Manickam Yogeswaran
Manickam Yogeswaran, an acclaimed singer and composer, was the first Tamil musician to sing in Hollywood (Kubrick's “Eyes Wide Shut”). Performing Carnatic and diverse music globally for over 40 years, his repertory includes ancient Tamil songs and modern raga-based works. He’s voiced films, dance, and theatre across Europe, India, and North America, collaborating with contemporary composers. Based in Berlin, he teaches and directs the South Asian program at the Global Music Academy.
Lawrence Ball and Yogeswaran have collaborated for the past 20 or more years. They performed at the Purcell Room, Pete Townshend’s studio and the Lotus foundation. They are credited with three albums published online.
Yogeswaran completed three decades of his concert performance at the Carnatic music festival known as the “Chennai season” in South India. This important milestone was celebrated in the city in last December at a new venue called “Medai”.
Gina Fergione
Gina Fergione is a singer, composer, teacher, artist and festival and choir director based in North London. She read music at Dartington College of Arts, specialising in performance and composition, and holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from Goldsmiths College, University of London. As a singer she is drawn to releasing tension in body, mind, spirit and emotion in order to sing with freedom and authentic expression. In 2007 she founded the Community Choir at St Joseph's Hospice in Hackney, which rehearsed weekly and performed regularly in and around the Hospice. As a teacher she guides musicians of all ages towards their own expression.
James D'Angelo
James D’Angelo, an American composer, pianist, and educator, holds degrees from Manhattan School of Music (BMus, MMus) and a PhD from NYU. Mentored by Vittorio Giannini and Gunther Schuller, he taught at NYU and City University of New York before joining Goldsmiths College, London. There, he explored Indian music (Three Portraits of Krishna) and performed semi-improvised piano suites (1985-1994), influenced by Ravel, Debussy, and jazz. A published composer, he’s written “third stream” songs blending classical and jazz, plus choral and chamber works. His Three Portraits of Krishna was recorded for Virgin Classics, and Blow Out, Ye Bugles marked the 9/11 anniversary. His 2014 album The Holy City features sacred music, and he debuted Festival Fanfare at the 2013 Three Choirs Festival. In 2010, he formed Trio D’Angelo, arranging songs by Brahms and Ravel. For 20 years, he’s led sound therapy workshops, authoring The Healing Power of the Human Voice - soundspirit.co.uk
Nicolas Horvath
Acclaimed and unconventional artist Nicolas Horvath is a leading interpreter of Liszt and holds a number of awards, including First Prize of the Scriabin and the Luigi Nono International Competitions.
Horvath has become noted for the organisation of concerts of unusual length, sometimes lasting over twelve hours, such as the performance of the complete piano music of Philip Glass at the Paris Philharmonie before a cumulative audience of 14,000 people, or the complete piano music for Erik Satie and his Vexations.
Nicolas has produced twenty albums unanimously praised by the press. Nicolas is also a Steinway Artist and an electroacoustic composer.
Lawrence Ball
Lawrence Ball, a versatile composer and improviser, writes for dance, film, and choir, excelling in electronic and acoustic music. He completed his 8th Symphony in 2021 and collaborated with Pete Townshend on Method Music, generating 10,000 online pieces. His tonal, minimalist style, influenced by Terry Riley, emphasizes silence and meditation. Since 2001, he’s improvised with Lisa Sangita Moskow and Manickam Yogeswaran on Indian ragas and created audio-visual works with Genie Poretsky-Lee. Ball has worked with Michael Tusch on audio-visual connection as Synthaesis, composed for dancers Sheila Styles and Rebecca Ham, and written for pianists like Yonty Solomon. With over 4,000 improvisations, he’s performed globally and founded the Planet Tree Festival in 1996. Living in London, he tutors math and uses music for healing, reflecting a Taoist balance.
Alessanda Pompili
Alessandra Pompili has performed as a soloist to critical and public acclaim throughout Europe and the United States, in venues including Teatro Ghione in Rome, St David's Hall in Cardiff, the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Filharmonia Krakowska and the Vatican Museums. She is artistic director and co-founder of the concert season Ashley Notes, and pianist-in-residence of the Società Dante Alighieri in Manchester.
A specialist in the piano music of Alan Hovhaness, she has given numerous premieres in concert and on disc; her first CD was a Naxos Critics' Choice, and a second volume followed to further acclaim. She is also closely associated with Liszt's *Via Crucis*, performed more than 200 times across Europe since 2009 and released on Prima Facie in 2024.
She holds a PhD in History of Art and Archaeology.
Sacred Sounds
A unique overnight journey combining musicians and a gong bath to evoke a deep journey into other dimensions of energy, attuned to the deeper gong bath atmosphere, for musicians and audience alike to sleep some or much of the time, as they wish.
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Participating will be
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Gareth Wilkins (harp)
Christian DiMarco (didgeridoo, flutes, vocals and other world instruments)
Lawrence Ball (piano)
Gina Fergione (soprano voice)
Nicolas Horvath (piano)
plus a team of gong players who will play in relay, led by Yvonne Liang
Abel Sanchez-Aguilera
Praised for his “sophisticated handling of sound”, “stupendous virtuosity”, “analytical intelligence, stamina, and sheer keyboard facility”, Abel Sánchez-Aguilera has performed in twelve countries of Europe and America, on stages such as the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building (Oxford), Mozarteum (Salzburg), Gasteig (Munich), Teatros del Canal (Madrid), Willem Twee toonzaal (‘s-Hertogenbosch), Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris), Scriabin Memorial Museum (Moscow), Bulgaria Chamber Hall (Sofia). He has appeared in festivals such as the Salzburger Festspiele, Musikfest Stuttgart and COMA (International Contemporary Music Festival, Madrid).
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He is particularly devoted to the repertoire after 1900, large complex works and rarely performed music, and collaborates closely with living composers. In 2015 he performed Scriabin’s complete sonatas in Paris on the occasion of the centenary of the composer’s death. In 2022 he gave the world premiere of Kaikhosru Sorabji’s recently discovered, two-hour long Toccata terza (1955). His CD recordings of this work and the earlier Toccata seconda (1934) for the Piano Classics label have been acclaimed by the international press; the former has been called “a truly impressive feat” (Fanfare).
Maria Lukina
Pianist, soprano, and conductor Maria Lukina completed her higher education in Music in Madrid and in her hometown of St. Petersburg, and has attended piano masterclasses in Linz and at the Mozarteum International Summer Academy in Salzburg. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in New Technologies in Contemporary Music at the Madrid Conservatoire.
She has performed extensively as a singer, pianist, choir conductor, and choir singer on stages across Spain, France, Russia, Ukraine, and Latvia. As a pianist, she has participated in festivals such as COMA (International Contemporary Music Festival, Madrid) and FIMIM (International Iberoamerican Music Festival, Madrid). She has recorded, together with Abel Sánchez-Aguilera, the album “Mikrokosmos”, featuring piano music by Spanish composer Alejandro Román. As a soprano, she has performed recitals featuring Russian art songs and music from the 20th and 21st centuries. She works closely with contemporary composers and has premiered several works as both a soprano and pianist.