After our recent work on ‘You can’t hold me now’ we have just been included in an article about collaborators in 2020! What a wonderfully positive start to 2021. Let’s hope this year is going to be a year full of exciting creative projects!
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I have recently been working on a commission from Sparetyre with Soprano Tamara Stein. The lyrics were also composed by Tamara during the first period of Lockdown.
https://www.sparetyre.org/watch-and-listen/you-cant-hold-me-now
This work was commissioned for the concert tour of clarinet soloist Jonathan Rider. Here is a video of Jonathan performing the piece in the Blue room in Lincoln.
Yesterday I went to the Proms and it is always inspiring to hear anything by Ravel. Ravel for me really is the ‘god’ of Orchestration and it was such a delight to listen to the wonderful performance of Daphnis and Chloe. It’s not often that you hear such a large scale orchestral work with chorus, full brass section , percussion and two harps!
I recently composed a new work for the Isle of Axholme Orchestra. The orchestra is based in North Lincolnshire-I wanted to write a piece that connected to that part of the country. I am very keen on supporting our woodlands and was reading an interesting article from the Woodland Trust on Bowthorpe Oak. Bowthorpe Oak is England’s largest Oak tree and is over a thousand years oak-it stands in a field in Bourne in Lincolnshire. Over thirty people have managed to stand inside the tree at one time, and it is featured in the Guinness book of records. I was very inspired to write a piece about this amazing tree, history and the life it sustains. Please come along if you are in Scunthorpe tomorrow-the concert is a celebration of female composers through the ages, and is conducted by Robert Steadman.
http://www.isleofaxholmeorchestra.co.uk/
This week I have been out and about at the Greenhorn film festival. I attended the ‘Short meets’ event on Monday-it was great to chat to lots of creative people about their work in films. I met many Composers, Directors and Scriptwriters-it was a very interesting evening. This was closely followed by the event ‘Music in Film Panel. There was a wonderful array of panellists which included: Connie Farr (ThinkSync Music), Rob Manning, Carly Paradis, Laura Rossi,Vasco Hexel (Royal College of Music) and Richard Paine (Faber Music). The evening was packed with great advice for up and coming composers/ film makers on many practical points. How to get work; how to talk to Directors; promoting yourself and other essential information on contracts and negotiating pay. I went away from the event feeling very inspired, and I will certainly be attending this gem of a festival next year.
I have been very busy continuing to work on my Nonet and Orchestral piece. Work is also in progress for the very large-scale Opera project I am working on in collaboration with librettist Tamara Stein. We are looking forward to meeting up at the beginning of December to combine some of our recent sketches.
On the subject of creativity and composing I stumbled across this interesting article by Jeremy Manier from the University of Chicago-‘Exploring the Sources of Musical Creativity’. It looks at the creative process from three different composers: http://www.uchicago.edu/features/exploring_the_sources_of_musical_creativity/
The start of Autumn has been a very busy time for me. I have enjoyed attending Games Music connect for the second year running. I feel for composers it gives a very good overview of the music industry, and is packed full of helpful advice and opportunities to network with other composers. I have also embarked on a very exciting project working on an opera with Tamara Stein. I am very much looking forward to this new challenge and look forward to posting future updates.
This year has already got off to a very exciting start-I have been asked to write a diverse range of works for a number of performers and I am really looking forward to the challenge. I will be posting regular updates on my work and future events.
I am also branching out into composing for media/film and tv- and have been attending a course at Goldsmiths college. I am very much enjoying meeting other composers in the industry. In the Autumn I also attended Games Music Connect- which if you are interested in composing for computer Games is a really unmissable event of the year. It was a great opportunity to listen to composers such as Martin O’Donnell and Paul Lipson talk about their work in the Industry.
It has been a very busy last few months. In the Spring I completed a new work for Charley Brighton called ‘Spring Rhapsody’. This was premiered in a 50th Celebration concert in St Mary’s Church in Slough.
http://www.4barsrest.com/news/detail.asp?id=16905#.Ubcj0JxQATA
I have also been working on a new piece for a nonet called Ceffyl Dŵr (which means Water Horse in Welsh and is similar to a Kelpie in Scotland). I am also continuing to work on a collection of pieces for Trumpet and Piano-written for Trumpeter John Campbell called ‘Dwelling Places’.
My work for Piano ‘Mysterious Light’ will be performed by Graeme Thewlis in a lunchtime concert on 20th June at St Stephen’s church, Rochester Row in Westminster.
http://www.sswsj.org/
‘Mysterious Light’ will also feature performed by Graeme Thewlis at the 3 foot people festival in Chelmsford:
http://www.chelmsford.gov.uk/3foot
Since Christmas I have been very busy working on several new pieces to be premiered in the coming months. These include: a new work for nonet; piece for Euphonium and Piano written for Charley Brighton, and a new work for piano inspired by a monologue written by pianist Graeme Thewlis.
