Birthday Variation for London Sinfonietta & Études in NYC

The London Sinfonietta are 50 years old in 2018, having given their first concert on January 24 1968. They’re celebrating this anniversary with a concert at the Royal Festival Hall featuring Harrison Birtwistle’s The Message, Stravinsky’s Octet, Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto, a new work by Samantha Fernando and Hans Abrahamsen’s Left, alone. 

The concert will end with a set of 14 concertante variations on a Purcell Hornpipe, by 14 different composers and showcasing a different principal player each, to which I’ve contributed a short variation to feature clarinettist Mark van der Wiel.

Twelve days earlier, on the 12 January, the Lost Dog New Music Ensemble are putting on a concert of UK music in Manhatten’s Tenri Cultural Institute. Lost Dog’s Esther Noh will be performing my Études for violin, and the concert will also feature music by Mark Bowden, Philip Cashian, Deirdre Gribbin, Kenneth Hesketh, Anna Meredith and Mark Simpson.