Date: March 24, 2017
Categories: Experimental, New Work
Tags: alex vann, folk and minamalist crossover, mandolin, paul bradley, pete judge, three cane whale

24th March 20177, The Foundling Museum London at 7.00pm

Multi-instrumental trio Three Cane Whale perform an intimate acoustic gig for Folk at the Foundling. Hailing from Bristol, Three Cane Whale brings together mandolinist Alex Vann (Spiro), trumpeter Pete Judge (Get the Blessing) and acoustic guitarist Paul Bradley (Scottish Dance Theatre). Influenced by both folk and minimalist music, they perform intricate works with a cinematic sweep and intimate delicacy.

Their eponymous debut album was chosen by Cerys Matthews as one of her top five modern folk albums, followed by Holts And Hovers, awarded Roots Editor’s Choice Album of 2013. Their latest album Palimpsest was chosen by The Telegraph as one of the best folk music albums of 2016. Recent projects include a live recording from The Old Barn on Kelston Roundhill in Somerset, for new independent label Kelston Records, and the soundtrack to the independent feature Brown Willy (2016), filmed on location in Cornwall.

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Date: August 17, 2017
Categories: Concerts, Experimental, Festivals, New Work

Thursday 17th August, BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London, 10.15pm

Bang on a Can late night Prom

Bang on a Can represents all that is most gleefully non-conformist and boundary-breaking in new music. Celebrating its 30th birthday this year, this pioneering American artistic collective and its three composer-directors, Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe, bring their signature energy to this Late Night Prom, together with their six-piece amplified ensemble.

The All-Stars perform classic works by Wolfe, Lang and Louis Andriessen alongside an 80th-birthday tribute to Philip Glass and a world premiere by Michael Gordon, performed by the Proms Youth Ensemble. Expect propulsive rhythms and plenty of big grooves.

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Date: October 12, 2017
Categories: Concerts, Experimental, New Work, Women musicians
Tags: ecco, european contemporary composers orchestra, vienna

12 October 2017 at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, Austria

The European Contemporary Composers Orchestra (ECCO)

ECCO is a project of the ECF committee of ECSA. It aims to establish itself as a pan-European “body of sound” dedicated to the performance, circulation and promotion of contemporary art music. In practice, it is a network of active ensembles, orchestras and young professionals, supporting creative dialogue among composers and performers and offering young professionals the opportunity to develop their skills with ensembles experienced in contemporary performing practices on an international level. By its educational dimension, ECCO serves as a pro-active development and networking arena for professional composers and performers, especially young and emerging ones.

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The next ECCO concert will take place in Vienna on 12 October 2017 at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. The concert will be performed by Wiener Concert-Verein and feature the following string orchestra pieces:

Fenster – Gerald Resch (Austria)

Lacrimae – Krešimir Seletković (Croatia)

Respectus – Rene Eespere (Estonia)

Brittle Fluid – Tyler Futrell (Norway)

Sinfonietta- The Night of Fireworks – Aleksandra Chmielewska (Poland)

Per Archi – Lojze Lebič (Slovenia)

Plainsongs for Strings – Jennifer Fowler (UK)

Previous editions of ECCO have featured the Chamber Orchestra of Soloists (KOS) of the Society of Slovene Composers (Vienna 2011), the Silesian Philharmony (Vienna 2013), the Sturm und Klang ensemble (Brussels 2015, 2016 and 2017), the BBC Singers (London 2015), the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra (Ljubljana 2016) and the Big Band of RTV Slovenia. Among the conductors who have contributed to the ECCO concerts are Thomas Van Haeperen, Jessica Cottis, Sigi Feigl, James Morgan, Jürgen Bruns and Chunghi Min.

Date: October 26, 2017
Categories: Concerts, Experimental, New Work, Women musicians
Tags: Anna Clyne, Molly Joyce, Penelope, psappha

Thursday 26 October 2017, 19:30
Hallé St Peter’s, 40 Blossom Street, Ancoats Manchester M4 6BF

Molly Joyce – Rave (UK première)

Anna Clyne – Steelworks

Sarah Kirkland Snider – Penelope*

Richard Balcombe – conductor*
Jessica Walker – vocalist*
Psappha Ensemble

Three striking works from brilliant US-based composers.

A woman’s husband appears at her door after an absence of twenty years. A veteran of an unnamed war, he doesn’t know who he is and she doesn’t know who he’s become. While they wait together for his return to himself, she reads him the Odyssey, and in the journey of that book she finds a way into his memory and the terror and trauma of war. Suspended somewhere between art song, indie rock, and chamber folk, the music of Penelope moves from moments of elegiac reflection to dusky post-rock textures in a meditation on memory, identity, and what it means to come home.

