Music at Manchester University - Blog

Casken string quintet gets UK premiere

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:56:44 PDT

The University of Manchester’s resident string quartet premiered a major work of one of the UK’s leading composers at the Martin Harris Centre tomorrow(11 May).
John Casken, who is a Professor Emeritus at the University, heard his composition ‘Inevitable Rifts’ for string quintet performed for the first time in the UK by Quatuor Danel - joined by renowned cellist Petr Prause. Like Schubert’s famous Quintet in C, D 956, also in the concert, Inevitable Rifts adds an extra cello to the string quartet, making for a richer sound. The programme was completed by Haydn's Quartet Op. 50 No. 4, in the key of F sharp minor. Casken explores the tensions and differences created by forming an alliance between the viola and two cellos quite separate from the two violins. The rift is heard at the start with the lower instruments playing dark, pulsating chords, and the violins moving together in a slow broken melodic passage. Casken was Professor of Music at the University of Manchester from 1992 to 2008, but maintains links with The University as Emeritus Professor of Music. His music has featured at major festivals in Europe, the USA and Tokyo. His opera ‘Golem’ was awarded the First Britten Prize for Composition in 1990 and the Virgin Classics recording with the original cast won a 1991 Gramophone Award. The orchestral song-cycle Still Mine won the 1993 Prince Pierre de Monaco Prize for Musical Composition and ‘The Dream of The Rood’ for four voices and instrumental ensemble received the BASCA Award for choral music in 2009.
‘Inevitable Rifts’ was performed at the Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall, Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, University of Manchester at a concert on Friday May 11 starting at 7.30pm. Full programme:

•    John Casken Inevitable Rifts (UK première)
•    Haydn Quartet in F sharp minor, Op. 50 No. 4
•    Schubert Quintet in C, D956

Petr Prause is renowned cellist of the Talich Quartet and head of chamber music at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Source (with permission)
10 May 2012
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

More spectacular conducting successes for Manchester Music students

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Tue, 01 May 2012 02:30:47 PDT

Jamie Phillips

Duncan Ward

On Sunday 29 April third-year Music undergraduate Jamie Phillips was awarded second place in the 2012 Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors’ Award, one of the world’s most prestigious conducting competitions. The jury was so impressed with 20-year-old Jamie’s work that the winner was found only after the chairman’s casting vote. As a result they have offered him a special prize of a concert in the 2013 Salzburg Festival. Earlier in the same week, it was announced that Jamie will be one of the finalists in auditions to find Sir Mark Elder’s new assistant conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, and that leading classical music agency Intermusica will represent him on a worldwide basis.
Meanwhile, Duncan Ward (Joint Course, graduated 2009/10) is already on the books of Askonas Holt, the agency that represents Sir Simon Rattle and Daniel Barenboim. Recently Duncan has spent considerable time in Berlin working with both of those conductors, and next month he will assist Rattle in a concert performance of Wagner’s Die Walküre with the Berlin Philharmoniker. Earlier this year he made his debut with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and in June he will appear with the Bamberg Symphony in Germany.
Both young conductors are products of the Music department's elite conducting programme, taught by Mark Heron.

American premiere of Kevin Malone's "A Clockwork Operetta"

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Tue, 01 May 2012 02:24:55 PDT

Kevin Malone's A Clockwork Operetta received its American premiere in New York at Salman Rushdie's PEN World Voices Literary Festival 2012 on 30 April with performers from the Kronos Quartet and Metropolitan Opera Company. It was commissioned by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation and sets to music, for the first time, the discarded pop lyrics from Burgess' screenplay for A Clockwork Orange.

Kevin Malone

Camden Reeves's second piano trio premiered by the Lawson Trio

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 02:25:22 PDT

Dr Camden Reeves's second piano trio, 'The Dead Broke Blues Break', was premiered by the Lawson Trio at the Purcell Room (London South Bank) on 10 April. The concert was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and the Lawson Trio's first commercial CD, which includes a studio recording of Dr Reeves's new work, was also launched at the event. The trio weaves together jazz and blues materials in a complex rhythmic structure inspired by the Led Zeppelin track 'Heartbreaker'. The music is shortly to be published by Edition Peters.

Call for Papers: Manchester International Beethoven Conference 25-27 June 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:16:12 PST

Portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820

Welcome to Manchester International Beethoven Conference 2012.

Beethoven has been an iconic figure of Western culture since the early 19th century, and continues to be the focus of research across a wide range of academic disciplines. These include biographical/contextual studies, textual/analytical studies and interpretative/performing ones. The aim of this three-day conference is to bring together scholars and graduate students in all fields of Beethoven research to explore new and recent developments. The conference is hosted with support from the Institute of Musical Research, and will involve collaboration with the Royal Northern College of Music.

Prof. Barry Cooper
University of Manchester

Manchester International Beethoven Conference
25-27 June 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS

Click here to download (as pdf) or read below:

Call for Papers:
Manchester International Beethoven Conference
25-27 June 2012
Martin Harris Centre, University of Manchester

Proposals are invited for papers or lecture recitals on any topic about Beethoven; papers relating to any of the following themes would be particularly welcomed:

Performing Beethoven
The year 1812
Sketches and revisions
Beethoven as a 19th-century cultural figure
Translation of Beethoven documents
Beethoven in his historical and social context

Each paper will be limited to 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion and questions. Proposals for 50-minute papers will also be considered. Proposed lecture recitals can be either 20 minutes or 50 minutes.

