Constella Music celebrates a decade of innovative work with anniversary event at Sadler’s Wells

Leo Geyer, artistic director of Constella Music 

Leo Geyer's Constella Music is celebrating its tenth anniversary with an event at Sadler's Wells Theatre on Monday 27 November 2023. The interdisciplinary music company, formally known as Constella OperaBallet, celebrates a decade of daring and visually striking work. The company's new name, Constella Music, reflects its ever-growing repertoire encompassing the broad creative endeavours of its artistic director, composer and conductor Leo Geyer.

The celebration at Sadler's Wells features world premieres including London Portraits, Leo Geyer's opera-ballet, choreographed by Taira Foo, which fuses jazz and street dance. Geyer’s Water Boatman for double-bass and loop pedal, commissioned by the Musician’s Company, will have its first public performance, having been featured on the BBC, and will be performed by Toby Hughes. The Constella Orchestra will perform excerpts from a new opera-ballet, the Orchestras of Auschwitz - featuring music written in concentration camps - will also be performed for the first time, a project that plays tribute to musicians murdered in Auschwitz.

Constalla Music' snew ventures for 2024 and beyond will include restoring the live cinema orchestra score for the seminal Ukrainian film Man with a Movie Camera, a television documentary about music of the Holocaust, and a collaboration with the Science Museum. Constella will also be continuing their acclaimed programme Connecting Stars, that provides live and interactive virtual performances for care home residents, which to date has resulted in over 1,500 performances nationwide.

Full details of Constella Music's 10th anniversary celebrations from their website.

The nominations for the 2023 Ivors Classical Awards have been announced, and we take a little look at some of this year's nominees

Jasdeep Singh Degun (Photo: Robert Leslie)
Nominated for his opera Orpheus

The nominations for the 2023 Ivors Classical Awards have been announced, and we take a little look at some of this year's nominees as well as highlighting those nominees to whom we have spoken in more depth.

This year, 36 works have been nominated for an Ivor Novello Award across eight categories. 44% of the shortlist are first-time nominees, including: 

• Jasdeep Singh Degun, nominated for his opera Orpheus (see my recent interview with Jasdeep)
• Simon Knighton, nominated for his orchestral work Sound Sculpture No. 7
• Angela Elizabeth Slater, nominated for her large ensemble work Through the Fading Hour
• Dobrinka Tabakova, nominated for her community & participation work Swarm Fanfares

Three composers have received two nomination 

• Brett Dean, for his orchestral works Cello Concerto and In This Brief Moment
• Brian Irvine, for his operas Least Like the Other: Searching for Rosemary Kennedy and Scorched Earth Trilogy
• Hannah Kendall, for her chamber work Even sweetness can scratch the throat and her large ensemble work Shouting forever into the receiver.

Thomas Adès is nominated for his chamber ensemble work Növények for mezzo-soprano and piano sextet. Bushra El-Turk (to whom I chatted in May this year, see my interview) is nominated for her large ensemble work Ka for percussion soloist and string orchestra, Alex Paxton (to whom I chatted about his 2021 Ivors nominations, see my interview) is nominated for his large ensemble work Ilolli-Pop for ensemble and improvising soloist. Anna Thorvaldsdottir (to whom I chatted about her 2021 Ivors nominations, see my interview) is nominated for her orchestral work Aurora. Tom Coult is nominated for his opera Violet, (I chatted to Tom about Violet before its premiere in 2022, see my interview). Jody Talbot is nominated for his ballet Like Water for Chocolate.

The Ivors Classical Awards place on 14 November at BFI Southbank in London, where 11 Ivor Novello Awards will be presented to eight category winners and three Gift of the Academy award winners. Founded in 2003 as the British Composer Awards, and previously known as The Ivors Composer Awards, the best new classical music and sound art by British, Irish or UK resident composers.

John Rutter will be presented with the Academy Fellowship, the highest honour bestowed by The Ivors Academy, in recognition of his excellence and impact in the art and craft of music creation. The recipients of the Ivor Novello Awards for Outstanding Works Collection and Innovation will be revealed on the night.

Nearly all of the nominated works were commissioned, highlighting the importance of the commissioning process through orchestras, festivals, venues and funding organisations, all of which play a pivotal role in the future of new music. Commissioners of this year’s nominated works include Britten Pears Arts, National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Proms, Irish National Opera, Opera North, Music Theatre Wales, West Sussex Music, Nonclassical, Southbank Sinfonia, London Philharmonic Orchestra and many more.

