Congratulations to this year’s British Composer Award winners, who were announced in a ceremony at the British Museum last night. There were twelve categories, with the winners as follows:
Amateur or Young Performers
Microscopic Dances by Oliver Searle
Chamber Ensemble
Libro di fiammelle e ombre by James Weeks
Choral
In the Land of Uz by Judith Weir
Community or Educational Project
The Umbrella by Liam Taylor-West
Jazz Composition for Large Ensemble
Afronaut by Cassie Kinoshi
Jazz Composition for Small Ensemble
Close to Ecstasy by Simon Lasky
Orchestral
Deep Time by Harrison Birtwistle
Small Chamber
Unbreathed by Rebecca Saunders
Solo or Duo
The Harmonic Canon by Dominic Murcott
Sonic Art
Halfway to Heaven by Emily Peasgood
Stage Works
Shorelines by Oliver Coates
Wind Band or Brass Band
The Turing Test by Simon Dobson
In addition there were two special categories presented to those who have made a special contribution to new music:
British Composer Award for Innovation
Trevor Wishart
British Composer Award for Inspiration in association with the Music Publishers Association
Christian Morris talks to composer Philip Venables. One of the most exciting voices of his generation, his works fearlessly confront issues of sexuality, politics, gender and violence. In 2017 he won a British Composer Award for his opera 4.48 Psychosis and his recently premiered Concerto for Violin, Venables Plays Bartok received critical acclaim after its premiere at the BBC Proms.
Philip Venables, photo Harald Hoffman
Tell us something about your background.
I was born and grew up in Chester. I'm not from a musical family so I started learning the violin in primary school through the county music service. Then I was at a state comprehensive school with, luckily, a very good Head of Music who encouraged my composing. But I then went to study science as an undergraduate. That was ok, but then, after my degree, I decided I wanted to do composing seriously, so I went to the Royal Academy to do a Masters. That was really when I started composing properly, more than as a hobby.
So your early experience was through free tuition...
Yes, I even got a free violin, or at least very cheaply, I seem to remember. In fact the lessons weren't totally free - we paid a small amount, but it certainly was really accessible.
How did you start composing? What persuaded you to compose rather than, say, play the violin.
This years’s Spitalfields Music Festival (1st–9th Dec) will examine the connections that span many centuries and genres of English music, seeking out connections between old and new.
On 4th the Coveyard, a group of musicians ‘committed to rearrangement, reinterpretation and reinvention’ will explore the songs of Henry Purcell through the prism of rock music. There will be five productions (4th–9th) of composer Shiva Feshareki’s site-site-specific work Unknown, Rememebered, which combines Handel’s La Lucrezia with a setting of lyrics by Joy Division and Haroon Mirza’s film installation The Last Tape. The music of an American composer with a profound understanding of the English choral tradition, Nico Muhly, will be explored alongside music by Renaissance masters John Sheppard and Thomas Tallis on 7th.
There will also be a focus upon Canadian musicians and composers. These include the music of Nicole Lizée, Christopher Mayo and Richard Reed Parry in a concert on 5th. Parry’s piece is based upon his own heartbeat, an idea that has been taken as a starting point for a composing project with local primary schools performed on the previous day.
On 6th there will be an another chance to experience a site-specific work by Shiva Feshareki, her GABA-analogue, in which the audience will be invited to walk amongst the players and around the space. The concert will also include Anna Meredith’s Barchan and a performance of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.
The festival takes place in venues across Tower Hamlets, London.
Judith Weir has been announced as this year’s commissioned composer for King’s College Cambridge’s Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.
The tradition of commissioning a new carol for each service was begun by the present director, Stephen Cleobury, in 1983. This will be his last commission before his retirement next year.
There is a certain circularity in the choice of Weir—she is an alumna of King’s and composed an anthem in 1985, near the beginning of Cleobury’s time at the Chapel. This makes her one of only two composers, the other being Richard Rodney Bennett (1986 and 1999), to have been commissioned twice. Her carol O Mercy Divine, will be written for choir and cello.
