The BBC Musical Nomad

Jan Hendrickse – Musician

Jan Hendrickse is a freelance flute player/composer and workshop leader. As a performer he has collaborated with African and Indian classical musicians as well as dancers, visual artists and writers from a variety of backgrounds. He has travelled in West Africa meeting and playing with musicians and has also been involved with arts development work in Tanzania for the British Council. He is a tutor on the Performance and Communication skills course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has run education and performance projects for many arts and community organisations. These include the BBC Proms, the Philharmonic Orchestra and Huddersfield Contemporary music festival.

Through this trip Jan hopes to be able to explore themes that persistently recur in his work, such as “Why do we make music?” “How and why do new forms of music arise?” And “How do musicians view their role within the community?” Perhaps these are questions that do not have definitive answers, and it may be that we only succeed in generating more questions; either way this trip represents a fascinating opportunity to compare experiences with musicians from another culture.

Jan will be joining the team to play with, and learn from, the musicians that we meet. He will also be helping to update the BBC Website with stories of the days events

Gary Hayes – Interactive Producer

Gary had the idea for ‘The Musical Nomad’ last year on his travels in Central Asia and saw it as the ideal location to immediately share, through the current medium of the World Wide Web, a wonderfully diverse range of culture & peoples. He also sees it as an ideal way to extend the experiences the BBC provides to its audience by allowing them to join in and contribute. The trip will also be a personal excursion into a hidden world of sound & deeply rooted musical tradition which is both inspirational & mystical.

Gary is an Interactive Multimedia Producer at the BBC and has lead several R&D projects including Northern Ireland ‘A State Apart’, ‘The Framework’ a browser of a digital interactive service as well as the Video and Sound design to an ‘Interactive Bach’ title. He also contributes to the BBC Internet site and specialises in sound & video techniques. Before the BBC he was a music producer & composer and also worked as film editor for several independent companies. He is a multi-instrumentalist playing everything from sax to celtic harp. His published musical compositions range from Contemporary Classical to Ambient & World pieces.

Gary, the project leader, will be producing & constructing the on-line aspect of the journey which will include all media, photograph, sound, video & text. He will place special emphasis on a cohesive, interesting story leading to a captivating Internet experience.

Paul Balmer

Writer, record producer and broadcaster Paul Balmer is the radio and video producer for the project. The founder in 1993 of the independent production company ‘Music On Earth’ Paul has since produced, directed and presented programmes for BBC 2, Radio 3. Radio 2 and Channel 4.These programmes include the award winning ‘Africa I Remember’, the critically acclaimed ‘Music For the Lion King’ and ‘Music From The Red Sea Shores? – and a ‘Critics Choice’ profile of the great jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli

The aim of ‘Music On Earth’ is explore and celebrate music?s ‘constant evolution’ – to make that exciting story clear and accessible to the widest audience. The culmination of that will be a landmark interactive television series exploring the principle; ‘Music survives through use?. It is the exploration of that principle that draws Paul to Central Asia

Contributing daily text and audio to the Internet production, Paul Balmer will also make extensive digital audio and video record of the teams musical encounters. The collection of potential material for Radio, Interactive T.V. and DVD-ROM development is another prime objective.

Kathrin Brunnert – Organiser, translator & photographer

Kathrin, originally from the socialist state of East Germany, is now an Executive Assistant in an international London company. While under Russian occupation she won several awards for leading political delegations in Russia and organising exchanges between Russian and German musicians. She has organised location productions including a multimedia shoot for the BBC Multimedia Centre’s ‘Bach Interactive’ title and has organised several contemporary music festivals.

Her return journey to Central Asia fulfils many goals. Her personal experience of twenty years under socialist rule leads her to a natural empathy with the people of this region and a strong desire to touch base with them again and share common interests. Kathrin also hopes to stretch her linguistic horizons and become further involved in the spiritual and shamanistic traditions of the Central Asians whose musical culture and tradition are inextricably linked.

Kathrin will be the key source of communication between the team and the Russian speaking Central Asians and is the organiser of all of the musical meetings & logistics. She will also be the main stills photographer on this journey and has a passionate desire to visually represent the majesty and honesty of the people of these wonderful countries.