News

Two upcoming events to tell you about. On Saturday pianist Andrew Wilson-Dickson will workshop a short new piece of mine at Cardiff's Canton Uniting Church, as part of the Primavera Crossing Borders day. 'Graham's Orrery' is the name of my piece, and you can read about its planetary inspiration here. Andrew will be workshopping 13 new pieces and performing a...

I have been selected as a candidate for the inaugural Niccolò Castiglioni Prize, run by the Centro Culturale San Fedele in association with the Edizioni Suvini Zerboni. I will be attending a series of weekends in Milan to receive tuition from composers including Helmut Lachenmann, Stefano Gervasoni, Johannes Schöllhorn and Alessandro Solbiati. Between 4 and 6 finalists will then be...

I have been appointed as 'Young Composer-in-Residence' for the Lancashire Sinfonietta's 2011/12 season, having won their Christopher Brooks Memorial Prize 2011. The residency will involve me working on education projects in the region, writing some chamber music, and culminating in the premiere of a commission for the full orchestra. The concert featuring my piece will be held at the Lancaster...

Narcissus & Echo is being performed as part of the Arcola Theatre's 'Grimeborn' season on Tuesday. Having performed the piece at OPEN Ealing and the Secret Garden Party Festival last month, Opera Viscera will be adapting the show to fit the theatre space. Tickets will be £10 on the door, or can be pre-booked on the Arcola website. 'A modern opera...

'Narcissus & Echo', the collaborative opera written by myself alongside Rachel Jackson, Jasmin Rodgman and Hannah Taylor was performed by Opera Viscera this week. I conducted the ensemble and cast first in Wednesday's premiere at our rehearsal space, OPEN Ealing art gallery, London, then in two performances at the Secret Garden Party Festival in Huntingdon. The cast starred Hannah Eve...

A new collaborative opera is busy being developed, with music by me and three other composers, and will be premiered at the end of this month. Opera Viscera, the company co-founded by myself and director Lia Alba, are putting on a brand new opera entitled Narcissus & Echo – to be first performed at OPEN Ealing art gallery in London...

Canadian contemporary music ensemble Ansae will premiere my piece 'Broken Études for Consort in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario on Tuesday. Ansae asked composers to write new pieces for their unusual ensemble of flute, oboe, saxophone, melodica and piano, and my contribution is a liberal expansion of my earlier Two Études for Solo Violin. Closer to home, Jack Adler-McKean will give the premiere...

It's the York Spring Festival of New Music in a couple of weeks, and as part of the York New Music Exchange weekend the Hebrides Ensemble will be workshopping some pieces including my Piano Quartet 'Frusta'. The Hebrides Ensemble is Scotland's finest purveyor of contemporary chamber music, recording and touring regularly and getting shortlisted for a PRS Prize in the process....

On the 17th June tuba player Jack Adler-McKean will perform a new piece of mine, La Belle Captive at his Gold Medal Recital at the RNCM. The Gold Medal recitals see 12 of the RNCM's top performers compete for the Gold Medal award. The piece: Taking its name from a painting by René Magritte, 'La Belle Captive' sees the tuba and...