New Classic: An Evening of Music with Aliayta Foon-Dancoes and Emily Earl

Join us at Bermondsey Project Space for a concert of New Classical music performed by Aliayta Foon-Dancoes (violin) and Emily Earl (violin/viola) including world premiers of works by young UK-based composers such as Robert Laidlow, Louise Drewett, Aliayta Foon-Dancoes and Geoffrey King.

Doors 7pm

Performnce 7.30 - 8pm

20 Minute interval

Performance 8.20 - 8.50pm

Finish 9pm

Aliayta Foon-Dancoes

in Vancouver, Canada, Aliayta completed a BA in violin performance at the University of Victoria. She moved to London in 2017 to complete a Master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), where she worked under the tutelage of György Pauk.

During her time at the RAM, she co-founded the Echea Quartet with whom she went on to hold the RAM Chamber Fellowship in 2019. During this year, Echea gained representation from both City Music Foundation and Concordia Foundation and were awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Frost String Quartet Prize. In 2020, Echea performed at the Paris Biennale, where they won first prize at the Tremplin pour Jeaunes Quatours. They were awarded a two-year Fellowship at the Royal College of Music in 2020 and gained further representation with the Musicians Company and Kirckman Concert Society. With Echea, Aliayta has performed at venues including the Musikverein, Wigmore Hall, and the MAAT in Lisbon. She has been aired on BBC Radio 3, CBC and NPR and has received scholarships for a residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and a fellowship at Aspen Music Festival. In 2021, the Echea Quartet won the Hattori Foundation’s Senior Award. They will be performing at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris and the Archipelago in Venice. The quartet are mentored by John Myerscough (Doric Quartet) and Simon Rowland-Jones, both of whom work regularly with the ensemble.

Outside of Echea, Aliayta works with the London Symphony Orchestra (2017 – present), has performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the University of Victoria Symphony (2016) and the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with Newcastle’s Northumberland Orchestra (2018). She has completed a residency at NYU Steinhardt (2016) and has held an Orchestral Fellowship at Aspen Music Festival (2017). In 2020, Aliayta worked with Pathway to Paris alongside Patti Smith, Olafur Eliasson and Bill McKibben to deliver online events as part of World Environment Day and NYC Climate Week.

Emily Earl is a London-based violinist and City Music Foundation Artist whose practice is built on diversity. She was awarded the 2019 J&A Beare Bow Prize for outstanding achievements at the Royal Academy of Music following her Masters recital.

A founding member of the Echéa Quartet, she has performed at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Philharmonie de Paris, and the Wigmore Hall, and was a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. While studying in Oslo, Emily formed the Virentia Quartet, who performed at the ‘Grieg in Bergen’ festival, and in a side-by-side concert with the Takács Quartet for the Oslo Quartet Series.

As an orchestral player, Emily is leader of the Kingston Chamber Orchestra and a regular member of Orchestra for the Earth. She has played with the Oslo Camerata and Oslo Philharmonic, and has worked closely with Sir Mark Elder and Marin Alsop, including a performance at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2019.

Emily has a particular love for contemporary music and enjoys working with composers on new works and experimental techniques. During the UK lockdown, she commissioned several new works by emerging composers such as Robert Laidlow, and gave the premiere of “On Pause” by Geoffrey King and “Bound” by Luke Styles as part of the Royal Academy of Music’s bicentenary 200 commissions.