SIX Face Pictures – 13th & 14th January

This week sees the premiere of ‘Seven Face Pictures‘ in Manchester by Trio Atem (that’s them on the right). Scored for mezzo-soprano, flute and cello, it’s a breakneck song cycle of seven songs in ten minutes, setting the poetry of Caroline Bird. One hitch though – due to time restrictions, at Friday’s performance we might have to only do six of the seven movements (making the title rather ironic). All seven will be workshopped on Thursday however. I’ll try and stitch together audio of all seven to put up here.

They’ll be performing the piece at a lunchtime concert in the Cosmo Rodewald Hall, alongside Marcello Messina’s Melior de cinere surgo, RPS Composition Prize-winner Tristan Rhys Williams’ I AM TRIO, Un Inverosímil Archipiélago by José Puello, and Doodle by Mark Pilkington. In addition, all five pieces will be publicly workshopped the day before, at 2.30. The concert forms part of the Royal Musicological Association‘s annual Postgraduate Conference, held in Manchester this year.