Speaking about the selection of Weir, Cleobury said:
“I am delighted that Judith has accepted the College’s invitation to compose a carol for this very special year which sees the 100th anniversary of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. A previous commission from Judith in the series, Illuminare, Jerusalem, was written for the same service in 1985 and has come to be regarded as one of the finest contemporary carols of recent times. We are proud to count Judith among our many prestigious alumni, and it is a personal delight to have been able to ask her to write this carol for my last Christmas here at King’s.”
Judith Weir's, Illuminare Jerusalem, performed by King’s in 2010
Over the last two-and-a-half years I have come to admire those people for whom Brexit is a turnoff. The mere mention of the word produces a glassy-eyed look, or, perhaps the begrudging phrase ‘I wish they’d just get on with it’ (rather ignoring the fact that what ‘it’ is is exactly the problem). For me it seems to have become an anxiety-inducing obsession. A day like this, when the news is arriving think and fast, leaves me glued to every available news outlet.
As I write, after six government resignations, it seems that May’s deal is dead. We find ourselves in deep constitutional waters. In trying to interpret the mandate given by the British public in 2016 Theresa May has tried, above all else, to accommodate the wishes of the hard Brexit lobby in her own party. Her responsibility as Prime Minister not to crash the economy, not to ignite a sectarian conflict in Northern Island and, frankly, not to ignore objective reality meant, however, that compromise was a necessity. That compromise, unsurprisingly, has pleased nobody.
A survey before the EU referendum in 2016 showed that 96% of those within the UK’s creative industries were against Brexit. Our own straw-poll amongst composers (admittedly a small sample), conducted shortly after the vote, confirmed that bias. If, for any reason, you need to understand the reasons why Brexit might be bad for composers and musicians more generally, I would strongly suggest taking a look at the blog posts of composer Howard Goodall, who has argued perceptively on the benefits that the EU brings in terms of freedom to work and copyright law.
As political events unfold it is important for us to understand what is at stake. May’s deal, a messy compromise, might have brought with it a measure of stability. It is not, however, surviving contact with reality. Instead, hard Leavers and Remainers are playing a high-stakes game that drives us away from compromise and to the extremes, the former towards a purer (and potentially catastrophic) hard Brexit, the latter to revisit the question in a second referendum. The difference between the two, it might be argued, is that the Leavers never had a mandate for a disruptive hard Brexit, so to seek that outcome without further reference to the people is democratically questionable. Remainers, on the other hand, are offering the prospect of settling the question once and for all in a referendum where all options are on the table. This is, then, surely the way forward.
As such I would suggest now is a good time to reengage in this debate. Dash off an email or, even better, a letter to your MP, say something on Twitter. Keep it civil but get engaged. We are not without agency in this debate. Though many MPs are cautious about changing their minds, they will respond to the wishes of their electors, just so long as they are expressed in sufficient numbers.
This year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (16th–25th November) will feature 15 world premieres, including works by Scott McLaughlin, Nicole Lizée, Christopher Fox, Anna Meredith, Catherine Kontz, Monty Adkins, Matt Wright, Martin Arnold, Supriya Nagarajan and James Dillon.
The festival's composer-in-residence, Christian Marclay, is also known as a visual artist—his hugely successfully video art work The Clock, for example, has toured the world since its creation in 2010 (it is currently on show at the Tate, London). His new work, Investigations, for 20 pianos and 20 players will receive its premiere at the festival on 18th. Other works of his will include the UK premiere of To Be Continued, a graphic score made from found comic books, on 16th; Ephemera, based upon a collection of newspaper advertisements, magazine illustrations, restaurant menus and other disposable printed matter, on 19th (and performed twice); and Screen Play, in which performers respond to a projected musical score, on 20th. Thoughout the festival there will also be an exhibition of the scores that provide visual cues for the works performed.
Of the other concerts there will be some 70 UK premieres, many of which will feature works from the festival’s international partners. The Netherlands will be represented by 10 concerts involving Dutch musicians, including works by emerging composers Chaz Underriner, Graham Flett, Jan-Peter de Graaff, Celia Swart and Aart Strootman. There will also be a focus on Swedish music, including the UK premiere of Malin Bång’s Kudzu (21st) and performances of works by Johan Svensson, Hanna Hartman and Joakim Sandgren (23rd).