Proposals should be limited to 250 words, and should be emailed to manchesterbeethoven@gmail.com. Proposals will be accepted until 29 February 2012. Successful applicants will be informed by 16 March 2012.

CONTACT:
Matthew Pilcher
Conference organiser

Hannah Mansell
Registration

The conference will take place at the University of Manchester (Martin Harris Centre). Address below:

Music
Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama
The University of Manchester
Bridgeford Street, Manchester M13 9PL
UNITED KINGDOM

Manchester Laudibus singers nominated for Grammy award

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:02:56 PST

Former University of Manchester Music students Francesca Mastaglio and David le Prevost, together with current third-year student Ruth McElvanney, are among the performers sharing in the success of Eric Whitacre's album Light and Gold. The album not only reached number 1 in the classical charts in the US and UK upon its original release in 2010, but has now been nominated for a Grammy award for Best Choral Performance. All three are members of Laudibus, the elite chamber choir drawn from selected members of the National Youth Choir, which performed many of the tracks on the album.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies visits our Music Department

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:46:17 PDT

Pictured above, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies with a group of Manchester University composers

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen's Music and Patron of Manchester University Music Department, visited the university on Wednesday 12 October to receive an honorary doctorate. Before the ceremony, he attended a lunch in his honour hosted by the Music Department, and we were delighted that he was then able to meet informally with some of our third-year and postgraduate composition students.

Psappha's Manchester Series - October 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:39:20 PDT

Psappha Ensemble
Opening Concert of Manchester Series
Friday 21st October

INFORMATION

Psappha's web site

WEBCASTS

Did you know that you can view many of our live performances online for free?

We have recently added even more performance and after a simple registration process you are able to them all for free!

Why not give it a try?

Click here to go directly to our films

Visit Composition Lab our new resource to support the composition element of GCSE and A' level Music through more than 100 interactive films.

Composition Lab

Social Network

This week we open our Manchester Series at the Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall at The University of Manchester.

The concert includes three brand new works by John Casken, Ben Foskett and Ian Wilson alongside Anthony Gilbert's Nine or Ten Osannas. The performance will be recorded by BBC Radio 3 and we will also film the concert and make elements of it available through Psappha's website in the coming weeks.

We collaborate with MANTIS (Manchester Theatre in Sound) on 29th October with more new work.

We hope you're able to join us for the performances - full details below.

Best wishes,

Tim Williams
Founder and Artistic Director

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Psappha's Manchester Series - October 2011

Friday 21st October 2011at 7.30pm

Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall,The University of Manchester
The Manchester Residency

Ben Foskett On From Four (20th anniversary commission)
Ian Wilson Dreamgarden (world premiere)*
Anthony Gilbert Nine or Ten Osannas
John Casken Winter Reels (20th anniversary commission)

Nicholas Kok conductor
Catherine Hopper mezzo soprano*

Splintered colours, big gestures and sweeping melodies feature in all these pieces for a crack half-dozen instrumentalists. A brilliant new piece by Ben Foskett is followed by a classic by Anthony Gilbert. Ian Wilson's dreams end with one setting a sonnet by Seamus Heaney, and John Casken listens to the thrill of winter.

John Casken & Ben Foskett

Starting with soft premonitions, the Foskett piece soon moves into overdrive before coming up for air in a finale led by the viola. Gilbert's Nine or Ten Osannas presents a kaleidoscope of musical pictures, different every time because the choice from the fourteen movements supplied will vary. Appropriately lustrous and strange, Wilson's dream music encompasses flying, sorrow and - ultimately, to a gorgeous setting of the Heaney poem - erotic contentment. Casken, always a composer who makes music with power and passion, has his six players work together energetically in his wintertime dances. The middle movement brings the cello to the fore; the others might suggest snow flurrying in the wind or people stamping out the cold.
Ticket information
Psappha is grateful for the support from The Britten Pears Foundation and Ida Carroll Trust in the commissioning of John Casken's Winter Reels

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Saturday 29th October 2011at 6pm

Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall,The University of Manchester
MANTIS (Manchester Theatre in Sound) FESTIVAL FALL 2011
The Manchester Residency

Chikaski Miyama Duo for piano and computer

Haruka Hirayama New work for piano and electronics (world premiere)

Dai Fujikara Poison Mushroom for flute and electronics

Hans Tutschku Zellen Linien for piano and live electronics

MANTISpresents a weekend of electroacoustic concerts featuring composers based at the NOVARS Research Centre, guest artists and Psappha, The University of Manchester's Contemporary Ensemble in Residence. The concerts feature the MANTIS 48-loudspeaker sound diffusion system for an exciting and immersive listening experience.

Ticket information

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Psappha Ensemble

Conrad Marshall - flute

Dov Goldberg - clarinet

Richard Casey - piano

Tim Williams - percussion

Benedict Holland - violin

Jennifer Langridge - cello

Nicholas Kok - conductor

Psappha, Manchester's new music ensemble and one of the UK's top contemporary music groups, was formed in 1991 by its Artistic Director Tim Williams and specialises in the performance of music by living composers and that of the 20th and 21st centuries. The ensemble has an extensive and varied repertoire of hundreds of works and a reputation for technical assurance and interpretive flair. Attracting attention from audiences and music press internationally, it won the Manchester Evening News Award for Opera in 2000 and has twice been shortlisted for a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society award. Psappha has commissioned and premiered many works by a wide range of composers including the award-winning music-theatre work, Mr Emmet Takes a Walk, by its Patron, Peter Maxwell Davies, also recorded by the original performers.

