Really excited about upcoming UK premiere of Pythagoras’ Toolkit at Turner Sims on 30 March (and two schools shows on 31 March). Great musicians and puppeteers lined up to learn and perform the piece this side of the Atlantic for the first time!
Had a big month of playing the piano this January. Lots of practicing for 4 gigs…
First, music by Carla Bley ith my friends and colleagues Drew Crawford and Gre at a staff/student showcase at work. Here is the recording of ‘Wrong Key Donkey’, one of my favourite Bley tunes..
And then this Monday, again at Turner Sims for the Department of Music, I played my Love Letters with superstar Hannah Williams before conducting awesome students in Milhaud’s La création du monde.
I’m really glad I started playing the piano again more a few years ago, and grateful to friends who invite me to play or are willing to play with me! Practising a lot feels good and hope to keep it going this year.
Looking forward to playing new music with Gre, Drew Crawford and Pablo Galaz as well as a new poetry-music collaboration with Will May next week at Winchester Cathedral:
https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/event/ocean-giants-whales-and-the-worlds-they-shape/
Been working on a new version of Love Letters for me to play (piano/electronics) with Hannah Williams. Had a good first rehearsal yesterday on it. I need to practise! We will play the premiere at a new University of Southampton festival focused around AI Arts on 2 June alongside music by Anna Appleby and Drew Crawford/Bella Barlow. Music by Jennifer Walshe will also feature.
The Love Letters [with AI] project has been featured as a research highlight too: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/research/highlights/music-ai-combine-for-quirky-performance
I’ve been on research leave from University over the last few months. I’ve written a sax and percussion duo Shuffle (more on that soon I hope) and nearly finished the editing of a new 45-minute poetry-music piece with the wonderful poet Luke Wright called The Driver. We will premiere this piece in February with an orchestra of students at Turner Sims in Southampton. The gig is free (details in Events)!
The piece narrates the life of a driver from behind the wheel, taking in the ring roads, flyovers, service stations, leisure parks, motels and lay-bys of England. It’s both a travelogue of England’s least glamorous places and the story of a break-up, a love poem to being away and our ability to keep on going. It’s sad, celebratory and caustic with all the squalor and romance the road has to offer.
The music I’ve written sometimes underscores Luke’s poetry, and sometimes comes to the fore. It draws on a range of music from England including some medieval polyphony shared with me by my ace colleague Amy Williamson as well as music by Purcell (linked up to me by Andrew Pinnock) and Parry. There’s also recordings from inside a car, including recordings I took driving up to Fleet Services with a posh microphone in the passenger seat back in 2019!!
It’s been great working on this project with Luke and been a long time coming as we started it before the pandemic. I’m grateful to the Department of Music for helping make this happen and super excited to share The Driver with the world!
In 2022 I was involved in a couple of cool projects with Music colleagues at Southampton. The first was ‘Exquisite Corpse of AI (Consequences)’ which features music by Drew Crawford, Bella Barlow, Brona Martin and me. This video is the whole piece, but kicks in from near the end of Brona’s part leading into my ensemble contribution Phat Feet.
The Triple Helix Music Project was a collaboration with students and staff from across the Department, led by my friend and amazing colleague Drew Crawford, which responded to the Triplex Helix of the University of Southampton strategy…
I’ve just come back from a big summer break with the family, had an awesome time (pic of a lovely Italian vineyard below!). Just before I went away I finished my 3-year stint as Head of Music at the University of Southampton, handing over to my colleague Prof. Tom Irvine. It’s been quite a ride managing things through the pandemic and with other challenges. Really glad I did it but also pleased to return to having more space for creative projects. Lots on the way so watch this space!
COVID-19 lockdown has been a hectic and strange time for all of us. I’ve not been massively creative, with a lot of my gigs and activities being cancelled, and a busy time working at the University of Southampton.
However, the fantastic pianist Duncan Honeybourne (and my colleague at Southampton) approached me to see if I’d like to write a short piece for his Contemporary Piano Soundbites series. From the Sublime to the Ridiculous is what came out…
Excited that Duncan is recording a bunch of these pieces for a CD later this year.
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.
I’m putting the finishing touches on a new piece for solo harpsichord for Jane Chapman. Premiere date to be confirmed but likely in late 2019 or early 2020. Watch this space!
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