News

17 Oct 2019

New Trailer for Hilda Paredes' Codice de Adivinanzas

Here at UYMP, we’ve been very excited to receive the new teaser trailer for Hilda Paredes’ Codice de Adivinanzas.
9 Oct 2019

Simaku ‘Solos and Duos’ Naxos CD earns fabulous review from MusicWeb-International

Thomas Simaku has received a wonderful review from MusicWeb-International of his new Naxos CD Solos and Duos for violin and piano (Naxos 8.57903). The detailed and interesting review traces some of the history of Simaku’s writing and his style, or ‘styles’ of composition, the many techniques he employs, whilst ‘ever-mindful of the folk music legacy from his homeland’. Philip R Buttall writes of the CD ‘..... it would be fair to say that all the pieces, recorded here for the first time, exemplify the heterogeneous stylistic elements cited by Simaku to varying degrees, depending on the resources used.’
9 Oct 2019

Sadie Harrison appointed as Resident Composer for the Churchill Music Composition Project with the Asana String Quartet (Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra)

https://www.churchillmusic.org.uk

We are delighted that Sadie has been appointed as this year’s Composer-in-Residence with Churchill Music for their 2019 Composition Project. Through close links with local schools and St George’s Bristol, Churchill Music has developed an extensive and varied programme of youth and community work. The charity’s Patron Peter Donohoe CBE, writes:
1 Oct 2019

York Composer Wins Coveted American Fellowship

Professor of Composition at York University, Thomas Simaku was awarded a coveted fellowship from The Brown Foundation in Houston, USA, for a residency at the Dora Maar House in France.

The Brown Foundation Fellows Programme, based at the Dora Maar House in Ménerbes, France, provides residencies for mid-career professionals in the arts and humanities to concentrate on their fields of expertise.
18 Sep 2019

Sadie Harrison leads Composer Residential with K’antu and South West Music School

We are so pleased that Sadie will be working alongside Ruth Hopkins and the fabulous K’antu Ensemble at the October Composer Residential (11th-13th) run by the South West Music School. During the weekend course the students will be writing new works inspired by early music, folk and world musics, with taught sessions on medieval to contemporary notation and performance issues. Sadie will be presenting several of her own works which draw on similar sources.
16 Sep 2019

Martin Scheuregger’s article ‘The Music of Thomas Simaku’ published in TEMPO

UYMP are exceedingly proud to announce that Martin Scheuregger’s article, ‘The Music of Thomas Simaku’, has been published within Cambridge University Press’ quarterly review of new music, TEMPO.
4 Sep 2019

Blake's 'Scoring a Century' London triumph

Photo credit: Robert Workman

British Youth Opera gave a dazzling London premiere of David Blake’s (composer) and Keith Warner’s (librettist) millennial opera ‘Scoring a Century’ on Saturday night, at the Peacock Theatre, Holburn. Previously performed only by Birmingham Conservatoire, in 2010, both the libretto and the score had been revised for the current production. Blake’s deft scoring leads Mr and Mrs Jedermann (Everyman) unwittingly through Warner’s entertaining snapshots of life in various countries in the ever-changing 20th century, in an expert pastiche of musical styles.
4 Sep 2019

Thomas Simaku Broadcast on National Radio in Finland

Following the success at the 2019 International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) – World Music Days , Thomas Simaku’s most recent work, La Leggiadra Luna for mixed choir a cappella, has been broadcast by four European radio stations. The latest programme was on National Radio of Finland on 3rd September – the programme is available for 30 days at the following link: https://areena.yle.fi/1-50234960
21 Aug 2019

Launch of Northern Composers' Co-operative

Photo credit: Lynette Quek

Thanks to the support of the Mayfield Trust, in June UYMP hosted a meeting of 20 composers who are based in the Yorkshire region. Peter Wiegold was an inspiring facilitator and the meeting generated lots of ideas for dealing with the isolation composers can experience once they leave formal education. The composers present decided to form a Co-operative and UYMP is proud to have initiated it and be supporting it.
19 Aug 2019

Thomas Simaku CD Release

Thomas Simaku’s new CD, Solos and Duos for violin and piano has been released worldwide on Naxos 21st Century Classics Series.
9 Jul 2019

Launch of Stef Conner's album 'Riddle Songs'

UYMP is delighted to announce that Associate Composer Stef Conner is embarking on a project to create a new CD in Old English. Stef writes that her album will be a combination of 'beautiful new music with very old words, for voices and lyre; a medieval-meets-modern choral concept album'. To read more about the CD and to support Stef's fund raising campaign, please go to: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stefconner/riddle-songs-an-album-by-stef-conner?ref=b3i7et&token=39fe9e26
4 Jul 2019

World premiere of Robert Saxton's 'Suite'

Madeleine Mitchell and Clare Hammond will premiere Robert Saxton's new work for violin and piano, Suite at 3 Choirs, 28 July 2019.