ARTISTS
Thomas Fournil
Artistic direction, Composition, Hurdy-gurdy, Portative Organ
Thomas Fournil is a Corsican composer-researcher, singer, and instrumentalist (hurdy-gurdy, portative organ, keyboards) working between medievalism, oral traditions, music archaeology, spectralism/spectrality, and technology. He specialises in troubadour song and Old Roman chant, and explores how recent work in musicology, archaeology, and medieval literature, in dialogue with living oral traditions, can inform historically informed performance and experimental composition. He is especially interested in ornamentation, micro-intonation, vocal technique, improvisation, heterophony, logogenetics, and questions of identity. His practice-based doctorate as a medievalist composer informs both his artistic work and his teaching, supporting approaches that welcome diverse backgrounds, skills, and learning styles, and enabling enquiries in postcolonial, non-modern, queer, and feminocentric fields.
Noémie Ducimetière
Voice, Oud, Electric Guitar
Noémie Ducimetière (Noum) is a London-based French-Swiss singer, songwriter and producer. Her diverse and often unconventional path spans fronting bands, playing live scores for circus shows, and sound designing film and radio, most notably the eight-part BBC audio adventure Hold Fast!. Entirely intertwined with her songwriting, Noémie has immersed herself in vernacular music over the years, through her own digging and through her fruitful collaboration with Thomas Fournil who exposed her to troubadour, Corsican and Old Roman chant long before his founding of Idrîsî Ensemble and became a guiding force in her artistic growth. Her other mentors include Marcel Pérès, Evgenios Voulgaris, Kareem Samara and Spartimu. She is currently putting the finishing touches on her debut album.
Elsa Hackett Esteban
Voice
Elsa Hackett Esteban (elsas) is a London-based multidisciplinary artist and vocalist born in Barcelona. She graduated with 1st Class Honours from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2019 in Jazz Vocals and Composition, where she also developed her practice in large ensemble writing and electronic production. Trained in classical piano and choral music from a young age, she founded the Catalan a cappella group In Crescendo, winners of the Spanish TV competition Oh Happy Day in 2014, before moving to London.
Since graduating, she has collaborated as a touring and recording musician and songwriter with artists including Sampha, Florence and the Machine, Little Simz, Duval Timothy, Jockstrap, Obongjayar, and Black Country, New Road. Since early 2023, she has been a core part of Sampha’s live band, touring globally and opening as a solo act on his U.S. tour.
Under her solo project elsas, she brings together Anglo and Latin musical worlds through poetic depth and sonic innovation, with her voice as the centrepiece. Her forthcoming release APORIAMOR is slated for February 2026. The influence of her South American and Mediterranean heritage has greatly informed her artistry and vocal expression, which she is exploring further through her work with Idîsi Ensemble. Instagram: @elsas_hi Learn more
Dunja Botic
Voice
Dunja Botic is a London-based singer, educator, bandleader, and actor known for her powerful performances and distinctive vocal style rooted in her Greek and Serbian heritage. She blends influences from Balkan, Mediterranean, and Near Eastern folk traditions with jazz and makam improvisation, creating evocative world-music and storytelling through song. Dunja performs both as a solo artist and with ensembles such as Mandalakia and vocal trio Alkanna Graeca, bringing intensity and cultural depth to every stage. In addition to performing, she teaches vocal technique, Balkan ornamentation, and performance expression through workshops informed by her holistic approach to voice and body. Dunja has also worked in theatre as a lead vocalist with companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company and has shared her music on platforms such as BBC Radio 3 and Resonance FM.
Eliza Oakes
Voice
South London artist Eliza Oakes is a vocalist, writer and performer whose work offers a distinctive and expansive exploration of the voice, blending improvisation, classic songwriting and performance. Graduating from the Guildhall School of Music with a first-class honours degree in Jazz Vocal, she combines the learnings of her early gospel roots to her double-decade long study of jazz, classical, musical theatre and pop.
As a session vocalist and instrumentalist, she has toured and recorded with artists including Jordan Rakei, Florence + The Machine, Elbow, Gregory Porter and Disclosure. Previously supported by the PRS Women Make Music Fund she is currently developing her next original body of work, weaving together Americana, folk, and pop influences.
Irini Arabatzi
Voice
Irini Arabatzi is a Greek singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She developed a deep passion for jazz and improvisation after years of classical piano training. She studied law in Athens but pursued music simultaneously, performing with renowned jazz musicians across Greece. She was part of the vocal group "Fonés" and appeared in musical theater productions like "West Side Story" and "Shrek." She also collaborated with the BBC Radio-hosted Euroradio Orchestra during her time at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Irini completed her Master's Degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and joined the jazz vocal group London Vocal Project. She is set to release her debut EP with Alberts Favourites label in 2024 and continues to perform at major festivals and venues in the UK, Greece, and Belgium. Irini is equally passionate about teaching singing, working with choirs, vocal groups, and individuals, as well as providing musicianship and Kodaly training to young children.
Konstantinos Glynos
Kanun
Konstantinos Glynos is a London-based kanun player. He performs music spanning from Balkan, Greek, Turkish and Arabic traditions. Moreover London offered him the platform to expand his range of performance skills in jazz ensembles and experimental music. He has collaborated with numerous musicians, dancers, visual artists, composers and directors and he has performed in many world music festivals as well as London venues such as Green Note, Harrison's pub and Magic Garden as well as Ronnie Scott's, Union Chapel and The Place. He is currently a MA student at Goldsmiths university, pursuing a degree in Performance and Related Studies and his research is focusing on arranging, transcribing and performing western baroque music on the Turkish kanun.
Oliver Dover
Kaval, Ney
Oliver Dover is a saxophonist/clarinettist/kaval/ney player based in Leeds. He specialises in the crossover between jazz and the music of the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean, and has been fortunate enough to have studied with some of the great masters of Greek, Turkish and Bulgarian folk music. He has toured internationally with The Turbans, Beats and Pieces Big Band, Mohammed Alnuma, Hassan Eraji, HAWA,The Near East Collective, Kourelou, Polar Bear and many others.
Lucine Musaelian
Vielle, Voice
Lucine Musaelian is an Armenian-American viola da gamba player, singer, and composer. She graduated from Yale University in 2020 with a B.A. in Music. In July 2022, Lucine completed her M.A. in Historical Performance at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, where she studied viola da gamba with Paolo Pandolfo and voice with Rosa Dominguez. She continued her viol studies with Jonathan Manson at the Royal Academy of Music, where she recieved a Professional Diploma in Viola da Gamba Performance as a recipient of the Enlightenment Award. Lucine is now a Royal Academy Chamber Fellow with the duo Intesa, which specialises in self-accompaniment and multi-genre performance. Her recent performances include a concert in the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s Night Shift series, and with Phantasm and Dunedin Consort. In March, she will play with the BBC Philharmonic in a performance of J.S.Bach’s St. John Passion.
CHORUS
