CoMA Glasgow
Rūta Vitkauskaitė is a Music Director and the initiator of CoMA Glasgow ensemble, the first CoMA ensemble in Scotland.
CoMA – Contemporary Music for All, organisation was founded in 1993 in London, with the aim of providing opportunities for amateur musicians of all abilities to participate in contemporary music-making and to establish regional ensembles across the UK. The initiation and driving force behind the organisation for about thirty years was musician and artist Chris Surety. Over the years, CoMA ensembles have carried out a range of activities, including performing commissioned repertoire, improvisation, and holding workshops for amateur composers. They have built up a unique collection of over 1000 works, used by colleges, schools, outreach programs, as well as by CoMA and other ensembles. CoMA has also featured in various prestigious events, including Bath, Huddersfield, St. Magnus, and Spitalfields music festivals.
Rūta initially joined CoMA organisation in 2018 as a commissioned composer, for their 25th anniversary concert at King’s Place, London. She soon became a member of CoMA London ensemble, and upon moving to Scotland in 2019, she established the Glasgow branch. Since 2020, Rūta has joined CoMA central as a Trustee and has led a sub-group on EDI practices across the organisation.
CoMA Glasgow initiated 10th of November 2019, with an afternoon event of playing and discussion at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. The rehearsals soon moved to the Scottish Music Centre and their first concert was part of the Festival of Contemporary Music for All, which included an informative session on John Cage’s ‘Concert’ delivered by Philip Thomas and a concert of new music, including Rūta ‘s adaptation of her piece, ‘Edge of Time’.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, CoMA Glasgow continued its activities online in a collaborative and non-hierarchical manner. Rūta initiated a short online workshop series called ‘YouCreate.’ The project invited musicians of all instruments, composers, and sound creators to create and perform a collaborative and unique piece of contemporary music for the lockdown generation. The composition titled ‘Remote Connections’, premiered online in June 2020.
Under Rūta ‘s leadership, with the support of the CoMA Glasgow committee and members’ contributions, a number of online projects followed during the pandemic, gathering participants from Scotland, the UK, Europe, and across the world, as far as Mexico and India. These projects included ‘Postcard Pieces’, ‘Ether/Real’, ‘Landscape Drones’, ‘StorySpace’, and ‘Chains of Connection’. Since 2021, CoMA Glasgow has started running Open Score Club (OSC), a regular space to explore, discuss, and play through new music pieces without the pressure of preparing for performances. OSC, led by Rūta and occasionally helped by composer Simon Hellewell and others, became a core activity of the group, representing an inclusive approach and non-hierarchical structure that reflects Scottish society and their music landscape.
In 2022, as a response to the war in Ukraine, CoMA Glasgow included Rūta‘s arrangement of Hannah Havrylets in their livestreamed concert at the Festival of Contemporary Music for All, and led a workshop on Sheena Philips’ arrangement of a Ukrainian song at ‘Make Music’ Day. Alongside this, an audio-visual film by Katharina Plate, ‘Habitat,’ was premiered, collating sounds by CoMA Glasgow participants.
CoMA also took part in the Human Threads exhibition at Tramway in May 2022, performing ‘Gardenscape’ by Emily Doolittle, which was created by and for people living with severe disabilities. The year concluded with the ‘DeCarolizing’ project, led by Rūta, exploring and reworking winter carols from the UK and beyond.
CoMA Glasgow continues its activities, for latest updates please visit www.coma.org/glasgow.
