This is the fourth in a series of events - 'HIT & RUN' - curated by Israeli pianist Maya Dunietz for Café Oto throughout April and early May. 'Hit & Run' will feature musicians that she respects and admires covering a range of experimental and underground music.

This is the first in what we hope to be an ongoing series of events curated by international musicians.

This edition features four improvising pianists at four pianos.

STEVE BERESFORD

Steve Beresford is one of the giants of British improvised music, a restless multi-instrumentalist whose irreverent and anarchic spirit has been disrupting and galvanising improvised music for forty years. A superb pianist, he also plays an assortment of electronic devices and toy instruments. Always balanced precariously on the edge of chaos, he possesses an energy and verve that can animate any musical situation.

More information on Steve Beresford

VERYAN WESTON

Born 1950; piano. Veryan Weston moved to London from Cornwall in 1972 and began playing as a freelance jazz pianist as well as developing as an improvisor at the Little Theatre Club. He accepted a fellowship with the Digswell Arts Trust in Hertfordshire in 1975 who commissioned him to revise his book on piano improvisation which he was able to do through a subsidy from the Arts Council of Great Britain. During this time he co-founded and composed for Stinky Winkles. With the group he was voted a 'Young musician of 1979' by the Greater London Arts Association and won three major awards in France, Spain and Poland.

Whilst at Digswell, he also collaborated with visual artists, giving exhibition/solo performances at the Victorian & Albert Museum (1979) with potter Liz Fritsch, and at Hammersmith Jazz Festival (1980) with visual artist Stephen Cochrane. During this period he composed and performed music for a range of films and documentaries, most notably with Lol Coxhill for Derek Jarman's Carravaggio (1985). This interest in music and media collaborations led to a degree course in Performance Art at Middlesex Polytechnic (now University) where he gained 1st class Honours, and in 1990 he was awarded a Masters in Music Composition from Goldsmith's College, University of London. These qualifications then led to a brief period as a part-time lecturer at Bretton Hall and Middlesex University.

Throughout the 1980s and early 90s he worked primarily with the Eddie Prévost Quartet, Trevor Watts' Moiré Music and duets with Lol Coxhill and Phil Minton. He also worked in other ensemble projects with Minton, including 'riverun' the Phil Minton Quartet with John Butcher and Roger Turner. Major festivals have included Zurich, Berlin, Nicholsdorf, Karlsruhr, Warsaw, Wroklaw, San Sebastian, Bombay, Vancouver, St Etienne, Aukland, Nevers, Washington, Lille, Houston, Le Mans, Straasbourg and Victoriaville.

More info on Veryan Weston

TANIA CHEN

Tania Chen is a concert pianist and free improviser. She has performed in the UK, Japan, Europe and USA, playing the music of experimental composers John Cage, Morton Feldman and Cornelius Cardew. She has worked with Earle Brown in 2001 for the Earle Brown concert Union Chapel, and she will be working with Christian Wolff in London June 2010. She has also premiered and performed piano works by contemporary composers such as Michael Parsons, Laurence Crane, James Saunders and Andrew Poppy. Tania has sung songs on the piano by Chris Newman and recently has been a guest vocalist for Newman’s Berlin-based band Miss Moth.

Tania Chen has collaborated with film makers such as Jayne Parker, and in May 2007 she performed alongside Michael Nyman and Gavin Bryars in the Tate Modern “Sleep” all night event in the Turbine Hall, playing Satie's 'Vexations', accompanied by a screening of Andy Warhol's film 'Sleep'.

She is equally known for her passion for free and experimental jazz improvisation, performing on piano and she also enjoys the exploration of sonorities of found objects, toys, toy piano, electronics and digital iphone apps. She regularly performs in the UK and Europe with improvisers including Steve Beresford, Mark Sanders, John Edwards, Lol Coxhill, Dominic Lash, Seb Rochford, and Guillaume Viltard.

Tania curates the series Magnitude Music and invites performers at home and internationally to perform. She has recorded with Radio 3, Resonance FM, worked commercially for films, and has a growing number of releases on iTunes. Amongst several record labels she has previously recorded for, Tania now records for the Knitted Records label.

Tania Chen website

MAYA DUNIETZ

Maya Dunietz is a pianist, composer, improviser and singer, Born in Israel on 1981. Her work ranges between solo performances, composing for various ensembles around the world, writing for theater, creating sound installations, building strange electronic instruments and singing in various styles, among them heavy metal, kleizmer and contemporary classical music. In the year 2010 her collaborations included arrangements for the new album of "Cheveu", singing with "Oy Division", playing with Eddie Prevost and 9!, John Butcher, Suzan Alcorn, Heddy Boubacker, Steve Noble and John Edwards, to name a few. Maya founded the 'Israeli cult' experimental vocal ensemble "Givol Choir" (2003-ongoing) and is currently working with director Ariel Efraim Ashbel on a new joint project to be performed in Germany, 2011.

Maya Dunietz on Wikipedia