rarescale: And the music is for the birds

rarescale are back for our Summer season! We are delighted to continue our collaboration with East Midlands chamber ensemble rarescale, presenting a series of musical performances responding to our current exhibitions Chico da Silva: And the music is for the birds and Augustas Serapinas: Physical Culture. For August, Carla Rees & Amy Jolly (flute and cello) will present free improvisations and new works composed especially for the ensemble.

There will be three performances held in Studio 1, each lasting around 30 minutes. This event is supported by rarescale. rarescale is an East Midlands-based flexible-instrumentation chamber ensemble which develops new repertoire for low flutes through collaboration with composers at all stages of their careers. Carla Rees is a British low flutes player, composer and arranger, working to raise the profile of her instruments through performance, research and collaboration.

Carla enjoys an international performance career both as a soloist, improviser and chamber musician; she frequently appears at international festivals and was a soloist for the National Flute Association’s Concerto Gala in Phoenix Arizona in 2023. Recent performances include Brazil, USA and Japan, as well as around the UK. She is an established recording artist with a discography of over thirty titles, including concertos with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and Neue Musik im Ostseeraum, as well as several world premiere recordings of works composed for her.

She has also recorded for film, radio and videogames. Her drive to create new repertoire for low flutes and baroque traverso has resulted in the premieres of several hundred works, many of which are now published by Tetractys Publishing. Carla has over 100 published arrangements and compositions, which receive frequent performances internationally.

Her acclaimed 2016 composition, Nightsong, has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and released on several commercial recordings. In addition to her performance work, Carla is a dedicated teacher. She was appointed as the first Professor of Low Flutes and Contemporary Flute at the Royal Academy of Music in September 2021, and has taught masterclasses and led composer workshops at some of the world’s leading institutions, including the Juilliard School in New York and USC in Los Angeles.

Carla plays Kingma System flutes, made for her by Eva Kingma, Bickford Brannen and Lev Levit. She is Editor of the British Flute Society’s magazine, PAN, and Commissions Coordinator for the National Flute Association of America. Carla has a PhD from the Royal College of Music in London where she studied flute with Graham Mayger and Simon Channing, and composition with Timothy Salter.

Find information about getting here and our building access and facilities here. This event will be held in Studio 1. This event is wheelchair accessible.

If you have any questions around access or have specific access requirements we can accommodate, please get in touch with us by emailing info@nottinghamcontemporary.org or phoning 0115 948 9750.