Psappha has appeared throughout the UK, featuring regularly at most of the country's major music festivals, including the BBC Proms, in special Henze and Maxwell Davies portrait series and in the recent Bernstein Project at London's Southbank Centre, and in a residency at the St. Magnus Festival, Orkney in 2009. To celebrate its landmark 20th anniversary in 2011, Psappha has lined up an exciting and diverse array of commissions from John Casken, Sally Beamish, Gordon McPherson and Ian Wilson.

It has made highly successful tours to North and South America, Australia, Belgium, France, Holland, Ireland, Jersey, Portugal and Spain and this season appears in the United States as part of a residency at Princeton University. Having made a number of recordings on various labels, Psappha launched its own CD label in 2004 with Maxwell Davies's Eight Songs for a Mad King and Miss Donnithorne's Maggot. The most recent release, Busted Micro Shorts, features music by Steven Mackey.

Recently appointed as University of Salford MediaCityUK Ensemble and also Contemporary Ensemble in Residence at the University of Manchester since 2010, Psappha encourages the breaking down of barriers between artistic and educational experiences, inspiring creativity and the exchange of ideas with students through interactive and collaborative projects. Autumn 2010 saw the launch of 'Composition Lab', an online resource designed to accompany the composition element of GCSE and A-level music. Tireless champions of the music of today, Psappha is continually seeking to develop new audiences, breaking fresh ground in its innovative development of the digital dissemination of its work through free-to-view films of live performances on its website. Psappha welcomes people of all ages to try something new, and become involved with the ensemble and its composers through its online resources, in performances and projects and at its pre- and post-concert events.

Photography

All photographs of Psappha in this newsletter are Copyright Andrew Price Photography.

Funders
Psappha is grateful for the support it has received from the Holst Foundation, Granada Foundation, RVW Trust, Foyle Foundation, Ernest Cook Trust and Jerwood Space.

Forward email

This email was sent to ricardo.climent@manchester.ac.uk by tim@psappha.com |

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Manchester Joint-Course student Jack Sheen on BBC North West Tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:15:37 PDT

Manchester Joint-Course student Jack Sheen, who won the BBC Proms Young Composer of the Year competition in July 2011, appears on BBC North West Tonight on Thursday 6 October. Jack, who is a first year on the prestigious Joint Course, studying concurrently at the University of Manchester and Royal Northern College of Music, is also one a a team of resident young composers for the National Youth Orchestra this year. His winning composition, 'Aviaries', was performed in London by the Aurora Orchestra as part of the Proms Plus series, and will receive its second performance here at the University in November.

For more information about the MusB(Hons) and Graduate Diploma RNCM Joint Course at Manchester, click here

Media Coverage: The Telegraph, CBS news, NPR- 'Lost' Beethoven work brought back to life

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 15:11:43 PDT

Lost part of Beethoven masterpiece lives again

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 13:26:09 PDT

Pictured above, Professor Barry Cooper

28 September 2011

A piece of music composed by Beethoven in 1799 and lost for over 200 years has been painstakingly reconstructed by our very own Barry Cooper, Professor of Music at The University of Manchester.

Professor Cooper’s reconstruction of the original slow movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet in G, Op. 18 no. 2, will be heard in something like its original form, in a performance by the University’s resident string quartet, the Quatuor Danel, on Thursday 29 September.

The movement was composed in 1799 but was discarded a year later and lost when it was replaced by a new movement, now known to music lovers across the world. It is almost certainly the first time, says Professor Cooper, that the piece will have been performed since Beethoven’s day.

Although the original movement is lost, detailed sketches survive for every one of its 74 bars, as was established in 1977 by Sieghard Brandenburg. It is only since then, however, that it has become clear that Beethoven actually finished the movement and wrote it out at the time. Professor Cooper has now managed to put the 74 bars together so that they fit perfectly, adding harmony and other details that enable the work to be performed again.

The performance will take place at a seminar open to the public at 2.30 pm on Thursday 29 September, in the Martin Harris Centre at the University of Manchester.

MUMS abroad!

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 01:23:49 PDT

Pictured above, Manchester University Symphony Orchestra
in Heidelberg, Germany, in July 2011

Manchester University Symphony Orchestra’s summer tour was a stunning success. You can hear extracts from their performance of Mahler’s fifth symphony in Heidelberg, Germany by visiting the MUMS website (http://www.mumusicsociety.co.uk/), and here are the students’ reflections on the trip:

‘Nothing stirs up excitement among a group of musicians quite like the prospect of a tour. From orchestras to brass bands to pop acts – amateur or pro – no one can resist this sublime combination of road trip, concert series, holiday and party. And so it was no surprise that the mood around the Martin Harris Centre was nearing fever pitch as soon as our exams were over, such was the anticipation for the Manchester University Symphony Orchestra’s European tour in July.’

‘The chosen settings for our concerts (following a warm-up rendition of Mahler 5 in Manchester for the Not Part Of Festival) were Heidelberg and Prague. Heidelberg’s picturesque Rhine-side cobbled streets, student-friendly since before it was cool to be student-friendly, were a wonderful contrast to the touristic grandeur of the Czech capital. The latter’s magnificent Municipal House not only looked incredible but also enhanced the already beautiful sound of the orchestra.’

