Sat 29 July – Liminality: 88 Keys Around the World

I am very honoured to be doing a solo concert featuring a programme entirely of new music composed by talented young composers from the UK, Canada, Cyprus and Brazil.

I will be playing a fascinating repertoire of pieces for solo piano, piano with extended techniques, toy piano, toy piano + piano, piano + singing pianist.

This will be my very first concert in Birmingham, what makes it even more special. Do come, and please help to spread the word!

To see the Facebook event page, click here 

This concert is organised by Birmingham-based composer Max Gibson, with many thanks!

29 July 2017

7pm

Holy Trinity Parish Church

Church Mill, Mill St. 

B72 1TF

Sutton Coldfield

£5 (Adults)
£4 (Concession)
Free – Under 16s

Programme

Angela Slater (UK) – Becloud, for solo piano (2015)

Monica Pearce (Canada) – Smart Aleck, for toy piano (2011) *UK premiere

Michael Taplin (UK) – Forever Flowing Down Slowly (2015) *Premiere

Maria Kaoutzani (Cyprus) – Lilies, for piano and singing pianist (2016) *UK premiere

Max Gibson (UK) – Night over Berstane, (2017) *Premiere *Piece dedicated to Késia Decoté

Tatiana Catanzaro (Brazil) – Kristallklavierexplosionsschattensplitter, for solo piano (2006) *UK premiere

Max Gibson (UK) – …times when… all there is… , for solo piano (2017) *UK premiere *Piece dedicated to Késia Decoté

Poster Credits: Anthony Leung & Caitlin Quinn

 

 

 

 

Sat 15 July – EOCC Summer Concert with a flavour of Brazil

What a joy for me that my local choir, East Oxford Community Choir, is giving their Summer Concert 2017 a flavour of my loved home country Brazil!

East Oxford Community Choir will be singing pieces by Brazilian composers Villa-Lobos, Ernani Aguiar and Ronaldo Miranda, also a piece by Oxford-based composer Marguerite Wallis.

I will be playing solo piano pieces by Brazilian composers Marisa Rezende and Silvia Berg, and a piece by Portuguese composer Sara Carvalho for prepared piano and toy piano.

Also mezzo-soprano Julia Hollander will be singing pieces by Villa-Lobos.

Come to enjoy this Brazilian flavoured Summer evening with us!

Saturday 15 July 2017, 7:30pm

St Michael at the North Gate

Cornmarket Street

Oxford City Centre

Free, with retiring collection for Sanctuary Hosting

myths & visions – piano (& body) performance

An extended piano performance, a journey to imaginary worlds and images.

I kindly invite you to join me in this performance when I will be playing a programme of works for extended piano techniques, all inspired by myths, imaginary landscapes and illusions.

In the journey we are taking, our bodies also take active roles: piano performance is blended with elements of dance; and the spectator/participant does the transition from outdoors to indoors within the experience of the performance, and swaps seats halfway through the programme.

This is the culmination of my PhD research, and I have the honour to have choreographer, teacher and dance artist Joëlle Pappas as my movement director.

The admission is free, but there are only 12 places per evening – booking is essencial.

Please email me at kesiadecote@gmail.com to book your seat, and to receive personalised information about meeting place and how to make the most of your experience.

Hope to have you with me in this very special [culmination of a] journey!

Wednesday 21st June – 9:15pm

Thursday 22nd June – 7:25pm

Friday 23rd June – 6:00pm

Oxford Brookes University

Headington Campus

Oxford, OX3 0BP

Programme (Duration: app. 50 min)

Prelude – piano and voice improvisation

Part I – myths

Henry Cowell – The voice of Lir, for piano [tone clusters] (1920)

– Aeolian Harp, for piano strings (1923)

– The Banshee, for piano strings (1925)

John Cage – Bacchanale, for prepared piano (1940)

Part II – visions

Sara Carvalho – inside silence, for prepared piano and toy piano (2012)

Marisa Rezende – Miragem [Mirage], for piano and mallets (2009)

John Cage – A flower, for voice and closed piano (1950)

Obs: this event will be filmed for personal archive and research. If you have any objections to be filmed, please do not hesitate to mention it in your booking email. Also, I would love to have your anonymous written feedback at the end of the performance, but it is totally optional for you to give it or not. Finally, please be aware that the spectator will be asked to walk short distances at the beginning and halfway through the performance. If you have any mobility issues, please do let me know in your booking email, and I will make sure to offer you adequate support for your best experience possible.

