ONe_Orchestra New at The Vortex, 10 July 2024. Photo by Tom Ward.

Let’s start from the beginning! How did ONe_Orchestra New start, and what’s the idea behind the capitalisation of the name? 

CK: We came into being in 2022. Sofia Vaisman Maturana and I felt that large-group improvisation as we had been experiencing it in large mixed groups was... limiting. We wanted to go further into difference in sound and identity... Our first performance came together very quickly as a benefit (at Cafe Oto!) for queer people in Ukraine. 

The name made sense to us at the time, but lots of people ask us the same questions as you! ONe = "O" for Orchestra plus "Ne" for New. So really we're just called Orchestra New, and ONe is short for that.

I know you founded Mass Producers (20-piece female sax/voice orchestra playing Kraabel’s own composed music, active 1998-2002). What did you learn from that experience that you wanted to develop with ONe Orchestra New?

CK: In my mind/ ears, the main thing that Mass Producers and ONe_Orchestra New have in common is that they don't include any cis-gender men – because the music seems quite different. Mass Producers was playing through-composed acoustic voice and saxophone music/movement in specific spaces; ONe_Orchestra New is devoted to large-group improvisation in sound and movement by trans and non-binary people and cis-gender women... I now see that in fact ideas about sound, acoustics, extending vocabulary, space are common to both groups, alongside the joy, freedom, transgression of patriarchal norms, and safe space to exist/ interact/ explore that comes from explicitly limiting our membership to people with specific identities.

How does one go about joining the Orchestra? Are there any skill requirements? 

CK: We welcome improvisers or musicians who want to explore improvising, and who identify as trans, as non-binary, or as cis women.

What does a ‘score’ for ONe consist of? I’ve seen some examples I think on bandcamp – do you use notation, or is it mostly written direction? 

CK: We've played various pieces devised in different ways (Damsel Elysium's "It's OK to grieve for her – For Ana Mendieta" was a real highlight!), but for the last year or more we've been working (in our monthly labs) on ideas and exercises that help us, when we perform, to improvise completely freely as a large group... something that is very difficult!

I've read that Maggie Nicols’ Gathering is an influence – what other composers / orchestras are you influenced by, and what is it about The Gathering that appeals to you? 

CK: The Gathering is great because it's a long-term project in exactly that: completely free large(ish)-group improvisation. Maggie explicitly excludes any "pieces" or instruction, and the group (when things are going well) learns organically to improvise in a socially virtuosic way. 

Other composers or orchestras... One of the main reasons behind Orchestra New's instigation was what we perceived to be a complete absence of other large improvising groups that tried to find answers to questions such as, "How do we escape the centuries-long overwhelming dominance of cis-gender men in almost every aspect of "public" or "commercial" musics – creation, criticism, promotion, instrument design, definitions of excellence, IDEAS, etc.?", and, "How do we make the most of our difference?", and, "How do we use our experience of violence and oppression to AVOID inflicting such harms on others?"

Some of ONe's performances are incredibly long! What do you feel you get out of that? Is there a sort of new listening state achieved a certain point? 

CK: Yes, I think you're right that a different state is reached when we improvise for a long time, both as active listeners and as active improvisers. But the reason ONe play long-form improvisations is specifically to get away from the patriarchal norms around music and performance; norms of duration, dynamics, musical relationships, what is "commercial"; norms around how improvisation, communication and musical execution are judged... We are actively seeking to do everything differently... though when you've been formed in a world that functions all one way, that can be hard even to conceive...

What can we expect from your performance at Cafe OTO? 

CK: Different improvisation... as you may have never heard it...