Full details from the Ivors Classical Awards website.

Tips for musicians setting up a music festival: Shiry Rashkovsky, founder of Up Close and Musical, reflects on festival creation

Shiry Rashkovsky & violinist Fenella Humphreys at Up Close and Musical in 2022

Viola-player Shiry Rashkovsky's Up Close and Musical festival returned to the Fidelio Café this month, opening with mezzo-soprano Lucy Schaufer, pianist Ben Dawson and Trio Klein in a storm-themed programme of music by living, and mainly women, composers [see my review] and ends tonight, 18 October 2023, with soprano & composer Héloïse Werner, multi-instrumentalist Shri Sriram and cellist Max Baillie in Best of October House Records with music by Love Ssega, Jasmin Kent Rodgman, Jonathan Cole, and Max Baillie [further details]. Shiry founded Up Close and Musical in 2020 to help demystify the world of classical music, combining intimate performances, artist-curated programmes, and artist interviews, along with food and drink [read my 2021 interview with Shiry].

In this article, Shiry reflects on the whole process of festival creation.

I founded Up Close and Musical at Fidelio Café because I wanted to give audiences a chance not only to listen to music up close but to hear from the musicians themselves about their daily lives through informal chats mid-performance with me posing the questions. The festival has evolved from year to year; in the second year I invited an all-female roster and focused heavily on female composers, and in this third year I extended the festival format to include a film screening and behind-the-scenes look at the 2023 Hollywood blockbuster Chevalier and integrated an even wider array of musical genres than before, spanning contemporary, folk, musical theatre, jazz and of course classical. It’s been a wild ride from the fraught first year in which I had to postpone thrice due to the pandemic, and the momentum it’s gained since then is staggering. I had wanted to bring this musical concept to life for some time, and am so glad I persisted. Here are some things that I learned, most of which I could really, really have done with someone telling me beforehand.

Establishing the project:

Do not be alarmed - this takes time, which seems like the sort of thing that someone with project management experience would know but that they forgot to tell us in conservatoire. I found that there’s a certain growth that can only come from the repetition of a festival (at whatever frequency you run it); people become familiar with the name and artistic concept through press exposure and word of mouth. By Up Close and Musical’s second year we had people returning with friends for more -  that kind of strengthening of your audience base is something that you simply can’t fast-track. It brings utter joy when you notice it.

Performing while Artistic Directing:

Your nerves will take a hit from this, but not in the way you might expect. Recently I’ve found that I don’t get nervous onstage but the split in focus that comes from preparing to perform and managing the smooth running of the day - ensuring artists have what they need and rehearsals run on time, sorting through kinks with the venue and ticketing, or any number of curveballs that fly at you right up to the minute you have to go and play - can be quite a stressor. You can mitigate this with assiduous over-preparation but ultimately the results are most satisfying when all you have to think about it your performance, and that’s a challenging environment to simulate when you are in charge of everything else all the time, so take it with a handful of salt when you can. Across the three years of Up Close and Musical I found it easiest to schedule any performance I might be in with Trio Klein at the start of the festival, riding the wave of pre-festival preparations and allowing for more space to engage with inter-performance matters as they arose later.

Artistic Directing while not performing:

This is less fun, for those of us who love to perform. Don’t get me wrong, I get a huge kick out of compering and interviewing the artists during their performances, and engaging exciting and well spoken artists to share their musical experiences is integral to Up Close and Musical’s artistic concept, but somehow I always feel like something is missing when I’m there without my instrument, like I’ve only expressed myself halfway. An odd feeling and certainly not a complaint, but worth bearing in mind.

Homage/Autrefois - Ivana Gavrić at the World Heartbeat Academy

Dora Pejačević

In December, Sarajevo-born, UK-based pianist Ivana Gavrić is exploring a new venue with a recital at the World Heartbeat Academy in Nine Elms (SW11 9BD). The academy's concert hall opened in March this year with events including the London premiere of Julian Joseph's concerto, Kayryouacou [see my article].

