big lips – Contemporary Classical Ensemble

Non-Classical Concerts from Sohan Kalirai and Joshua Herberg

Big Lips is a London based music and performance ensemble that specialise in non-classical classical concerts, reimagining how music is performed and experienced. Beginning in Cambridge, Big Lips started out as a way to eschew the rituals of traditional classical concert performance programming, recognising the way a piece of music becomes contextualised by the rules under which it is performed. Big Lips seeks to embrace the relationship that music has within the contexts of performance and programming, putting forward an interpretation of a piece that is not hidden behind layers of etiquette. Changing the way music is presented to an audience, reframing the experience of listening and performing. Since its inception, our interpretations and performances have broadened into a multi-disciplinary approach including film, dance, acting and poetry.

By its nature, much of the aesthetics of Big Lips revolve around a self-awareness towards its approach, be that through displays of process and image-making or distorting traditional mainstream practices. Above all, in reevaluating conventional classical music performance comes a constant desire to create a process of art-making that is wholly and positively collaborative with the players and performers.