‘One of the biggest highlights of the trip was, unusually, part of our marketing strategy – flashmobs. We would gather in the cities’ main squares, set up instruments, blast through Jupiter while some of us frenziedly distributed flyers, then pack up and move on. Not only was this great fun, but it also made a significant difference to our audience numbers, with many of the faces we saw in the evening recognisable from those we’d seen in the afternoon.’

‘Elated, emotional, exhausted, we returned home to unload the instruments, go our separate ways, and get on with our well-earned summer holidays.’

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies to receive honorary doctorate degree at Manchester University

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 01:24:51 PDT

Prof. Phil Grange, introduces Sir Peter Maxwell Davis
at the composers' forum, Manchester University (2009)

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen’s Music and Patron of Manchester University Music Society, will be visiting the University of Manchester on Wednesday 12 October 2011 in order to receive an honorary doctorate.

The Music Department will be hosting a buffet lunch for the composer, and this will be followed by an opportunity for a number of students to meet with him informally before the ceremony.

"Robert Schumann and the Music of the Future", is being repeated on Radio 3 on Tuesday 30 August at 10.15pm.

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 03:16:16 PDT

The music composed by Robert Schumann in the last years of his life has long been the subject of debate. That he ended up incarcerated in an asylum near Bonn is well known - but how has what we know of the life story impacted on the way the later music has been received? Undoubtedly different from his earlier music, to some it is clearly the product of a diseased mind and represents a tailing-off of creativity; others view these works as the fruits of a consciously new, and incredibly modern, compositional direction. Cellist Steven Isserlis has long been a passionate advocate of Schumann's late music and sets out to discover more about the forces that shaped it. With the help of conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner, pianists Graham Johnson and Andras Schiff, Schumann biographer John Worthen, writer and broadcaster Judith Chernaik, musicologist Laura Tunbridge, and composer Wolfgang Rihm, Isserlis finds a composer far more engaged with the world around him than is generally assumed, and someone for whom the future of German music was a burning concern.

For BBC link, click here

Manchester PhDs - Tatyana Sirotina, Pauline Fairclough and Ivana Medic at the 'Russian and Soviet Music Conference', Durham

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 18:16:36 PDT

Pictured above and from left to right: a singer, Moussorgsky, Korsakov, (Stasov), Balakirev, Cui and Borodin

The conference 'Russian and Soviet Music: Reappraisal and Rediscovery' at the University of Durham, 11-14 July 2011, featured three former Manchester PhDs - Tatyana Sirotina, Pauline Fairclough and Ivana Medic. The conference was co-organised by Dr Fairclough (now Senior Lecturer at the University of Bristol), who also chaired one session. In addition Professor Fanning, who supervised all three during their studies in Manchester, gave a paper provocatively entitled 'Mieczyslaw Weinberg: True Lies' and chaired three sessions.

Far East tour of Philip Grange’s Cloud Atlas and Chiu-Yu Chou’s Dream Sun on the Sea

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 18:06:14 PDT

Pictured above Chiu-Yu Chou (Joy Chou), Philip Grange and Phillip Scott.

The National Youth Wind Ensemble of Great Britain conducted by Phillip Scott has just toured East Asia giving four performances of Philip Grange’s award-winning large-scale composition Cloud Atlas. The work was played in Taiwan at Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu (July 4), The Cultural Centre, Chiayi City as part of the 2011 WASBE (World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles) Conference, and also at the Hong Kong Baptist University (July 11) and at the University of Macau (July 13).

Also included on the programme was a new work by Manchester University PhD student Chiu-Yu Chou. Commissioned by NYWE with funds from the Britten-Pears Foundation her piece is entitled Dream Sun on the Sea. A highlight of the tour was the police motorcade, complete with flashing lights, provided for the NYWE coaches to and from the Chiayi concert

Research students Erica Buurman, Sian Derry and Matthew Pilcher at Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations symposium

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:26:24 PDT

Three research students, Erica Buurman, Sian Derry and Matthew Pilcher, gave what have been described as ‘impressively researched papers’ at a one-day symposium on Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations on 28 June 2011, organised by the Institute for Music Research and the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe. These three contributions, which were presented alongside one by Barry Cooper (who supervises all three students), were the only student papers at the symposium. It is hoped that the proceedings, including these papers, will be published in due course.

The full report of the day’s events can be found at: http://www.bpse.org/articles.htm

The three students previously gave papers (on different subjects) at the Royal Musical Association postgraduate student conference in Manchester in January 2011.

It is planned that their next papers will be presented at the more informal Eighteenth International Manchester Beethoven Research Symposium on 16 September, in Prof. Barry Cooper’s room, when the subject of ‘Beethoven’s Instruments’ will be discussed.

James Phillips gets through to the finals of the Besancon conducting competition!

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 10:55:57 PDT

52nd Besançon international competition for young conductors

For more information click here

The selective rounds of the 52nd competition are completed.

