Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Event Number: 56
Sound and Music (SAM)
University of Surrey, PATS Studio One, 1.10pm
Free
A new collaboration between SAM, The Eighth British Contemporary Piano Competition and the University of Surrey Department of Music and Sound Recording.
Featuring pianists Benjamin Powell and Victoria Ayano Royce.
The programmes will be:
Benjamin Powell:
Anthony Gilbert Sonata no. 3 'autour des palombes' (2001) 15'
Jamie Telford Concetto spaziale (2008/09) 3' world premiere
Nina Whiteman New Work (2011) 2' world premiere
Victoria Ayano Royce:
Hugo Morales Mitosis IV (2001) 4' UK premiere
Thomas Ades Traced Overhead (1996) 12'
Two SAM shortlisted composers, Jamie Telford and Hugo Morales Murguia, and competitors have been working together on repertoire with the support and expertise of Roldf Hind and Martin Butler. This interesting collaboration aims to forge links between early career composers and outstanding young interpreters of contemporary piano repertoire. Competition prize-winner Benjamin Powell and semi-finalist Victoria Ayano Royce will perform these exciting new works in a programme of contemporary piano music.
Biographies
Benjamin Powell:
Equally at home in chamber music, song, and solo recitals, Benjamin Powell has performed across the UK and Europe in venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, and Bridgewater Hall. Forthcoming engagements include the Purcell Room, Blackheath Halls, and St. James’s Piccadilly. Benjamin was the winner of the 8th British Contemporary Piano Competition in 2010.
His recent solo recital for the Park Lane Group’s New Year Series in the Purcell Room was highly acclaimed:
‘Benjamin Powell demonstrated an immense range of tone and sound in his programme: granite and stern for Stockhausen, brilliantly light-fingered in Elliott Carter, fiery and moody for Anthony Gilbert, volcanically sensuous in Skryabin.’ (Ivan Hewett, Daily Telegraph)
Benjamin was born and raised in West Sussex and has lived in Manchester since 1999. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and later (thanks to scholarships from the MBF, DAAD, and Lynn Foundation) with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Alexander Melnikov at the Hochschule für Musik Cologne and RNCM respectively
Victoria Ayano Royce:
Victoria Ayano Royce was born in Zürich, Switzerland in 1987, and began her piano studies at a very early age. She was offered a place at the Royal College of Music Junior Department where she studied with Andrew Zolinsky, and received 1st prize in the prestigious Teresa Carreno piano competition during her last year there. She currently studies at the Royal College of Music, under Professor Julian Jacobson. Victoria has gained success both as a soloist and a chamber musician, both in and out of the Royal College of Music. As a soloist she has appeared at venues such as Cadogan Hall and Bolivar Hall, and as a chamber musician has appeared alongside musicians such as Julian Lloyd-Webber. She plays most of the substantial piano repertoire, but also has an affinity for contemporary music – she was a semi-finalist in the British Contemporay Piano Competition 2010, and in 2009 received 2nd Prize in the RCM Contemporary Piano Competition. She has taken part in masterclasses with leading contemporary artists such as Rolf Hind, and also works closely with living composers.
Hugo Morales:
Hugo Morales is a composer and sound artist based in the Netherlands. His current work focuses in the development of alternative instruments for sound generation, whether extensions of traditional instruments or instrumental implementations of rudimentary objects; technique, notation, physical modification and various uses of technology are frequently elements defining his music composition and performance. His works encompass a variety of musical media such as virtuosic solo instrumental pieces, ensemble pieces, live electronics and fixed media music.
After concluding his studies at the Center of Research and Musical Studies in Mexico City, Hugo moved to thee Netherlands to continue his postgraduate studies with the support of the Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education (Nuffic), graduating with Honours in 2009 obtaining a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree, both in music Composition and Sonology, from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and the Institute of Sonology respectively.
His work has received awards in competitions including Mexican Music Council 2003, International Jurgenson Competition 2007, International Gaudeamus Music Week 2008 and International Forum of New Music 2010. His work has been performed in Mexico, Spain, England, the Netherlands, Greece, Belgium, Switzerland, Russia, South Korea, Serbia and Taiwa, by ensembles such as The Arditti Quartet, L’Ensemble Intercontemporain, El Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Ensemble Klang, Modelo62, Broooomm! and Ensemble MAE.
He is currently pursuing a PhD degree at Brunel University, London, with the support of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Fonds Podium Kunsten and The Mexican Council for the Culture and Arts (FONCA).
