The ever-wonderful Trio Atem will perform a selection from my 'Seven Face Pictures' at the Nip & Tipple bar in Manchester this Sunday the 2nd June. Scored for mezzo-soprano, flute and cello, the piece is a song cycle on the poetry of Caroline Bird, and has been performed by Trio Atem several times since they premiered it in 2011. The...
The April edition of the Tempo journal, published by Cambridge Journals, contains an article by me entitled 'Pierre Boulez's Sur Incises: Refraction, Crystallisation and the Absent Idea(l)'. It's an analytical study exploring how Boulez's extraordinary piece for three pianos, three harps and three percussionists relates to its solo piano predecessor Incises, and also to Boulez's late style in general. The...
An update on various bits of news – I had brilliant workshops of works-in-progress with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia on the 18th and 25th of March, and I've also got one more workshop with the BBC, on the 22nd April. It's such a joy and a luxury to try out material ahead of the premieres, and the eventual...
Three pieces of mine are being workshopped in the coming weeks – a smallish one in Wales on Thursday, a rather large one in London on Monday, and a medium one in London on the 25th. Monday the 18th brings my first workshop with the BBC Symphony Orchestra as part of my Sound and Music Embedded residency. My piece, under the...
Enmîmés sont les gougebosqueux, premiered earlier this year by Gemini, will receive its second performance on the 9th December at the Great Hall at King's College London. It's being played by Area21, a new ensemble directed by Mischa Tangian, a fellow student of George Benjamin at King's. My piece will be played alongside pieces by Mischa himself, Stravinsky, Ligeti, Villa-Lobos...
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...