The selected candidates are:

- Luc Bonnaillie (France)
- Emmanuel Calef (France)
- Young-Sun Choi (South Korea)
- Paul Fitzsimon (Australia)
- Yi Huang (China)
- Sho Itoh (Japan)
- Joongbae Jee (South Korea)
- Yuki Kakiuchi (Japan)
- Stamatia Karampini (Greece)
- Tam Gu Lee (South Korea)
- Gergely Madaras (Hungary)
- Hideaki Matsumura (Japan)
- Heejung Park (South Korea)
- Jamie Alexander Phillips (England)
- Vincent Renaud (France)
- Mathieu Romano (France)
- Tomohiro Seyama (Japan)
- Yu Sugimoto (Japan)
- Yuki Tanaka (Japan)
- Chuang Tung-Chieh (Taiwan)

Jury of the 52nd Competition:

- Sir Andrew Davis (président), music director of the Lyric opera of Chicago
- Michael Jarrell, composer
- Anne Midgette, classical music critic -The Washington Post
- David Pickard, General Director of the Glyndebourne Festival
- Michel Tabachnik, music director of the Brussels philharmonic
- Fabrizio Ventura, music director of the Münster Opera and symphony orchestra
- Paul Watkins, music director of the English chamber Orchestra

Final rounds in Besancon: September 17th to 23rd, 2011

Download the 2011 programme here and regulations here.

The Grand Prize is endowed with 12 000 € and possible collaborations with the following orchestras :

- London Philharmonic Orchestra (UK)
- Japan philharmonic orchestra (Japan)
- Dresdner Philharmonie (Germany)
- Brussels philharmonic (Belgium)
- Prague Symphony Orchestra (Czech Republic)
- Orchestre national d'Ile de France (France)
- Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (Australia)
- Orchestra of Opera North (UK)
- Sinfonieorchester Münster (Germany)
- Orchestre national de Bordeaux Aquitaine dans le cadre des Estivales de Musique au Coeur du Médoc (France)
- Wiener KammerOrchester (Austria)
- Orchestre de Besançon-Montbéliard Franche-Comté (France)
- Ontario Philharmonic (Canada)
- Hong Kong Sinfonietta (China)
- Orchestre de Dijon Bourgogne (France)
- Israel Sinfonietta Beer-Sheva (Israel)
- Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino (Italia)
- St. Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra (Russia)
- Slovak Philharmonic orchestra (Slovakia)

We thank orchestras for their collaboration.

BBC Radio 3 features Manchester University's Lunchtime Concerts 'Hungarian Music' in four episodes, recorded at the Martin Harris Centre

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Sat, 28 May 2011 05:28:51 PDT

All four concerts recorded by the BBC earlier this year in the Cosmo Rodewald Hall and broadcasted on BBC Radio 3 from 24-27th of May 2011, still available on BBC player until Wed, 1 Jun 2011

BBC PLAYER RADIO http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio

Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert - Hungarian Music - Episode 1

Susan Bullock (soprano) and Malcolm Martineau (piano) perform music by Liszt, the Danel Quartet plays Kodaly, and CHROMA feature in Bartok.

From BBC web: Today's Lunchtime concert is taken from a series of Hungarian recitals recored in the Cosmo Rodewald Hall at the University of Manchester. Designed to mark this year's Liszt bicentenary, the recitals featured works by other Hungarian composers as well as Liszt, and include performances by the Danel Quartet, piano duo Artur Pizzaro & Vita Panomariovaite, the chamber ensemble CHROMA and soprano Susan Bullock with pianist Malcolm Martineau.

LISZT - Vergiftet sind meine Lieder; Im Rhein, im schonen Strome; Mignons Lied Susan Bullock (soprano), Malcolm Martineau (piano)

LISZT - Concerto pathétique for 2 pianos Artur Pizarro & Vita Panomariovaite (pianos)

KODALY - String Quartet No.2, Op.10 Danel String Quartet

BARTOK - Contrasts CHROMA.

Broadcast on: BBC Radio 3, 1:00PM Tue, 24 May 2011

Available until; 2:02PM Tue, 31 May 2011

First broadcast: BBC Radio 3, 1:00PM Tue, 24 May 2011

Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert - Hungarian Music -Episode 2

With Susan Bullock (soprano) and Malcolm Martineau (piano) performing Liszt, Artur Pizarro and Vita Panomariovaite (pianos) also in Liszt, and CHROMA in Kodaly.

From BBC web: Today's Lunchtime concert is taken from a series of Hungarian recitals recorded in the Cosmo Rodewald Hall at the University of Manchester. Designed to mark this year's Liszt bicentenary, the recitals featured works by other Hungarian composers as well as Liszt, and include performances by the Danel Quartet, piano duo Artur Pizarro & Vita Panomariovaite, the chamber ensemble CHROMA and soprano Susan Bullock with pianist Malcolm Martineau.

LISZT - S'il est un charmant gazon; Enfant, si j'etais roi; La Tombe et la Rose; Comment, disaient-ils; Oh! Quand je dors Susan Bullock (soprano) & Malcolm Martineau (piano)

LISZT - Rakoczy March for 2 pianos Artur Pizarro & Vita Panomariovaite (pianos)

KODALY - Duo for violin & cello, Op.7 CHROMA.

Broadcast on BBC Radio 3, 1:00PM Wed, 25 May 2011

Available until 2:02PM Wed, 1 Jun 2011

First broadcast: BBC Radio 3, 1:00PM Wed, 25 May 2011

Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert - Hungarian Music - Episode 3

With Susan Bullock (soprano) and Malcolm Martineau (piano) performing Liszt, CHROMA in Kurtag, and the Danel String Quartet playing Bartok.