On 9 December 2023, Ivana Gavrić will be performing a programme that marks the anniversaries of both Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) and Croatian composer Dora Pejačević (1885-1923), and Gavrić will be performing four of Rachmaninff's Preludes alongside Pejačević's Two Nocturnes which date from 1918 and 1920. The programme is also an exploration of composers writing in another style, with Cheryl Frances-Hoad paying homage to Ravel, Grieg, Schubert, Janacek and Bartok in her Five Lyric Pieces which is dedicated to Ivana Gavrić, plus Grieg himself paying homage to earlier times in the Holberg Suite, and Cecile Chaminade paying a similar homage in Autrefois.

The World Heart Beat Academy offers support to disadvantaged children learning music and it opens its doors to any child wanting to learn music and provides free instruments and tuition. The academy started life in 2012 on Kimber Road in Wandsworth, in a converted space above Charles Wilson Engineers Ltd. It now welcomes over 350 students to its music learning space each week, offering a broad range of instrumental lessons, as well as the chance to play in ensembles such as jazz, orchestra and gig bands. The opening of a new concert hall marks a new chapter for the academy, enabling it to present concerts by emerging artists from the academy alongside international stars, and the hall's state-of-the-art recording facilities given students further inspirational tools.

Full details from the World Heatbeat Academy website.

Traces of the White Rose: for the 80th anniversary of the execution of the final member of the non-violent group resisting the Nazi's in 1943, SANSARA explore the subject in words & music

SANSARA

The White Rose was a non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany, five students and a professor who stood up to Nazism by writing, printing, and circulating anti-Nazi, anti-war pamphlets, and six paid with their lives. 2021 was the centenary of the birth of of Sophie Scholl, one of the founders of the group, and the choir SANSARA, artistic director Tom Herring, developed Voices of the German Resistance, a programme which interleaved music by Bach, Byrd, Rudolf Mauersberger, Max Reger, Philip Moore and Piers Kennedy with readings from the resistance group's writings in new English translations by students at the University of Oxford. The programme was developed with The White Rose Project, a research and engagement initiative at the University of Oxford.

Now, to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the execution of Willi Graf, the final core member of the White Rose to be executed for defying the Nazi Regime, SANSARA and Dr Alexandra Lloyd of The White Rose Project have created a Podcast, Traces of the White Rose.

Dr Alexandra Lloyd explains, "Traces of the White Rose introduces this courageous group of resisters through their own writings. It's a truly collaborative effort, with music by SANSARA, and translations by students at the University of Oxford. As a lecturer and author, it’s amazing to hear this story brought to life and to hear traces of these incredible individuals who risked everything for freedom."

You can find details of the Podcast on SANSARA's website. They will be performing a live version of the programme, Traces of the White Rose at the Wiltshire Music Centre on 11 November 2023,  full details from the centre's website.

To the North... Estonian pianist Ivari Ilja creates a recital that is highly satisfying in itself, but with each work repaying further attention

To the North...: Tõnu Kõrvits, Peeter Vähi, Eduard Tubin, Ester Mägi, Eduard Oja; Ivari Ilja; Estonian Record Productions

Estonian piano music stretching across the 20th and 21st centuries in a recital that is highly satisfying in itself, but with each work repaying further attention.

Estonian pianist Ivari Ilja's new disc, To the North... on Estonia Record Productions (ERP) features piano music by two contemporary Estonian composer, Tõnu Kõrvits and Peeter Vähi, alongside music by Estonian composers from previous generations, Eduard Tubin, Ester Mägi and Eduard Oja, the disc includes the world premiere recordings of Kõrvits' The Riddle and To the North..., Mägi's Three Sea Tableaux and Vähi's Purgatory.

The music of Tõnu Kõrvits forms a frame for the recital, with his work occurring at the beginning, middle and end. Kõrvits' The Riddle was written for Ivari Ilja who premiered it in 2018. A tiny piece, it is all delicate, engaging counterpoint.

National Opera Studio welcomes its young artists for 2023/24

The National Opera Studio is welcoming 16 Young Artists onto its Global Talent Programme for 2023/24; in addition to funding the training, the National Opera Studio provides the Young Artists with a performance stipend, a bursary and additional funding for external lessons and auditions. 