Jamie Telford:
Jamie Telford studied and practised architecture prior to completing studies in music at Brunel University under PeterWiegold, John Croft, Chris Fox, Richard Barrett, and Jonny Clark. Jamie plays piano and a range of bagpipes and has written music for and played in many rock bands. He has produced music and treatments for a variety of mediums, including work with artist film makers Liz Rideal ("Killing Fields 2006 (British war Museum) and Jane Gifford (Dream Diary 2007) and theatre music for Yuri Lyubimov’s Leicester Haymarket global tour of Hamlet. Performances have included "Lamp Black" and "Candyspincycle" with Southbank Sinfonia and piano works "Dusk" and "Scarlet Lake" performed by Duodort and "Genia". Further projects included a commissioned piece to commemorate Thomas Telford for Langholm Pipe Brass and Flute Bands, new solo piano pieces for "Genia", "Breathing Space", a 2 hander for piano duo - DuoDort and a performance of "thesnaredruminmylife" for Richard Benjafield and Chris Brannick at the opening week at Kings Place. Jamie has recently completed a sound/voice manipulated piece with Simon Smith (poet) with text from (Simon/Holderlin/Rilke and Celan) for Huddersfield festival. He is working on a range of spoken poetic/ electronically manipulated material for Simon and others, as well as a voice/song cycle for Lore Lixenberg.
Nina Whiteman is a singer and composer living in Manchester. She was selected for the 2009 Sound and Music Composer Shortlist for her work The invention of clouds (for bass flute solo, percussion, and string trio). In 2010 commissioned works included A book of walks for the Colinton Amateur Orchestral Society as part of the Adopt-a-composer scheme (PRSF, Sound and Music, Making Music, and to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3), Celestial Navigation for accordion duo TOEAC (performed at the Cheltenham Music Festival), and Windows on the Neva for Manchester Camerata. Recent performances include the premiere of Waggle Dances by Quatuor Danel.
As a singer, Nina specialises in challenging repertoire of last fifty years, as well as engaging with improvised sound. She has appeared at a number of major festivals including Sonorities Festival and The Manchester International Festival with ensembles Kairos and Trio Atem. Forthcoming engagements include Trio Atem Radical Alchemies at Kings Place, London on 4 April.
Martin Butler was born in 1960 and studied at the University of Manchester, the Royal Northern College of Music, and Princeton University, USA. He is currently Professor of Music at the University of Sussex.
Butler’s works are widely performed and broadcast both in the UK and abroad. He has received commissions from, amongst others, the BBC, the London Sinfonietta, the Schubert Ensemble, and the Brighton, Cheltenham, Canterbury, Norfolk & Norwich, and Presteigne festivals.
Martin Butler has a broad catalogue of works to his name, including operas, orchestral, chamber, and piano works. From 2006-8 he was the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra's first ever 'Composer in Focus'. The orchestra performed several large scale works during this period and his tenure culminated in two major performances of a new commission for the orchestra, From the Fairground of Dreams. During 2009, his Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Strings was premiered by Amy Dickson at the Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts.
A recent commission by the New London Chamber Ensemble, Rondes d’Automne, will receive its world premiere at the Cheltenham Festival on the 4th July 2011.
Event Number: 57
The Tempest - Shakespeare as Opera
The Guildford Institute, 2.45 pm
Guildford Institute members free, non-members £3
Tickets only available from the Guildford Institute: 01483 562142
Composer Joe St Johanser and Jackie Shearer, Stage Director of the Guildford Opera Company, will give an introduction to Shakespeare and Opera – and the challenges of staging The Tempest at The Electric Theatre.
A graduate of Surrey University Music Faculty, Joe has been composing steadily since the late 1990s. Shakespeare has been the inspiration for two out of his three completed operas: Spem based in part on the poem Venus and Adonis, and The Tempest. Joe has taken principal roles in no less than nine Guildford Opera Company productions, most recently as the comic charlatan Dr Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’Amore (2008).
With his sardonic comedic flair and sense of the fantastic, his Tempest which premieres at The Electric Theatre in April promises to be full of fun as well as magic and mysticism.
The talk will be illustrated by music.
Promoted by Guildford Institute
www.guildford-institute.org.uk
www.guildfordopera.com
Event Number: 58
Barbican Brass
Philip Cobb trumpet, Chris Evans trumpet
Andrew Littlemore French horn, Steven Haynes trombone
David Kendall tuba
University of Surrey, PATS Dance Studio, 7.30pm
£12 full/senior citizens, £5 concessions
Bach trans Ronald Romm Little Fugue in g minor
Trad Hymn setting
Brinsford Quintet – Barbican Brass commission
Kamen Quintet
Mozart trans Arthur Frackenpohl Turkish Rondo
INTERVAL
Lutoslawski Mini Overture
Crespo Suite Americana
Trad arr Paul Campbell The Londonderry Air
Gershwin arr Stephen Bulla Quintessential Gershwin
Barbican Brass comprises five of the most exciting young brass players in the UK today, all renowned soloists and orchestral leaders in their own right. They are all passionately keen on promoting new music alongside more familiar classics and their sublime playing communicates that enthusiasm to their audiences. Tonight they perform a typically eclectic and attractive programme, combining works by Bach, Mozart and Gershwin with more recent works including the Quintet they commissioned from Andrew Brinsford. A real opportunity to hear some of the best brass players in the world at the start of their careers.