Tuesday 6 October 2026, 7.30pm
Atonal Kat is a sporadic series of sonic soirees curated by Xenia Pestova and Ed Bennett featuring outstanding artists working in exploratory musics. Join us for intense listening as we walk with our ears.
In this special edition of sonically dense and crunchy delights, we bring together two pioneers of music from across the spectrum of both atmospheric and complex sound worlds.
Swiss-Philippine sound artist Annie Aries performs with a customized modular synth, exploring the interplay between generative processes and improvised performance with contemporary electronica and club influences.
Then, the brilliant Mary Dullea, Rob Hao, Darragh Morgan and Xenia Pestova Bennett serenade radical British composer and pianist Michael Finnissy, celebrating his 80th year. The programme will include "Ninth Political Agenda”, “Mississippi Hornpipes”, “Molly House” and the UK premiere of “Fortsetzung von Schuberts Sonaten-Fragment D769A”… plus more. Not to be missed!
Michael Finnissy was born in Brixton (south London) in 1946. He started composing aged 4, and was self taught until he gained a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music in 1965, where his principal mentor was Bernard Stevens. Whilst there he secretly planned that his future work would assemble a ‘cabinet of curiosities’ - an individualised account of world music, representing (with affection and irony) all periods and genres. His ideology and aesthetics have been influenced by Underground and avant-garde cinema: Markopoulos, Brakhage, Jack Smith, Warhol, Pasolini, Jarman and Godard; the painters Hokusai, Cézanne, Degas, David Hockney and Robert Rauschenberg; and composers Erik Satie and Charles Ives. He served as president of the ISCM/IGNM from 1990 until 1966. His work has also focussed on theatre (vocal and dance) and on non-professional music-making, with CoMA (Contemporary Music for All) and church choirs. He is an Emeritus Professor of Composition at the University of Southampton (UK).
Annie Ruefenacht aka Annie Aries is a Bern-based composer, sound artist and performer working with modular synthesis, spatial sound, installation and embodied performance. Her practice explores the relationship between listening, technology and performative interaction, with a focus on live electronics and experimental sound environments. Her work has been presented internationally at festivals such as BEAST FEAST (Birmingham), ISCM World New Music Days (Faroe Islands), MATA Festival (New York City), Sonic Matter (Zurich) among others.
As soloist and chamber musician, Irish pianist Mary Dullea leads a diverse performance career internationally. Her frequent broadcasts include BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, RTHK, RTÉ Lyric FM, WQXR, Radio New Zealand and Sky Arts, Irish, French, Austrian and Italian television. Concerto appearances include RTÉ Concert Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and KZN Philharmonic Orchestra. Of her multiple CD releases, recent collaborations include premiere recordings of Philip Glass for Orange Mountain Music and, on Divine Art Métier, solo piano music from Iran by composers Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour and Hormoz Farhat.
Mary’s expansive repertoire covers the standard piano literature as well as an ever-increasing amount of 20th- and 21st- century compositions, many of which are dedicated to her. Her piano trio, Fidelio Trio, are passionate advocates for piano trio repertoire around the world. They were shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards Ensemble Prize and have been Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice for their recordings. The trio have appeared at prestigious venues around the globe including Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre, Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room Southbank Centre, Casa da Musica Porto, Morrison Artist Series San Francisco, Andy Warhol Museum Pittsburgh, National Centre for Performing Arts Mumbai, Beijing Modern Music Festival, National Concert Hall Dublin, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Brighton Festival, Cheltenham Festival and Gümüşlük International Classical Music Festival. They have collaborated with actor Adrian Dunbar, writer Alexander McCall-Smith and poet Sinead Morrissey. Constantly commissioning new works, composers that the Trio have worked closely with include Johannes Maria Staud, Donnacha Dennehy, Joe Cutler, Judith Weir, Piers Hellawell, Ann Cleare and Charles Wuorinen, to name but a few.
Mary was the curator of Soundings (an annual UK/Austrian collaborative music festival) at the Austrian Cultural Forum London from 2008 to 2016. She has served on the jury of ‘Schubert und die Musik der Moderne’ International Chamber Music Competition in Graz, Austria. In 2014 she founded 'Chamber Music on Valentia' an annual chamber music festival in Co. Kerry, Ireland, with the aim of bringing chamber music performances of international standing, innovative programming and outreach and engagement programmes to this unique place.
Mary was on the piano faculty of Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama for 9 years. She previously held the position of Director of Performance at University of Sheffield and since 2015 she has held this position at Royal Holloway, University of London where she is also Reader in Music.
Rob Hao is an Australian pianist and composer. His compositions and performances have taken him around Australia, the UK and across continental Europe at festivals and venues such Sydney Opera House, the Melbourne Recital Centre, Aldeburgh, Manchester Festival of Song and Vienna’s Schoenberg Centre. Rob’s LP Palimpsest was released in 2025 and in recent seasons he has given regional and world premieres of over thirty works. Rob studied piano and composition at the Royal College of Music and currently lives in London.
Irish violinist Darragh Morgan has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at The Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, Maerzmusik Berlin, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, BBC Proms, Osterfestival Tirol, Bang on a Can Marathon New York, National Sawdust, Philips Collection Washington DC, Beijing Modern Music Festivala and Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre. He has performed concertos with National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Ulster Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic, Istanbul Symphony and European Union Chamber Orchestra.
Darragh has been invited as Concertmaster with London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Les Siecles, The Philharmonia and Aurora Orchestra. He has recorded 50+ albums many of which have received Diaspon D'or and Gramophone Awards. Darragh has collaborated with as diverse composers as Scanner and Mira Calix, to Gerald Barry, Donnacha Dennehy and Michael Finnissy. He is violinist in the renowned Fidelio Trio and a former member of The Smith Quartet. Darragh plays an 1848 violin by Giuseppe Rocca.
Described as “a powerhouse of contemporary keyboard repertoire” (Tempo), pianist and composer Xenia Pestova Bennett has earned an international reputation as a leading proponent of uncompromising music. Her work spans a wide range of sound worlds, styles and genres from classical to contemporary art music, free improvisation, experimental electronica and avant-pop.
Xenia has performed at large festivals, for live broadcast, in major concert halls, and countless weird and wonderful venues and spaces. She has commissioned and recorded dozens of new works, collaborating with major innovators in contemporary music and exploring classical music boundaries with electronics, toy pianos, synthesizers and the Magnetic Resonator Piano.
https://xeniapestovabennett.com