LISZT - S'il est un charmant gazon; Enfant, si j'etais roi; La Tombe et la Rose; Comment, disaient-ils; Oh! Quand je dors Susan Bullock (soprano) & Malcolm Martineau (piano)

LISZT - Rakoczy March for 2 pianos Artur Pizarro & Vita Panomariovaite (pianos)

KODALY - Duo for violin & cello, Op.7 CHROMA.

Broadcast onBBC Radio 3, 1:00PM Wed, 25 May 2011

Available until 2:02PM Wed, 1 Jun 2011

First broadcast: BBC Radio 3, 1:00PM Wed, 25 May 2011

Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert - Hungarian Music - Episode 4

Susan Bullock (soprano) and Malcolm Martineau (piano) perform works by Liszt.

From BBC web: In the last of this week's Lunchtime Concerts of Hungarian music recorded at the Cosmo Rodewald Hall in Manchester, soprano Susan Bullock and pianist Malcolm Martineau perform Marking the 2011bicentenary of Liszt's birth, the recitals featured works by Bartok, Kodaly, Dohnanyi and Kurtag as well as Liszt, and include performances by the Danel Quartet, piano duo Artur Pizzaro & Vita Panomariovaite with O-Duo, the chamber ensemble CHROMA and soprano Susan Bullock with pianist Malcolm Martineau.

LISZT - Es muss ein Wunderbares sein; Die drei Zigeuner Susan Bullock (soprano) & Malcolm Martineau (piano)

DOHNANYI - Sextet in C, Op.37 CHROMA

BARTOK - Sonata for 2 pianos & percussion Artur Pizarro & Vita Panomariovaite (pianos) & O-Duo (percussion).

Broadcast on BBC Radio 3, 1:00PM Fri, 27 May 2011

Available until 2:02PM Fri, 3 Jun 2011

First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 1:00PM Fri, 27 May 2011

The Annual Royal Musical Associations Research Student's Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 18:39:41 PDT

The Annual Royal Musical Associations Research Student's Conference took place at the Martin Harris Centre between 13 and 15 January 2011, organised by staff and students of the university, and attended by delegates from Spain, Australia and New Zealand as well as the UK. The conference aimed to combine orthodox academic papers with sessions for composers and career-orientated discussions. The review by Oxford graduate student Emily MacGregor in the RMA Newsletter of April 2011 praised its 'imaginative seminars..., supportive and critically constructive environment..., warm atmospere..., inspiring seession for those hoping to pursue a career in musicology..., intelligent workshopping and commanding performances from the university-affiliated... Trio Atem'.

PhD Composer Chiu-Yu Chou (Joy Chou) wins the ISCM Young Composer Award

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 10:11:08 PDT

Pictured above Ensemble Spectra

Chiu-Yu Chou (Joy Chou) has won the ISCM Young Composer Award for her String Quartet No.1, and has been commissioned by Ensemble Spectra to write a new piece that will be performed at the ISCM Flanders Festival in October 2012. Her recently completed Dream Sun on the Sea for symphonic Wind Band will be premiered on April 23, 2011, with subsequent performances in Taipei, Chiayi (at the 2011 WASBE Conference), Hong Kong and Macau. This work was commissioned by the National Youth Wind Ensemble of Great Britain with funds supplied by the Britten-Pears Foundation. Joy is currently in her third year of study for a PhD in Composition at the University of Manchester

Psappha (Manchester University Contemporary Ensemble in Residence) to receive 40% more funding from Arts Council England

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 04:30:38 PDT

Psappha (Manchester University Contemporary Ensemble in Residence) has received the fantastic news that it has been included in Arts Council England's National Portfolio with an increase in funding, in real terms, of 40.8%. This increase is in recognition of the quality and innovative approach Psappha adopts both in performance and in the dissemination of its work. Here in an extract taken from the Arts Council's overview:

Maintaining or increasing funding for talent, excellence and innovation

Talent, excellence and innovation remain at the heart of the music portfolio across the country and, as far as we were able, we have maintained or given increased funding to a number of organisations whose applications showed a real commitment to these.

This includes investment in Tomorrow's Warriors, NMC Recordings, Britten Sinfonia, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Inner City Music (Band on the Wall), Urban Development and Psappha.

Talking about the announcement, Tim Williams, Psappha's founder and Artistic Director, said "I'm absolutely thrilled that after 20 years our work is still recognised for its excellence and innovation. The increase in support from the Arts Council will enable the ensemble to flourish with a structure that will both support and develop our work and audiences. What better start could we have to our 20th Anniversary season?"

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Psappha

Specialising in the performance of music by living composers and that of the 20th and 21st centuries, Psappha was formed in 1991 by its Artistic Director Tim Williams. The ensemble has an extensive and exceptionally varied repertoire of hundreds of works and a reputation for technical assurance and interpretive flair. It won the Manchester Evening News Award for Opera in 2000 and has been shortlisted for a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society award on two occasions.

Psappha has commissioned and premiered many works by a wide range of composers including the award-winning music-theatre work, Mr Emmet Takes a Walk, by its Patron Peter Maxwell Davies, released on the ensembles own label.

Psappha has appeared throughout the UK, at most of the country's major music festivals, including the BBC Proms, in special Henze and Maxwell Davies portrait series in London's South Bank, and in a residency at the St. Magnus Festival, Orkney in 2009. It has made highly successful tours to North and South America, Australia, Belgium, France, Holland, Ireland, Jersey, Portugal and Spain. In addition to six recordings on various labels, it launched its own CD label in 2004 with Maxwell Davies's Eight Songs for a Mad King and Miss Donnithorne's Maggot.