Alongside these, two young artists will be welcomed onto the National Talent Programme, its newly developed shorter, flexible pathway opportunities for UK-based artists in the early stages of their careers. And this newly created National Talent Programme forms part of the Studio’s Diverse Voices initiative, which provides support, guidance, and encouragement to young singers at various stages of their paths to opera careers working with artists, singers, and choirs across a variety of levels and platforms, connecting young children to local musical communities all the way to training artists who are already singing professionally on stage.

The young artists present regular free lunchtime recitals at the National Opera Studio in Wandsworth, with the next dates being 18 October & 8 November, and all the young artists will be performing in a programme of operatic scenes, directed by Keith Warner, on 6 & 7 December.

National Opera Studio Global Talent Programme artists 2023/24
Sopranos
Rosalind Dobson (British), Nikolina Hrkać (Croatian), Kira Kaplan (American), Sofia Kirwan-Baez (Anglo-Venezuelan), Heming Li (Chinese)

Mezzo-sopranos
Georgia Mae Ellis (British), Camilla Seale (British)

Tenors
Robert Forrest (British), Rhydian Jenkins (Welsh)

Baritones
Jonathan Eyers (Kiwi), Aleksander Kaczuk-Jagielnik (Polish)

Bass-baritone
Smelo Mahlangu (South African)

Repetiteurs
Hana Kim (Korean), Johanna Kvam (American), Blanca Graciá Rodríguez (Spanish), Jacob Swindells (British)

 
National Opera Studio National Talent Programme artists 2023/24
Shafali Jalota (British-American)
Moloko Letsoalo (South African)

Full details from the National Opera Studio website.

In only two years, Scottish Young Musicians has become the largest and most important national music competition in Scottish schools,

Winner of Solo Performer of the Year 2023, 16-year-old clarinettist Emily Barron from St. Columba’s School, Kilmacolm

Scottish Young Musicians, Scotland's festival of music competitions, is returning for 2024 to give young people across the country the chance to compete for the titles of Solo Performer of the Year, Ensemble of the Year and Brass Ensemble of the Year. In only two years, Scottish Young Musicians has become the largest and most important national music competition in Scottish schools, with 30 local authorities participating in the 2023 competition in May.

Solo Performer of the Year, which returns for its third year, is open to all young musicians who go to school in Scotland, whatever age or standard. Each local authority will select a regional finalist, with all of them hosting local and regional heats across different schools to decide who will represent their area at the National Final at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in May 2024. 

Ensemble of the Year, which is open to instruments of all disciplines, and Brass Ensemble of the Year are online competitions which will see school and local ensembles compete to win a chance to perform at the National Final. Ensemble of the Year is open to ensembles of 3 to 16 players of any genre or grouping of instruments who play together regularly in a formal group from a school or recognised music organisation. Brass Ensemble of the Year is open to ensembles of 3 to 12 players who play together regularly in a formal group from a school or recognised music organisation.

New this year is a Junior Competition, taking place in Primary Schools, with the local authorities taking part focussing on finding the best junior talent in their area, and giving the country’s youngest musicians experience in performing in front of an audience and competing with their peers. Parents and pupils can find out more through their school music teacher.

Full details from the Scottish Young Musicians website.

In glorious voice: Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen returns to Wigmore Hall for a programme of art songs by Grieg, Berg, Schubert and Sibelius

Lise Davidsen (Photo: James Hole)

Grieg: Five Songs, Op. 69, Berg: Sieben frühe Lieder, Sibelius: Songs Op. 37,  Schubert; Lise Davidsen, James Baillieu; Wigmore Hall

The Norwegian soprano in glorious voice in a recital that mixed Schubert and early Berg with terrific songs by Grieg and Sibelius in Norwegian and Swedish.

Lise Davidsen made her recital debut at the Wigmore Hall back in 2017 since then the Norwegian soprano has been making waves on the operatic stage, but she obviously remains committed to art song and returned to Wigmore Hall on Friday 13 October 2023, after a significant gap, with pianist James Baillieu for a programme that included Grieg's Five Songs, Op. 69, Berg's Sieben frühe Lieder, Sibelius' songs Op. 37 and a selection of Schubert songs.

Not every dramatic soprano is comfortable in the song repertoire, and not every opera singer wants to explore the more direct, exposing world of art song, but Lise Davidsen definitely is and does. This was a complex and unusual programme, mixing the known and the unknown, and it worked because Davidsen was really invested in each and every song, and always finely partnered by Baillieu (who has a long-established partnership with her). Davidsen's voice might easily fill Wigmore Hall at climaxes, but she was well able to fine things down and what really came across was her skill as a story teller in song. It didn't matter that the words or even the language was unfamiliar (we had songs in Norwegian and Swedish), the communication was paramount.

