I have been awarded a residency with the BBC Symphony Orchestra as part of the Embedded scheme run by Sound and Music. I will spend a year working with the orchestra through workshops and mentoring, and write a piece to be premiered by the BBCSO conducted by Garry Walker. Also on the scheme are Ben Oliver and Aaron Holloway-Nahum, and the...
I've been developing a piece as part of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme 'New Music New Media' course at Aldeburgh this week, using motion capture technology and electronics. The course is run by Rolf Wallin, Tansy Davies and Alexander Refsum Jensenius, with Juice vocal ensemble and Zoë Martlew providing source material. My piece, entitled 'Music Box', is for performer, cello...
I'm delighted to have been awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize. I'll be spending some time on the Philharmonia Orchestra's Young Composers Academy, working with members of the orchestra and with Unsuk Chin, who is the director of the Philharmonia's 'Music of Today' series. The prize also involves a commission for an ensemble piece for the Philharmonia to be...
For the last week or so I've been resident at the St Magnus Composers Course in Orkney, where I've been receiving tuition from Alasdair Nicolson and Sally Beamish. As well as preparing a quintet for the Gemini Ensemble, I've had workshops on two short pieces – 'Wavescape' for mezzo-soprano & wineglass, workshopped on Thursday by Alison Wells, and 'Pretty Polly' for...
Next week will see premieres of two short pieces of mine. On Monday 21st, Helen Tonge of the Rivoli String Quartet and pianist Richard Whalley will premiere 'Limp' at a lunchtime recital at St. Werburgh's Church in Manchester. The concert is part of the annual Chorlton Arts Festival, and the concert also features John Casken's 'Shadowed Pieces' and music by...
Thursday sees the premiere of my new piece for the Lancashire Sinfonietta at the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts' Great Hall. The orchestra is conducted by the Endellion Quartet's Andrew Watkinson who as well as conducting my piece and Mozart's 40th Symphony, will also welcome guitarist Xuefei Yang to play concertos by Bach and Rodrigo. My piece is entitled 'Solvitrambulando',...
My Piano Trio "The Chronophage" has won the Third Angle Ensemble's New Ideas in Music Competition. The Third Angle Ensemble, from Portland Oregon, will now premiere the work in their 26th and 27th April concerts at the Lincoln Recital Hall at Portland State University. The piece itself was written as the final piece for my Composition Masters portfolio but has...
Having been travelling to Milan over the last few months as part of the Niccolò Castiglioni Prize, I have now been selected for the final of the competition, and will write a chamber work for members of Trio Magritte and clarinettist Paolo Beltramini. The piece will be for clarinet, cello and piano, and will be premiered at a concert on...
Seven Face Pictures won a Philip Bates Prize at Birmingham Conservatoire a few weeks ago. The prize was awarded by the Philip Bates Trust after a great performance by Georgina Stalbow, Alice Purton and Agatha Yim (members of Opera Viscera) at the Conservatoire's Recital Hall. You can now hear audio of that performance (cycle through the movements with the arrow...