Original compositions, arrangements of Mediterranean music, dance, and improvisation

---

Other White Background comes from a need to celebrate the composer’s Mediterranean identity, after five wonderful years in the UK, through my multifaceted musical identity: player, singer, improviser, mover, composer.

Leda Mileto will be sharing her original compositions with an audience for the first time ever as well as arrangements of music from different corners of the Mediterranean: Italy, Turkey, and France, people whose cultures Mileto resonates with deeply and whom she has formed authentic connections with through precious experiences — she will tell you about them during the show.

These will be linked through two of the purest forms of artistic expression: improvisation and movement. Mileto will be joined by two amazing musicians and great friends from time in Manchester, Georgina MacDonell Finlayson (violin and vocals) and Emilio Yánez Ruíz (percussions), as well as from members of the newly formed collective she has founded of beautiful improvisers Free Electrons. We sincerely hope to see you there.

About the performers

Leda Mileto (2000) is a musician, Dalcroze practitioner, and educator from Rome, Italy. After having received her music education through the Dalcroze Eurhythmics approach and having started to sing, improvise, and play from an early age, she embraced the violin at age 10. Classically trained in Rome and then Manchester, she was a founding member of the Aestus String Quartet, fellow of the Manchester Camerata for the year 2024-2025, and is now active in piano trio and duo formations. Leda is a passionate Dalcroze Eurhythmics trained educator, violin, singing, and improvisation tutor, and has collaborated in various music and health and outreach contexts. She also hosts improvisation and Dalcroze sessions in Manchester.

Georgina MacDonell Finlayson is a versatile Scottish violinist, fiddle player, composer and community arts practitioner, with a particular interest in collaborative, cross-genre and multidisciplinary performance. She is a founding member of radical string quartet Vulva Voce, blending folk, techno, jazz and classical (Glastonbury Festival, SXSW, TMW, WOMEX) and has performed with Sinfonia Cymru, Manchester Collective, Manchester Camerata and Thirteen North. Her creative practice includes writing music and sound design for theatre and film (including live onstage performance), original folk composition and arrangement, and chamber and orchestral works (Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Red Note Ensemble, soundfestival, BBC Radio 3).

Emilio Yáñez Ruíz (México City 1995). Percussionist, composer, and poet, graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music. Recipient of one of the four “RNCM Creative Innovators Awards 2024” for the project Poems For Your Self.His musical explorations span contemporary music, jazz, afrobeat, guided meditations, and free improvisation. Emilio is known for blending nature-inspired soundscapes with global percussion rhythms, and for writing poetry that inspires introspection, gratitude, and kindness. Based in Manchester, UK, he currently works as a freelance composer and percussionist, as well as a community musician bringing music to schools, homes, workshops, and Hospital Wards with LIME ART.