The mubone collective is the flagship mubone ensemble: five of us, three in Montréal and two in Copenhagen. A trombonist, a technologist, a choreographer, a singer and a percussionist. It's where the biggest pieces get made, like Love Letters to a Third Culture Kid and Conversations with Space and Architecture, and where we test what the instrument can do with several people at once.
Mubone itself gets around more than we do. Lots of other artists, students and ensembles have played it too: see who plays it.
How we work
We make pieces the way a devised-theatre company does: we improvise a lot, keep what surprises us, and set it. Finished pieces have written parts and open parts. Before anyone plays, there's a lot of listening, to the room and to each other. Pauline Oliveros would approve, we hope. Anthony Braxton too.
Who we are
Kalun Leung
Trombonist and composer in Montréal (Tiohtià:ke). Born in Hong Kong, grew up in Toronto. Started mubone with Travis in 2018 and still tends to be the one asking "what if it's bigger?" He's played with Anthony Braxton, Meredith Monk and George Lewis, and won the Kranichstein Music Prize at Darmstadt in 2025. kalunleung.ca
Travis West
Creative technologist and composer in Montréal. Travis built mubone with Kalun and wrote nearly all of its software, from the first granular engine to the projection mapping to the version three of us can play at once. PhD from McGill's IDMIL and the University of Lille. He also made the body:suit:score, a full-body suit you can read music through by touch. traviswest.ca
Bettina Szabó
Choreographer and dancer in Montréal, originally from Uruguay. Bettina choreographed Garcia, the first mubone piece, danced in Migrations, and has been around since the beginning. In her solo Habitat she runs the lights, the sound and a 600-piece paper sculpture live, by herself.
Kirsten Voss
Singer and producer in Copenhagen. Kirsten was the second person ever to play mubone. She and Kalun met at the Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme, filled a barley kiln with sound at the Aldeburgh Festival, and she brought the whole thing to Copenhagen with her company Tonalteatret. She's premiered music by Signe Lykke, Lil Lacy and Magnus Plejdrup, and won the Sonning Talent Prize in 2024.
Sara Nigard Rosendal
Percussionist and composer in Copenhagen. Sara joined for the Copenhagen shows in 2025 and was the third person to play mubone on stage. She studied in Malmö and at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, is half of the duo We Like We (three operas so far, including a remake of Orfeus), and works a lot in new music theatre: Mother Soldier, Silent Zone, KATLA.
Thank you
Mubone has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels), Innovations en concert, and in Denmark by Tonalteatret and the Genstart programme.