Conducting my BBC Radio 2 Piano Room arrangements for Haircut 100 and the BBC Concert Orchestra
Great to be back in the iconic Maida Vale Studio 3 for these Radio 2 sessions.
Piano Room arrangement picked for The Year in Music at the BBC: 2022
Thrilled to have my arrangement of Eye of the Tiger sung by Jack Savoretti selected for Lauren Laverne’s pick of 2022. From 33 mins in…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001gpg2/the-year-in-music-at-the-bbc-2022
Arrangement and orchestration of BBC100 Transmission Report by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and composer Patrick Pearson
To celebrate 100 years of the BBC, this new celebratory poem was recorded with a host of familiar BBC faces, from Romesh Ranganathan to Dr Who…
BBC Radio 2 Piano Rooms return
Ahead of next month’s Piano Room sessions returning to the iconic Maida Vale Studio 3, here’s an interview from last year featuring the programme’s Producer Phil McGarvey, Radio 2’s Head of Music Jeff Smith and the legend that is Ken Bruce… and I talk a bit about arranging for the artists.
First Performance of new piece D’n’A in Trondheim
Scroll down for details of how to participate in the Europe-wide recording of this piece happening in Spring ’23… here’s the first performance with the Trondheim Soloists, with some great comments from the participants!
BBC Radio 2 Piano Rooms – Natalie Imbruglia
Three orchestral arrangements for Ken Bruce‘s Piano rooms featuring Natalie Imbruglia with the BBC Concert Orchestra
BBC Radio 2 Piano Rooms – Jack Savoretti
Three orchestral arrangements for Ken Bruce‘s Piano rooms featuring Jack Savoretti with the BBC Concert Orchestra, including the much talked about cover of Eye of the Tiger!
https://x.com/BBCRadio2/status/1488573851789373444?s=20
BBC Radio 2 Piano Rooms – Marisha Wallace
Two lockdown orchestral arrangements for Ken Bruce‘s Piano rooms featuring Marisha Wallace with the BBC Concert Orchestra
D’n’A – New commission for The Bridge Project
Commissioned by Scottish Ensemble, Ensemble Resonanz (Germany), Trondheim Soloists (Norway) and the PLMF Music Trust (Estonia) and supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, this piece has been written especially to bring string players – young, amateur and professional – together to celebrate the amazing richness of our shared European string music heritage
Open to anyone who plays a string instrument, there are parts for just open strings, Grades 3-5, and Grades 6-8. Individuals can record your tracks at home, or music groups / ensembles can submit group tracks captured during a rehearsal. Audio-only and audio-visual recordings will both be accepted and you’ll only need a mobile phone with a camera to participate. To register your interest and to receive updates please contact jana.robert@scottishensemble.co.uk.
About the piece:
The piece is primarily based on the open strings of a violin and reflects that the perfect 5th which occurs in nature is a common thread across cultures and borders. There are also influences from different folk cultures as well as European classical string music; Grazyna Bacewicz’ Concerto for String Orchestra (the section from letter J), Heinrich Biber’s Battalia (the ‘Bartok’ pizz and the paper under the strings to simulate a snare) and Vivaldi, as well as harmonic influences from ancient Georgian folksong and the use of strings in film, T.V. and gaming music… Rather than a ‘side-by-side’ I really wanted the beginner and intermediate participants to have their own voices within the piece (and to get to play the fun effects!)
We Have To Move On – Heritage Project with Britten Sinfonia
Based on the recently gifted memoirs of WWII German refugee Fritz Ball to Suffolk Archives, this heritage project with Britten Sinfonia and Orchestras Live shares the stories of the Jewish refugees housed in what is now the National Horseracing Museum from 1939 and 1946. See below for the films of the project, including the new 10 minute choreographed piece written with young musicians and dancers from Suffolk inspired by this recently unearthed local history, readings and musical extracts from the diaries, and teaching resources.
For more background information about the project:
https://www.orchestraslive.org.uk/news/we-have-to-move-on
Writing Home – Opera North’s Community Songwriting Project
This wonderful project to create 10 original songs by and for the local community is now live. The interactive musical trail runs through the fabric of the new Howard Opera Centre building, reflecting that the space is for singing, participating and collaborating. Some 400 participants took part and you can hear their music in the new Leeds building or online, with more info about the project, here. The lovely group of people I got to meet and write with chose to create a piece entirely from voice and field recordings as we created this entirely online during lockdown. The piece can be heard below and here‘s the blog about the process . A taster:
Step Outside
Enter In
And Connect With Where We Belong
The Journeys End And We Are Home
Home… Our song takes us on a journey through a year of lockdowns, isolation, reflection and relationships. What does home mean to us before, during and now? Our reconnection with nature – the daily and seasonal passing of time replacing timetables, the dawn chorus replacing the alarm call; our digital world becoming the portal for work, pleasure and the outside world. Our phones enabling us to record and relay our experiences, to beckon us into the world of field recordings which have influenced so many composers and artists over the years. To breathe, to breathe in. To hold our breath, to hold on, to be on hold. Finally, to come together and hold. To come home.
Create Yarmouth Update – Live Performance!