On 30th October Anne LeBaron, Board Chair of America Composers Forum, announced the appointment of Vanessa Rose as their new President and CEO from 1st January 2019.
In appointing Rose, LeBaron said:
“Vanessa uniquely stood out for her years of experience in structural and creative development with outstanding contemporary music ensembles that are fiercely committed to supporting the music of living composers….We are all elated with the selection of Vanessa to lead the American Composers Forum as she channels her enthusiasm for composers into new potentials and endeavors. We look forward to her leadership in fortifying existing initiatives as well as creating new programs for serving our composer members, while also increasing the national and international visibility of ACF.”
ACF was formed in 1973 to support the work of composers outside academia, and has since grown into an organisation with around 2000 member in all 50 states.
Congratulations to composer Rachel Portman , who has just won the German Film Music Prize. This adds to her growing collection of honours, including an Oscar for Emma in 1996, Oscar nominations for The Cider House Rules in 1999 and Chocolate in 2000, an OBE in 2010 and an Emmy Award in 2015.
Portman’s impressive back catalogue includes more that 100 film, television and theatre scores, including The Manchurian Candidate, Oliver Twist, Hart's War, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Beloved, Benny and Joon, Life Is Sweet, Never Let Me Go, Grey Gardens, The Duchess, One Day, The Vow, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, The Lake House, Infamous, Mona Lisa Smile, The Human Stain and the children’s opera The Little Prince.
Melvyn Bragg has added his voice to debate on how Brexit will affect the art in the UK, saying in the House of Lords:
Today our musicians travel freely; connections are essential in the global creative world. Post Brexit there will be no guarantee of free movement across Europe. In 2016, our orchestras made 96 visits to 26 different EU countries, according to the Association of British Orchestras – impossible to imagine after Brexit.
This comes after an intervention by Howard Goodall in the Independent three days ago:
One by one, UK industries have presented politicians with the dire consequences of Brexit for our sectors. What have we had in response? Ministers who say, “We know your industry better than you”, or, “You’re making this stuff up to scare people”, or, simply, “F**k business”
And an open letter from UK musicians to Theresa May published in the Guardian on 6th October.
Goodall’s piece also back the idea of a people’s vote on the final deal:
None of the detail about Brexit’s impact on our industry – about the job losses, the closing and relocating of businesses – was known to the public when they voted in June 2016. I do not believe many sincere people would have voted Leave if the truth about its consequences had been clearly explained to them. That is why they need the chance to reconsider, and why we are calling for a people’s vote.
Anyone who feels moved by such arguments might consider joining the People’s Vote Final Say March, which will be held from 12pm tomorrow in central London. It is promising to be even bigger than the march held in June 2018, which was estimated at 100,000. Free buses have been laid on from major UK towns and cities. More details on the People’s Vote website.
Bryn Harrison after the world premiere of First Light
Leuven’s Transit Festival came to a close last night with Jessie Marino’s bewilderingly Nice Guys Win Twice. Blurring the line between music, theatre and visual art one was left impressed by the means, even if one was ultimately unsure of the message. The work ended on a strikingly visual note, a shoal of radio controlled goldfish sent swimming towards the audience. You couldn’t deny it was entertaining.
The rest of the weekend festival provided variety in abundance. There was finely worked and serious concert music, most notably James Dillon’s Tanz/haus, whose sometimes brittle Boulezian textures enchanted the ears. There was a concert of pop-inflected songs, a perfect late night palette cleanser with VONK ensemble; a concert project involving amateur players, the composers providing imaginative and effective solutions to the challenges that this kind of writing poses; there were deconstructed and reconstructed instruments with the Tiptoe Company; and absurdist theatre (and much more) with the Nadar Ensemble.
