University of York Music Press

UYMP house composers, David Blake, Elisabeth Lutyens and David Lancaster all have performances of their pieces during the May concert series at Late Music, York.

Robert Saxton's Le Tombeau de Ravel will be premiered on 2 May at Wigmore Hall. Also, three of Robert's works will be released on CD on 23 May. 

We are so pleased that the poetry by Jo Heyde inspired by house composer Sadie Harrison’s new work where she has always been … ble mae wastad wedi bod … has now been published. The 20 minute, 9 movement piece for solo cello will be premiered at the book launch at the Bank Vault, Aberystwyth by Neil Heyde. Sadie writes, "where she has always been … ble mae wastad wedi bod … takes its title from a set of poems of the same name written in Welsh by Jo Heyde in response to this specially composed work for solo cello, inspired by the legends of Rhiannon, Blodeuwedd and Ceridwen from the Mabinogian, a collection of early medieval Welsh stories dating to the 12th/13th centuries."

We are very pleased that house composer Sadie Harrison has received a most positive review for her piece 10,000 Black Men Named George from Charlottesville Classical. The work was released earlier this year on Divine Art Metier (MEX 77132) performed by the Kreutzer Quartet. 

Three distinguished pianists are playing at Late Music York this weekend, at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate: David Hammond, Jakob Fichert and Ian Pace.  Firstly, David Hammond (Friday 5th April, 1pm) continues his exploration of composers with a Yorkshire connection.  Late Music York write: ‘The programme includes music by the remarkably talented Richard Stoker, William Baines’ Goodnight to Flamboro’, Sadie Harrison’s tribute to Baines, 3 Portraits of William Baines from Shadows: Six Portraits of William Baines plus Frederick Delius’ On hearing the first cuckoo in Spring’.  On Saturday 6th April at 1pm Jakob Fichert will present a programme curated by Tom Armstrong (composer and alumnus of the University of York) which will comprise a tapestry of variations from Schumann to Beehoven to Liszt and Leighton – four discreet panels threading together works from the 19th to the 21st centuries.   

UYMP is delighted to announce that we are looking for a part-time Assistant Administrator to join our small, York-based team. This role will focus on the administration and operation of the UYMP office, supporting the Administrator in their work.

In this role you will:

• Contribute to general office duties and assist with enquiries, as required.
• Assist with the promotion of UYMP publications, liaising with composers, performers and promoters, and building relationships with them.

To find out more about the role and how to apply, please click here .

UYMP house composer, James Weeks, has recently released a new album G O M B E R T with the ensemble, Apartment House, under the record label, Another Timbre. 

The album consists of seven motets and a chanson by 16th century Franco-Flemish composer, Nicolas Gombert, arranged for instruments by Weeks who also composed the interludes between the Gombert pieces. Weeks straddles the worlds of both early and contemporary music, and his 'media vita' interludes act as resting points between Gombert's intricate pieces. 

Read more about the project at http://anothertimbre.com/gombert.html 

Purchase the album on Bandcamp at https://anothertimbre.bandcamp.com/album/g-o-m-b-e-r-t

 

Many belated congratulations to Evis Sammoutis on his recent (2024) appointment as Associate Professor of Composition at Eastman School of Music in the USA.  We are also delighted that Evis has been awarded a Senior Research Fellowship from the GATES International Excellence in the Humanities Programme, at Université Grenoble Alpes, France.  Eastman School of Music write that Evis will ‘spend part of 2025 in Grenoble working with faculty from various disciplines and will also be a Visiting Fellow at St. Cross College, Oxford, in May 2025.

Described by the reviewer as ‘pure pleasure’, a wonderful review of Danny Driver's early January concert at the Wigmore Hall has just been published by Gramophone, in their "Spring 2025: Live concert reviews’’.  As a ‘centrepiece’, ‘ideally placed in this recital’, the concert included the world premiere of Catena IV,  a substantial work for piano by Thomas Simaku.  The reviewer writes: ‘Beginning with two Chopin Nocturnes, he went on to play Ligeti’s provocative Musica ricercata as a series of highly atmospheric impressions, suggesting an exhilarating journey of exploration.

John Donne, Beckett, Berio, Joyce and The Beatles - just a few of the eclectic collection of artists who influenced the composers in the upcoming York Late Music concert on 1st March (19:30) by the Elysian Singers of London, conducted by Sam Laughton. The programme will also include the first performance of David Lancaster's The World’s Last Night. Late Music also celebrate Roger Marsh's (Professor of Music at the University of York from 1989 to 2019) 75th birthday on Saturday, with a lunchtime (13.00 hours) concert by the Trifarious Ensemble. Trifarious will play Roger's Ferry Music and Easy Steps, as well as works by Berio, Takemitsu, Tom Armstrong and David Power.   

We are absolutely thrilled that the young pianist Yash Saran has just won the Ethyl Smyth Award for Performance of a Work by a Female Composer in the 2025 Woking Young Musician of the Year Competition 2025, adjudicated by George Caird. He performed the first movement of house composer Sadie Harrison’s Lunae (1. ...around and a round...) for solo piano.

Yash Saran has been playing the piano since the age of 6, and now studies at the Royal Academy of Music Junior Department with Eleanor Hodgkinson.  He is a thrice winner of Woking Music Festival's Junior Musician of the Year and twice runner up of the Piano Prize at the Academy. 

We are happy to announce that our friends Late Music York’s 2025 season begins this Saturday 1st February.  As usual, concerts will take place in the beautiful Unitarian Chapel, 31 St. Saviourgate, York, YO1 8NQ. Late Music write: ‘From Bingen to Bingham! Join us on Saturday 1st February for the first concerts of 2025. At 1pm we’re taking flight with women writing for women as Nia Rhein Passmore and Kate Ledger explore music by female composers from Hildegard Von Bingen to the present day. This is followed by the Bingham String Quartet at 7:30 (with a pre-concert talk at 6:45) taking on Phillip Glass’ fascinating 3rd Quartet, ‘Mishima’ alongside new works by Anthony Adams and Steve Crowther.