Therese Bann (Belfast 1979-)
Therese Bann began her musical studies at Wimbledon School of Music under Malcolm Parker and Neil Shrimpton-Cooper. She continued at Wimbledon High School as a member of the Senior Choir, Madrigal Group and Concert Band led by James Rae and performed at the National Portrait Gallery as part of an LSO project with James MacMillan. She undertook the musical direction for drama productions and served as Music Representative on the School Committee from 1996-8. She was awarded the Montgomery Music Cup in recognition of her services.
During a GAP year project she coordinated musical activities for the residents of Senator Neumann Home for the Disabled in Hamburg, Germany, and gave regular performances with concert pianist Hans Braun.
She has been an enthusiastic member of many choirs notably at Ulster University, Cardiff University and Queen's University where she also played in the Orchestra and did a music degree with tutors including Piers Hellawell and Ulster Orchestra flautist Colin Fleming. She performed in the public lunchtime recitals at Queen's University, and participated in workshops with artists-in-residence, Philip Dukes and Sophie Rahman, and Julian Joseph. She pursued her interest in jazz improvisation at Cardiff University with Ian Williams and pianist Dave Stapleton and later at City University London with Annie Whitehead. She won a bursary to take part in the Keele University Chamber Music Summer School with Sarah Francis and Christopher Hyde-Smith. Most recently she took part in the CoMA Summer Festival 2007 working under the direction of Stephen Montague and Brian Irvine.
Since returning to London after graduating in 2005, Therese has performed in a number of settings, including the Foundling Museum with the Great Ormond Street Chamber Orchestra and the Space Arts Centre at a Happening in collaboration with composer Stephen Crowe. Her latest large-scale performance was on the Millennium Bridge as part of a Tate Modern/LSO/UBS project playing in Alvin CurranÕs Maritime Rites.
She has worked with bassoonist Sonia Paço-Rocchia since the summer of 2007 and is also Media and Marketing Assistant at the Society for the Promotion of New Music.
Sonia Paço-Rocchia (Montréal 1982-)
Sonia Paço-Rocchia studied Composition and Classical Piano and Pure & Applied Sciences at Cégep de St-Laurent in Québec. She obtained a Bachelor of Music degree in Instrumental and Electro-acoustic Composition at the Université de Montréal in 2005 where she also began to study bassoon. For many years she taught music at cole de musique Nantel in Laval, Québec and also worked as a freelance Music, French and Mathematics tutor.
Sonia has a wealth of musical experience, both as composer and performer herself and in supporting other artists. She was commissioned to write Prélude for the Port Symphonies of Pointe-à-Callière Museum in Montréal, and did the musical and theatrical direction, costumes and set-design for multimedia performances in Montréal & St-Laurent, Québec, and Banff, Alberta, as well as the sound-processing, Max/MSP programming and graphic interfacing for various multimedia projects throughout Canada. Her many roles have included being Front-of-House and Stage Technician at the Claude-Champagne, Serge-Garant and Jean-Papineau-Couture Concert Halls at the Université de Montréal as well as Co-ordinator for Festival de musique d'Oka in Québec. Sonia was also Board Member for Codes d'Accès, a concert society for contemporary music in Montréal, from 2005-2006 and worked as a Conference Co-ordinator for CeCo, a group of young composers at the Université de Montréal from 2007-2005. She has given a number of solo piano recitals and played in wind orchestra concerts in her native Québec.
Sonia left Canada in 2006 to pursue her interests in computer technology and new music, participating in workshops on sensors, Max/MSP and FTM, at iRCAM, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. From there she travelled to London via Winchester, initially working in hospitality and caring for disabled children. It was in England that she became involved, both as a bassoon-player and a composer, with CoMA London. This led her to set up an improvisation circle which meets regularly for Jam-and-Tea sessions exploring the boundaries between composition, improvisation and an assortment of general noise-making-methods and mayhem in-between. Sonia continues to perform regularly with CoMA London and is a member of the Society for the Promotion of New Music.