Wednesday 11 November 2015

I am always amazed at how quickly concerts that have for so long seemed far away in the calendar, quickly come around.  Voice(s) that launched last Friday 6 November 2015 at The Pound in Corsham featuring a new piece I composed especially for Juliet Fraser is one such example.  The concert was a fantastic success in the superb setting at The Pound and I am lucky enough that Juliet repeated the programme in Upavon the following evening and that we are currently busy preparing for a third performance, which will take place on Saturday 14 November in Minety.

As Juliet recalls in her programme note, this is a project that we began discussing in early 2013 and is a journey we pondered whilst folding printed programmes for the Upavon performance last Saturday.  Working so closely with Juliet on all of the parts of the Voice(s) project, from curation to funding applications to marketing materials to rehearsals and more besides, has been a real delight and privilege.  In the wake of the first two concerts I have felt a real sense of pride in what we have created and brought together.  Of course we couldn’t have done it alone and we are especially grateful to Newton Armstrong for being so calm and working his magic on the electronics, as well as the composers Christopher Fox, Scott Mc laughlin and Catherine Kontz for writing such beautiful music.

I intended this post to be less of a thank you and more of a structured reflection upon the premiere performance of my piece Scantlebury.  As I said in my interview with Emma from BBC Radio Wiltshire I think I need a little more time to clearly reflect on the first piece that I wrote whilst in residence at The Pound.  I hope to post it up here soon.