Across the weekend several works stood out. Bryn Harrison’s First Light was one of the pieces written for amateur performers, in his case for a choir of 24 singers. His approach, which involved giving each singer a single pitch, was astute and allowed the group to perform the work with real authority. Mostly, however, one was left impressed by the piece itself, the slow inevitability of its transformations, the shimmering beauty of its surface. Alexander Chernyshkov’s of the enlightened state of walruses, performed by the Nadar Ensemble had something of the circus about it, with two unexpected interventions, from a man wearing a mutant tuba and a drummer not quite in command of his apparatus. It was striking, however, that this piece succeeded where other more tricksy works failed, by being sufficiently musically interesting—in particular I enjoyed its Berio-like textural playfulness and clever interactions with a mechanical device mounted upon a table. Frederik Neyrinck’s 4 Fragements, for bass clarinet and double bass, played on Sunday afternoon, kept visual trickery to minimum, the players simply changing position between each of the four movements. The writing was exquisite, a compelling marriage of musical content and extended instrumental technique.
Amongst other audience members opinion differed widely as to what counted amongst the festival highlights (even though it was striking how many of those I spoke to mentioned Neyrinck’s work). Whilst disagreeing with one person, who also happened to be a Dutch musicologist, I predictably offered ‘in taste there are no arguments’, as a way of settling things. The Dutch riposte, he helpfully said, was that ‘if you have no argument then you have no taste’. Happily, amidst the disagreements, Transit provided something for all tastes, a splendid weekend of innovative music-making. I think we both went home happy.
Congratulations to young Scotsman Gregor Forbes, who is the first composer to win the International Hanns Eisler Scholarship by the City of Leipzig. He will receive 5000 euros and be invited to spend five months in the birth house of Hanns Eisler in Leipzig.
The Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music is awarded by the New York Philharmonic for to a composer that has shown ‘extraordinary endeavor in the field of new music.’ Previous winners are Louis Andriessen, Per Nøgård and Henri Dutilleux. On 11th October Unsuk Chin was announced as the next recipient. She will receive $200,000 and a commission for the New York Philharmonic. Commenting on the announcement Chin said ‘I am deeply honoured to have been bestowed with The Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music, having such great respect and admiration for my predecessors and for the New York Philharmonic…I hugely admire the New York Philharmonic’s commitment to new composers and I am thrilled to have a chance to collaborate with them on a new work of mine.’
Normally at C:T I reserve obituaries for composers. Today I want to spend a moment remembering a musicologist. I wish to do so partly because I have been surprised by how little has been written about him elsewhere, partly because I know that, through his teaching work, he was an enormously important figure for generations of students. Mostly I want to write about him because he was my friend.
John Tyrrell was the world’s foremost Leoš Janáček scholar. Born in Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia) in 1942, he studied at Cape Town, Oxford and Brno. In 1976 he was appointed as a lecturer at Nottingham University, becoming a Professor in 1996. With the support of the British Council and Czech Music Fund he worked on Janacek’s manuscript material in Brno from 1992. From 1996–2000 he was an Executive Editor of the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. He was appointed Research Professor at Cardiff University in 2000. His publications focus upon Czech music and Janáček in particular. These include Czech Opera (1988), Janáček’s Operas: A Documentary Account (1992), My Life with Janáček, translations of Janáček’s widow’s memoir of her life with the composer (1992), and Intimate Letters, translations of Janáček’s correspondence with Kamila Stösslová (1992). His magisterial two-volume life of Janáček, The Lonely Blackbird and The Tsar of the Forest, published in 2006 and 2007 by Faber, is the definite account. John was awarded honorary doctorates from Masaryk University and the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts and in January was named International Ambassador of Czech Music. This year’s Janacek International Festival, held in Brno from November 17th to December 5th will be dedicated to his memory.
That is the professional account. The grand man.
An alternative insight into his character, however, is summed up by friends and students who knew him at Cardiff. The first, told by a composer colleague of mine, went like this:
“I do remember once running after him to ask a question: ‘Professor Tyrrell, Professor Tyrrell!’ He span around so quickly and shouted: ‘For God’s sake! My name’s John!’”
Another, from a diminutive student:
“We were in his office and the doorbell rang. I jumped up to get it and he said ‘can you reach?'” [John could get away with this because he was also very short]
Another:
“Devastating. He once bought me a CD simply because I expressed some enthusiasm for a composer. He was an incredible tutor.”
