Hamish Dunbar launches Café Oto’s Associated Artists Programme following Genesis Prize win
Wednesday, 10 October 2012
Hamish Dunbar, founder of leading experimental music and sound art venue Café Oto, announces a new Associated Artists Programme – the initiative for which he was awarded the inaugural Genesis Prize in March 2012, a major award from the Genesis Foundation that recognises outstanding mentors of young artistic talent.
Over the next year, the Associated Artists Programme will see Dunbar and his colleagues work closely with five of the UK’s most exciting emerging musicians, providing a platform for them to present new work, develop ideas and initiate collaborations.
Hamish Dunbar said:
“It was always our aim for Café Oto to be more than a just venue. We wanted to create a home for a community of musicians to meet, collaborate, talk, listen and play in. In doing so we hoped to sustain an important culture and discourse around the music. The Associated Artists Programme is an extension of that aspiration. I am really pleased to be supporting five very different players who are all, in their different ways, making new and important music.”
Café Oto’s Associated Artists for 2012-13 are:
Angharad Davies, a violinist dedicated to extending the sound possibilities of the instrument
Rie Nakajima, sound artist working across installation and performance
Tom James Scott, composer, instrumentalist and improviser
Guillaume Viltard, leading double bassist from London’s improvised music scene
Alex Ward, composer/improviser and one of the UK’s most unpredictable players
Based in Hackney, Café Oto opened in 2008 with the aim of providing a home for creative new music that exists outside the mainstream. It hosts a programme of adventurous live music almost seven nights a week.
In March 2012, its founder Hamish Dunbar was announced the winner of the inaugural Genesis Prize. The £25,000 award – ¬one of the most generous in the arts sector – is the only prize of its kind to recognise outstanding mentors of young artistic talent, inviting nominations from all art forms. The Genesis Foundation initiated the biennial prize to mark the charity’s first ten years of nurturing and developing emerging talent in the UK.
John Studzinski, Founder and Chairman of the Genesis Foundation, said:
“We founded the Genesis Prize to recognise an inspiring mentor, and Hamish stood out as someone whose drive and energy can make a difference in supporting a wider pool of emerging talent in avant-garde music. In choosing five diverse artists to work with, he’s providing opportunities for others while extending his work as a mentor, and it’s this kind of network that’s invaluable in fostering creativity. I look forward to following everyone’s journey on the programme.”
Find out more about the Genesis Prize here.