Dorothy Chan
I had a great time at the MISE-EN Music Festival in New York last week. Great to meet and talk with composers from all around the world and to hear their pieces and presentations. Pianist Dorothy Chan performed my Mr. Turquoise Synth (2017) brilliantly, alongside Mr. Turquoise Synth himself of course. We hope to find a way to work together again in the future. Thanks to Moon, Jordann and everyone at Ensemble Mise-En.
Mr. TS resting before the concert
Brooklyn Bridge
I’ve just finished a new piece B.m.B for small ensemble and electronics, which will be performed by Ed Hughes’ New Music Players on 8 February 2018 at the Attenborough Centre as part of a their Tallis Festival.
The piece is my creative response to Brexit and the world of the great 16th century English composer Thomas Tallis!
It will be performed alongside works by Ed Hughes, Rowland Sutherland, and Sussex composers Lee Westwood, Eleanor Clapp, Jason Hazael and Hugh Chambers, and an AI generated composition based on machine readings of Tallis’s musical output.
On 27 November Aisha Orazbayeva (violin), Alice Purton (‘cello) and Mark Knoop (piano) performed my Piano Trio (with whistles), which I wrote in 2014 as part of their concert at the University of Southampton Music Department professional concert series. I’m pleased to have uploaded to Youtube a video of their fantastic performance:
Yshani Perinpanayagam will play my Mr. Turquoise Synth (2017) in Nottingham on 19 January alongside pieces by Blake Troise and Cheryl Frances-Hoad at her performance and talk at a new festival, ALL YOUR BASS, set up by the National Videogame Arcade.
I’m delighted to have been nominated for Loop Concerto for jazz trio and large ensemble in the Contemporary Jazz Composition category of the British Composer Awards 2017.
Obviously honoured and super grateful to the people that made the piece work: the amazing trio involved in the premiere Ivo Neame (piano), Jasper Høiby (double bass) and Jon Scott (drums); the University of Southampton students and staff who played in the HARTLEY Loop Orchestra; Turner Sims for staging it; and the Music Department at Southampton for funding ‘The Loop Project’ in 2017!
The awards ceremony is 6 December at the British Museum…
I’m delighted that Aisha Orazbayeva (violin), Alice Purton (‘cello) and Mark Knoop (piano) will perform a slightly revised version of my Piano Trio (with whistles) at Turner Sims, Southampton, on 27 November as part of the University of Southampton Music Department Professional Lunchtime Concert Series. Deal Festival commissioned this work in 2015 and the main change I’ve made is deleting the second movement! The trio will also be performing Klarenz Barlow’s 1981 and Walter Zimmerman’s Ephemer.
Aisha Orazbayeva
Elizabeth Kenny (theorbo/lute player extraordinaire) played my ‘Extending from the inside’ in Victoria, Canada, this week. It was part of a concert presented as part of the Lute Society of America West Workshop 2017, staged by the Ancient Music Society of Victoria and the Lute Society of America. Liz was a member of the teaching faculty of the workshop.
Liz and I are exploring a potential collaboration with some other exciting musicians for 2018 so watch this space on that!
Canadian new music group, Ensemble Paramirabo performed my The Circus Animals’ Desertion in Turner Sims as part of the University of Southampton Music Department’s Lunchtime Concert Series on Monday. It was great to have the ensemble here and they did an awesome job on my piece. They are also playing the piece tonight at a concert at Birmingham Conservatoire.
Last Friday Juice Vocal Ensemble performed two of my Songs for Stanley live on BBC Radio 3. Composed in 2014 and dedicated to my then newly born son, Songs for Stanley is the second work I have written to celebrate the arrival of my children into the world, the first of these pieces being Lullaby for Joni for the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Songs for Stanley was commissioned by Riot Ensemble and Juice in 2014, and it is great that Juice have gone on to the perform the pieces on a number of occasions since.
You can hear the BBC broadcast on the IPlayer for a while (my piece around 34 minutes): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b080xz8w
I am pleased to be one of five professional musicians involved in setting up a brand new music for Southampton called PLAYLIST. The launch night of this new venture is at God’s House Tower in central Southampton on Tuesday 11th October.
The headline performer, Elizabeth Kenny, is one of Europe’s leading lute players. Liz’s programme will include my ‘Extending from the inside’, which I wrote for her in 2014. She is a brilliant and spell binding musician, not to be missed.
Also on the bill are the brilliant alternative folk trio Tenderlore and the fabulous Nicola Heinrich will perform music for solo ‘cello.
Tickets and further info about this event and the next event in November are available here: soplaylist.eventbrite.com
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