From a music librarian:
“He was very pro-library, always giving at least two copies of his books to the collection when they came out. He always made time to spend with us. A joy for me every time he came in to the library.”
And in response to this:
“He was lovely—but did he speak to you via paper airplane like we did?”
John wore his phenomenal scholarship lightly, made himself available, was just a hugely respected, down-to-earth figure.
I met him at Cardiff in 2005. He was in charge of a study techniques module for postgraduates and ran the postgraduate forum with the Professor of Composition, Anthony Powers. It was through the forum that I really got to know him. Though his interest in every student was abundantly apparent, this felt particularly true of the composers amongst us. He was always keen to play recordings of our works during the forum, to discuss them at length. The composition PhD at Cardiff also required that composers write a substantial commentary to their portfolio of pieces. For many of us, more comfortable dealing with notes than words, this was the most onerous part of the process. John, who had no obligation to offer his time in this way, generously checked though many of these, offering detailed advice. There is no one I have met, before or since, that I would trust more in questions of syntax and style. He always ribbed me that I used ‘too many intensifiers.’ To this day I feel he looks over my shoulder as I write. On his retirement a few of us in the forum organised a collection for him. Asking people to give money to buy presents for John was the easiest job in the world.
At one of the Music Department composition concerts, to which he always came, John took a bit of a shine to one of my pieces. We spoke about it at length afterwards. This became the start of a friendship that continued after he left Cardiff in 2008. He became a trusted advisor in all matters, professional and personal. Mostly this was conducted via email: newsy notes and funny stories; requests for advice (from me), wise words (from him). He read through my own PhD commentary and also a couple of articles on the composer Henri Dutilleux. I also had the great pleasure of welcoming him to my native Pembrokeshire and visiting him in Nottingham. Our emails became a little more sporadic as time went by, until in September 2015 we lost touch.
That last email from him, as I was contemplating a turbulent time in my own life–a move to the South of France–fills me with such pain today. As ever he was full of advice, of concern about what lay ahead. His last words were to wish me good luck and invite me to visit him when back in the UK. After I moved I thought often of him, assuming that I would eventually get back in touch and it would be just as if no time had passed at all. Forgetting his age, I believed he was a permanent fixture in my life. Is there any stupidity quite as complete as believing that friends don’t die?
No doubt he would chuckle at my distress now. He was only too aware how tangled and complicated life can become, how easy it is to lose touch. And he was too great a person to judge the quality of a relationship by such mean measures.
That knowledge doesn’t diminish the pain, however. I will miss you terribly John. With the rest of the world I will miss your phenomenal scholarship. But most of all I, as with all who really knew you, will miss the funniest, loveliest most generous of men. A gentleman and a gentle man. Rest in peace.
If you are an ageing composer whose heart was warmed by the news that Simon Rattle has ‘discovered’ nonagenarian Betsy Jolas, you should probably moderate your enthusiasm. Whilst Rattle knew very little about the composer before trawling YouTube for examples of her work, Jolas is hardly a figure plucked from obscurity.
Jolas was born in Paris in 1926 into a literary and artistic family. Her mother, Maria Jolas, was a translator, her father, Eugène Jolas, a poet and journalist. Their circle of friends and acquaintances included figures such as Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Henri Matisse and Edgard Varèse. She studied in the U.S. in the 40s, returning to France in 1948 to continue her studies with Darius Milhaud, Simone Plé-Caussade and Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique. She later worked as Messiaen’s assistant, eventually being appointed to the Conservatoire in 1975.
Jolas’s background was critical in her formation as a composer. It has been argued that her familiarity with words led to a sensitivity in voice setting that ‘protected her from some of the musical excesses of the post-war music world.’ Unlike other composers, she was also less interested in a break with the past, a fact, for example, reflected in her interest in Renaissance music. Of this Jolas herself has remarked ‘My roots are in the entire history of music, not just in contemporary music.’
