Sasha Siem
London, England, United Kingdom | SELF
Music
Press
Sasha's songs seductively entice us on an adventure to the frontiers of song and psyche [trans.] - Eventail, Belgium
Part brainiac composer, part wistful singer-songwriter, Sasha Siem links up with Mivos. They'll perform a completely original suite of songs for string quartet and vocalist as part of this pioneering new-music series at the Tank. - Time Out, NYC
Siem is making waves in the music scene - The Guardian, UK
Siem is clearly a gifted composer... In Queen Anne’s Lace a delicate melodic thread became attractively encrusted with blotches and tics, then fused in a unified glitter before collapsing into quiet trills and growls. The ear was beguiled; the piece made sense. - The Times, UK
A favorite in the program was Sasha Siem’s Virginia-Woolf-inspired AfTeRsHoCk, ranging from tiny skitterings and scrabblings to jabbing, ungainsayable life force?. - The Financial Times, UK
Siem’s brilliant little piece is pared to the bare bone, female voices in three parts splinter the excoriating denunciation of man’s vile ways, the jagged phrases sharply pointed with intermittent stabs from a solo trumpet, till the acrid little thing locks into traumatised stasis. - The Spectator, UK
A week of events to celebrate International Women's Day only highlights the fact that classical music – and composing in particular – remains a curiously male preserve. But the exceptions are growing in number… - The Guardian
“Siem appeared the most naturally gifted. In Queen Anne’s Lace a delicate melodic thread became attractively encrusted with blotches and tics, then fused in a unified glitter before collapsing into quiet trills and growls. The ear was beguiled; the piece made sense.” Geoff Brown - The Times of London - The Times of London
Part brainiac composer, part wistful singer-songwriter, Sasha Siem links up with Mivos. They'll perform a completely original suite of songs for string quartet and vocalist as part of this pioneering new-music series at the Tank. - Time Out New York
Tonight's concert features a number of songs that have been born from this arty collaboration between Mivos and the heady composer-vocalist. - Time Out New York
Discography
Knots and do-nots (for release in 2013)
Photos
Bio
Born in London to a British mother and Norwegian father, Sasha began playing the ‘cello and singing her own songs at an early age.
She studied music at Cambridge and Harvard and by her early twenties, Sasha had written music for the London Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Opera House, Rambert Dance Company, Opera North, The Aldeburgh Festival, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Neue Vocalisten Stuttgart, The London Sinfonietta, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2010, she became one of the youngest people to win a prestigious British composer award.
Sasha has also participated in collaborations with electro artists including Samson of bpitch control – who she met while living in Berlin in 2009 - and has performed at venues across Europe, including the Forge, London; HBC, Berlin; La Blanchisserie, Paris; Le Poisson Rouge, NYC.
This year, Sasha will release her debut album - 'Knots and do- nots' - a collection of songs which entices us on an adventure to the frontiers of song and psyche.
Sasha has been as much influenced by art-song composers such as G. Kurtag, Claude Vivier, Salvatore Sciarrino as by pioneering singer-songwriters such as Tom Waits, Jacques Brel, Bjork, Joanna Newsom etc.
The Guardian recently noted, “Sasha is making waves in the music scene.” Of her work for the London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Times wrote, “Sasha is clearly a gifted musician.”
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