera Festival (London), Splendor (Amsterdam), Casa das Artes/Sismógrapho (Porto), Sounds Like THIS Festival (Leeds College of Music), We Make Tomorrow Climate Summit (Serpentine Galleries, London) and Compositional Aesthetics and Political Conference (Goldsmiths, UoL).
She is one of the co-curators of ZANĀN, a female led experimental music collective which focuses on the sense of belonging and expression of artistic identity among diaspora cultures. She is also a founding members of the New Maker Ensemble, a group dedicated to experimenting with various forms of new music and performance art. Roxanna also performs with her experimental improvisation duo ЯК, who won the Gladys Puttick Improvisatin Competition in 2019. In 2022, she was the the artist in resident at Zaratan Arte Contemporânea (Lisbon, Portugal), working on her solo multimedia project, as well as at Halaqat - Goethe Institute (Brussels, Belgium), working on a group music residency. Roxanna has performed her original works and improvisations at events such as METRIC IP (EAMT, Tallinn, Estonia), Shared Narratives Online Conference, Intercultural Practice and Music Symposium (University of Hull) and Sound Festival (Sound Scotland). She has also performed in venues and events such as IKLECTIK (London), King’s Cross ‘Tête-à-tête’ Opera Festival (London), Splendor (Amsterdam), Casa das Artes/Sismógrapho (Porto), Sounds Like THIS Festival (Leeds College of Music), We Make Tomorrow Climate Summit (Serpentine Galleries, London) and Compositional Aesthetics and Political Conference (Goldsmiths, UoL).
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She completed her BMus in Music at Goldsmiths, University of London, studying cello with Rebecca Turner. In 2020 she completed her MA in Performance and Music Education at Trinity Laban, achieving a distinction as well as the Directors Prize in Music Education, for outstanding work and contributions to the music education department and wider institution. She studied cello performance with Natalia Pavlutskaya, music education with Tim Palmer, improvisation with Douglas Finch and singing with Linda Hirst. In 2020, initially as part of a research project, Roxanna begun Iranian classical music training - this training is ongoing with the support of the Bert Jansch Foundation.
Roxanna is currently working at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance as a graduate co-researcher, looking into the inequalities which exist between different student groups in a conservatoire setting. The work specifically focuses on student learning experiences, sense of belonging and the role of student voice. Roxanna also plays an active role in running improvisation sessions, and organising the annual New Lights Festival. Roxanna teaches cello privately - if you are interested in tuition you can read more about her practice here, or contact her for further details. |
image by Lucio Russo
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