News

21 Aug 2019

Launch of Northern Composers Co-operative

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.
10 Jun 2019

World premiere of David Lancaster’s ‘Of Trumpets and Angels’

On 29 June, 7:30, 2019, the Oxford Harmonic Choir will perform the world premiere of David Lancaster’s work for soprano soloist, chorus, and orchestra Of Trumpets and Angels at Oxford’s Town Hall.
7 Jun 2019

First review in for Sadie Harrison’s The Oldest Song in the World on Métier/Divine Art

https://divineartrecords.com/recording/jaipur-to-cairo/

www.sadieharrisoncomposer.co.uk

www.cuatropuntos.org

Sadie’s new work The Oldest Song in the World for two violas (2018) has been released on Métier/Divine Art, available from June 2019. The piece was written especially for the virtuoso violists Kevin Bishop and Steve Larson from the US ensemble Cuatro Puntos.
5 Jun 2019

SADIE HARRISON’S 'Anthem' premieres as part of In The Steps of Apollo 3D at the Bristol Planetarium

We are delighted that Sadie has been commissioned to write a new work for the Zelkova String Quartet in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. ‘Anthem’ will be premiered in a brand new specially created 3D Planetarium show In The Steps of Apollo: from the first moon landing to the Universe beyond… at We The Curious (Bristol Planetarium) on 20 July alongside new works by Julian Leeks, Litha Efthymiou, Michael Ellison and Richard Blackford.
30 May 2019

British Youth Opera to perform David Blake (music) and Keith Warner’s (libretto) musical entertainment ‘Scoring a Century’

‘Ladies and gentlemen… the couple time almost forgot… THE JEDERMANNS!’

Directed by Keith Warner, within August and September, 2019, British Youth Opera with the Southbank Sinfonia will perform David Blake’s Scoring a Century at the Peacock Theatre, Holburn, London, as part of their summer season.
28 May 2019

James Weeks: new CD release – windfell

Dr James Weeks’ major work for singing violinist, windfell, has been released on the leading British experimental music label Another Timbre. Written for and performed by Canadian violinist Mira Benjamin, windfell debuted in October/November 2017 at concerts in London and in Durham University’s Klang series. Lasting almost an hour, windfell arose from

‘an image of the violin surrounded by space and open air: on top of a hill, high-up and remote, played only by the wind. On this ‘wind fell’ the breeze moves over the instrument’s surfaces, sets the open strings in motion; leaves brush across the strings as the wind catches them. A sounding-out of the instrument, its body and materials, by the natural environment in which it rests.’
10 May 2019

UYMP launches new opportunity for early career composers

The Early Career Composers Cooperative is a free professional development opportunity for composers based in the north of England and in the early stages of their career (composers who are not in, or have recently left, education). If you are a composer meeting these criteria, this project is for you!

Composers are invited to attend the first meeting on Saturday 22nd June: a day of sharing and networking, through workshops and discussions facilitated by Peter Wiegold (Director of the Third Orchestra, Club Inégales, Institute of Composing).

The project is supported generously by The Mayfield Valley Arts Trust.
9 May 2019

Thomas Simaku at the 2019 World Music Days

Thomas Simaku’s work La Leggiadra Luna was performed at the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) – World Music Days in Tallinn on 4 May 2019. Composed for mixed choir a cappella, this work is a setting of Sappho’s poem translated from ancient Greek into modern Italian by the Nobel Prize-winning Sicilian poet Salvatore Quasimodo.

Performed by a Grammy Award-winning ensemble and broadcast live, the programme was transferred across Europe through the European Broadcasting Union.
1 May 2019

Live recording of Frederick Viner's 'Justorum Animae'

Frederick Viner's Justorum Animae received a second performance on 21st March 2019 by the Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge, conducted by Michael Bawtree. The choir performed the work at a concert titled 'Music of Our Time' arranged by the John Armitage Memorial Trust (JAM) at St Bride's Church, London. A live recording of their performance is now available to listen to online:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqdAadVLzL8