University of York Music Press

We are delighted that pianist Alex Wilson has commissioned house composer Sadie Harrison to write a substantial new work, generously supported by a grant from the Ambache Charitable Trust. The collaboration came about after Alex’s recent release of a Toccata Classics CD of works by the little-known Australian composer Frederick Septimus Kelly, who died at the Battle of the Somme aged 35. Sadie's pieces are designed to be interspersed between Kelly’s piano works, illuminating diary entries that he wrote throughout his life, chronologically arranged.

Thomas Simaku’s new album of chamber music, con-ri-sonanza, released by the Swedish label BIS Records in November 2020, has captured the attention of the music press and radio stations alike. Performed by Quatuor Diotima and Joseph Houston, two works from this album were featured on French national radio, France Musique, which described Simaku’s music as ‘astonishing’, in a programme of contemporary music broadcast on 7 February 2021.

Live Event: Monday 1st February 2021, 9.00am-10.00am GMT

Watch the event here 

Internationally-renowned composer Anne Boyd will be in conversation with composer Thomas Metcalf, discussing her life and music ahead of a performance of her String Quartet No. 2 ’Play on the Water’ later this year as part of the TORCH project ‘Pixelating the River’: Engagement with Contemporary Music through Graphical Inputs, played by the Kreutzer Quartet, alongside a new work by Thomas Metcalf.

The wonderful premiere of Robert Saxton's piano trio Fantasy Pieces, given by the Fidelio Trio at their 8th Winter Chamber Music Festival on 27th November, is still available to listen to online.  The concert includes a very interesting interview with the composer.  You may listen at the following link: 'Fantasy Pieces' - Fidelio Trio Winter Festival.

Following the review in the German magazine Rondo – Das Klassik & Jazz , another excellent review of Thomas Simaku’s new CD ‘Chamber Works’, performed by Joseph Houston and Quatuor Diotima on BIS 2449, has been published in the February issue of Gramophone.

UYMP is delighted that Sadie Harrison was a featured composer in the New Oboe Music Project, 2020. The oboist James Turnbull wrote: 'This month, Sadie Harrison is the featured composer with her fantastic solo oboe pieces Three Jennys and work for solo oboe d’amore or oboe Jinny’s Haiku. For those oboists currently taking ABRSM exams, Three Jennys are featured for Grade 6 and 7 as well as being fine additions to any recital programme.'

Luís Tinoco’s new saxophone concerto Kokyuu had a very successful world première in Lisbon, on 13th December 2020.  The concerto was performed by the saxophonist João Pedro Silva (soloist), with the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra conducted by Sylvain Gasançon.  The concert took place at the Centro Cultural de Belém. 

Photo: © Pedro Silva

Luis Tinoco’s CD ‘Archipelago’, recorded on Odradek with Drumming Grupo de Percussāo (Drumming GP), has received a glowing review in Percussive Notes, Vol. 58, No. 5, October 2020.  Joseph Van Hassel writes: 'I was very excited to check out the music on this disc, and I was not disappointed!’ 

We are delighted that the fabulous Kreutzer Quartet have just released the film recording of Sadie Harrison’s new quartet 10,000 Black Men Named George:The Multiple Burdens of Injustice, written as a response to the murder of George Floyd on 25 May 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. This is the latest recording of a series of works written by Sadie during the lockdown period in 2020.

The Fidelio Trio, Darragh Morgan (violin), Tim Gill (cello) and Mary Dullea (piano), gave a fabulous online premiere of Robert Saxton’s new work Fantasy Pieces on 27th November 2020.  The performance formed part of their online Winter Chamber Music Festival, broadcast from Dublin City University.  Fantasy Pieces has six movements, which are played without a break.  Although the work is not descriptive, the movements create an ‘evolving journey of musical contrasts’.  The piece was commissioned by the Fidelio Trio with the support of the RVW Trust.

The first review has been published of Thomas Simaku’s new album con-ri-sonanza, released last month on the prestigious Swedish label BIS Records. The review appears in the Rondo – Das Klassik & Jazz magazine; critic Guido Fischer is hugely impressed by the music and has given it five stars. The German critic begins by stating that Thomas Simaku is one of the contemporary composers who is unjustly neglected and he goes on to say:

Ed Hughes’s CD Time, Space and Change, released on Divine in March 2020, has been selected as one of the Sunday Times ‘100 Best Records of the Year’. The CD features Hughes’s 30 minute Cuckmere: A Portrait performed by the Orchestra of Sound and Light at the Brighton Festival 2018, his large-scale Sinfonia, a ‘portrait’ of six works by early English composers, with the New Music Players conducted by Nick Smith, and his 1991 piano trio Media Vita.