Kevin Toksöz Fairbairn performs regularly throughout central Europe and the eastern United States, and specializes in the performance, improvisation, and composition of experimental music. His commitment to exploring sound have led to many unique projects both within notated music and beyond.
He is committed to the exploration of new techniques and media in the language of contemporary trombone, and develops these ideas in solo, multimedia, and improvisation settings. His performances and research in this domain have been featured at festivals such as the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Donaueschingen Summer Courses for New Music, and the on dialogue Festival in Vienna. In 2017, he was awarded a grant from the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to present his solo compositions at Austrian cultural forums throughout the world. Beyond his own compositions and concepts, his solo projects have involved close collaboration with composers including Vinko Globokar, Sehyung Kim, Michael Baldwin, Curtis Rumrill, and Richard Barrett.
Since 2013, he has performed regularly with Klangforum Wien, with whom he has appeared as a soloist numerous times, and Collegium Novum Zürich, of which he is a member. As an ensemble musician, he has performed at major concert halls and festivals throughout Europe, where he has worked with composers including Pierluigi Billone, Rebecca Saunders, Salvatore Sciarrino, Georges Aperghis, Beat Furrer, Enno Poppe, Hans Zender, Ashley Fure, Richard Barrett, Timothy McCormack, Marco Momi, Lucia Ronchetti, Wojtek Blecharz, Bernard Lang, Klaus Lang, Carola Bauckholt, and many others.
Kevin collaborates frequently with young and emerging composers, and advocates extensively to develop new and experimental chamber music for the trombone. His duos with long-standing musical allies Joao Carlos Pacheco (Blechtrommel) and Coleman Goepfert (Winston/Goepfert Duo) have served as principal laboratories for these engagements. With these duos, among others, Kevin has premiered pieces by Eric Egan, Leo Collin, Daniel Riegler, Fernando Manassero, Karlheinz Essl, Antoine Chessex, Santiago Diez-Fischer, Beat Furrer and many others.
Kevin also maintains an active practice as a researcher, academic, and teacher. He publishes within the fields of sound studies and artistic research, including his forthcoming book dis/cord: Thinking Sound through Agential Realism (punctum books, 2022). He has also presented and published work on experimental musical notations and their relationship to embodied learning and cognition, such as his PhD dissertation Poiesis and the Performance Practice of Physically Polyphonic Notations (Leiden University, 2020), which was awarded a cum laude distinction. He has additionally given masterclasses and guest artist recitals at universities in America, Europe, and Asia.
Toksöz Fairbairn is also a brass instrument maker. He apprenticed many years with master craftsman George McCracken and performs on trombones and other instruments of his own design and construction.
Poiesis and the Performance Practice of Physically Polyphonic Notations
Doktorarbeit (Leiden University), 2020
dis/cord: Thinking Sound through Agential Realism
punctum books, 2022
https://punctumbooks.com/titles/dis-cord-thinking-sound-through-agential-realism/
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
20 November 2017
Richard Barrett basalt
Timothy McCormack HEAVY MATTER UK Premiere
Sehyung Kim Sijo_241015 UK Premiere
Pierluigi Billone: Ebe und Anders
Klangforum Wien
Clement Power
Sava Stoianov, trumpet
Kevin Fairbairn, trombone
Yaron Deutsch, guitar
Helmut List Halle
Steirischer Herbst Festival
10 October 2014
A body of seemingly (performance)
ARC (art_research_convergence)
Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University
Studio LOOS, the Hague
6 December 2021
as part of Sounding Sonic Materialism with Marcel Cobussen,
Richard Barrett, and Gabriel Paiuk
full session accessible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyErYoh4fYc&t=3260s
Chikako Morishita: One Arm 5
Winston/Goepfert Duo (with Coleman Goepfert, e-guitar)
Galerie Anixis, Baden, CH
23 September 2018
Gerard Grisey: Solo pour Deux
Klangforum Wien
with Bernhard Zachhuber
Fesitival Traiettorie, Parma, IT
20 September 2017
Further Chamber Music Concert Documentation
Ryoanji Reinterpreted
Blechtrommel Duo
https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/487450/487451
One Arm
Winston/Goepfert Duo
Lucia Ronchetti: Forward and downward, turning neither to the left nor to the right
(excerpts, documentation)
Collegium Novum Zürich
Jonathan Stockhammer
Imke Frank, cello
Kevin Fairbairn, trombone
Matthias Ziegler, contrabass flute
Schloss Werdenberg
Schlossmediale Werdenberg Festival
7 June 2014
Richard Barrett: EARTH
Blechtrommel Duo (with João Carlos Pacheco, percussion)
Impuls Festival, Graz, AT
23 February 2015
Santiago Diez-Fischer: synthetic yellow trip
Winston/Goepfert Duo (with Coleman Goepfert, e-guitar)
WiM Zürich, CH
31 October 2021
ay neden şeftali gibi kokuyor?
Alphorns
https://vrzvr.bandcamp.com/album/ay-neden-eftali-gibi-kokuyor