TEDxSalford

Riot Jazz

A twisted mix of funk, soul, hiphop and aggressive jazz – sculpted round the LIVE 9-piece Riot Jazz Brass Band. Anchored in the same New Orleans swamplands as the Hot 8 Brass Band and Youngblood Brass Band, the Riot Jazz Brass Band navigate a minefield of original peace-lovin’ aggro jazz, hip-hop samples, funked-up favourites and re-interpreted dubstep, drum’n’bass and dancefloor bangers that never fail to send limbs flying!

Since their maiden voyage in Manchester 2008, the Riot Jazz Brass Band has been the bare-breasted galleon figure of the Riot Jazz flotilla. Captained by Nick Walters (who recently completed a Masters in Jazz Trumpet) and fronted by the prodigious MC CHUNKY, these brass-wielding sentinels of live music and good times have infected ear-holes, dance floors and festival fields far and wide. Tours of the UK and Europe have established The Riot Jazz Brass Band as band in their own right and earned them a faithful and diverse following. Festival performances include Glastonbury, Fusion Festival (Germany), Big Chill, Bestival, Camp Bestival, Kendal Calling, Soundwave Croatia, Parklife and EuroCultured: Dublin/Finland.

Find more about Riot Jazz at their website – Riot Jazz Brass Band

Nicki Wells – British Singer & Composer

Singer-songwriter and composer-producer Nicki Wells, having recently gained a first class honours degree in music, has been working on her solo debut album as well as multiple collaborations with various artists and producers including the acclaimed Nitin Sawhney. She has already been featured on his work from album recordings to performances in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Opera House and Sadlers Wells and is featured on the recent BBC hit series the ‘Human Planet’.

In January of 2011, Nicki composed the score for Tanika Gupta’s theatrical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’, receiving critical acclaim as it toured theaters and playhouses throughout the country. Having already performed in countries as a singer to sell out audiences in regions as diverse as Australia, the Middle East, the Far East & Europe, she has astounded audiences all over the world with her incomparable ability to traverse the gaps between old and new, east and west and contemporary chic and classicism. Nicki Wells will be performing as part of Nitin Sawhney’s presentation at TEDxSalford 2013.

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Hetain Patel – Award Winning Visual Artist

In his compelling stage works, Hetain Patel uses powerful imagery and storytelling to examine questions of identity. In 2004, having graduated just a year earlier, Hetain Patel received the decibel award from Arts Council England, East Midlands. Since then, his photography, video and live works have been exhibited nationally and internationally. His work examines various sensory forms of language, communication and cultural identity. Often using his own body as a site for these discussions, he strives to find a connection with his heritage through the exploration of physics, rituals and Indian classical music. Employing techniques ranging from fashion photography to tabla drumming, he is interested in processes. This he believes is often where work becomes less culture specific and more about the general communication between bodies.

“What determines our identities anyway?” asks Hetain Patel. As a child, Patel wanted to be Bruce Lee; later, he wanted to be more like his father, with a different kind of bravery. From this question, his new show Be Like Water examines shifting identities of all kinds, using dance and bold imagery to power a story of self-examination and self-creation. Interestingly, in the piece, Patel collaborates with the Taiwanese dancer Yuyu Rau, who often stands in for him to tell his own story.

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Davide Swarup – Leading Pioneer of the “Hang”

Davide Swarup is a leading Italian percussionist and one of the world’s leading pioneers of the “Hang” Drum. The “Hang” is a percussion instrument with melody invented in 2000 by PANArt, an evolution of the steel pan. Family name “Hand pan”. It is produced by the two inventors, Sabina Scharer and Felix Rohner, in a limited production in Bern.

Davide went to India in 2000 and discovered his skills in drumming – and he listened for the first time, the Indian santoor, live! He returned to Italy but came back to India in 2002 to buy a santoor and decided to become a musician. In March 2005, a friend of his introduced him to the “Hang” and he fell in love with the instrument. His first three years were a full intense solo playing to discover the instrument and develop his touch. He hasn’t stopped since. He has become one of the leading pioneers of the “Hang” and has toured several continents performing live around the world. He will be giving a full blown performance of the “Hang” at TEDxSalford 2.0.

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Stuart Nolan – Deception and Attention Control Specialist 

Stuart was thrown out of school for reading too much and spent his youth involved in a range of nefarious activities including time as a pitchman, a fake psychic, a 3-card monte thrower, and a stand-up poet. When he grew up he spent 17 years developing for Interactive TV, Web, mobile devices, games platforms, and museum displays. In 2002, a NESTA Fellowship gave him the opportunity to travel the world studying with experts in traditional techniques of deception and attention control. Refining these techniques using current research in psychology and neuroscience he developed his expertise in sleight-of hand magic, hypnosis, cold reading, and psychological illusion.

Stuart has applied these techniques to new areas, researching how teenagers respond to the mysterious in new technologies, how organisations are regularly deceived by the language of strategy documents, and how the art of attention control can be used in design, media production and sport coaching. He has run his unique workshops with architects in Manchester, technologists in Lima, film editors in Paris, journalists in Sofia, museum directors in Norwich, artists in Madrid, Internet entrepreneurs in Kuala Lumpur, TV executives in Helsinki, game designers in Alicante, scriptwriters in Amsterdam, futurologists in Brussels, Rugby players in Yorkshire, and teenage inventors at the BBC.

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Classical Revolution Manchester 

Classical Revolution Manchester was founded in June 2011 as a chapter of the worldwide Classical Revolution movement. They play chamber music in informal, unusual venues to bring this incredible music to new audiences. The performers range from international soloists to professional orchestral and chamber players to students to amateurs- they bring together people who purely want to play and encourage audiences to ask questions and be involved. It’s basically bringing chamber music back to where it started- intimate, informal and relevant to all.

Classical Revolution UK is expanding into staging orchestral events in a different way incorporating other art forms such as film, theatre, dance, drama, and providing education programmes and workshops to children and young people from all backgrounds. They are also commissioning new compositions, running live composition events, improvisation workshops and playing at large family festivals.

Find more about Classical Revolution at their website – Classical Revolution