Category Archives: Conducting

The Exquisite Corpse Of AI (Consequences)

I’ve written a piece for 12-piece ensemble as part of a project at University of Southampton created and led by my amazing colleague Drew Crawford: The Exquisite Corpse of AI (Consequences). My contribution is called Phat Feet and features 12 awesome undergraduate musicians from the Department of Music. Drew has brought together a bunch of us including Bella Barlow and Brona Martin to create this exciting new piece that we’ll premiere at Turner Sims and then perform at a private conference for the commissioners Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Intelligence for Automated Investigations for Scientific Discovery Network.

Soldier’s Tale Photos

Directing Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale earlier this month was a big highlight of my conducting career. Awesome music of course, brilliant musicians (including a number of great friends it was a delight to work with again), great cast and an awesome creative team. Hope we can do more PACS soon! Here are a couple of snaps from rehearsals from the project…

In the Alps

I had blast directing the Hartley Loop Orchestra in a major University of Southampton Music Department project at Turner Sims, IN THE ALPS. We performed Richard Ayres’ masterpiece No 42. (In the Alps: an animated concert) featuring soprano Juliet Fraser (wearing an amazing garment made by students at Winchester School of Art), as well as Carnival of the Animals with soloists David Owen Norris and Verity Brooks and a brand new work, Shadows, by Zoe Sones. Was fantastic to work so closely with Southampton students and colleagues on the project and Juliet was AMAZING. Here are some pics by the massively talented Ash Sealy and a short audio excerpt.

eavesdropping.london · Juliet Fraser sings Richard Ayres ‘No. 42 — In the Alps’ (extract)

‘Changing Up +’ Video

Video now online of the premiere of my Changing Up + for solo percussionist and large ensemble from the recent SHIFTS project at Turner Sims. Joley Cragg totally nailed the percussion as did the HARTLEY Loop Orchestra, which features students and staff from the University of Southampton Music Department.

‘Pythagoras’ Toolkit’

I’m really delighted that Pythagoras’ Toolkit, led by Ensemble Paramirabo (Montreal) and involving me as co-creator, composer and conductor, has been awarded funding from the Canadian Council for the Arts.

In Pythagoras’ Toolkit Rachel Warr (co-creator/director, Dotted Line Theatre) and I will bring to life, through puppetry and live music, a modern-day Pythagoras who will explore sound, space (conceptual/sound/realworld), rhythm, harmony and dissonance (order and chaos), instrument making/design, dance, musical textures and ways of constructing music.

The production, currently planning for a tour in 2021, will feature musicians from Ensemble Paramirabo (Canada), Workers Union Ensemble (UK) and two musically literate puppeteers working with a specially created Pythagoras puppet.

Rachel and I are concocting ideas already… more soon!