Four artists chosen for IMC's NAVIGATOR residencies

Improvised Music Company (IMC) is delighted to announce the four artists selected for the NAVIGATOR residency programme this Autumn/Winter 2022.

The 14-day Navigator Jazz Residency programme, in collaboration with The Source Arts Centre, Thurles, An Grianán, Letterkenny, The Courthouse, Co. Wicklow, and Ballina Arts Centre in Mayo, offers jazz and improvising musicians professionally remunerated time and space to develop and perform work, while building relationships locally.

The NAVIGATOR artists for the 2022 residency programme are:

Olesya Zdorovetska at An Grianán, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal
Aengus Hackett at The Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely, Co Wicklow.
Emilie Conway at The Source Arts Centre, Thurles, Co Tipperary
Chris Guilfoyle at Ballina Arts Centre, Co. Mayo

Olesya Zdorovetska is a powerful and innovative voice in new music, fluent in a diverse range of disciplines and working internationally across numerous fields of activity. As a solo artist and collaborator she crosses the fields of improvised, jazz, Afro-Caribbean, contemporary classical and experimental music, and regularly composes for film and theatre. Olesya is a founder of the UICP (Ukrainian-Irish Cultural Platform) and co-curator (with Christodoulos Makris) of Phonica, an experimental music and poetry platform in Dublin.

Guitarist, composer, and producer Aengus Hackett is renowned as a jazz guitarist of the highest calibre, and an integral part of the jazz scene in the West of Ireland via his work with Galway Jazz Festival and his ‘JAZZGate’ at the BlackGate Cultural centre. His creative projects are truly eclectic, and include explorations of Irish and Turkish folk music, Javanese Gamelan and post-rock. Aengus also releases under the name ‘Penji’ exploring his lifelong passion for electronic music.

Emilie Conway is an award winning vocal jazz artist, composer and lyricist. Her music is informed and complemented by her love of literature, poetry, sound and silence. Recently, her art has focused on 3 areas – jazz and visual art/literature, jazz and disability and jazz for young audiences. A passionate activist for the equal and equitable participation of disabled people in arts and culture, Emilie is frequently sought as a speaker and EDI consultant for many arts organisations including The Ark, Creative Schools, The Arts Council, and Google.

Chris Guilfoyle is a guitarist, composer, bandleader, educator based in Dublin. He is a member of faculty at DCU’s Centre for Jazz Performance Studies. A founding member of the Dublin Jazz Co-op collective and an active player on the Irish jazz scene, Chris also leads his own group Umbra, an acclaimed quintet featuring some of the most promising musicians in Ireland, which has toured extensively in Ireland and Europe.

Aoife Concannon, Creative Producer with Improvised Music Company says; “The 2022 NAVIGATOR artists represent a real diversity in their work and approach to music making and collaboration, which is reflective of the huge surge of creativity in the Irish jazz and improvised music scene at the moment. I’m excited to see what will develop for these artists with the time, space and local immersion that a programme like NAVIGATOR allows.”

Through ongoing dialogue between IMC, the venues and the selected artists, a bespoke residency programme will be designed and delivered to assist in creating new work, new interactions, new collaborations, while also deepening the artists sense of place and space through an experience which is ultimately reflected in new interactions and outputs.The NAVIGATOR residency programme is part of IMC's commitment to further develop the national scene for jazz and improvised music, improve artist touring mobility, develop audiences nationwide, and develop creative opportunities and fruitful new relationships for musicians.