Here's a link to details of my latest piece 'Bells' commissioned by Wells Cathedral. It's an anthem written for the Cathedral choir and organ, a setting of 17th century poet, Thomas Traherne
UPDATE: Sadly this concert was postponed due to injury. Stay tuned for rescheduled performance!
My new piece The Peacock Pavane was supposed to have had its premiere on Feb 14th in the Festival Hall. The LPO commissioned the piece for guitarist Milos and orchestra. Events took a different turn of course, but I'm delighted that they are premiering the piece after all for broadcast online later in March. I'll post the link here and on my social media.
The piece is a kind of response to the past year, it's a tender 'waiting' kind of piece, capturing some of those feelings we've all felt over the past year as we wait for the moment we can happily reunite with our friends and family.
Due to lockdown and general Corona restrictions I'm desperately sad not to be able to attend the premiere of the new production of my opera Nothing in Copenhagen's Royal Danish Opera. There is some talk of a stream which I will post details of on my twitter feed, so follow me there! https://www.twitter.com/davidbruce
Avi Avital's new album 'The Art of the Mandolin' features my three movement work 'Death is a Friend of Ours' written for the amazing combination of mandolin, guitar, harp, harpsichord and theorbo. As the comments and reviews have so far have never failed to mention - 'despite its title', it's a rather joyful and uplifting work. The piece really evokes a joy of living and for me you can only truly sense this joy if you are aware of how short-lived it is. Death isn't something we should be scared of or hide from, it's simply a part of life.
As part of my recent video collaboration with Jeremy Blake from Red Means Recording I was lucky enough to get a performance of my short concert opener Fanfarron by Orchestra of the Swan, conducted by Jason Lai. Please enjoy.
My new string quartet The Lick Quartet was co-commissioned by Dallas Chamber Music Society and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. It received one of the best premieres of a new piece I've ever received, thanks to the astoundingly brilliant Dover Quartet. Happily their performance at the Concertgebouw was recorded, here it is on my YouTube channel, with score included:
After several years work, I'm delighted to announce that my first portrait recording featuring some of my chamber works is released on Signum on August 30th. The three pieces on this release represent a highly personal musical and spiritual responses to nature. The title work, The North Wind was a Woman treats various aspects of nature as human characters, as if they were manifestations of human emotions. So the North Wind for example, is a jilted lover who 'rattles your windows, bangs at your doors'.
The recording features several of my favourite artists - rock-star mandonlinist Avi Avital and the amazing Dover Quartet feature on Cymbeline; my dear friends at Camerata Pacifica recorded the piece they commissioned, The Consolation of Rain; and rising star Nora Fischer features along with a bespoke gathering of some of New York's best chamber musicians on The North Wind was a Woman. The recording was produced by Grammy-winning producer Erica Brenner and was engineered by Jack Renner and Michael Bishop. It was Telarc founder Jack Renner's last recording before he sadly passed away earlier this year.
David's new piece for 10 oboes premieres at Wigmore Hall on 8th Junes at 11.3o as part of Nicholas Daniel Oboe Day. Commissioned by Wigmore Hall for this occasion, the short piece is full of fun and wit, and comes with a suitably silly title 'oboe oboe oboe oboe oboe oboe oboe oboe oboe oboe'. The piece is the third piece David has written specifically for Nick Daniel, after his piece for Camerata Pacifica, The Consolation of Rain, and his 2018 BBC Proms commission Sidechaining.
My old friend who now goes by the new name of Sequoia is a wonderful pianist I've worked with many times. He recently recorded my solo piano piece Undula. The piece explores senses of water and movement, inspired by David Hockney's 'pool paintings'. The video playfully adds a few of these watery effects over the top of Sequoia's hands at the keyboard, and the score itself.
I'm delighted to have fulfilled a life-long ambition to have a piece performed at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. As I mentioned in my YouTube video How to get to Carnegie Hall (or your own personal equivalent), when I was 15, my mum even offered to buy me a grand piano if I ever achieved this goal.
The Prom is on 15th July, Prom 3, and it's a wonderful concert, celebrating 40 years of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, featuring many of the previous winners and finalists. I've been asked to write for four of them, oboist Nicholas Daniel, with whom I've worked many times before of course; violinist Jennifer Pike, French Horn player Ben Goldscheider who was a finalist last year, and clarinettist Michael Collins. The piece will also feature the full BBC Concert Orchestra.
The title Sidechaining refers to a process found in digital audio software, I will post more about that soon.