Rave gives the impression of impossible virtuosity, transforming the piano into a multi-dimensional piano/organ hybrid. Giving a fascinating glimpse into a disappearing world, the music of Steelworks interacts with film and with recorded interviews of employees at the last steelworks factory in Brooklyn.

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Date: November 12, 2017
Categories: Experimental, Masterclasses, New Work, Youth

Sunday 12th November 2017, 10.00am to 6.00pm, CBSO Centre

Creative Composing Lab is specially designed to allow young people the opportunity to compose music with and for professional musicians, guided by the expert knowledge of composer/workshop leader David Horne.

The Autumn workshop will focus on the nature and character of individual instruments. Focussing on a selection of instruments, we will explore how to compose idiomatically for the performers (i.e. in a way that works well for a particular instrument and exploits it’s unique character). As composers, we can chose whether or not to compose music that is easy or hard to play – but it is important that we know the difference, and we will discover this in the workshop!

If you love creating music or you need ideas for your GCSE, BTEC or A-level composition, Creative Composing Lab is for you.

Participants need some notation skills. Family and friends are welcome to the free performance of all music created at 5pm.

Places are free, but need to be booked in advance. A suggested donation of £12 per participant will ensure we can continue our workshop programme.

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Date: November 14, 2017
Categories: Broadcasts, Concerts, Experimental, Festivals, New Work
Tags: New Music Northwest Festival

New Music Northwest Festival

Tuesday 14th November 2017 at 7.30pm, The Studios MediaCityUK

Programme

David Horne Resonating Instruments
Tom Coult Two Games and a Nocturne
–
Psappha Ensemble
–
Laura Bowler 3811 Nautical Miles
Larry Goves New Work (world première)
Mario Duarte Metztli
Grace-Evangeline Mason Kintsukouroi
–
BBC Philharmonic
Mark Heron conductor
Overview

Resonating Instruments is rhapsodic and volatile, entwining the ensemble around a solo cimbalom. “An absorbing work” – The Times.

Two Games and a Nocturne alternates skittish piano solos with bluesy jamboree in a work that, in Coult’s own words, “does what it says on the tin” with its two playful games followed by a gently swaying night-time reverie.

In this joint concert with the BBC Philharmonic we give well-deserved second performances of two of Psappha 25th anniversary commissions.

Psappha has now allocated all tickets for this event. If you would still like to come to the performance you can apply for tickets through BBC Audiences. Applications for tickets opens on 30 October and close on 5 November. For more information please click HERE.

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Date: January 26, 2018
Categories: Concerts, Experimental, Family, Festivals, New Work, Youth
Tags: bristol ensemble, comedy festival bristol

Friday 26th January at 7.30pm, Colston Hall, Bristol

Bristol’s stand-out annual comedy celebration returns for a fourteenth edition at Colston Hall – a unique celebration of the best onscreen classic silent comedy, live music and guest appearances by living legends of British comedy.

The host for this year’s gala show is soon to be announced and the film programme is an incredible triple-bill of laugh-out-loud comedy classics all accompanied by world class live musical accompaniment.

Buster Keaton’s best loved and most innovative film Sherlock Jr (1924) joins Charlie Chaplin’s A Dog’s Life (1918) to headline the show with live music.

Sherlock Jr is accompanied by the world premiere of a new, semi-improvised score composed by Guenter A. Buchwald and performed by the renowned European Silent Screen Virtuosi and members of Bristol Ensemble. A Dog’s Life features Chaplin’s own composition for the film and will be performed by a 15-piece Bristol Ensemble conducted by maestro Guenter A. Buchwald.

Plus: Laurel & Hardy’s hilarious comedy short Angora Love (1929) and live performance from innovative, award-winning visual comedy performers The Kagools and with our exciting guest host this looks like being our finest and funniest Gala event to date!

£10.50 to £60.00 incl. booking fee

Gold Premium Ticket Package:
£60.00* (limited to 50)
Access to exclusive post-show VIP after show experience with complimentary drink
Gala merchandise souvenir
Commemorative VIP lanyard (for access to post-show drinks)
One premium ticket located in the stalls
Exclusive limited souvenir event poster (not for sale)
Souvenir mini-programme
*Including all booking fees

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Date: February 15, 2018
Categories: Concerts, Experimental, New Work, Women musicians
Tags: Anna Clyne, charlotte bray, lucy armstrong, psappha

Thursday 15th February 2018 at 7.30pm, St. Michael’s, Ancoats, Manchester

Programme

Charlotte Bray Caught in the Treetops*
Anna Clyne Paintbox
Robert Reid Allan The Palace of Light
Lucy Armstrong Space Adventure
Michael Cryne In Cloud Light
Will Frampton The Greening Variations
Bethan Morgan-Williams In Kenopsia
James Williamson Fault-Klang

Benedict Holland Violin*
Psappha Ensemble
Overview

The life-changing effects of the atomic bomb are explored in Anna Clyne’s immersive soundscape which combines recorded voice, breathing and other sound loops with a sonorous cello line.