Almost two years after the start of the project we finally had the chance to share our new piece Journey; Home with a live audience! Read the final blog about this fantastic Orchestras Live project with the London Mozart Players here
Opera North/Orchestras Live Film and Performance
Following the online sharing of the fantastic film made about the Song of the Skerne project and recording, we are finally getting to share the piece live! Darlington Hippodrome, 7th November 2021 with singers from Durham Music Service and the orchestra of Opera North. If you can’t join us, here’s the film of the piece recorded remotely earlier in the year (for more info about the river Skerne and the project, scroll down to previous blogs and posts or check out Orchestras Live’s page here)
BBC Young Composers update
I am sooo looking forward to this – please share the application info far and wide… until 28/6 send in your music, whatever genre/format/inspiration… if you’re 12-18 and create your own music this is definitely for you!
Animate Orchestra
Agrigento, an international organisation that supports music as social action, wrote a blog that I contributed to entitled ‘Reimagining the Youth Orchestra’ focussing on the work of Animate Orchestra during lockdown. You can read the blog here:
Radio 3 interview
Interview with Hannah French about the BBC Concert Orchestra and its Learning work for Radio 3’s BBC Performing Groups’ weekend:
Current project news: Opera North ‘Song of the Skerne’ project
Read Orchestras Live’s producer Becky West’s blog of the progress of this fantastic project inspired by the history and environment of the River Skerne:
https://www.orchestraslive.org.uk/news/building-new-partnerships-in-a-pandemic
Elevate Music Podcast on Creativity
So pleased to be asked to contribute to this wonderful podcast series with https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/health-welfare. Talking to the brilliant Lucy Heyman about creativity in lockdown and what it’s meant for me… Each episode has so much helpful info, links and advice about wellbeing for musicians and creators – well worth subscribing to:
Current project news: Orchestras Live/London Mozart Players Great Yarmouth Project Update
Read my blog about the postponed community project moving to online workshops during lockdown…
https://www.orchestraslive.org.uk/news/staying-creative-in-great-yarmouth
Trinity Laban’s Animate Orchestra Lockdown Course #2
Watch the result of three days of online creative group composition workshops with Animate Orchestra:
Trinity Laban’s Animate Orchestra Lockdown Course #1
My blog describing the creative process of our first lockdown project with Animate Artists:
Animate Artists Online “For All The Neighsayers”
And watch the film of the piece here:
BBC Commission Requiem – An Act of Remembrance
Programme Notes:
When researching the local history of Great Yarmouth during WW1 I used several elements of the story as a basis for the composition. The number of servicemen killed from Great Yarmouth (1,472) is a number that is used throughout the piece, whether dictating the order of notes used or the pattern of beats. Also, many of the countries where the fallen servicemen from Great Yarmouth are buried or memorialised have a strong musical tradition so I chose to use folk music elements from other countries as well as from Norfolk – the Kalamatianos rhythm from Greece and Turkey and the Hijaz Maqam scale from Arabic, Persian and North African music. Finally, the solo voice introduces the ‘perfect 5th’ interval (heard as the first two notes of the Last Post); in each movement this can be heard on different instruments, treated differently harmonically and melodically each time. The orchestral music begins with the INTROITUS played by a small brass ensemble, reminiscent of a traditional town brass band playing jolly tunes to rally the local population to come and sign up for war. This leads into the KYRIE (‘Lord Have Mercy’) which sets the scene with a folky theme denoting life in Yarmouth before the war. The words put us in into the year 1918. The next movement is the DIES IRAE (‘Day of Wrath’) and represents conflict, separation, the call to war and the zeppelin air raids in Great Yarmouth. At the end of the piece there is a section called ‘shell shock’ where the orchestra continue to play the frantic theme silently under the ear-ringing high pitches of the flutes and violins and panicked breathing of the choir. The BENEDICTUS (‘Praise and Thanksgiving’) represents the duty and devotion of those left behind – the women, mothers, nursesﾅ After the ‘perfect 5th’ opening section the piece becomes more contemplative and is a nod to the famous piano concerto no.2 by Rachmaninov which would have been popular at the time. This leads us into the AGNUS DEI (‘Lamb of God’) which, coming towards the end of the work, is about sacrifice, weariness, emptiness and loss – the futility of war. This movement uses a Twelve-Tone Row based on the number of servicemen killed from Great Yarmouth – 1,472. I’ve used it to give an unsettling, never-ending, unresolving effect which is interrupted (just as it appears to be reaching a conclusion) by the drums. Each drum hit represents a life lost and totals 1,472 hits. Each drum pattern is also based around 1,4,7,2 so the drum rhythm is grouped as this number and the pattern cycles are also according to this number. The final movement is LUX AETERNA (‘Eternal Light’) and is an Anthem of Hope sung by the Primary Schools massed choir. It opens with a repeat of the solo voice echoing the folk tune from the first movement but with the words putting the story into the past and bringing us back to 2018. The words of the choir, as well as hope for the future, remind us that the effects of this war – and every war – are still felt and seen amongst local populations and in the land today. In Belgium unexploded bombs are still discovered daily and it has been estimated that it will take another 500 years for all the bombs of the Somme to be unearthed. REQUIEM – AN ACT OF REMEMBRANCE Was performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra with young musicians from the Norfolk County Youth Orchestra at the Hippodrome, Great Yarmouth on 27th June 2018. Lyrics and music by Sarah Freestone Script by Rachel Duffield ‘Mrs Yarmouth’ played by Rosie Walker
Creative Group Composition 