Funding news from VWF

We are delighted to announce that the Vaughan Williams Foundation (formerly RVW Trust) will be supporting our 2023 programme. We are hugely grateful for this and their ongoing funding of Sound World/NMSW over the past decade. Thank you!

Applications open for spring workshop series

Sound World is now taking applications for our spring 2023 composition workshop series. The workshops provide participants (aged from 14 to 18) with the chance to have their music performed/recorded by professional musicians under guidance from a leading composer.

There are usually 5 or 6 performers and a typical line up would be flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and cello. Each participating pupil will get ½hr during which their piece will be performed “as presented”, discussed with the performers and w/s leader and then performed/recorded incorporating any developments that arose during the discussion.

The best pieces will be considered for inclusion in the Sound World Group’s 2023 concert tour, alongside new commissions and contemporary classics.

Applications should generally be made through school music depts. to info@sound-world.org.

Sadie Harrison: Pasture and Storm

9th September sees the launch of a new CD and the live premières new music by chair of the Sound World board of trustees and renowned composer Sadie Harrison.

Performed by Nicholas McCarthy and the Bristol Ensemble, under the baton of conductor John Pickard, the programme is described as “a kaleidoscope of musical moods and influences – joyful dances based on medieval tunes, poignant laments from Afghanistan, the drama of a Spanish bullfight and a gentle pastorale at dusk.”

The full programme is:
Alexander Scriabin Nocturne op 9 for left hand
Sadie Harrison
Kabul: When I wake at midnight for left hand piano duet
I kiss the earth (voice and left hand piano)
The People of His Pasture (left hand piano and ensemble Mvt III)
The Book of Storms and Mists (left hand piano Mvt I)
The Nightingales of Afghanistan (solo left hand piano and ensemble)
Béla Bartók Study for the left hand in Bb major
Sadie Harrison
Round Dances (flute and piano)
I shan’t be gone long (violin and left hand piano)
Sergei Rachmaninov Prelude in G minor (arranged for left hand by Nicholas McCarthy)

Tickets and further details here: https://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/whats-on/pasture-storm/

W/S series and concerts cancelled

We are very disappointed to announce that the workshop series planned for this spring along with the associated concerts has been cancelled. Unfortunately some of the participating schools still have concerns in relation to COVID and having external visitors to the school sites.

Because the two sides of the project (the workshops and the concerts) are mutually dependent it’s an all or nothing situation and we have had to cancel everything.

Huge apologies go to all the young composers who had been working towards these workshops, to the performers and to the audience members.

Arts Council England to support concerts/workshops

We are delighted to announce that ACE will be supporting our spring workshops series and concerts. The workshops will provide young composers with the chance to have their music played and recorded by professional performers from the Bristol Ensemble under guidance from leading composers.

Pieces of sufficient quality will be considered for inclusion in two concert in Bristol and Shaftesbury. These concerts will be performed by Bristol Ensemble and will feature music by Iannis Xenakis, Eleanor Alberga and the world premières of two specially commissioned new pieces by Sally Beamish and Gavin Bryars.

Sally Beamish April

April, the piece that Sally wrote for Reflections our covid project album was given its live première on 21st November at St. Anne’s church in Lewes. Originally written for saxophone, marimba and piano, this new arrangement for viola and piano was performed by Sally herself and pianist Nancy Cooley.

Reflections: release confirmed

We are delighted to announce that our long awaited album Reflections will be released on 8th December. It is the product of our Covid response project aimed at supporting freelance musicians at the height of the pandemic.

Recorded by members of the Bristol Ensemble and featuring new music by a very fine array of composers, the track listing is as follows:

Evelyn Glennie: The Grace of Silence
Gavin Bryars: Altissima Luce
Sadie Harrison: Corona Defined
Geoff Poole: Crux Coronis
Julian Leeks: Entwined
Sally Beamish: April
John Pickard: Stronghold
Graham Fitkin: Violin Violin Piano
Michael Ellison: Pek Kötü Olsa da Durum (Whatever My Sorrows)
Mark-Anthony Turnage: Chorale
Nico Muhly: Trombone Phrases
Howard Skempton: Stepping Out

Reflections: online concert

On 9th October at 13:15, nine of the new recordings/videos from our Coronavirus Fund for Freelance Musicians project will launch the Bristol University online concert series. Composers John Pickard, Geoff Poole and Michael Ellison, as well as SoundWorld director Julian Leeks, have close ties to the university so we are delighted to be involved in this.

With new music by:
Sally Beamish
Gavin Bryars
Graham Fitkin
Dame Evelyn Glennie
Sadie Harrison
John Pickard
Geoff Poole
Howard Skempton
&
Mark-Anthony Turnage
Performed by members of the Bristol Ensemble

BBC article on our coronavirus project

We are grateful to Steve Mather and the BBC for posting an article about Sound World’s Coronavirus Fund for Freelance Musicians. You can read this here.

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