Projects: current and upcoming
that other quartet:
Contemporary Cello: In early January 2020 Ruth spent time on a self directed residency at Sweeny’s Bothy, on the Isle of Eigg in Scotland. This time was dedicated to creative practical work on the cello, that often gets disrupted in normal freelance life, and in particular the development of a program for solo cello, and cello quartet..
Projects ongoing in different health settings in Stockholm: Musik & hälsa: Kreativt musikskapande i vården
Projects: looking back
FRITT SPELRUM in collaboration with Adolfbergsskolan and Örebro Konserthus. September 2022- January 2023
Kreativt musikskapande på barnavdelningen 3.0 A project, with research attached, on the wards at Sachsska barn- och ungdomssjukhus, September 2021- February 2022. Research Report, coming soon!
c/o Stockholm “Vem kan segla förutom vind?” Åland, April 2022
Listen here to the concert live from Ålands Radio!
LOVE NOTES with that other quartet. A program about the art of communicating one's love now included in Stockholm läns landsting catalogue for concerts in health and care settings. We have played the program for audiences in these settings throughout 2019, and will do this even more in 2020! See here for more info: http://kulturutbud.sll.se/love-notes . This program is also available for booking through Västmanlandsmusiken: https://vastmanlandsmusiken.se/for-arrangorer/utbud-vasteras/that-other-quartet/
Kreativt musikskapande på Center för sinnesstimulering Initial project at Sabbatsbergs hospital from January to April 2020. More info at: www.ruthspargo.live/lagunen-och-korallen (POSTPONED DUE TO COVID 19)
Fritt Spelrum a project led by Lucy Rugman in collaboration with Musik Centrum Öst and Konserthuset Stockholm in November 2019. Ruth took part as a musician from Konserthuset in this project with Jorielskolan, where they created an exciting concert with the students music inspired by the 'environment'! https://www.musikcentrumost.se/artist/fritt-spelrum-1
Kreativt musikskapande på barnavdelningen 2.0 A project on the wards at Sachsska barn- och ungdomssjukhus, May to August 2019. See more details here: www.ruthspargo.live/sachsska
“Afternoon tea” concert tour in elderly and dementia care settings for Scenkonst Sörmlands, Spring 2019 https://scenkonstsormland.se/musik/musik-i-vard-och-aldreomsorg-2019/afternoon-tea/
ERIKSSON/PILOSSIAN/SPARGO with their program Svindlande Höjder: Concerts in Sweden during the summer of 2018.
What does Kate Bush have in common with Clara Schumann, Björk and Birgit Nilsson? A project consisting of a soprano, violinist and a cellist with a program of classic songs combined and intertwined with modern pop works in a completely new form.
Kreativt musikskapande på barnavdelningen Initial project on the wards at Sachsska barn- och ungdomssjukhus, October to December 2018. See more details here: www.ruthspargo.live/sachsska
Mondgewäsche: created by Patricia Alessandrini with Gageego! and In:fluence Ensemble from ShareMusic & Performing Arts
World premiere: October 19, 2014, Gothenburg Concert Hall
Mondgewächse is a multimedia project focussing on perception and the body, shaping images of the performers and their gestures in sound, shade and colour. The instruments and interfaces employed become extensions of the performers’ bodies, as interfaces are worn to control electronic sound with gestures, or to excite or amplify an instrument using the contact of the body. The various ways in which the body and movement is represented – through tracings, video tracking, gesture tracking, and shadow play – allow for multiple constructions of the body. They thereby illustrate the subjectivity of how we construct our bodies and how we perceive the bodies of others. They allow the body to be constructed and re-constructed in combination with various instruments and interfaces.
Whirlpool Bach: collaboration with Mälardalen University Sweden, 2014
Bach: Solo Suite No.1 in G major with visuals manipulated by sensors.
In this project, Music Interaction Symbiosis Technology (MIST) design was used to create a visual augmentation of my performance by controlling the frame rate of a video using sensors. The video being manipulated displayed water whirlpools in a stream, from a channel used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to ship iron, the most important export of Sweden of that time. While I played Bach, the electromyography (EMG) signals reversed the whirlpools of the stream symbolising transience of industry and nostalgia for what has been. During moments of release the stream starts to flow forward again, washing away the past.
Click here to read the research article "Augmented Embodied Performance" that was published surrounding this project. Performances included Norberg Festival, July 2014 and Kulturnatt @ Västerås Konserthuset, September 2014
Interpreting the Mystery: The Bach Solo Suites for Cello
As part of the Severnside Festival in Gloucestershire in June 2013, I performed all of the 6 Bach Solo Suites for cello in 6 different concerts in each of the 6 churches in the area. This was the program for the week.
Poster design by Gaianeh Pilossian
Monday 3rd June 9.30 pm: Suite No.1 Candle light Opening Concert at Saul Church
Tuesday 4th June 8pm: Suite No. 4 Art Exhibition Preview Concert at Frampton Church
Wednesday 5th June 2pm: Suite No. 2 Cream tea Concert at Frampton Chapel
Thursday 6th June 6pm: Suite No. 5 Fretherne Church, Followed by supper at a pop-up restaurant
Friday 7th June 2pm: Lakefield Primary School: short concert
Friday 7th June, 730pm: Suite No. 6 Concert with photographic film to be designed by local photographer - Karen Skeats- at Framilode Church
Saturday 8th June 11am Concert at The Old Vicarage (dementia care centre)
Saturday 8th June 2pm Concert at Wisma Mulia (elderly peoples residential home)