News

9 Mar 2020

Sadie Harrison is Composer-in-Residence for SOUNDSTORM Composition Project 2020

Here at UYMP, we are delighted that Sadie Harrison has been appointed as this year’s Composer-in-Residence for the Schools Compose Quartets Project 2020 with SOUNDSTORM and the Asana String Quartet (drawn from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra). SoundStorm is the award winning Music Education Development Agency for the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole conurbation, in South West England. Sadie will be working alongside students from Leaf Studio and The Bishop of Winchester Academy, composing quartets to be performed in July 2020.
3 Mar 2020

Hughes' new Metier CD - 'Time, Space & Change'

Ed Hughes’s new CD Time, Space & Change will be released on Metier on 13 March 2020. The CD will be launched at a special event in Lewes on Saturday 7 March featuring a 30' showing of Cesca Eaton’s beautiful film ‘Cuckmere: A Portrait' with Ed’s evocative score recorded live by the Orchestra of Sound and Light at the Brighton Festival 2018, followed by a Q&A with Ed Hughes, film maker Cesca Eaton, the President of the Sussex Wildlife Trust and the Chief Executive of the South Downs National Park, chaired by writer and musician Eleanor Knight.

Tickets are available from Trybooking: https://www.trybooking.co.uk/POF .
27 Feb 2020

Release of UYMP’s New Choral Volume – ‘Anthems for Sopranos, Altos and Unison Male Singers: 10 anthems for the church year’

Here at UYMP, we are exceedingly pleased to announce the release of our new volume of choral works for sopranos, altos and unison male singers which has been published by The Royal School of Church Music (RSCM).
24 Feb 2020

GEMINI COMMISSION FOR SADIE HARRISON PREMIERES AT LATE MUSIC YORK

Ian Mitchell (clarinet/clapsticks), Caroline Balding (viola/clapsticks) and members of Gemini (reciters/percussion) will give the premiere of Fire in Song by Sadie Harrison on 2 May 2020 as part of the Late Music York Series, at the Unitarian Chapel, York. Fire in Song tells the creation story about fire for the Yolngu group of Aboriginal Australians who live primarily in north-east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. The work was written during the catastrophic bush fires that swept much of Australia in 2019-2020. It reflects on the Aboriginal approach to the fires, one that remained largely ignored in news coverage at the time.
18 Feb 2020

Viner wins the STR Music Composition Prize at York with new work 'The Annunciation'

UYMP is delighted that Frederick Viner has won the University of York Music Department's STR Music Composition Prize, with his new piece The Annunciation for SATB divisi. The prize is sponsored by Sean Rourke. The Annunciation, the only work to be announced in an otherwise 'mystery' concert programme, was premiered by The 24, directed by Robert Hollingworth, in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall on February 19th 2020, at 7.30pm. Besides Viner's premiere, the carefully-planned programme spanned some fascinating works from the 16th to the 20th centuries. More details at York Concerts. Many congratulations to Fred!
14 Feb 2020

Tinoco's 'Frisland' on Radio France

Luis Tinoco's Frisland, for symphony orchestra, inspired by the music of Bill Frisell, is included in the 'En Pistes, contemporains' programme this Sunday, on Radio France. The programme also features and pays tribute to violist Christophe Desjardins. To listen: https://www.francemusique.fr/emissions/en-pistes-contemporains/hommage-a-l-altiste-christophe-desjardins-musicien-manifeste-de-la-creation-musicale-contemporaine-80698 .
11 Feb 2020

‘It’s a very beautiful disc!’ - Tinoco’s ‘Archipelago’ Odradek CD applauded by Radio France

Luis Tinoco’s new CD ‘Archipelago’ on Odradek ODRCD398 has been recommended highly by Radio France’s ‘France Musique’ ‘En Pistes, contemporains’ (Sunday 2nd February, 2020). Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier called it ‘a very good disc produced by the beautiful Odradek’ and said that Luis Tinoco’s music contrasts with some other percussion music written in the 20th/21st centuries - which is often a very easy repertoire and may try to create an impression (which sometimes hides a lack of inspiration). The presenter says ‘But it is not the case with Luis Tinoco, who has not forgotten the melodies at the heart of his universe’.
16 Jan 2020