We began with Grieg's Five Songs, Op. 69 setting poems by the Danish writer Otto Benzon, though the songs set Norwegian words the pieces are closer to European song than Grieg's Norwegian-inspired lyric pieces. In fact, Grieg would write ten settings of Benzon's poems, the second five being issued as his Op. 70, the final songs he wrote.

Inspired by the Sea: composer Ed Bennett on the ideas behind 'Strange Waves', his large-scale immersive work eight-part multitracked cello & field recordings

Kate Ellis performing Ed Bennett's Strange Waves at Cafe Oto with image from Laura Sheeran

Irish composer Ed Bennett has just released a new album, Strange Waves on the Irish label Ergodos. A collaboration with cellist Kate Ellis, Strange Waves includes field recordings, made on the County Down coast and on Ireland’s northernmost island, Rathlin, in the North Atlantic, mixed in with a hypnotic eight-part multitracked cello to create a large-scale immersive work inspired by the sea. 

Earlier this month, Ed Bennett and Kate Ellis launched the album with a performance in London at Cafe Oto, where it was performed with a film by Laura Sheeran that went with the music. Ed's work has featured on this blog before as I reviewed Psychedelia, the 2020 disc of his music on the NMC Records label [see my review].

Ed Bennett (Photo: Rachel McCarthy)

Strange Waves came about partly because of Lockdown in 2020, with Ed wondering whether live performance would ever return and thinking about ways to keep doing things. The idea for Strange Waves was to work with a single performer; having Kate Ellis recording all eight tracks, it was a way to make a piece long distance and create a substantial work with on performer. They recorded it, intending to perform it live when that would be possible. Whilst the performance at Cafe Oto featured just one performer, Kate Ellis, there is an option to perform the work with a live cello octet, though a live version of this remains just a gleam in Ed's eye at the moment. To perform it with eight live performers will take more resources, as the tuning required in the work is quite specific, but Ed feels that surrounding the audience with the eight cellists would be wonderfully effective.

Awake, my soul! World premiere of my new anthem at Triptych Singers' 50th anniversary concert

The Triptych Singers are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, and the choir, conductor Jim Jellie is giving a celebratory concert at St Mildred's Church, Croydon CR0 7ED on 4 November 2023.  

The concert will include the premiere of my anthem, Awake, my soul. The anthem is a celebratory piece, setting words from Psalms 57 and 98, and it was commissioned in celebration of the choir's 50th anniversary.

The concert also includes music by the contemporary composer Jamie Milford, along with Palestrina, Byrd, and Victoria. Admission is free and there is a retiring collection in aid of St Mildred's Organ Fund.

Full details from St Mildred's website.

JW3 celebrates its 10th anniversary with its first classical concert series

Founded in 2013, JW3, the Jewish Community Centre London, is celebrating its 10th anniversary as the only such public venue for Jewish arts, culture, learning and community of its kind in the country. The Classical Series, the venue's first classical concerts season has just been announced, curated by David Waterman (former cellist with the Endellion String Quartet) and taking place in JW3's 220-seater Howard Hall.

Things kick off on 15 November with the Jerusalem Quartet in Mozart, Mendelssohn and Beethoven, then tenor Mark Padmore and pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen perform Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann's Dichterliebe including the extra four songs that Schumann removed from the cycle (12 December 2023).

The first concert of the new year features the trio, Alasdair Beatson (piano), Sini Simonen (violin), and David Waterman (cello), in Beethoven, Bloch and Brahms. Other artists performing include cellist Steven Isserlis in Bach's Cello Suites, with readings from Janet Suzman, the Castalian Quartet with cellist David Waterman, and the series ends with pianist Angela Hewitt in Bach's Goldberg Variations.

In NW3, near Finchley Road tube station, JW3 is well-placed to expand London's cultural offering and the 220-seater Howard Hall, where the concerts take place, seems set to be a lovely intimate venue. But I did wonder whether The Classical Series was daring enough, whether it couldn't have tried to investigate themes and composers that would fit the venue's mission as a centre for Jewish arts and culture, and explore musical ideas that are often absent from the concert world.

