Living Room in London is a mixed ensemble made up of five instrumentalist-composers. Björk’s Hang player and drummer Manu Delago and ‘Austrian Jazz newcomer of the year’ award winning clarinetist Christoph Pepe Auer join London-based string players Ellie Fagg, Tom Norris and Gregor Riddell to create a unique sound that spans a wide range of musical influences. They have performed at venues including LSO St Luke’s, Klangspuren Festival, featured at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with critical acclaim and toured the UK, Austria, Switzerland and Germany. Plans for 2011/12 include commissioning an improvisation based work by Peter Wiegold and an electronic work by Milton Mermikides, a King’s Place ‘Out Hear’ series debut and a European tour to promote the release of their debut album.
Manu Delago, Austrian percussionist and composer, discovered the Hang, a Swiss sound sculpture in 2003 and has since performed in prestigious venues such as the Roundhouse, Southbank Centre and Barbican in London, Forbidden City Concert Hall Beijing, Downtown Independent Theatre Los Angeles and the Konzerthaus Vienna. His solo piece ’Mono Desire’ has more than three million hits on Youtube and is the most popular Hang video in the internet. The “masterful and sensitive musician“ (The Telegraph) has collaborated with high class artists such as Björk, Shpongle, Bugge Wesseltoft, Didier Lockwood, Stuart McCallum & Georg Breinschmid
Christoph Pepe Auer studied at the University of Music in Graz and studied with Dick Oatts, George Garzone, Donny McCaslin, Branford Marsalis, David Binney, Tony Malaby, Marcus Strickland, Jason Lindner. He has worked with the musicians including Adam Holzman (keyboard, Miles Davis Band), Joseph Bowie as well as the Vienna Art Orchestra. In 2005 he was sent to the IASJ (International Association of Schools of Jazz) meeting, directed by David Liebman, as a representative for the University of Graz. Awards include Jazzprice Biberach, 2007 Hans Koller Award “New York Scholarship” and “Newcomer of the Year“, Culture-Award Hörbiger.
Foundation Scholar from the Royal College of Music, Ellie Fagg enjoys a busy career playing regularly with the LSO as well as guest principal at CBSO and freelancing with London's top chamber, contemporary and baroque ensembles. With the Puertas Quartet she reached the semi finals of the Bordeaux International Quartet Competition and as a soloist has performed concertos and recitals across the country. Her awards include the MBF Emily English scholarship for 'most outstanding violinist heard at audition'.
Tom Norris, a principal violinist with LSO, is a versatile and diverse musician involved in numerous projects across a wide range of genres. He has performed extensively with Puertas Quartet, The Schubert Ensemble and Living Room In London, for which he has composed and arranged both classics and original music. Tom is also a singer and songwriter, and recently released his solo album, Edge Of The World.
Gregor Riddell is a founder member of the Solstice String Quartet who have won international awards, performed at prestigious concert halls throughout Europe and premiered numerous new works including his own, Touch-In, Touch-Out. He read Music at Cambridge University and composition at the Royal College of Music. He takes a strong interest in electronic composition and is also a member of band Monument Valley who recently released their debut EP with Communion Records.
