Kevin Toksöz Fairbairn 

 

Portfolio

Chamber Music

Selected Publications

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.

Solo with Ensemble

Improvisation

Poiesis and the Performance Practice of Physically Polyphonic Notations

Doktorarbeit (Leiden University), 2020 

https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/827474/827475

Artistic Research & Solo Projects

Compositions, Self-built Instruments, Sound Art

Solo Trombone

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

Beat Furrer: Spazio Immergente

 

with Elina Viluma, soprano

 

Radiokulturhaus Vienna, AT

2 June 2017

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

dwell.weave

Sound art performance: sornas, turntables, objects

https://vrzvr.bandcamp.com/album/dwell-weave

Gerard Grisey: Solo pour Deux

 

Klangforum Wien

with Bernhard Zachhuber

 

Fesitival Traiettorie, Parma, IT

20 September 2017

Timothy McCormack: HEAVY MATTER

Hütte der Nilpferdin

 

Reigen-Live Jazz Club, Vienna

on Dialogue Festival

16 June 2017

 

with Franz Hautzinger

 

Vienna, AT

28 June 2017

Further Chamber Music Concert Documentation

 

                  Ryoanji Reinterpreted
                  
          Blechtrommel Duo

                  https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/487450/487451

 

                  One Arm

                            Winston/Goepfert Duo

                  https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/548601/548602

Tripdych

 

Claquekeller, Baden, Switzerland

NUMU Concert Series

23 January 2015

Hunjoo Jung: ReFLEction/ReFRAction/DifFRAction


Hannover, DE

29 September 2021

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

Sound, Space, and the Home(less)

Journal of Sonic Studies, 2021

https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/941753/941754

Wandering Trails through an Endless Landscape

reMusik.org Journal, 2020

https://en.remusik.org/magazine/reviews-20201127/

ay neden şeftali gibi kokuyor?

Alphorns

https://vrzvr.bandcamp.com/album/ay-neden-eftali-gibi-kokuyor

Chikako Morishita: Skin, Gelatin, Soot mvt. 1

(adaptation by the performer)

Flotsam&Jetsam   (excerpt)

SMOG no. 34, Q-02

Brussels, Belgium

17 June 2019