Psappha is developing its online presence with a number of concerts available to view as webcasts and also the development of a major online resource for 12 - 18 year olds. Education projects for people of all ages represent an important part of Psappha's schedule both in the UK and abroad. It was awarded the Swatch City Life Award for Best Concert Series and Education Work and is currently The University of Manchester's Contemporary Ensemble in Association.

Funders

Psappha is grateful for the support it has received from the Holst Foundation, Granada Foundation, RVW Trust, Foyle Foundation, Ernest Cook Trust and Jerwood Space.

Professor John Casken Doctor of Civil Law (honoris causa), University of King's College, Halifax, Nova Scotia

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 02:48:08 PST

"The convocation of the University of King's College, Halifax, Nova Scotia has elected Professor John Casken to be awarded the degree of Doctor of Civil Law (honoris causa) at the 222nd Encaenia of the University on May 19, 2011 at the Cathedral Church of All Saints in Halifax."

"The contrast between the strongly-defined human presence (in To fields we do not know) and the focus on the stars and outer space (in Orion over farne) establishes an elemental force field within which Casken has continued to explore essential matters of identity and belief…Casken’s music gives them both urgency and luminosity: the abstractions and their consequences are brought to sounding life." Arnold Whittall, Musical Times 2009

John Casken was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, on 15 July 1949 and read Music at the University of Birmingham, studying Composition under John Joubert and Peter Dickinson. From 1971-72 he studied in Poland with Andrzej Dobrowolski at the Academy of Music in Warsaw on a Polish Government Scholarship. It was during this time that he began to have regular consultations with Witold Lutosławski with whom he formed a close association and friendship, and about whose music he has written and lectured. Casken returned to Birmingham as a Lecturer in 1973, and after a Fellowship at Huddersfield Polytechnic in 1980 he was appointed as Lecturer at the University of Durham in 1981. From 1992-2008 he was Professor of Music at The University of Manchester and retains strong links with Manchester as Emeritus Professor of Music.

Casken’s works range across every genre and the titles of his works reveal that he can be inspired both by literature and legend, and by landscape and painting. The libretto for his first opera, Golem, based on the Jewish legend, was written by the composer in collaboration with Pierre Audi, who commissioned and directed the work for the 1989 Almeida Festival. Golem has received six further productions since 1989: Opera Omaha, 1990; Northern Stage, 1991; Theater Dortmund, 1994; Aspen Festival, 2000; Neue Operbühne Berlin 2001; Opéra de Rennes and Angers Nantes Opéra, 2006.

Casken’s second opera, God’s Liar, elaborated Tolstoy’s novella Father Sergius, the composer writing the libretto in collaboration with Emma Warner. The work was jointly co-commissioned and presented by The Almeida Festival, London, and Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie, Brussels in 2001, directed by Keith Warner, with the Almeida Ensemble conducted by Ronald Zollman. It was recorded for Belgian Radio and subsequently broadcast by BBC Radio 3, introduced by the composer. God’s Liar received a new production in 2004 in the KlangBogen Festival by Neue Oper Wien directed by Stephan Bruckmeier.

A number of Casken’s works reflect aspects of the landscape and literature of the North of England, where he lives in Coquetdale in Northumberland: Orion Over Farne (1984, for orchestra), To Fields We Do Not Know (1985), a Northumbrian Elegy for unaccompanied chorus, written for the BBC Singers, and the orchestral song-cycle Still Mine, written for Thomas Allen for the 1992 BBC Proms.

His friendship with the Northern Sinfonia has resulted in a number of works: Maharal Dreaming (1989), the Cello Concerto, written for Heinrich Schiff, premièred at the 1991 Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and Darting the Skiff, for strings, first performed at the 1993 Cheltenham Festival with the composer conducting, and subsequently toured in Europe. In 1999, the orchestra gave the première of the orchestral version of Après un silence for violin and chamber orchestra, with Kyra Humphreys an orchestration of the original work for violin and piano which Casken wrote for Lesley Hatfield, then Leader of Northern Sinfonia. The latest collaboration with Northern Sinfonia was Farness – three poems of Carol Ann Duffy (2006) for soprano, solo viola and chamber orchestra, premièred at the 2006 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, with Patricia Rozario and Ruth Killius and directed by Thomas Zehetmair.

Casken’s Violin Concerto, premièred at the 1995 Proms with Dmitri Sitkovetsky, has since been taken up by Daniel Hope who has given performances both in London and in Manchester as part of the Casken Resonances festival at the RNCM in May 2005. Sortilège, a symphonic poem inspired by Tennyson’s idyll Merlin and Vivien, was commissioned by and premièred by the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1996. Casken’s first symphony – Symphony (Broken Consort) – which includes a gyspy ensemble within the orchestra was commissioned for the BBC Philharmonic for the 2004 Proms. Casken’s most recent orchestral work is his Concerto for Orchestra (2008), for the Nationaltheater-Orchesters Mannheim.

