Microtonal Music Studios Exhibition and Event week: Devina Boughton and Mark Reid Bulatović 22.02.25 at 18:00


Microtonal Music Studios Exhibition and Events Weeks
21.02-09.03.2025

22.02. Saturday

Event 18.00–21.00

Devina Boughton: Läsnäolo/Presence

Devina Boughton presents shepherds horn, slide trumpet, vocal and trumpet improvisations, exploring alternate tunings in Nordic folk improvisation; followed by Olivieros listening exercises, and a lecture on shepherds horns.

Devina Boughton (they/them) is a versatile trumpet player, vocalist, composer and pedagogue hailing from rainy Portland, OR and currently based in Helsinki, Finland. After completing a Bachelors of Music from Berklee College of Music, Devina was a 2021-22 Fulbright Finland Grant recipient. They began a Master’s Degree at Sibelius Academy’s Global Music department in Fall 2023. Devina explores and intertwines different genres, building sound worlds that play with and cross borders between improvisation and composition. They are currently inspired by timbres, nature and technology, human experiences and stories and are passionate about interdisciplinary and cross-genre collaboration. You may find them drinking coffee or tea, exploring nature, practicing Finnish, baking, or plotting their next knitting project.

Mark Reid Bulatović

Pieces:

Michael Winter: Ostinato and Interrupt

Mark Reid Bulatović: the answer is in the question (after L.Polansky) [premier]

Larry Polansky: Song and Toods

Performers: Mark Reid Bulatović, Devina Boughton, Haiyun Yu

A memorial for cornerstone experimental musician and composer, Larry Polansky.

The concert explores the idea of understanding an artist through their oeuvre – Do fragments of ourselves stay within our creations? How much of a person’s humanity can we sum up through artifacts and anecdotes?

In the case of Larry Polansky, there are many “artifacts” – a hugley prolific composer, he has some 150 compositions and numerous academic writings and articles covering computer assisted composition to american sign language poetry.

The concert will conclude with songs and toods – a set of american folk-songs written for Just-Intonation guitar. An uncharacteristic piece for Polansky, it is one of his most intuitive works – made with heart rather than brain.

Starting the concert will be a piece by Larry’s friend and student Michael Winter, Ostinato and Interrupt, which has not yet been premiered.

connecting the two works, will be a short veneration of polansky composed by myself, the title, a quotation from a interview Polansky did in the early 2000’s.

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Mark Reid Bulatović is a guitarist and composer from Slovenia and Scotland. His artistic interests are placed at the intersection of ecology, intimacy and ritual. A recent graduate of the Sibelius Academy, he has participated in international festivals in Shanghai, Edinburgh and Helsinki with a variety of groups.  As a performer he is interested in inviting other creative practices into aspects of the concert experience – Recently “Dismissal of the Great I” married classical guitar with a host of extra media, including sound installation, puppetry, and video in an attempt to deflect attention from the performer and give space to a broader concept.

Performers’ Bios:

Devina Boughton

Devina Boughton (they/them) is a versatile trumpet player, vocalist, composer and pedagogue hailing from rainy Portland, OR and currently based in Helsinki, Finland. After completing a Bachelors of Music from Berklee College of Music, Devina was a 2021-22 Fulbright Finland Grant recipient. They began a Master’s Degree at Sibelius Academy’s Global Music department in Fall 2023. Devina explores and intertwines different genres, building sound worlds that play with and cross borders between improvisation and composition. They are currently inspired by timbres, nature and technology, human experiences and stories and are passionate about interdisciplinary and cross-genre collaboration. You may find them drinking coffee or tea, exploring nature, practicing Finnish, baking, or plotting their next knitting project.

Haiyun Yu_(photo by Kaspars Zborovskis)

Haiyun Yu is a translator, writer and producer from Suzhou, China. With a background in linguistics and comparative literature, her artistic interest is to invite performativity to text. In her writing practices, she explores the intersection of cultural heritage, ecology and identity. Her artistic research focuses on decolonisation, cultural policy and intercultural communication. She received the Finland Scholarship in 2022 and is currently finishing her master’s study of Arts Management at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.