“poetic loveliness” (Leo Chadburn’s Vapour Descriptors with Kate Halsall), Peter Margasak, Best of Bandcamp Contemporary Classical (April 2021)
“Each piece was written for the performers heard here, and the act of Verlaak travelling all over between Berlin and Penrith to record them playing her music at home alludes to a wider project in which the goal is not to make a point, but to find out what may be learned.” Boring Like A Drill (February 2024)
“Intriguing” ‘2 Steep 4 Sheep [some hills are]’ by Ailís Ní Ríain, Breathe in Me album, The Wire magazine, Spenser Tomson (May 2021)
“Tender and heroically controlled” Ockeghem Octets, Antoine Beuger. Kate Molleson, Guardian
“..wry, fond, understated and slightly bonkers.” Shenanigans album, Colin Riley Guardian
“Clever and lovely” Leo Chadburn, Kate Halsall Vapour Descriptors (Maya Carlyle, Late Junction, BBC Radio 3)
“Catalogue d’Emojis had me grinning… a lot of fun.. this Catalogue aims to do for the humble emoji what Messiaen did for bird song.” The Arts Desk (November 2019)
Kate performs and commissions music for piano and other keyboard instruments and collaborates with a wide range of artists, creating new work. Her performances often include old/new music with improvised elements and electronics, sometimes written for her by composers including Pippa Murphy, Fumiko Miyachi, Leo Chadburn and Rose Dodd among many others. She has released music on several labels including on Birmingham Record Label & NMC Recordings with her piano duo Cobalt, and Miniaturised Concertos | Maché, her album of new works and remixes for multiple pianos, electronics and ensemble released on Metier; and with Another Timbre, Antoine Beuger's Ockeghem Octets.
“The album begins with Medekšaitė’s “Textile 1”, … the notes fall like gentle rain, seemingly from everywhere at once.” (Cobalt Duo, Up Down Top Bottom Strange Charm, NMC) burning ambulance
Kate has collaborated closely with a variety of musicians including Joel Bell, Sarah Dacey, Ruth Goller, Fumiko Miyachi, Stephen Hiscock; with artists from Fretwork Viols, Michael Clarke Dance Company to King Crimson’s Bill Bruford and more recently Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs drummer Ewan Mackenzie’s Dextro and Glasgow based improvisers, Sound Thought. She’s worked with a number of new music ensembles and companies including Opera North, Mahogany Opera, as pianist/director in Piano Circus, for Andrew Poppy’s Sustaining Ensemble, with Michael Clark Dance Company (OH MY GODDESS 2003), as pianist for In Place by Colin Riley, and for Ockham’s Razor contemporary circus (Graham Fitkin’s Not Until We Are Lost).
Kate is the pianist/manager for Galvanize Ensemble, an electroacoustic group working with artists, film & text, creating cross disciplinary performances and exhibitions. She has been able to develop new work and her ensemble practice, with residencies including with Stromatolite/NEM Summit, Aldeburgh Music, Banff Centre Canada, Bowed Piano Ensemble Colorado College, Derry University Residency with SoundKarD, as a Boom Artist for Oxford Contemporary Music and a Summer Studio with Sage Gateshead (Glasshouse).
Other performances for solo and ensemble projects, have included at Frontiers Festival, BBC Free Thinking Festival (NE Collective Choir), Acoustic Ecology Symposium University of Kent, Dartington Hall, Multiple Piano Day BBC Proms, LIFEM, Southbank, John Cage Uncaged (Musicircus, Barbican), Kings Place Multiplier Series, Cutting Edge, iF Festival Bush Hall, Cheltenham Contemporary Concerts, Aldeburgh, Hoxton Hall, Sound Source (Plundering Žižek); Tramway Glasgow, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Sonorities, Tête à Tête Opera Festival, Colourscape Festival, Southbank Centre Imagine Children’s Festival, Multiple Piano Day BBC Proms, Ether Festival, Festival of Dimitria Thessaloniki, Festival de la Sainte Baume Provence, Hack the Barbican and Blackheather Club.
Kate Halsall 