eavesdropping is a new series and a symposium dedicated to new music, curated by soprano Juliet Fraser and held in the little wooden chapel up in the eaves of Oxford House in Bethnal Green, London.
Season 2 runs with monthly events from January to April 2020. Over the course of four evenings, each a
double-bill, eight performers present their latest works or works-in-progress in an intimate and informal setting. eavesdropping's second season features Sophie Fetokaki, Jennifer Walshe, Raghad
Haddad, Eva Zöllner, O YAMO O (Rie Nakajima and Keiko Yamamoto), Juliet Fraser, Romina Lischka and Marlo De Lara (a.k.a marlo eggplant).
Each season culminates in a weekend-long symposium. The topic for this season's
symposium is 'creative activism: radical responses within new music'; the first season explored 'female creativity and the legacy and future of women in new music'.
COVID-19 UPDATE
I have decided, with much regret, to cancel all remaining eavesdropping events this season. Most EU countries are closing their borders
and going into lock-down and though the UK has been an outlyer in its stance, I expect it to follow suit in the next few days. At the moment, London does rather seem to be carrying on as usual,
but I'm feeling increasingly uncomfortable with this 'business as usual' policy: if social distancing and self-isolation are the basic order of the day, it just doesn't make sense, practically or
ethically, to hold the eavesdropping events, even if our numbers are small.
This raises a few new issues for me to grapple with. I will be writing to our funders to ascertain the status of our grant payments and I
promise I'll be doing all I can to try and pay the featured artists something, despite cancellation.
Sad to say, I think it's highly unlikely that our events will be rescheduled so I'll be investigating live-streaming/broadcast
options. This strategy doesn't necessarily work well for all performances, but with a bit of creative thinking there may be substitutes that we can offer to remote audiences. More on all of that to
follow. Sign up to our mailing list if you want to receive updates.
Thanks to all of you for being so patient and positive and generous as I wrangle with this unprecedented situation.
Juliet Fraser, artistic director of eavesdropping
16 March 2020
sign up to the mailing list to be ahead of the curve
eavesdropping 2020 is supported by PRS for Music Foundation and Artst Council England.
eavesdropping's first series was generously supported by the Hinrichsen Foundation,
and the symposium by the Music & Letters Trust.
eavesdropping's new designs are the beautiful work of Nayari Cepeda.
Print 