The ORA Singers are giving the world premiere of Souling, my first piece purely for choir. They'll perform it at Manchester's Stoller Hall on 29 April, alongside a great number of recent and ancient pieces, worked around Jonathan Dove's 'The Passing of the Year'. My piece was commissioned as a response to Byrd's Justorum Animae, and its association with the feast...
The Philharmonia are playing my La Follia in a concert at London's Roundhouse theatre on 16 April, in a concert featuring kora player Sona Jobarteh. La Follia is a very free arrangement/orchestration of Vivaldi's trio sonata of the same name. It was premiered by BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in 2021, and has also been performed by Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Manchester Camerata...
My Gymnopediés are being given their Australian premiere by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Sharp. They'll perform it twice – on the 7th and 8th March, at their Grainger Studio. Also on the programme are Toru Takemitsu's How Slow the Wind, Aaron Copland's Quiet City, and Arvo Pärt's Sequentia. The Gymnopédies were originally written for piano during lockdown 2020. I...
12 Ensemble are giving the UK premiere of my Prelude (after Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe) for 2 violas, 2 celli and double bass, at London's Wigmore Hall on 25 February. They're performing it alongside cellist Max Ruisi's arrangements of Bach's Komm, süsser Tod, komm selge Ruh and Brahms' String Quartet in C Min, Oliver Coates' One Without, and Britten's Lachrymae with violist Timothy Ridout. The piece reworks a...
My album Pieces that Disappear was released in November on NMC Recordings, and it has been featured in a number of reviews. It features four pieces, all performed by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra – Beautiful Caged Thing and After Lassus (both with soprano Anna Dennis), Three Pieces that Disappear, and Pleasure Garden, with violinist Daniel Pioro. Buy it from NMC or stream on...
I'm writing a new work for tenor Allan Clayton and a string quintet from the Dunedin Consort, to be premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival on 21 June. I'll be taking phrases from the Book of Lamentations and making a new text out of them (as I have done with texts a number of times), and perhaps sprinkling some local Sussex...
NMC Recordings are releasing a portrait disc of my orchestral music, all performed by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, entitled Pieces that Disappear. It features four pieces: 1-3. Three Pieces that Disappear BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins (cond.) 4-6. Beautiful Caged Thing BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with Anna Dennis, Andrew Gourlay (cond.) 7-9. Pleasure Garden BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with Daniel Pioro, Elena Schwarz (cond.) 10-15. After Lassus BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with Anna...
I've made a new version of O Ecclesia, my reworking of a chant by Hildegard of Bingen, for Scottish folk fiddler Aidan O'Rourke and guitarist Sean Shibe. They'll be performing it at three concerts in December – 6 Dec at London's King's Place, 9 Dec at the National Centre for Early Music in York, and on the 11 Dec at Perth...
I'm joining the Royal Northern College of Music as a Professor of Composition. I'll be giving tutorials with Undergraduate and Postgraduate composers. I join a number of brilliant composers at the department. It's lovely to spend more time in Manchester, after studying at the University of Manchester, and in my role as Composer-in-Residence with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra....