Nonclassical
In 2004 Gabriel Prokofiev founded Nonclassical, a record label and club night dedicated to showcasing contemporary classical music outside of the traditional concert hall.
“Gabriel Prokofiev’s ace night that turns classical music on its head.”
“Without doubt one of the most enjoyable fixtures in London’s new music calendar.”
Nonclassical hosts monthly gigs in Dalston, at which contemporary classical and experimental music is presented as if it were rock or electronic music: bands play through through the pub’s PA, everyone has a pint in their hand and there are DJs playing throughout the night.
The Nonclassical record label has released 14 albums to date, with an ever-growing spectrum of music represented (such as Tansy Davies, Juice Vocal Ensemble, Aisha Orazbayeva, GeNIA, and Joby Burgess). The idea behind the releases is to record forward-thinking, contemporary classical music and then invite musicians and producers who usually work in different genres of music to remix them.
“Prokofiev and his team deserve credit for their determination to take ambitious new music projects to venues outside London’s publicly funded arts centres.”
Nonclassical’s latest release is Langham Research Centre‘s Tape Works Vol. 1. Langham Research Centre is made up of BBC Radio 3 producers with a passion for rare and absolute analogue technology. Tape Works Vol. 1 will take you on a journey into how recent text based works and live electronics can be interspersed with earlier tape pieces.
Nonclassical also runs the Street Orchestra of London, an orchestra with a set-up time of less than five minutes who take classical music into unorthodox locations and onto the streets to reach those who would not otherwise engage with live classical music. SOL plays all types of music, from classical classics, to Snoop Dogg, to new commissions from living composers including Prokofiev.
