Studio Lates: Shiva Feshareki at Sheffield Crucible

Award-winning promoter Music in the Round is soon to launch its 35th annual Chamber Music Festival, hosted by the Crucible Theatre and Yellow Arch Studios in Sheffield. This year, as well as a classical programme led by outstanding resident musicians Ensemble 360, there is an eclectic range of guest artists performing at the festival. One of the most exciting of these is experimental composer, NTS radio DJ and turntablist Shiva Feshareki. Fusing contemporary club and classical soundtracks into new forms through hyper-physical manipulations and sampling techniques, Feshareki’s cutting edge work is internationally renowned, and not to be missed at 2019’s Chamber Music Festival.

Fusing contemporary club and classical soundtracks into new forms

Revered in both the concert hall and the electronic music world, Shiva Feshareki’s incorporation of classical craft and experimental methodology has won her much praise. First catching eyes at the age of 17, her modded-piano piece In The Attic saw her named the BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year in 2004. This led to wild collaborations with the London Sinfonietta, London Contemporary Orchestra (at the BBC Proms) and the BBC Concert Orchestra, with whom she explored, among other things, sonic sculptures and spatialisation. Following these collaborations, she was honoured with the British Composer Award for Innovation from BASCA, before deciding to concentrate on solo pursuits.

The London-born artist’s astonishing debut album NEW FORMS was released just a couple of months ago by RESIST. A set of turntable improvisations, it combines orchestral textures with industrial, minimal beats. The result is then deconstructed, dissected and distorted through unorthodox manipulations. Shiva describes it as a sonic exploration of perspective, but also a social exploration of context: a symbol of how one idea can have so many perspectives of opinion, extension, complexity and interpretation. “Lack of communication and understanding between different social forms is one of the biggest issues I see and if I can demonstrate sonically how one form can be vastly transformed using nothing other than its own material, then I can demonstrate this complexity and vastness of perspective.”

Characteristically boundary-pushing, it’s an excellent solo debut, and a sign of what to expect from her upcoming live performance in the surround sound of the Crucible Studio. We can’t wait.