Jess Rymer is an award winning composer and brass player.
Jess was born in Hull, Yorkshire in 1993 and engaged in the strong tradition of brass bands from a young age. It was from here her interest in timbre developed and Jess went on to read Music in the distinguished composition department of Bath Spa University where she studied with celebrated experimental composer James Saunders, Joe Duddell and Jeff Boehm amongst others.
It was here that Jess' interest in collaboration began and she met Naomi Hunter with whom she developed a long lasting professional relationship under the guidance of contemporary dance film producer Chris Lewis-Smith. Upon leaving Bath Spa University Jess received the Graduate Composition Award and a scholarship from Benslow Music where she studied composition with Michael Finnissy. She is currently researching the equality of composition and choreography in contemporary performance at The University of Malta with Reuben Pace and Malaika Sarco Thomas.
Jess has written for various ensembles such as The Plus Minus Ensemble and collaborated with artists and dancers including Joan Sallas, Naomi Hunter and The Julia Thorneycroft Company. She has also written site-specific works and installations for the Holburne Museum in Bath and various locations throughout Bath Spa University for different events. As a brass player Jess has performed in many locations, she had the honour of opening the Benjamin Britten Festival in Bath Abbey in 2013 and has premiered new music throughout England.
'Jess's work always has an engaging conceptual origin, and her interdisciplinary realisations of these core ideas are beautifully framed in the resulting work' – James Saunders
Naomi Hunter is a contemporary dancer and choreographer.
After training in contemporary dance, completing a BA Hons from Bath Spa University, she began the process of furthering her expertise in this field by undertaking a MA in interdisciplinary and multimedia performance. Over the past few years she has performed in works for companies such as Earthfall and Protein and is currently employed as a performer by Arcadia with whom she has performed in locations as far afield as China. Alongside her work as a performer she is a choreographer and film director and has a portfolio of work spanning from screen based performance to the more traditional dance for theatre.
Over the past two years Jess and Naomi have created a diverse range of works including that of site specific pieces. Their collaboration creates equality between the two art forms in order to produce work that is neither sound nor movement driven but a confluence of ideas. Jess' work with Naomi Hunter has been performed in the Open Space dance festival in Bath and at many of the vice-chancellor of Bath Spa University's events throughout the south west of England.
'Jess and Naomi's work results from an energized and deeply creative collaborative practice. These are two artists who are getting into their stride and are producing interesting and edgy work' – Christopher Lewis-Smith