Full details from the JW3 website.

London Oriana Choir celebrates 50 years of music making

London Oriana Choir and Dominic Peckham

London Oriana Choir, music director Dominic Peckham, is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a season packed with goodies. The choir's first ever rehearsal was on 14 November 1973; it was founded by Leon Lovett, starting life as an evening class under the auspices of the Inner London Education Authority. David Drummond took over as musical director in 1997 and will be returning to conduct the choir as part of the gala concert in March 2024. The current MD, Dominic Ellis-Peckham, joined in 2013.

The season launches with Choral Icons at St Paul's Covent Garden on 4 November 2023, a concert in aid of Music for Dementia featuring works by Benjamin Britten, Cecilia McDowall, Sir John Tavener, Sir James MacMillan, Eriks Esenvalds, Felix Mendelssohn, Dobrinka Tabakova and more. 

Cecilia McDowall, the choir's patron, has written a new commission for them, whilst singer-songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman will be making a special appearance at the gala concert in March, recreating part of a seminal 2006 performance with the choir. The Gesualdo Six will be joining with the choir to perform Eric Whitacre’s seminal multi-choir work, The Stolen Child, at Union Chapel in July.

Full details from the choir's website.

A lovely artist portrait: Dobrinka Tabakova's orchestral works featured on a new disc from the Hallé & Delyana Lazarova

Dobrinka Tabakova: Orpheus’ Comet, Concerto for Viola and Strings, Earth Suite, Concerto for Cello and Strings; Maxim Rysanov, Guy Johnston, Hallé, Delyana Lazarova; Hallé

Two large-scale orchestral works alongside more intimate concertos for soloist and strings on this lovely artist portrait disc from the Hallé

This new album on the Hallé's own label represents the culmination of two Hallé collaborations, with Delyana Lazarova (Hallé Assistant Conductor 2020-23) and composer Dobrinka Tabakova (Hallé Artist in Residence 2022-23). Both were both born in the historic city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria and worked together for the first time during their time with the orchestra. The disc features two of Tabakova's major orchestral works, Orpheus' Comet and Earth Suite, along with two concertos for soloist and strings, the Concerto for Viola and Strings with soloist Ukrainian-British viola player Maxim Rysanov who premiered the work in 2004, and the Concerto for Cello and Strings with cellist Guy Johnston.

London Philharmonic Orchestra: Conducting Fellowship returns, & Under 30s scheme launched

The London Philharmonic Orchestra with principal conductor Edward Gardner (Photo Mark Allan)

The London Philharmonic Orchestra's Conducting Fellowship is open for applications for a new season, whilst the orchestra has launched its LPO Under 30s scheme offering seats for less for those under 30.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has opened applications for its Conducting Fellowship 2024/25. Now in its second year, the fellowship has been specifically created to promote diversity and inclusivity in the classical music industry by developing two outstanding early-career conductors from backgrounds currently under-represented in the profession. 

The inaugural Fellow Conductors, Luis Castillo-Briceño and Charlotte Politi, were selected from around 200 applications from around the world, and are working with the Orchestra during its 2023/24 season. The two successful new applicants will be Fellow Conductors for the 2024/25 season and be guided by the LPO’s Principal Conductor, Edward Gardner. They will become fully immersed in the life of the LPO, working intensively with the Orchestra over a period of 6–8 non-consecutive weeks.

Further information from the LPO's website.

The orchestra also recently launched LPO Under 30s which offers anyone aged 30 and under the chance to experience the magic of live orchestral music from some of the best seats in the house for less. Offers will vary each month but participants will never pay more than £20 per ticket and there is no booking fee for LPO Under 30s. There will also be drinks offers at selected concerts, and behind the scenes peeks, plus a free LPO tote bag when you book your first ticket.

Further information from the LPO's website

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's Music and Health Programme celebrates and its Emerging Musicians Fellowship returns

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is now accepting applications for its 2024/25 Emerging Musicians Fellowship, whilst the orchestra's Music and Health Programme has just celebrated its 15th anniversary 

 The fellowship is a paid development opportunity for emerging orchestral musicians, offering early-career orchestral musicians an immersive experience of professional orchestral life, on and off the concert platform. It has been designed to attract the widest talent pool possible and there is no upper age limit for applicants. 

