Bex Burch w/ Tori Young & John Francis Quiñonez

Whether combining the rhythmic timbres of wood, metal and audience claps or duetting with the atmospheric and elegiac echoed sounds of water dripping into a metal basin, Bex Burch is a composer, percussionist, producer and improviser who emphasises space, repetition and aspects of chaos. These themes characterise an ongoing approach she describes as “messy minimalism”.

Burch’s critically acclaimed 2023 debut solo album, 'There is only love and fear' was released via Chicago avant-garde label International Anthem and named The Guardian's Contemporary Album of the Month. She was nominated for the Deutscher Jazzpreis 2025, and has previously released music as part of Boing! with Leafcutter John, and the Strut-released cosmic, boundary pushing quintet, Flock. She runs the label, Vula Viel Records, the community music event, Kantine Musik, and has collaborated with influential artists like Peter Zummo, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Ben LaMar Gay, Dan Bitney and Macie Stewart.

Bex completed an 18-month instrument-making apprenticeship in Ghana from 2008 with master gyil player Thomas Sekgura, a formative experience that still plays out, not only in her musical language and practice, but notably having been making the Dagaare gyilli since 2008, Bex has more recently created a new xylophone she handmade under Jamie Linwood’s mentorship, tuning its harmonics to maximise the resonances she wanted to hear. Her new piece, ‘as yet untitled’, premiered in Los Angeles’ 2220 expands her composition practice further too, as Bex’s wide-eyed approach to listening, composition and improvisation continues to evolve and break new musical ground.

Tori Young is a percussionist, composer, and singer who graduated from Keene State College in May 2025, where she was recognized as both the Presser Scholar and the Instrumentalist of the Year. She has performed with the Keene Chamber Orchestra and the Windham Philharmonic, bringing a versatile and expressive musical voice to every ensemble. For the past three years, she has worked with the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, most recently serving as the Manager of the Young Artists Orchestra, contributing to one of the nation’s leading summer programs for young musicians.

Tori currently serves as the Front of House Manager at Keene State College and plans to pursue graduate studies in Music Theory, continuing to deepen her artistic and academic work.

John-Francis Quiñonez (They/Them) is a Desert Flower & Current Resident of Providence, RI/ a Queer Writer & Multimedia Artist/ Chef at Big Feeling Ice Cream / Events Guardian/ Member of the Queer.Archive.Work. project & Binch Press/ has a collection of Poems with Write Bloody Publishing (‘22) entitled Keep Your Little Lights Alive (Poems After Kate Bush’s "Hounds of Love" & Others)/ is thinking a lot about Emerging.

Doors are at 7pm and music will start at 730. This show is all ages and seating is limited and also first come first served.

Thanks to support from Savings Bank of Walpole, this show has an Access For All option which lets you name your price (you can't buy multiples of this option at the same time, so to buy more than one ticket, it is necessary to do each additional ticket in a different transaction).

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Host or Publisher Nova Arts