Credits (with many thanks)

Késia Decoté (concept and performance), Joëlle Pappas (movement director), James Ball (lights), Charis and Ella (ushers), Stu Allsopp (photo documentation), Alex Newton (video documentation – Wednesday), John Twycross (video documentation – Thursday), Jéssica Frazão (video documentarist – Friday), Paul Medley (poster)

Piano: Roberts Pianos

Special thanks: CNPq (PhD sponsorship), Ray Lee (research 1st supervisor), Paul Whitty (research supervisor and SARU financial support), Joëlle Pappas (movement director), Marisa Rezende (composer), Sara Carvalho (composer), Cláudio Thompson and PhD colleagues for insightful feedback during the creative process, and priceless friendship throughout this journey.

Oxford Improvisers invite Tom Jackson / Vid Drašler / Daniel Thompson

This Saturday 27th May, Oxford Improvisers invite Vid Drašler, Tom Jackson and Daniel Thompson. There will be some improvisations with the host group too, and I will be playing piano and maybe organ.

St Columba’s United Reformed Church,
Alfred Street,
Oxford OX1 4EH
Tickets £8 / £6 on the door

7:45 pm – 10:00 pm

Vid Drašler, Tom Jackson and Daniel Thompson met for the first time in the spring of 2016 as part of the CRAM Records residency at FriForma in Ljubljana, Slovenia. During the residency the trio had the fortune to play and record as a trio in Vrhnika, Slovenia and immediately vowed to collaborate again.

Vid Drašler : sploh.si/viddrasler.html

Tom Jackson : musictomjackson.comand

Daniel Thompson : danielthompsonguitar.com

 

Sat 18 March – Xenia Pestova’s Non-Piano Concert

Pianist Xenia Pestova will play everything but the piano, presenting a wild mix of unconventional objects and sounds. The performance will include music by Helga Arias Parra for two aerospace engineers with prepared piano and live electronics, Ed Bennett for the Indian harmonium and drones, Christopher Fox for toy piano, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay for the ROLI Seaboard and fantastic world premieres from the participants of the first London Toy Piano Composition Workshop.

I will join Xenia on Omar Peracha‘s Colour Etude II, for 2 toy pianos and electronics.

This concert is part of the celebrations of #WorldToyPianoDay!

at Iklectik, ‘Old Paradise Yard’, 20 Carlisle Lane, SE1 7 LG, London, UK

doors 8pm – music 8.30pm | £9/£6 concessions*

BUY TICKETS  (fees not apply) 

*concessions ID required 

Sat 11 March – Oxford Improvisers and Magliocchi/ Okamoto/ Northover

Sat 11 March, 2017
7:00 pm – 9:30 pm

The White House

Marcello Magliocchi (percussion, Italy), Maresuke Okamoto (contracello, Japan), Adrian Northover (saxophone, UK)

Featuring a renowned international ensemble playing in Oxford for the first time.

Plus members of Oxford Improvisers (me included, on toy piano & objects).

£8 / £6 on the door

https://www.facebook.com/TheWhiteHouseOxford

Weds 08 March – ‘HYPNAGOGIA’

Festival Audiograft 2017  – Oxford’s Annual Festival of Experimental Music and Sonic Art

WEDNESDAY 8TH MARCH AT 9PM

Headington Hill Hall

Oxford Brookes University 

 

A late evening performance by Késia Decoté (piano) & Bruno Guastalla (cello + bandoneon)

Hypnagogia is the experience of the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep.

Listening, falling asleep, reading a book, dreaming, being at a concert.

We encourage audience members to come and go as they please during the performance, sit, lie down or stand, according to their whims, bring cushions, blankets.

The programme includes works by Valéria Bonafé, Morton Feldman, Linda Catlin-Smith, Laurence Crane and others, and the UK premiere of ‘Byland’ by Nick Storring.

Free

Késia Decoté is a Brazilian pianist with a rich and diverse career, as a piano soloist, chamber music instrumentalist, musician in theatre productions, and as a member of Oxford Improvisers. Késia has performed concerts to great acclaim in cities including Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Vitória and São Paulo (Brazil), Aveiro (Portugal), Oxford and London (UK). Having a special affinity for contemporary music, she has premiered works by contemporary Brazilian and British composers. Késia is interested in exploring alternative ways to shape her piano recitals, incorporating concepts from theatre and visual arts. kesiadecote.wordpress.com

Bruno Guastalla‘s working life for many years has been as a maker and restorer of violins and cellos. He plays cello and bandoneon and writes music. Bruno tends to gravitate towards an ‘in-between’ improvisation, score, and experimentation. Recent projects: performance with Ryoko Akama, Jurg Frei, Manfred Werder (HCMF 2015); performances of new works by Lawrence Dunn in Cheltenham as part of Set Ensemble, and a piece by Joseph Currie with the Eyot Trio; collaboration with dancer Macarena Ortuzar (Iklectik Gallery London); and ongoing collaborations with Oxford Improvisers. brunoguastalla.net

IMAGE: PAUL KLEE ‘DREAM CITY’ (SOURCE: WIKI ART)

Késia’s photo credit: Stu Allsopp