This opportunity will culminate in a final wrap week including an exit audition, an intimate chamber performance programmed and performed alongside other Fellowship Musicians, and sessions around ongoing musical and professional development. The wrap week is also an opportunity to welcome the next cohort of Fellowship Musician to the programme and grow the Alumni network.

There are four places available for the 2024/25 Fellowship. Applications are welcome from the following instruments: 

• Strings: Violin, Viola
•  Woodwind: Flute, Piccolo with Flute, Bassoon, Contrabassoon with Bassoon 
•  Brass: Trumpet, French Horn, Percussion & Timpani

Full details from the orchestra's website.

The orchestra is also celebrating 15 years of its Music and Health Programme. The programme is now the longest-running and largest of its kind. It is an initiative that harnesses the power of music to promote well-being and improve the mental and physical health of participants. 

Working across 27 wards in 4 partner NHS trusts the programme has:

• Supported 18,000 patients and participants living with mental and physical ill-health across the Liverpool City Region
•  Conducted 15,000 hours of music-making
•  Presented sessions in 50 health, social care and community settings
•  Hosted 35 participant-led celebration events at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

The 15th anniversary celebrations will see current and past participants from across the programme take part in special performances both on the stage and in hospital wards.

Further information from the orchestra's website.

First Person: Sholto Kynoch, artistic director of Oxford International Song Festival

Sholto Kynoch

As the Oxford International Song Festival (formerly the Oxford Lieder Festival) opens tomorrow, artistic director and founder Sholto Kynoch reflects on 22 years of festival making.

It might be the first time it’s been the Oxford International Song Festival, as we change from Oxford Lieder, but for the 22nd time in my life, I am sat at home waiting for the Festival to begin tomorrow. I reflect that, as of this year, I’ve now been doing this for more than half my life! Some things have changed significantly since the early days, when a group of student friends started a little festival. Some things remain very much the same.

Tonight is what I might call uncomfortably calm. I know that the brilliant Festival team have everything under control, I’m more or less on top of my own preparations, and there’s really nothing more to be done. And yet it’s hard to relax, even with takeaway fish and chips and a glass of wine. There’s always that feeling that I’ve surely missed something, coupled with a childlike excitement that will probably keep me awake all night. My requisite three annual anxiety dreams are long done and dusted: it’s all real now.

That sense of anticipation has been a consistent eve-of-Festival feature over the years. Though there are plenty of demanding and stressful elements to running an event like this, this is my favourite time of the year. When else do I get to perform what I want, with who I want, where I want? When else do I get to immerse myself in other people’s wonderful music-making multiple times every day for sixteen days? And when else do so many friends, both musicians and attendees, fly in from all over the world – or just pop round the corner – for this celebratory fortnight of song?

There are some things I don’t have to worry about anymore. Twenty years ago, I’d have been up half the night formatting, printing and folding programmes. I’d have been fielding questions from artists who’d not been given any advance information on their rehearsals, and probably making up last-minute posters and the like. Friends would help out, but we were learning on the job. Today, we have an exceptional team, led by our brilliant Director of Administration Taya Smith, who make everything run like clockwork. So at least I won’t be worrying about those things.

The Festival programme is very personal, something I’ve spent at least a year thinking about in detail, and longer than that planning in concept. Unveiling it – earlier in the year – is always a tense moment (will people like it?) but now I’ll be worrying all night how people will actually experience it. Feedback this year has been great, but I don’t believe it until I see it. There’s no point doing this if people aren’t enjoying it, and something I’ve learnt over the years is also what a profound experience the Festival, at its best, can be for people. It’s not the happy-go-lucky approach of those early years: it’s much more important, and the pressure has grown proportionally.

We may have ‘professionalised’, but the essence of the Festival is the same. Whenever I’m not playing, I like to be standing at the door greeting everyone personally. The atmosphere is welcoming, fun and informal. We’ve seen many friendships made (and the Festival has even been an unwitting matchmaker on more than one occasion!) and it’s always wonderful seeing the mix of new and familiar faces arriving for concerts.

So, I think I won’t sleep well tonight, but I will wake up tomorrow bursting with energy and eager for the day ahead. With any luck, enough energy to see me through sixteen days and then I can collapse. It’s a fortnight like no other, and I can’t wait.