None of which is to say that Jolas was unaware or uninfluenced by the radical innovations of the postwar avant-garde. After discovering Webern’s Fünf Stüke, op. 10 in the early 1950, she quickly began familiarising herself with the works of Boulez, Stockhausen and others. Her response, however, was tempered by ‘her passion for the voice and its expressive qualities’ as exemplified by such works as Mots (1963), or her breakthrough work Quatuor II, for soprano and string trio (1964), which treats the voice as an equal within the texture:
Subsequent years continued these preoccupations. Though the scope of her work expanded to include orchestral writing, the influence of the voice has never seemed far away, either implied, through the expressivity of the instrumental writing, or by overt reference, as in 11 Lieder for trumpet and chamber orchestra (1977); Frauenleben, 9 Lieder for viola and orchestra (1992); and Lumor, 7 Lieder Spirtuels for saxophone and orchestra (1996). There were also more works that included voice, most notably the operas Le Cyclope (1986) and Schliemann (1987).
Jolas’s impressive collection of awards underlines her status. These include those from the Copley Foundation of Chicago (1954), ORTF (1961), the American Academy of Arts (1973) and the Koussevitsky Fondation (1974); the Grand Prix National de la Musique (1974), Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris (1981) and the Grand Prix de la SACEM (1982). Jolas became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1983 and has taught at Yale, Harvard, Mills College, Berkeley, USC and San Diego University.
Before being ‘discovered’ by Simon Rattle, she has also accrued a large number of international performances from groups such as The Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the Concord Quartet, the Domaine Musical, the Percussions de Strasbourg, the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Intercontemporain and the Philharmonia. She has an extensive discography.
Not undiscovered, then, but perhaps not fully appreciated, especially outside France and the Unites States. In this sense Rattle’s raising of her profile has done us all a service.
IDAGIO, the streaming service for classical music is now available in North America.
IDAGIO currently offers more than a million classical tracks, and is continuing to expand its catalogue with the addition of 20,000 new tracks each week. This library comprises recordings of more than 130,000 works, including a wealth of curated playlists and content from key concert artists, orchestras, and opera companies.
IDAGIO is $9.99 per month in the US and Canada, either at idagio.comor through IDAGIO’s mobile apps for iOS and Android and desktop apps for macOS and Windows.
To learn more about the service, including its potential as a platform for composers, read C:T’s interview with its founder Till Janczukowicz, here.
The ending of freedom of movement with continental Europe is likely to mean an increase in bureaucracy for touring musicians. Additional red tape may include the imposition of visas and carnets. The costs involved may make touring a thing of the past for those who operate on a smaller budget.
As such, the Musicians’ Union has started a petition calling on government to introduce an EU touring visa. This, they say, must be ‘affordable, multi-entry, admin-light and cover all EU member states.’ They are encouraging all musicians and music-lovers to sign.
You can read more about the petition here or, if you are already convinced, head straight to the petition here.
Christian Morris talks with Maarten Beirens, artistic director of the Transit Festival, part of Festival 20/21 held in the Flemish city of Leuven.
Maarten Beirens
You’ve been at the festival since 2015?
Let me try to do the maths...I think so. This is my fourth edition.
Could you tell us a little bit about the history of the festival?
It started in the late 90s. It was founded by Mark Delaere who is Professor of Musicology here in Leuven. He had been running a new music festival that he had been organising from within the Musicology Department using students who were doing everything in house, ticketing and whatever. So not a professional organisation that really stretched the possibilities of what a musicology department could actually do. But the impulse was already there. That festival had a different name - it was Nieuwe Stemmen, New Voices. It had the aim of bringing together music as a practice as composers are dealing with it now and musicology. Bridging the gap between scholarly study of music on one hand and the music world as an active creative thing on the other.
It’s gratifying to find a new music festival on one’s doorstep, so I make special mention today of Festival 20/21, which runs from 24th September to 25th October in the Flemish city of Leuven (just a few short trainstops from Brussels).
The festival is split into two parts. Festival 20/21 itself concentrates on more established composers from the twentieth century to the present day. Highlights include an evening of Penderecki premieres on 4th October; George Crumb’s visceral Black Angels quartet on 10th; Eric Satie’s La mort de Socrate paired with John Cage’s Cheap Imitation III, which is derived from Satie’s work, on 22nd; and Éclairs sur l’Au-Delà and Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum by Olivier Messiaen on 25th.
