The European Music Collective (EMC) is a union of musicians

The European Music Collective (EMC) is a union of musicians from all over Europe, which features improvised and contemporary music. For their summer tour, they invited NYC based trombonist and vibraphonist Selendis Sebastian Alexander Johnson, together with Canadian Cellist Laurence Gaudreau and EMC founder and guitarist Christoph Götzen. The Trio consists of some of the most ambitious youngsters of the improvising scene. Their playing is fresh, timeless, fearless, and surprising. Appearing within the world’s leading improvisors scene in Europe and America, these haunting souls are an exciting example and hint of what the future in improvised music might look like.
Reconnecting in Europe in Summer 2024, they will be on Tour for a carte blanche of free improvised music which is uncompromising and above all an unforgettable musical encounter of promising young talent from the USA, Canada and Germany.

Selendis Sebastian Alexander Johnson (* San Francisco) is a vibraphonist and trombonist. Selendis has been living in New York City since 2018 where she completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in jazz and contemporary music at The New School. Since her appearance in NYC, Selendis has played in some of the most pristine venues for improvised music, such as: The Stone (curated by Jon Zorn), Roulette Intermedium, Downtown Music Gallery, Ibeam, P.I.T., Union Pool and many more. In addition, she has performed with all-star improvisors such as John Zorn, Zoh Amba, Lesley Mok and Gabby Fluke-Mogul amongst others and shared double Bills with fellow musicians like Chris Corsano and Wendy Eisenberg. Additionally, Selendis is conducting the Improvisors Orchestra of Creative Music Studio in NYC, playing solo concerts on trombone and vibraphone and is an active member of the NYC improvising scene. In July 2024, she is invited to play at the Monheim Triennalle II.

Laurence Gaudreau is a French-Canadian cellist, who grew up in the metropolitan area of Montreal (Canada) and is currently based in the Netherlands, where she graduated with a masters degree at the HKU Utrecht Conservatory. Beside her work as a classical Cellist, she performs in crossover genres such as theater, artistic performance, electronic music, tango and improvised music. Laurence is member of the Flare Quartet which aims to promote new music, non-western music and music less represented in history. In 2021, she joined Isabel Pronk in the creation of the tango opera Her Soliloquy, which received the pitch competition prize of Grachten Festival 2022 and the Audience Prize of Café Theater Festival Rotterdam. In the Netherlands and Germany she has been seen in a big variety of festivals such as: Cello Biennale, Gaudeamus, Grachten, Project Geestdrift (Karavaan), Le Guess Who?, Wonderfeel, Uncommon Ground and Internationaal Cello Festival Zutphen, Konz Musik Festival and Feel Festival. Previous awards on the Canadian scene include first place in the Victoriaville soloist competition, two prizes at the Montreal Classical Music Competition as well as winning the OSJM (Youth Symphonic Orchestra of Montreal) concerto competition.

Christoph Götzen (*Düsseldorf) is an experimental guitarist, composer and organizer. In 2020, he moved to Antwerp, Belgium where he studied Jazz at the Royal Conservatory of Music, however he mainly focuses on improvisation and other related experimental genres. Christoph has been involved in the NYC music scene since 2022 and played for the Creative Music Studio and the NYC based ensemble “Tilted Axes”. In recent years, Christoph emerged as one of the most ambitious young improvisors of the European scene, has been touring in Germany, Belgium, Holland, Lithuania and the USA and played double Bills with improvisors Alan Licht, Pak Yan Lau and Darin Gray amongst others. Christoph plays solo, in various duo constellations and currently has a residency at Rataplan, Antwerp with his Quartet “Strange Meeting”, where they organize monthly concerts and double bills with renowned improvisors such as Ig Henneman, Gabby Fluke-Mogul, Oker and Amelie Dahl.

Selendis Sebastian Alexander Johnson (USA)
Homepage: https://avoiceiwanttoshare.net
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lemwell7/
Music: https://rb.gy/kt71t9

Laurence Gaudreau (CAN)
Homepage: https://laurencegaudreau.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gau.laurence/
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vSjVNKbtgE

Christoph Götzen (GER)

Homepage: https://christophgoetzen.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christoph.goetzen/
Music: https://rb.gy/3y6c5b https://rb.gy/bpgt5l