Julian Anderson residency at Wigmore Hall

Saturday 2 November sees the opening concerts in composer Julian Anderson's three years as Composer in Residence at the Wigmore Hall. Two concerts, at 1pm and at 7.30pm place Anderson's music in the context of his colleagues and mentors, Oliver Knussen, George Benjamin, Hans Abrahamsen, Salvatore Sciarrino and Gerard Grisey. Anderson's music being performed includes recent instrumental compositions and the premiere of Another Prayer. Further concerts of Anderson's music in context will be given at the Wigmore Hall as part of the residency on 23 January and 15 May 2014. Anderson's music also features as part of the London Philharmonic Orchestra's season, and his opera Thebans debuts at the London Coliseum in May 2014.

At 1pm on 2 November at the Wigmore Hall, Clare Booth (soprano), Thomas Gould (violin), Paul Silverthorne (viola), Adam Walker (flute), Mark Sampson (clarinet) and Cedric Tiberghien (piano) will perform Julian Anderson's Prayer for solo viola, Four Piano Studies, Sea Drift, The Colour of Pomegranates and The Bearded Lady plus music by Oliver Knussen, Gerard Grisey and George Benjamin. Then at 7.30pm, the Aurora Orchestra, conductor Nicholas Collon with Andras Keller (violin) give the world premiere of Anderson's Another Prayer, plus Tiramisu and The COmedy of Change, alongside Hans Abrahamsen's Walden and Sallvatore Sciarrino's ...da un divertimento. The concert will be preceded by a pre-concert talk at 6pm

On January 23 2014 at the Wigmore Hall, the JACK Quartet will give the London premiere of Anderson's String Quartet No. 1 'Light Music', which the group are performing also in Belfast, Ljubljana and Washington. The programme also includes quartets by Ruth Crawford Seeger and Horatiu Radulescu, plus a new work by Christopher Trapani. Then on 15 May 2014 the Arditti Quartet give the world premiere of Anderson's String Quartet No. 2 which was co-commissioned by the Wigmore Hall, plus quartets by Scelis, Helmut Lachenmann and Luis de Pablo.

The coming year is set to be a busy year for Anderson. In addition to his role at the Wigmore Hall he is Composer in Residence at the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra will perform Anderson's Stations of the Sun on 7 December and Alleluia on 1 March/ On 4 November, the LPO under their principal conductor Vladimir Jurowski is releasing world premiere recordings of Fantasias and |The Crazed Moon, plus The Discovery of Heaven conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth.

And over at the London Coliseum, Anderson's first opera Thebans is being premiered by English National Opera on 3 May 2014. Using a libretto by Frank McGuinness, the work is based on Sophocles trilogy of plays about Oedipus. The opera is directed by Pierre Audi, the artistic director of Netherlands Opera making a rare appearance in London, and conducted by Edward Gardner.

Anderson began composing at the age of eleven, initially as a way of avoiding playing football. He describes his influences as including 'Olivier Messiaen, Gregorian Chant, the Blues and the sound of bells'.


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