News

Posted on 06 Jun 2017

I've been nominated for a South Bank Sky Arts Award for Spirit of the Staircase, premiered by Martyn Brabbins and the London Sinfonietta last year. The other nominees for the classical music category are the Philharmonia and Esa-Pekka Salonen's Stravinsky series 'Myths and Rituals', and the Dunedin Consort's performance of the Monteverdi Vespers at the Lammermuir Festival – what a treat to...

Posted on 02 May 2017

I've been awarded the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Prize based at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, shared with Canadian composer Matthew Ricketts. The Fund awards an annual prize to an instrumentalist or composer. Previous British winners of the prize include Thea Musgrave, Nicholas Maw, George Benjamin, Helen Grime and Charlotte Bray....

Posted on 10 Apr 2017

I'm thrilled to have been commissioned to write an orchestral piece to open the First Night of the 2017 BBC Proms. Edward Gardner will conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the premiere of St. John's Dance at London's Royal Albert Hall on the 14 July. The concert also features Igor Levit playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 and John Adams'...

Posted on 01 Mar 2017

I'm honoured to have been commissioned by the Hepner Foundation to write a piece for the Arditti Quartet, to be performed at a special concert in memory of Leo Hepner. Leo was a German chemical engineer/biotechnologist and amateur violist. He formed the Hepner Foundation to support contemporary music in the UK and Europe, and together with his wife Regina Hepner-Neupert set...

Posted on 01 Feb 2017

Psappha will give the world premiere of Two Games and a Nocturne at Manchester's St Michael's on Thursday 16 February. They commissioned the piece – scored for flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin & cello – for their 25th Anniversary season. Also in the concert are premieres by Gordon McPherson and Emily Hall, Joe Duddell's Nightswimming, Kaija Saariaho's Light & Matter...

Posted on 12 Oct 2016

Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea will perform Limp at a lunchtime concert at Manchester's Cosmo Rodewald Hall on Thursday 20th October, alongside Camden Reeves' Gorgon's Head and Schumann's Violin Sonata Op. 105. Also scheduled for a Manchester performance – I've also just finished Two Games and a Nocturne for Psappha, who will give the world premiere at St Michael's in February. [vc_row css_animation=""...

Posted on 20 May 2016

The London Sinfonietta are giving the world premiere of 'Spirit of the Staircase' for 15 players on the 1 June in London, under the baton of Martyn Brabbins. The concert, at London's St John's Smith Square, is programmed around the world premiere of Harrison Birtwistle's Five Lessons in a Frame, and also features Francisco Coll's Liquid Symmetries and Tansy Davies'...

Posted on 27 Apr 2016

I have been awarded a Jerwood Opera Writing Fellowship from Aldeburgh Music to develop an opera with the wonderful playwright Alice Birch. Aldeburgh will provide support over the next two years as we develop our piece, including through bursaries, workshops, mentoring and showcases. I'm incredibly excited to start work on this project with such an exciting writer – more details of...

Posted on 18 Apr 2016

Sonnet Machine is receiving its public premiere at the weekend courtesy of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, alongside a couple of radio broadcasts on BBC Radio 3. In chronological order, then: on Friday 22nd at 9.30pm and as a part of their Shakespeare 400 celebrations, Radio 3 will broadcast 'Baba Ganoush', a newly commissioned radio play from Tom Wells, which features extracts...