Barnaby Tree
performer, musician, dancer, visual artist, poet and teacher
Barnaby for the last 30 years developed solo and collaborative work in experimental performance, dance and music. He is a musician (cello, piano) and singer trained in the physical disciplines of improvised performance practices, dance, yoga and chi kung. He has produced 5 albums, most recently “In my brain you are furry” and composes music for film. Tree has performed at improvisation festivals and worked with performance companies all over Europe. He is based in Berlin and teaches performance improvisation and voice, as well as performs regularly. In May he will be teaching a workshop on group vocalization and body work called The Singing Ship. In early 2016 he began a weekly solo performance open to 1 to 11 people as part of the ongoing improvisation project ”The Musical Pie Kino.”
“I am driven to see what can be done with the bare bones, with just the body and acoustic sound; just the air between the performer and the audience. The physicality of song; the sweat and blood of the noise, the music of the dance.”
Some of the artist he has performed with include Gabi Reuter, Adrian Russi, Keith Hennessy, Jules Beckmann, Ecki, Sara Simoni, Jens Biedermann, The Little Queens, Gesine Daniels, Stephanie Maher, Shahar Dor, Jorge Hassman, Mirva Makinen, Frey Faust, Katja Mustonen, Diana Bonilla, Lisa Nelson, Steve Paxton, Derevo, Miriam King, Charlie Morrissey, Vera Mantero, Derek Jarman, Liz Agiss and Divas, KJ Holmes, Scott Smith, Sten Rudstrom, Peter Thompson, Sharon Lewis, Valija Zinch, Sandra Navarro Casino, and Moeno Wakamatsui.
"Barnaby uses sound, music, body and voice to improvise. He breaks the routine static musician positioning. He's one of the few musicians who inhabits his body while performing. He uses the shape of the instrument, the wood, the hair, the rosin, the string as partners in his improvisations, not merely the music that comes out of the instrument. The weight of a melody contains the weight of the arm and bone and muscle, the weight of the wooden bow, and Barnaby notices this and plays with it." Sten Rudstrom