photo credit: Katie Vandyck

PURCELL SCHOOL APPOINTS ROBERT SAXTON AS COMPOSER-IN-ASSOCIATION

UYMP congratulates Robert Saxton on his appointment as Composer-in-Association at the Purcell School from September 2013. The School have a very successful Department of Composition and several students from the department win composition scholarships every year for study at leading universities and music colleges. Students have recently been commissioned for composition work for the Royal Opera House and the Commonwealth Day Service

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UYMP in the Dales

The Yorkshire Dales will host performances of new compositions by several UYMP composers this Summer and next Spring. The Swaledale Festival presents the world premiere of David Blake's Ten Gallows Songs, on Friday 7th June, at St Andrew's Church, Aysgarth. The songs will be performed by mezzo soprano Patricia Hammond and pianist Graham Coatman.

On Thursday 18th July the Lunchtime Concert Series at Ripon Cathedral will feature the premiere of a new work by Sadie Harrison,

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photo by Jim Carmody

Paredes moves audience in tragic tales of human trafficking at premiere of Cuatro Corridos

La tierra de la miel
The world premiere of Cuatro Corridos, which took place on Wednesday 8th May 2013, at the Experimental Theatre, Conrad Prebys Music Center, University of California, San Diego, based on a text by Jorge Volpi, has revealed horrifying truths about human trafficking of women over the US/Mexican border, from Tijuana to San Diego's strawberry farms. Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed gave the premiere a glowing write-up: 'After seeing the world premiere Wednesday night at UC San Diego of "Cuatro Corridos," an intensely disturbing operatic investigation into sex trafficking around the strawberry farms of San Diego, I was more tempted by bananas than strawberries for breakfast the next morning,

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EXAUDI launches Exposure CD

Saturday 4th May will see the performance by EXAUDI of James Weeks' Nakedness for solo soprano, at the Only Connect Theatre, Cubitt Street, London. EXAUDI will explore the 'human voice in the raw in a high-octane programme of vocal virtuosity'. As well as live performances, the evening will feature interviews

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Evis Sammoutis wins 2013 Look & Listen Competition

Evis Sammoutis has won the 2013 Look and Listen Composition Competition with 'Ηχοπραξια - Echopraxia' for string sextet. The Momenta Quartet will give the work's US premiere on Sunday 19th May 2013 at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery in NYC.

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NAXOS release Tinoco CD

The Naxos label is releasing a new CD of Luís Tinoco's orchestral music on 18th May 2013. Round Time comprises world premiere recordings of Round Time (for symphony orchestra with triple winds), and works for soprano and symphony orchestra ...from the depth of distance, Search Songs, and Canções do Sonhador Solitário (Songs from The Solitary Dreamer), performed by Ana Quintans, Yeree Suh & Raquel Camarinha (sopranos) respectively and the Orquestra Gulbenkian, conducted by David Alan Miller.

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Saxton at City of London Festival

Pianist Clare Hammond will give the world premiere of Robert Saxton's Hortus Musicae at the City of London Festival on June 24th at 6pm, in St Mary-le-Bow Church. The work has been commissioned by the City of London Festival with support from the John S Cohen Foundation, in celebration of the composer's 60th birthday. The Latin title refers to the idea of an allegorical/metaphysical garden with various facets. Five short movements present various images of the garden including a 'magical' garden; a garden which reflects on poet Andrew Marvell's floral clock

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Simaku String Quartet No. 4 film

A film of Thomas Simaku's String Quartet No. 4, performed on 20th February 2013 by York Music Department Ensemble-in-Residence, Quatuor Diotima, is available to watch on the department's website.

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Luis Tinoco is Naxos Composer of the Week

Following the CD release of Round Time, Luís Tinoco is Composer of the Week on Naxos.

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Kabul, 2004

PRS FUNDING AWARD to Sadie Harrison for new solo work for pianist Ian Pace

Sadie Harrison's new work for Ian Pace has been supported by funds from the Performing Rights Society. The piece, entitled The Return of the Nightingales, will receive its premiere as part of the Late Music Festival in York this Autumn, in celebration of Frederic Rzewski's 75th birthday. The impetus behind Sadie's work has changed somewhat from initial ideas since she received a DVD from ethnomusicologist John Baily. Using Rzewski's groundbreaking politico-musical statements as a starting point, the piece will explore the ways that traditional Afghan material can be incorporated effectively and sensitively into the gamut of the piano's timbres and temperament. The photograph here was taken by Veronica Doubleday - two Afghan boys in Kabul

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Gilbert CDs very highly recommended by Tempo

Recently released Prima Facie CDs (007 and 013) of Anthony Gilbert's piano music have been 'very highly recommended' by Tempo.

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Tinoco 'Round Time' CD launch and broadcast

The forthcoming Naxos CD of Luís Tinoco works, Round Time, will be launched at the Gulbenkian Foundation on the revised date of 9th May 2013 at 6pm. Naxos have released a video preview of the CD, which includes interviews with Tinoco, conductor David Alan Miller, and poet Almeida Faria, on YouTube.

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