Past the Stars: BCMG returns to live performance as a full ensemble

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

On 20 June 2021, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) will be making its first appearance as a full ensemble since June 2020, when the group returns to Birmingham Town Hall for Past the Stars. The concert features soprano  Patricia Auchterlonie and cellist Ulrich Heinen in excerpts from Param Vir's Wheeling Past the Stars, his 2007 work which sets William Radice's translations of poetry by Rabindranath Tagore. Also in the programme will be the UK premiere of Vir's 2005 ensemble work Hayagriva, named for a horse-headed being known in Indian and Tibetan sacred literature and art as an incarnation of Vishnu associated with knowledge and wisdom, and Sir Harrison Birtwistle's Cantus lambeus, which was premiered by the Nash Ensemble in 2005.

Earlier that week, BCMG performs Soliloquies and Dialogues at Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol (11 June) and CBSO Centre, Birmingham (15 June). The programme features the first performances to a live audience of pieces commissioned by BCMG and created by composers during lockdown. Using the unpredictable events of Covid-19 as a stimulus for activity, BCMG asked several composers to create pieces for solo artists and connect with fellow musicians over digital platforms to rehearse, refine, and record their music. Having been created on kitchen tables and home offices, these pieces will now receive their first performances to a live audience.

Full details from the BCMG website.