News

Posted on 08 Sep 2017

I'm delighted to have been appointed Visiting Fellow Commoner in the Creative Arts at Trinity College Cambridge. The two-year post allows an artist to pursue their creative work and play a part in the life of the college. Previous composers who have held the post include Judith Weir, Philip Grange, Thomas Adès and Richard Causton. I'm also giving a talk about my...

Posted on 08 Aug 2017

Over this coming year, I'll be the composition mentor for the talented young composers on the Britten Sinfonia Academy's 'Composer Lab', and will also be writing a piece for the (equally talented!) academy players to perform – a set of orchestrations of keyboard works by Schumann from his 6 Études In Kanonischer Form Op. 56 and his 7 Klavierstücke In Fughettenform Op....

Posted on 03 Aug 2017

Psappha are playing Two Games and a Nocturne in a concert together with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at Manchester's BBC MediaCity on 14 November, as part of the New Music North West Festival. Also in the concert are orchestral pieces by Laura Jayne Bowler, Larry Goves, Mario Duarte and Grace-Evangeline Mason, and Psappha play David Horne's Resonating Instruments. The concert will be recorded for...

Posted on 07 Jul 2017

Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra premiered my St. John's Dance at the First Night of the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall London on Friday, alongside Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 featuring Igor Levit and a performance of John Adams' Harmonium with the BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC Proms Youth Choir. The performance was televised on BBC Four and on BBC Radio 3 (as well as various...

Posted on 06 Jun 2017

I've been nominated for a South Bank Sky Arts Award for Spirit of the Staircase, premiered by Martyn Brabbins and the London Sinfonietta last year. The other nominees for the classical music category are the Philharmonia and Esa-Pekka Salonen's Stravinsky series 'Myths and Rituals', and the Dunedin Consort's performance of the Monteverdi Vespers at the Lammermuir Festival – what a treat to...

Posted on 02 May 2017

I've been awarded the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Prize based at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, shared with Canadian composer Matthew Ricketts. The Fund awards an annual prize to an instrumentalist or composer. Previous British winners of the prize include Thea Musgrave, Nicholas Maw, George Benjamin, Helen Grime and Charlotte Bray....

Posted on 10 Apr 2017

I'm thrilled to have been commissioned to write an orchestral piece to open the First Night of the 2017 BBC Proms. Edward Gardner will conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the premiere of St. John's Dance at London's Royal Albert Hall on the 14 July. The concert also features Igor Levit playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 and John Adams'...

Posted on 01 Mar 2017

I'm honoured to have been commissioned by the Hepner Foundation to write a piece for the Arditti Quartet, to be performed at a special concert in memory of Leo Hepner. Leo was a German chemical engineer/biotechnologist and amateur violist. He formed the Hepner Foundation to support contemporary music in the UK and Europe, and together with his wife Regina Hepner-Neupert set...

Posted on 01 Feb 2017

Psappha will give the world premiere of Two Games and a Nocturne at Manchester's St Michael's on Thursday 16 February. They commissioned the piece – scored for flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin & cello – for their 25th Anniversary season. Also in the concert are premieres by Gordon McPherson and Emily Hall, Joe Duddell's Nightswimming, Kaija Saariaho's Light & Matter...