John Casken had a long association with The Lindsays, and as well as three string quartets he also composed Rest-ringing (2005) for string quartet and orchestra, commissioned by The Hallé for the quartet in their year of their retirement. He wrote a Piano Trio (2002) for The Florestan Piano Trio, premiered at the 2002 Brighton International Festival, and subsequently taken to the Cheltenham Festival and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. His third quartet,Choses en moi (2003), has recently been taken up by the Quatuor Danel. Marc Danel also gave the première (with David Fanning) of Shadowed Pieces for violin and piano in January 2008, and Patricia Rozario gave the first performance of a set of songs dedicated to her,Chansons de Verlaine, at the Wigmore Hall in September 2007, with Julius Drake, piano.

The Dream of the Rood for The Hilliard Ensemble and Ensemble 10/10 was premiered in Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral in October 2008 as part of the European Capital of Culture celebrations. Deadly Pleasures, a work for narrator and ensemble based on Cleopatra’s poem from D.M. Thomas’ Ararat toured the UK with Johanna Lonsky and Counterpoise throughout 2009/10. Future plans include a double concerto for Thomas Zehetmair and Ruth Killius, and an ensemble work for Psappha.

As one of the UK’s leading composers, Casken has featured at major festivals in Europe, the USA and Tokyo (at the invitation of Toru Takemitsu). Golem was awarded the First Britten Prize for Composition in 1990 and the Virgin Classics recording with the original cast won the 1991 Gramophone Award in the Contemporary Category. Still Mine won the 1993 Prince Pierre de Monaco Prize for Musical Composition and The Dream of The Rood received the BASCA Award for choral music in 2009. John Casken’s music is available on NMC and Meridien

(1) Text copyright: schott-international

Music Distinguished Visiting Scholar Dr Colin Matthews awarded O.B.E.

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:37:00 PST

Dr Colin Matthews, one of Manchester University Music Department’s Distinguished Visiting Scholars, has been recognised in the New Year's Honours list with the awarding of an O.B.E.

Dr Colin Matthews
O.B.E.
Dr Matthews is an internationally distinguished composer and currently holds the post of Composer in Association with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester.

University composer wins coveted award - A University of Manchester academic has won a 2010 British Composer award – one of the most prestigious honours in the contemporary classical music world

noreply@blogger.com (Music at Manchester University) — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 13:34:14 PST

Professor Philip Grange, who is Head of Music at the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, received the prize on Wednesday 1 December at the Stationers' Hall near St Paul's in London for his large-scale work for symphonic wind band called Cloud Atlas.

It won the British Composer Award in the category Wind Band/Brass band, which was broadcast on BBC Radio Three yesterday.

More than 300 submissions were received for works premiered between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2010 and the list of nominations featured some of the UK's most well known contemporary composers.

Now in its eighth year, the awards are presented by the British Association of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and sponsored by Performing Rights Society for Music.

Professor Grange said: “Cloud Atlas, like my Clarinet Concerto for symphonic wind band of 2000, seeks to challenge the norms of wind band writing by widening the scope, expressive potential and developmental possibilities of the medium.

“I was delighted to receive the British Composer Award for Cloud Atlas as the judges appeared to endorse this.”

Cloud Atlas was premiered at the Cheltenham Festival last year and will be performed in March next year in the Cosmo Rodewald Hall by the RNCM Wind Band as part of a School interdisciplinary event.

The work has also been accepted by the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles for performance at their next conference in Chiayi, Taiwan in July 2011 by the original performers, the National Youth Wind Ensemble of Great Britain.

It will form part of an East Asia tour by NYWE with further performance in Taipei, Hong Kong and Macau.

Music at Manchester University - Blog

Casken string quintet gets UK premiere

More spectacular conducting successes for Manchester Music students

American premiere of Kevin Malone's "A Clockwork Operetta"

Camden Reeves's second piano trio premiered by the Lawson Trio

Call for Papers: Manchester International Beethoven Conference 25-27 June 2012

Manchester International Beethoven Conference25-27 June 2012

Manchester Laudibus singers nominated for Grammy award

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies visits our Music Department

Psappha's Manchester Series - October 2011

Manchester Joint-Course student Jack Sheen on BBC North West Tonight

Media Coverage: The Telegraph, CBS news, NPR- 'Lost' Beethoven work brought back to life

Lost part of Beethoven masterpiece lives again

MUMS abroad!

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies to receive honorary doctorate degree at Manchester University

"Robert Schumann and the Music of the Future", is being repeated on Radio 3 on Tuesday 30 August at 10.15pm.

Manchester PhDs - Tatyana Sirotina, Pauline Fairclough and Ivana Medic at the 'Russian and Soviet Music Conference', Durham

Far East tour of Philip Grange’s Cloud Atlas and Chiu-Yu Chou’s Dream Sun on the Sea

Research students Erica Buurman, Sian Derry and Matthew Pilcher at Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations symposium

James Phillips gets through to the finals of the Besancon conducting competition!

BBC Radio 3 features Manchester University's Lunchtime Concerts 'Hungarian Music' in four episodes, recorded at the Martin Harris Centre

The Annual Royal Musical Associations Research Student's Conference

PhD Composer Chiu-Yu Chou (Joy Chou) wins the ISCM Young Composer Award

Psappha (Manchester University Contemporary Ensemble in Residence) to receive 40% more funding from Arts Council England

Professor John Casken Doctor of Civil Law (honoris causa), University of King's College, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Music Distinguished Visiting Scholar Dr Colin Matthews awarded O.B.E.

University composer wins coveted award - A University of Manchester academic has won a 2010 British Composer award – one of the most prestigious honours in the contemporary classical music world

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Manchester International Beethoven Conference
25-27 June 2012