The last weeks have been full.

At the beginning of March we had a wonderful tour through the province of Quebec in Canada with Michael Beil’s scenic composition Hide to Show. The piece is a wild, virtuosic exploration of digital culture, where live music, video and staged action constantly blur the line between what is real and what is mediated.

We played four performances with truly fantastic audiences:

• 3 March — Québec City
• 5 March — Chicoutimi
• 7 March — Montréal (two shows)

Each concert had its own atmosphere, but everywhere we were met with incredible enthusiasm and curiosity. Touring a large-scale work like Hide to Show is always an adventure, and it was a real joy to share this piece with audiences across Quebec.

A huge thanks to everyone involved in organizing such a memorable tour.

Back in Belgium, we moved almost directly into our next project: a sold-out performance of Don’t Leave the Room at Muziekcentrum De Bijloke in Ghent on 12 March.

The program brought together three remarkable composers:

• Galina Ustvolskaya
• Alexander Khubeev
• Golnaz Shariatzadeh

The concert revolves around themes of silence, censorship and isolation, drawing inspiration from a poem by Joseph Brodsky that gives the program its title.

It feels particularly meaningful to perform this music in times like these. Two of the composers come from Russia and one from Iran — all contexts where artistic freedom and personal movement can be deeply restricted and politically dangerous. Their works remind us how artistic imagination can become a space of resistance, reflection, and sometimes simply survival.

Performing this program with a full hall in Ghent was both intense and deeply rewarding.

Almost at the same time, I was pleasantly surprised to come across a thoughtful and generous review of my concert in Kraków last December. The author rightly pointed out that while the audience was small, it was wonderfully engaged and enthusiastic—something performers feel immediately on stage. Even more gratifying were her reflections on the repertoire and the performance itself. It’s always encouraging to see careful listening and sincere engagement reflected back in words. Thank you Karolina Dąbek and Ruch Muzyczny.

Right now, my focus is firmly on Cologne, where I’m working with Prof. Ulrich Flad’s outstanding trombone class at the HfMT Köln. We’re in the midst of preparing a concert devoted entirely to contemporary music for trombone octet, quartet, and solo. The students are working with remarkable intensity and curiosity, and the atmosphere in rehearsals has been both demanding and inspiring. I’m very much looking forward to sharing the results.

Concert details:
📍 Ventanasaal, Cologne
🗓 22 February 2026
🕢 19:30

Music by: Joan Tower, Farzan Salsabili (world premiere), Pierre Jodlowski, Georg Friedrich Haas, Folk Rabe, and Judit Varga.

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This past weekend, we closed out our fall tour with Nadar Ensemble at Transit Festival in Leuven — and what a perfect way to wrap things up! Leuven always feels like home: it’s full of memories and friendly faces, and the food at STUK never disappoints. Performing there feels like a reunion, and the buzzing festival crowd adds that extra spark of energy.

Playing with Nadar is always a joy. The musicians are exceptional, and the creative rapport we’ve built over time makes every project feel fresh and exciting. I’m proud of how we keep pushing boundaries and collaborating on meaningful works together.

The program we brought was the Nadar Summer School’s What’s Next project. This year’s four composers — Eveline Vervliet (Belgium), Paul Scully (Ireland), Nina Fukuoka (Poland/Japan), and Matthew Grouse (UK) — each brought a truly distinct voice:

• Eveline Vervliet – The silence that sounds in its absence
• Paul Scully – Personal Best
• Nina Fukuoka – Yuggoth
• Matthew Grouse – To put words in my mouth

Hearing and realizing these pieces with the ensemble gives me hope about the next generation of composers. They challenged us, inspired us — and reminded me why we keep doing this.

(Photos from the performance are included — all are by Evy Ottermans.)

It was a particular joy that MATRIX [New Music Centre] celebrated their 25th anniversary during Transit this year — a milestone for an institution that has nurtured so many voices in new music in Leuven and beyond. I would be remiss if I also did not highlight the amazing socks they distributed as part of the celebration. They are bold and perfect as an unforgettable emblem of MATRIX’s creative spirit — a fun little touch that made the 25th birthday even more memorable.

Looking Ahead: October 27 in Köln

Up next: October 27, I’ll be performing at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, in their main concert hall, as part of their portrait concert for George Lewis. My piece will be Oraculum (solo trombone) — the first time I’ll present anything by Lewis, and the first time I’ll play trombone at HfMT in my role as professor there.

This concert is part of the Composing While Black & Queer symposium held at the school. Over three days (27-29 October, 2025), the symposium explores questions of identity, representation, and new directions in contemporary music.

I’m deeply enjoying working on Oraculum. It feels both challenging and rewarding, and presenting it in this context feels meaningful. Doing so in the same institution where I teach — on a program centered on inclusion, visibility, and expanding musical narratives — gives the concert extra weight for me personally.

This September – next week, I’m thrilled to go one tour again with our Nadar Ensemble, beginning in Utrecht—a city that feels like a second home. Over two weeks, we’ll perform in three countries, presenting two programs that showcase the ensemble, its flexibility, and our (new) collaborations with six innovative and compelling composers. .

The tour opens with “What’s Next”, where I’ll take on the playful role of a sports commentator in Paul Scully’s piece, alongside works by Matthew Grouse, Nina Fukuoka, and Eveline Vervliet. We’ll also perform “Don’t Leave the Room”, premiering Golnaz Shariatzadeh’s evocative composition Bluer Womb and Alexander Khubeev’s two-part work for solo performer (signing Russian Sign Language!): Don’t Leave the Room and Silentium!

Dates & Venues:

• Sept 11, 20:00 | Theater Kikker, Utrecht – What’s Next
• Sept 12, 20:00 | Theater Kikker, Utrecht – Don’t Leave the Room
• Sept 16, 20:00 | Sentralen, Oslo – Don’t Leave the Room
• Sept 21, 20:00 | Warsaw Autumn Festival – What’s Next

A very special shout out for Nadar’s back-office team. Their seamless organization for this tour – and always – is incredible. Bravo!

Utrecht, where I first lived in Europe, makes this tour’s start extra meaningful to me. Hope to see you in Utrecht, Oslo, or Warsaw!

(All photos are credited to Wim Heirbaut and Nadar Ensemble)

Last week I had the great pleasure of performing with Nadar at the Dublin Sound Lab’s cool festival Music Current. On the program was Thiery De Mey’s great Light Music. Back in 2021, the incredible computer scientists at Centre Henri Pousseur recreated De Mey’s electronics and since then we have had the chance to play it in several new venues. This most recent performance was reviewed by Adrian Smith:

“Technology was very much a feature of Thierry De Mey’s Light Music (2004, rev. 2021) for conductor and technician that utilised wifi sensors to ‘paint light and sound’. The Nadar Ensemble’s trombonist Thomas Moore assumed the role of a conductor, standing in relative darkness with a beam of light crossing the stage in front of him. When Moore moved his hands into the path of the beam they gave the impression of being independent of his body, flame-like and dancing in sync with sounds from an accompanying tape track. Later in the piece, these movements were visualised on the screen to paint the sound into a series of abstract images. The performance was a tour de force of concentration and accuracy from Moore and again demonstrated the effective integration of music and technology.”

https://journalofmusic.com/reviews/importance-ensembles-new-music-scene