Looking ahead: JAM 2017, nine living composers

Paul Patterson

JAM kicks off its 2017 season with its annual contemporary showcase, as well as celebrating composer Paul Patterson's 70th birthday. As part of the Brandenburg Choral Festival on 23 March 2017 at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street, Dingle Yandell (baritone), the Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, Onyx Brass, Simon Hogan (organ) and Michael Bawtree (conductor) will perform music by nine living composers, Adam Gorb, Thomas LaVoy, Paul Patterson, Alison Willis, Jack Oades, Mark Cotham, Max Charles Davies, David Ho-Yi Chan and Mark Bowler.

Ten years ago JAM commissioned Adam Gorb's Thoughts Scribbled on a Blank Wall, and the work will be the centre piece of the concert on 23 March. It is a powerful work evoking the experience of journalist John McCarthy who in the 1980s was held hostage in the Lebanon for five years. Another JAM commission, Thomas LaVoy's O Great Beyond, a setting of Rabindranath Tagore's The Gardner, will receive its London premiere, whilst Paul Patterson's 70th birthday will be celebrated with a performance of his When Music Sounds. Patterson's association with JAM dates back to 2005 when they commissioned The Fifth Continent.

Each year JAM has a call for scores and this year they are performing six pieces which came from the submissions last year (when they received their biggest number of submissions ever at 130), with pieces by Alison Willis, Jack Oakes, Mark Cotham, Max Charles Davies, David Ho-Yi Chan and Mark Bowler.


Further information from the JAM website.