BBC Music gives excellent review of Paredes’ Zuhuy Kak recording by de Saram

Hilda Paredes’ work for solo cello Zuhuy Kak, performed by the legendary Rohan de Saram has been released on 15th November 2019 on the CD 20th Century British Works for Solo Cello on First Hand Records (FHR045). The CD has received an excellent review by BBC Music Magazine (November 2019). Helen Wallace writes: 'Saram, former cellist of the Arditti Quartet and a tireless adventurer in new music, marks his 80th birthday with a very personal collection, almost a musical ‘This is Your Life’. Each of the works was written for him by composer friends and colleagues over his six-decade-long career.
16 Jan 2020

Ed Hughes’ ‘Sun, New Moon and Women Shouting’ Upcoming Performance

UYMP is very excited to announce that Ed Hughes’ work for choral a cappella vocal ensemble SSC-tTBarB, Sun, New Moon and Women Shouting will be performed by I Fagiolini at Kings Palace in London (25th April, 2020).

Tickets for the concert ‘Au Naturel: Nature Unwrapped’, featuring Hughes’ work, can be purchased here and I Fagiolini have also very graciously given permission for their recording of Sun, New Moon and Women Shouting to be featured on Hughes’ website.
15 Jan 2020

Tinoco's 'Archipelago' receives fantastic reviews

Luís Tinoco’s new CD on Odradek has received two great reviews, in Memetaria in the USA by Thomas May and in Pizzicato by Remy Franck. Archipelago is reviewed as a recommended new release by May. He starts by saying: 'Have you heard the wonderful music of Luís Tinoco? I invite you to try out the latest album of his work, Archipelago, recently released on the Odradek label. I first encountered this excellent Portuguese composer and acclaimed radio host — who grew up in the post-revolution generation — in the early Morlot days with Seattle Symphony, when they played FrisLand, a kind of orchestral ode to Bill Frisell. (FrisLand is available, along with such works as Tinoco’s Cello Concerto, on his previous Odradek album, The Blue Voice of the Water).'
10 Jan 2020

BBC R3’s Record Review selects Tinoco’s ‘Archipelago’ CD for ‘New Year, New Music’

Luis Tinoco’s vibrant new CD Archipelago, released in November on Odradek, featured on BBC Radio 3’s Record Review with Andrew McGregor as part of its ‘New Year, New Music’ season last Saturday, 4th January, with compliments to everyone involved in the creation of the music and album. McGregor gives the CD a top rating: ‘It’s one of the best-recorded percussion ensembles I’ve heard in ages’. McGregor conveys the skill of the composer, the virtuousity of the performers and the expertise of the sound engineers when he says that Tinoco’s music is ‘showcased' in this new album by contemporary percussion ensemble Drumming GP’ and goes on to say: ‘Tinoco's music for them is interesting enough in its own right; you get Mind the Gap for solo marimba, his memories of travelling in London, as well as Genetically Modified Fados, reactions to old recordings of Portuguese (Fado) songs. But the recording itself is demonstration class; so vivid, airy and resonant. The album's called Archipelago; it's new from the Odradek label.’
9 Jan 2020

Fabulous review in Fanfare for Simaku’s new Naxos ‘Solos and Duos’ CD

Fanfare Magazine (USA) has given a glowing review of Thomas Simaku’s new CD on Naxos – Solos and Duos for violin and piano (Naxos 8.579035) in its Issue 43:3 (January/February 2020). The reviewer, James H. North, begins by saying that it really is difficult to compare Thomas Simaku’s music to anything one has heard: ‘His music is so original that past experience fails. How can one describe his music? Simaku seems to create his own structure as he goes—the music reeks of impetuosity, as if he were dashing off the notes sequentially.’ North cites Scheuregger (Tempo 73 (290) pp. 40–50), Simaku’s former student, and Simaku himself, on Simaku’s upbringing under the repressive Stalinist regime in Albania, on international Modernist and Southern Albanian influences and on Simaku’s love of Hungarian composers Ligeti and Kurtág.