Bound together by a sense of mystery and a relentless energy Charlotte Bray’s work for solo violin and ensemble responds to two contrasting lunar poems. The concert also showcases the next generation of talent with our pick of the best works from Psappha’s emerging composer schemes.

Psappha: Demystifying New Music
Pre-concert talk – 6.40pm – free to ticket holders
Learn more before you see it played. Come early, get a drink and settle into your seats for a special talk that will introduce you to the composers and the inspiration behind the music being performed tonight.

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Date: February 18, 2018
Categories: Concerts, Experimental, Family, New Work
Tags: bach, kings place, orchestra of the age of enlightenment

Sunday 18th February at Kings Place, London, 11.30am

Steven Devine director
Ciara Hendrick alto
James Way tenor
James Newby baritone
Professor Kishan Dholakia guest scientist

Seeing Life in a New Light

Marvel at our extraordinary universe and the music of Bach with our new Sunday morning series for inquiring and curious minds, with divine music, lively conversation and stimulating science.

For this morning’s session we’re joined by Professor Kishan Dholakia from the University of St Andrew’s enticingly-named Optical Manipulation Group. A world-expert in the physics of light, he’s fascinated by how the science of photonics can use imaging to help unravel the mysteries of the brain.

Alongside Professor Dholakia’s talk, we’ll be performing one of Bach’s most varied cantatas, BWV 83. Mixing joyful arias with funereal sounds, it’s a rollercoaster journey celebrating the glories of life as well as the sadness of death.

Our very own Sunday service is a place to bond with music lovers and revel in the wonders of science. There is no better way to start a Sunday morning.

In this concert we’ll be playing Bach’s cantata Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde (Joyful time in the new covenant).

In partnership with the Institute of Physics.

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Date: April 20, 2018
Categories: Concerts, Experimental, New Work
Tags: chethams school of music, psappha, stoller hall

Friday 20 April 2018, Stoller Hall, Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester, 7.30pm

Psappha in Performance

Programme
Anna Clyne A Wonderful Day
Fausto Romitelli Amok Koma
Mike Walker Autonomy (World première)*
Steven Mackey Deal
–
Stephen Barlow Conductor
Mike Walker Electric guitar
Iain Dixon Reeds
Mike Smith Drums
Psappha Ensemble
Overview

Psappha explores the connections between jazz, rock and classical. The centerpiece is a new work by the renowned jazz guitarist and composer Mike Walker. Psappha is joined by Mike and reeds player Iain Dixon in a piece that combines classical music with the improvisation and rhythmic drive of jazz. Mike also joins us as the soloist in Steven Mackey’s Deal, which intertwines rock and classical.

Romitelli’s palindromic work draws inspiration from German punk rock while Clyne’s A Wonderful Day features a recording of a Chicago street musician whose natrural, slow voice conveys a sense of both joy and struggle.

*Mike Walker’s new work is supported by Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts programme.

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Date: April 28, 2018
Categories: Concerts, Experimental, New Work
Tags: barbican centre, bbc singers, john adams, ross harris

Saturday 28 April 2018, Barbican, London at 7.30pm

The BBC Singers perform Ravel, Adams, Vaughan Williams and Harris (UK premiere)

Programme

Maurice Ravel
Le tombeau de Couperin
John Adams
The Wound-Dresser
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Ross Harris
Face

Allison Bell – soprano
James Way – tenor
Marcus Farnsworth – baritone
BBC Singers
Gergely Madaras – conductor
BBC Symphony Orchestra

The role of those who care for the injured provides the theme: Ralph Vaughan Williams, like Maurice Ravel, was too old to serve in the First World War but he volunteered as a stretcher bearer while the Frenchman drove munitions lorries behind the lines, putting himself in extreme danger. His Le tombeau de Couperin remembers friends killed in the First World War.

John Adams’s The Wound Dresser, for baritone and orchestra, sets words by Walt Whitman who tended the wounded in battle, while Ross Harris’s celebrates the work of fellow New Zealander, the plastic surgeon Harold Gillies who pioneered facial reconstruction and contributed to the rehabilitation of thousands of servicemen.

Face, receiving its UK premiere is a work for soloists, chorus and orchestra with projections.

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