Transit (12th–14th October) is a festival within a festival concentrating on newer works and younger composers. The classics of the future. Given its 11 events take place over one weekend it makes for an especially enticing event for those prepared to make the pilgrimage—you will get to hear a lot of new music in a short space of time.
Highlight include premieres from Jasper Vanpaemel, Liesa Van der Aa, Bryn Harrison, James Saunders, Tim Mariën, Patricia Alessandrini, Alexander Chernyshkov, Lisa Streich, Michael Finnissy, Georgia Nicolaou, Frederik Neyrinck and Stefan Van Eycken. There will also be a chance to hear James Dillon’s Tanz/haus : tryptich, which was co-commisioned with Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and was a huge success there in 2017. There will also be two armchair discussion on the theme of ‘democracy’ in new music with musicologist Robert Adlington.
I spoke to one of the festival’s artistic directors, Maarten Beirens, just a few days ago about the event. Look out for that interview in the next few days.
An immersive 9-day music series, Spitalfields Music Festival marries early and contemporary music. Now in its 42nd year, the festival will once again bring artists, audiences and communities together in the heart of East London between the 1–9 December 2018.
Curated by conductor André de Ridder, festival highlights include:
-Unknown, Remembered, an immersive site-specific project which fuses Handel’s operatic scena La Lucrezia with a new commission from Shiva Feshareki.
-The Coveryard, a collective of arrangers and multi-instrumentalists led by Josephine Stephenson and Sarah Latto. Their composition interweaves songs from iconic Manchester rock band The Smiths with new arrangements of Purcell.
-The Riot Ensemble return to Spitalfields Music Festival with a programme of work by some of Canada’s most exciting contemporary composers including Richard Reed Parry for his Music for Heart and Breath with instrumentalists connected to stethoscopes and playing to the rhythms of their own heartbeats; Christopher Mayo’s Beast; and Nicole Lizée’s Black Midi
-Also presents will be British composers Anna Meredith and Shiva Feshareki alongside Stravinsky’s masterpiece The Firebird Suite. There will also be a site specific, surround-sound orchestra and a guest appearance by soloist Jörgen van Rijen, conducted by André de Ridder at York Hall in Bethnal Green, the home of British boxing
Christian Morris talks to composer and founder of the London Graduate Orchestra, Kemal Yusuf. With recent commissions from The Cheltenham International Music Festival, the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, The Carducci Quartet and The Fidelio Trio he has also been described as 'one of the UK's brightest young composers.'
Kemal Yusuf
Tell us something about your background.
I was raised in North London by first generation Turkish parents. The state school I attended, which has since been put in special measures, didn't have what we would call a thriving music department, so until I had more formal training I had to learn everything myself. This has had its disadvantages in some areas, but certainly has helped in others. It was always clear to me, from around the time most kids begin school, that I was going to write music. My route has been slightly different, I suppose.
How did you start composing?
When I was 7 my sister was given a tiny Casio keyboard as a Christmas present. This was my first experience of an instrument that could put notes together, it fascinated me and I began improvising and composing right away. That was what started me on my path.
Christian Morris
Congratulations to this year’s 
Judith Weir has been announced as this year’s commissioned composer for King’s College Cambridge’s Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.
Over the last two-and-a-half years I have come to admire those people for whom Brexit is a turnoff. The mere mention of the word produces a glassy-eyed look, or, perhaps the begrudging phrase ‘I wish they’d just get on with it’ (rather ignoring the fact that what ‘it’ is is exactly the problem). For me it seems to have become an anxiety-inducing obsession. A day like this, when the news is arriving think and fast, leaves me glued to every available news outlet.
Melvyn Bragg has 
If you are an ageing composer whose heart was warmed by the 
IDAGIO, the streaming service for classical music is now available in North America.
The ending of freedom of movement with continental Europe is likely to mean an increase in bureaucracy for touring musicians. Additional red tape may include the imposition of visas and carnets. The costs involved may make touring a thing of the past for those who operate on a smaller budget.
An immersive 9-day music series, 