Robert Ames, Conductor of the London Contemporary Orchestra
About the Orchestra
We founded the orchestra with Hugh Brant in 2008. I play the violin, yet only for myself or for some projects. I'm a conductor in the orchestra.
We do not write music ourselves, but we co-work with other musicians. Our orchestra plays modern classical music and combines it, for example, Radiohead and Frank Ocean.
Unfortunately, we have not tried to play Kazakh music, but I like it.
This time we showed an unusual idea. Our orchestra performed music to the scenes from the movie "Stay in my skin". In general there’re about 90 people in our orchestra, 25 of them came to Kazakhstan. Our orchestra performs together with Kazakhstani musicians. We rehearsed together for about three days. The very work on preparing the performance began long before coming to Kazakhstan.
About Astana
I've been to Almaty several times and this is my second visit to Astana. For the first time I was here three years ago at the opening of "Astana Opera".
We travel a lot with the orchestra, but this is our first joint performance in Kazakhstan and throughout Central Asia. Usually we travel around Europe, recently came from America, where we performed in New York and Los Angeles.
I like Astana, I do feel how quickly the city’s changing. There is a lot of energy here. Much has changed since my last trip to Kazakhstan.
As for local cuisine, during my previous trip I tried horse meat, beshbarmak, shish kebab and many local meals. Recently I became a vegetarian.
I do not know Astana city and its main attractions well enough, since I’ve come recently. I hope to get to know it better.
