Blog
Monthly Archive: August 2008
Miles for Music
Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Presteigne is a charming village just over the border from England in mid-Wales. I was invited there this year by festival director George Vass, for the premiere of my Gigue, a little work with a lot of notes, for harpist Sally Pryce and flautist Adam Walker, who did a great job with a piece which is much harder to play than I realised! (I intend to make a few revisions)
The festival seems to be thriving with almost every concert packed out, even when it's in a tiny church far from the beaten track, and I had the pleaure of meeting several of the other featured composers, including Michael Berkeley, David Matthews and fellow Northerner Joe Duddell.
5 mins of music, 10 hours of driving - but it was worth it!
Dances for Oskar in the Lake District
Posted on Thursday, August 7, 2008
Above is my son Oskar listening to the string quartet that bears his name. He enjoyed it, but then, as you can see from the picture, he was in an especially good mood! The Heath Quartet gave an excellent first performance at Kendal Town Hall during the Lake District Summer Music Festival yesterday. I decided not to bring the work's dedicatee along to the concert for fear of disruption. But I can officially say that during part of the especially 'bouncy' second movement he definitely danced a little...
and here's the quartet and me receiving a little light thanks from the generous audience
I'm astonished and delighted that after much struggling I've written a piece for string quartet that I'm happy with, and shows I think a reasonable competence in writing for the instruments. I've decided henceforth I can officially call myself a real composer.
Angela from Push! at Tete a Tete Festival
Posted on Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Louise Mott will be reprising her role as Angela from Push! as part of Tete a Tete's Opera Festival over the coming days. Louise and other performers will be performing 'Lite Bites' - operatic excerpts of various kinds at assorted venues in the Hammersmith area throughout the festival. The festival itself is the usual fantastic mix of shows from the 'operatic fringe' (and some not so fringe) and is a must for anyone serious about their new opera.
