The University of York Music Press - now known as UYMP - was founded in 1995 by David Blake with Bill Colleran. Its purpose is to publish and promote new and established composers with a range of aesthetic backgrounds. UYMP's catalogue represents this diversity with young voices such as Luís Tinoco, Ed Hughes and Sadie Harrison to the recent work of David Blake, Anthony Gilbert, Vic Hoyland, Nigel Osborne, Jo Kondo and Robert Saxton. UYMP is also proud to publish the music of David Lumsdaine and Elisabeth Lutyens.

UYMP is pioneering a series of novel educational resources for teachers and students at the primary, secondary and tertiary level. On Track, its series for GCSE Music, is endorsed by Edexcel examining board.

News from UYMP

Posted 15th May 2010

Hilda Paredes' electronic work in Chicago

Catch the cutting edge of music with 'Computers Come Alive!'. Hilda Paredes' work Óox p'eel ikil t'aan (Three Poems) for trumpet, percussion, tape and live electronics has a performance in Chicago at the Fulcrum Point New Music Project's 2009-2010 season of 'Movies, Myths and Machines'. [...read more]

[Thomas Simaku talking at<br>Cervantes Institute in Vienna]

Thomas Simaku talking at
Cervantes Institute in Vienna

Posted 11th May 2010

Three Premieres for York Composer Simaku

Thomas Simaku's work Ed e' subito sera, based on the poem by the Nobel Prize-winning Sicilian poet Salvatore Quasimodo, was given its American premiere on 2 May 2010 at the University of Minnesota by Nickolai Kolarov (cello) and Jill Dawe (piano), whilst another new work Soliloquy IV was given its first performance at Cervantes Institute in Vienna on 3rd May 2010 by the Bass Clarinet player Carlos Galvez. [...read more]

Posted 30th March 2010

Ed Hughes' A Buried Flame in Wells and Sweden

The Bath Camerata will premiere Ed Hughes' new work A Buried Flame at a special concert in Wells Cathedral on Good Friday. This work was commissioned by the Bath Camerata and will be directed by former Kings Singer Nigel Perrin.

[...read more]

Posted 26th February 2010

Paredes' World Premiere for Festival in Cuenca

The world premiere of Hilda Paredes' new work Kamex ch'ab will take place on Palm Sunday, 28th March, at the Semana de Musica Religiosa de Cuenca in Spain — Cuenca's 49th Festival of Religious Music. Kamex ch'ab, written for the Hilliard Ensemble and the Arditti String Quartet, was especially commissioned for the festival. The composition has particular poignancy as it is dedicated to Paredes' sister Bety, who inspired the composer as she wrote the work alongside visits to keep her sister company at the Cardiology Hospital in Mexico City. [...read more]

Posted 30th January 2010

Scoring a Century

'Scoring a Century, A Musical Entertainment', with music by David Blake, is set to get its first production. The performances by the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music will take place at the Crescent Theatre, Birmingham on the 4th, 5th and 6th March. [...read more]

Posted 9th December 2009

Vic Hoyland Post-Concert Discussion

An interesting video of a discussion held by the BCMG and including Vic Hoyland. It took place after the premiere of Hoyland's Hey Presto!:
http://www.vimeo.com/7685378 [...read more]

Posted 2nd December 2009

Simaku Wins Basca Award

This year's winner of the British Composers' Award in the category of Instrumental Solo or Duo is Thomas Simaku. His piece, Soliloquy V Flauto Acerbo, is for for alto and tenor recorders, and was composed during the summer of 2008. It was commissioned by Christopher Orton with funds provided by the BBC Performing Arts Fund. The judges 'unanimously agreed that the winning work redefines the instrument in a visionary and entirely original way. They praised it for its virtuosity, depth of expression, and powerful imagination.'

Of the composition, Simaku writes that:
'As the first part of the title suggests, the piece belongs to a series of works for solo instruments. After the première of Soliloquy I at the 2000 ISCM Festival, the idea of composing a cycle of solo pieces — the aim was to create different characters within the same protagonist who 'narrates' in different languages, as it were — materialized itself. So far, this is the fifth work in the series (the first three are for string instruments, and the fourth is for Bass Clarinet).
With each piece, the soloistic idea operates on a different instrumental canvas and is elaborated according to the expressive qualities and the technical potentiality of each instrument. In this work, the linear contours based on 'white modality' but constantly 'surrounded' by chromatic and microtonal inflections, as well as the contrapuntal dynamism and the variety of textural formats stemming from it, are at the heart of the musical discourse. The idiosyncratic quality of this work is to be found perhaps in the second part of the title, Flauto Acerbo!'

UYMP is proud to support the music of Thomas Simaku and wishes to congratulate him on this award.

The ceremony is available on the BBC's website until 9 December:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p31rm

Listen to Soliloquy V, Flauto Acerbo on our catalogue page.
[...read more]

Posted 28th August 2009

UYMP signs Philip Venables

Venables is one of the most exciting composers of his generation, having been performed by the BBC Philharmonic, The BBC Singers, Ensemble 10-10, the London Sinfonietta, the Duke Quartet and the Southbank Sinfonia. His music has been performed at venues and festivals internationally, including the Wigmore Hall, Cheltenham International Music Festival, Spitalfields Festival, Bregenz Festival, the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and the QuantumLoop Animated Film Festival. [...read more]

Posted 28th August 2009

Luís Tinoco Performances

Luís Tinoco has several upcoming performances, beginning with O Silencio e as Pedras. This composition was first performed by the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble, who commissioned the work, at the Cascais Cultural Centre in 2008. It is scored for alto flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello and granite stones, with live electronics. The upcoming performance will take place on 13 September 2009, at the CCB/Musica Viva Festival, in Lisbon, and will be conducted by Jean-Sébastien Béreau. A subsequent performance will occur in Bilbao at the Guggenheim Museum on 18 November. [...read more]

Posted 28th August 2009

Bill Colleran Postgraduate Studentship

The University of York Music Press is founding a new postgraduate studentship, which will be named in memory of Bill Colleran. It will commemorate his lifelong commitment to new music, and also the close relationship between Colleran and York, the city in which he began his career in music publishing. Later, with John Paynter, he forged an educational catalogue for Universal Edition and initiated York's New Music in Action summer school. His work as a Director of UE was distinguished by his dedication to the promotion of new music; throughout his life, he was a source of assistance and encouragement to many composers. With David Blake, he founded UYMP in 1994. He was an honorary Fellow of York's Department of Music. [...read more]

» More news