University of York Music Press

The winning piece was chosen by internationally-renowned soloist, Peter Sheppard Skaerved, and was premiered during Skaerved’s solo recital at the National Centre for Early Music on 9th June 2015.

Works by UYMP’s Sadie Harrison and Thomas Simaku were also performed during Skaerved’s recital.

The title of Lancaster’s work is borrowed from a particular process in film production: the ‘rough cut’, which is the second stage of editing that follows the initial assembly of scenes but which takes place before the ‘final cut’ is produced.

Lancaster writes:

“In making the rough cut the editor will move blocks around into different arrangements to find the best sequence and will experiment with timings and durations of scenes to find suitable proportions... This process closely mirrors my approach to building musical structures during composition.”

Lancaster started his career playing the trumpet and went on to study music at the universities of York and Cambridge, where he began to focus on composition.

He is Head of Department for Music, Media and Performance at York St John University and is currently completing a dramatic work for solo soprano and large ensemble with film, as well as a new piece for piano solo.

The other composers shortlisted for the CMRC’s call for works were: John Cummins, E. Ekmektsoglou, Will Hunt, Joel Jarventausta, Neil Tòmas Smith, and Jake Steeper.