Category Archives: Composition

New York Performance of ‘Momentum’

I’m really excited to be heading to New York tomorrow for the mise-en music festival 2014. This new festival will take place in Manhattan over the next few days and features the wonderful ensemble mise-en. They will be presenting a range of new music in collaboration with the Momenta Quartet, Ensemble Paramirabo, and more than 30 international composers, of which I am one! The works of these composers were selected from the festival’s call for scores, which yielded 862 submissions by 702 composers from 65 different countries. This will be my first time in New York. I can’t wait to work with the ensemble and spend some time in a city I’ve always wanted to go to!

Workers Union ‘On and Off & To & Fro’ Tour

Workers Union Ensemble have been selected for Sound and Music’s Composer-Curator Programme for 2014/2015, which is funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

We will tour Simon Steen Andersen’s On And Off And To And Fro (2008) for soprano saxophone, double bass, vibraphone and three players with megaphones alongside five new commissions. I will be on conducting duties as usual and will also pen a new piece for my Workers mates!

Riot Ensemble Commission

I’m delighted to have been selected by the Riot Ensemble to compose a new piece for Juice Vocal Ensemble. Australian composer Holly Harrison and myself have been chosen from 126 applications to the ensemble’s 2014 Call for Scores. I’m looking forward to composing a new piece for the fabulous vocal trio for performance in November!

Interactive Music Awareness Programme for CI users goes online

I am very pleased that the ‘Interactive Music Awareness Programme’ (IMAP) for cochlear implant users we have developed at the University of Southampton is now up online and ready to use @ http://morefrommusic.org/. This is one of the main outcomes of the AHRC funded ‘Compositions for Cochlear Implantees‘ project and producing the online version has been a real labour of love! The computer based resource is aimed at helping cochlear implant (and hearing aid) users improve their music perception skills, it is also supposed to be fun and engaging to use. Some fantastic artists have contributed materials to the resource including Cliff Richard, Philip Selway and 10CC. I’ve loved being involved with this project for the past two years; the highlights having been working with all the lovely CI users I have met and collaborating with my colleague Dr Rachel van Besouw from the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research.

 

Med-El Rehabilitation Symposium

I was delighted to be invited to speak at the recent MED-EL Rehabilitation Symposium in York. The symposium brought together a wide range of professionals who work with cochlear implant users. I talked about the work we have done with cochlear implant users at the University of Southampton, and in particular our Interactive Music Awareness Programme (IMAP) that will go live at the end of January at http://morefrommusic.org/

Loop Concerto Photos

I had a great time on Saturday conducting KCYO in the premiere of my new piano concerto for Ivo Neame and the orchestra. It was a great pleasure working with the orchestra and to collaborate with Ivo too. Thanks to all at Kent Music and Geoff Dixon in particular and thanks to Martin Hines and Kent Music for the terrific photos too…

Photo: Martin Hines, Kent Music/KCYO

Photo: Martin Hines, Kent Music/KCYO

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Photo: Martin Hines, Kent Music/KCYO

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Photo: Martin Hines, Kent Music/KCYO