Ancient instruments and new music: BCMG's Murmurs

Wu Wei and the sheng (Photo Elsa Thorp)

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group's (BCMG) forthcoming concert at the CBSO Centre in Birmingham on Thursday 21 March 2019 gives us the chance to further explore the music of Berlin-based British composer Rebecca Saunders (winner of the recent Ernst von Siemens Music Prize), and to extend our experience of the Sheng, the ancient Chinese instrument, via new concertos for the instrument by Donghoon Shin and by Jia Guoping.

BCMG, conductor James Leroy, will be performing Saunders' 2009 work murmurs, which gives the concert its title, along with CRIMSON - Molly's Song 1 which is based on Molly Bloom's final monologue from James Joyce's Ulysses. Rebecca Saunders will be at the concert and before hand there will be a chance to hear her in conversation with composer Donghoon Shin.

Donghoon Shin, BCMG Apprentice Composer in Residence 2017-18 and 2016 Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize winner, was commissioned by BCMG to write a concerto for the ancient Chinese instrument, the Sheng, and the concerto, will be premiered by the Chinese sheng virtuoso Wu Wei, who will also be playing Chinese composer Jia Guopong's 2002 work for sheng, cello and percussion, The Wind Sounds in the Sky.

Full details from the BCMG website.