The Oxford International Song Festival ART:SONG Images / Words / Music’ runs from 13 to 28 October in venues across Oxford. More information from the Festival website. 

One of the 2022 Voices of Black Opera, Thando Mjandana, premieres a Daniel Kidane work with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

South African tenor Thando Mjandana won the Samuel Coleridge Taylor Award at the Voice of Black Opera competition in Birmingham in 2022 [see my article] and there is a chance to hear Mjandana in action back in Birmingham later this month when he joins Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) and conductor Vimbayi Kaziboni for the world premiere of Daniel Kidane's Cradle Song (setting text by Blake) on 18 October 2023 at The Elgar Concert Hall, University of Birmingham, and the programme is repeated in Bristol on 29 October.

Entitled Songs at Day, Songs at Night, the concert also features soprano Mimi Doulton, and features Daniel Kidane's Primitive Blaze, the UK premiere of Julian Anderson's Mitternachtslied (setting texts by Nietsche and Longfellow), the world premiere of Anderson's Thus, and music by Harrison Birtwistle.

Kidane's Cradle Song is one of BCMG's Sound Investment scheme commissions, as was Harrison Birtwistle's 2018 work, … when falling asleep which is included in the programme.

Full details from BCMG's website.

Lili Elbe: Tobias Picker's new opera based on the life of the painter who had the first gender confirmation surgery in the 1930s

Lili Elbe by Gerda Wegener

The premiere of  American composer Tobias Picker's new opera, Lili Elbe will open at Theater St. Gallen in Switzerland on 22 October 2023, reopening the newly renovated art-brut style Konzert und Theater St. Gallen building. 

With a libretto by Aryeh Lev Stollman (Picker's husband), the opera tells the story of the painter Lili Elbe (1882-1931), who had the first gender confirmation surgery in the 1930s and features transgender baritone Lucia Lucas in the title role. The performances are conducted by Modestas Pitrénas, chief conductor and artistic director of the Theater St. Gallen, and directed by Krystian Lada, with choreography by Frank Fannar Pedersen. 

Unlike the 2015 film The Danish Girl, the opera is not based on the novel, but on historical sources, including Lili Elbe's own writings. Lili Elbe is the story of a love overcoming all obstacles. The opera allows a glimpse into the life of Lili Elbe and her wife Gerda Wegener, both famous painters. The opera explores Lili’s coming out and transition at a time when gender confirmation surgery was still completely uncharted territory.

Lili Elbe is Tobias Picker's seventh opera and his second to a libretto by Aryeh Lev Stollman; the two wrote Awakening, Picker's 2022 opera based on Oliver Sacks book. Picker's operas have varied between is 1998 work, The Fantastic Mr Fox based on the Roald Dahl story, to An American Tragedy based on the novel by Theodor Dreiser and premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 2005, to Dolores Clairborn based on the Stephen King's novel and premiered at San Francisco Opera in 2013.

Full details from Theater St Gallen

English song and a pizza! Kitty Whately and William Vann at Pizza Express Live at The Pheasantry in Chelsea

Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Ireland, Herbert Howells, Rebecca Clarke, Elizabeth Maconchy, Grace Williams, Madeleine Dring; Kitty Whately, William Vann; Pizza Express Live at The Pheasantry, Chelsea

A wonderfully immersive experience, 20th English song in superb performances in the intimate confines of Pizza Express' Chelsea cabaret venue

Pianist William Vann has curated another Classical Song Series for Pizza Express Live at The Pheasantry in Chelsea. Taking place in the cabaret venue in the basement of The Pheasantry, the concerts have a relaxed feel with the audience able to eat and drink, and the results are slightly surprising for a classical concert. On Tuesday 10 October 2023, William Vann was joined by mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately for an evening of English song with music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Ireland, Herbert Howells, Rebecca Clarke, Elizabeth Maconchy, Grace Williams and Madeleine Dring.

The Pheasantry's basement venue is an intimate one, yet with a pleasing acoustic for live performance. The results are remarkably immersive, the effect of hearing John Ireland's gloriously rhapsodic Earth's Call (setting a significant John Masefield poem) was wonderfully all-enveloping when sitting only a few feet from singer and piano. Kitty Whately's fine diction meant that we never needed the printed words, and her manner of creating a song as a sung story often meant it felt as if she was telling the story directly to us.