Happy Birthday to multi award-winning composer Thomas Simaku!

UYMP wishes a very Happy Birthday to multi award-winning composer Thomas Simaku! Simaku turned 60 on 18th April, with a host of compositions, large and small, under his belt, including works such as Concerto for Orchestra, the Soliloquy Cycle, five string quartets, The Scream for String Orchestra, and a lot more!

Upcoming works include a piece for chamber ensemble, which Simaku is writing especially for the prestigious ensemble Klangforum Wien and which will receive its premiere later in the year.

The celebrations of this milestone will begin with the world premiere of his a cappella La Leggiadra Luna for mixed choir, which will take place at Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall on May 30th, sung by the University of York vocal ensemble The 24, conducted by Robert Hollingworth.

http://yorkconcerts.co.uk/programme/the24-may/

Of this piece Simaku writes: “Taken from the volume ‘Lirici Greci’, Plenilunio (Full Moon) is the Italian version of the poem by the Greek poetess Sappho translated by the Nobel prize-winning Sicilian poet Salvatore Quasimodo. The music begins with a song-like expression introduced at a slow pace, as if emerging from the remoteness of time itself. It is clearly based on the musical utterance of the 'white modality', but these modal segments are constantly surrounded by chromatic inflections throughout the work.

A variety of short segments, predominantly modal, but stemming from different chromatic ‘locations’, are often superimposed. The task of filtering out this 'amorphous' texture and giving its constituent elements - be they melodic or harmonic, or a combination of both - a renewed identity, becomes an essential compositional aim, through which the process of crystallisation occurs. The main strategy of the piece is thus exploring the interrelationship between these two sound-worlds (modal and chromatic) and their temporal qualities (ancient and modern), musical or otherwise. The piece is dedicated to Robin Boyle on his 80th Birthday, in gratitude for his unwavering support, which has meant so much to me!”

(20 Apr 2018)

Recent news

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.’

Happy Birthday to multi award-winning composer Thomas Simaku!

Recent news

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

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

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

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

James Weeks: new CD release – windfell