Joby Burgess
One of Britain’s most diverse percussionists, Joby is best known for his virtuosic, often lissom performances, daring collaborations, extensive education work, and regularly appears throughout Europe, the USA and beyond.
Joby commits much of his time to three chamber music projects – Powerplant, New Noise and ensemblebash – of which, he is either the artistic or co-artistic director. Founded in 1999 his duo New Noise, with oboist Janey Miller, has given well in excess of two hundred performances, whilst creating an entirely new repertoire and distinctive sound. In 2001, Joby joined Britain’s leading percussion quartet, ensemblebash, replacing founding father Richard Benjafield. The group has since gone onto tour and record extensively with drumming legend Stewart Copeland, and during 2005 was in residence at the VCA, Melbourne, Australia. Earlier that year Joby founded the multimedia collective Powerplant, a collaboration with sound designer Matthew Fairclough and visual artist Kathy Hinde. Powerplant has created an experimental and challenging repertoire fusing seminal percussion works alongside it’s own work, improvisations and commissions; releasing two albums of its work to date.
Dedicated to the development of the percussion repertoire, often in combination with electronics, Joby spends much of his time commissioning and recording new music. Recent highlights have included extensive tours with Peter Gabriel’s New Blood Orchestra and Graham Fitkin’s all star band; releases of Gabriel Prokofiev’s Import/Export on Nonclassical and Frozen River Flows on Oboe Classics. Future plans include a new duo – Uncharted – with cellist/vocalist Matthew Sharp, and a large-scale multimedia commission from Max de Wardener.
Joby regularly performs, records and collaborates with artists including Stewart Copeland, Michael Finnissy, Graham Fitkin, Peter Gabriel, John Kenny, Akram Khan, Sarah Leonard, Joanna MacGregor, Peter Maxwell Davies, Nitin Sawhney, Andy Sheppard, Keith Tippett and Nana Vasconcelos, along with many of the world’s leading chamber ensembles. He is also a member of Stephen Deazley’s Edinburgh based ensemble, Music at the Brewhouse, for which Joby was commissioned to arrange A-ha’s pop classic Take On Me, for the 2008 St Magnus Festival in Orkney.
In 2004 Joby was appointed professor of percussion and director of percussion ensembles at Junior Trinity College of Music, Greenwich. Each year he leads numerous education events, for organisations such as Dartington International Summer School, South West Music School and the Percussive Arts Society, with workshops focusing on rhythm, composition and improvisation, often using West African music as the stimulus. Joby studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London.
