2012 PERFORMANCES and news On Friday 10th February the London Symphony Orchestra's 'Discovery' series of Lunchtime Concerts at LSO St Luke's featured the orchestra's Principal Viola Paul Silverthorne playing new and established works by British composers including Britten's 'Lachrimae' and my 'Urizen'. Tri - three movements for 6 violas was performed at the RAM Josefowitz hall in the British Viola festival on 15 February 2012. Tri has been played in Spain, Finland and at the Royal Welsh Academy, but this was its first London outing. 2011 PERFORMANCES Just finished [Nov. 2011] is 'Tatiesque' for flute, oboe and piano. It's one movement. c. 4'.00 – a quick, unserious tribute to the French film maker, Jacques Tati. I wrote it for the group Trittico (Nancy Ruffer, flute: John Anderson, oboe and Sophia Rahman, piano) whose debut was at the Forge, Camden Town in 2011. Urizen was played by Paul Silverthorne on Tuesday 1st November at 1.05pm at The Royal Academy of Music David Josefowitz Recital Hall as part of the amazing 'The British Viola - Romantic and Contemporary' festival which continues to right through to July 2012. Presteigne Festival tour performances including Palinode were given at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on 27th September, then 29th September at St George's Bristol and finally at the Barber Institute in Birmingham on 7th October. I've just rewritten 'Caged Moon' a fast 6 minute piece for string Quartet. The odd title comes from a caption in art historian Whitney Chadwick's Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement. 'Pale and exhausted, she sits alone in a dark tower, mechanically grinding up stars to feed to a caged moon'. 'BoBop' was played by Thomas Gould in 'From Bach to Charlie Parker' at St. George's Hanover Square, London on May 11th and again in Bracknell the following week. McTier Music has assigned its distribution to SpartanPress, so 'Worlds Apart' (double bass and piano) and 'Shadows' (viola, double bass and piano) are now easily available to buy online. 'Palinode' (for flute, clarinet, violin, 'cello and piano) - a 6 minute piece as odd (I hope) as its title, which means 'a retraction' - was commissioned by the Presteigne Festival and will get its first performance there in August. More performances will follow very soon afterwards in Bristol (St George's Brandon Hill), Birmingham (Barber Institute) and Cardiff (Royal Welsh College). 2010 PERFORMANCES 'BoBop' for solo violin was performed by Thomas Gould at the Perth (Scotland, not Australia) concert hall on 20th September in the lunchtime concert together with the Bach Chaconne and pieces by Charlie Parker. Tom says I lie 'somewhere in between'! 'Disturbed Nights' was performed again on 31st March by Christopher O'Neal with the Orchestra of St John’s Ensemble. This time at the Mill Arts Centre in Banbury Oxfordshire. 2009 PERFORMANCES 'Disturbed Nights' originally for solo oboe, was given its first performance on December 9th in its new version with an added string trio. The performers are Christopher O'Neal (who recorded the original solo version on the 'Voices from the Sea' CD) with the Orchestra of St John’s Ensemble. The performance was at the wonderful Cornerstone Arts Centre in Didcot, Oxfordshire. 'Lost in Translation' for piano was played on Sunday 30 August at the Presteigne Festival as one of seven fantasies by seven composers, including Hugh Wood and David Matthews, commissioned by the festival in joint celebration of the composers John McCabe (70) and Joseph Haydn (200!). 'Gestures' for two violas was performed in July at the 2009 International Viola Congress, in Stellenbosch, South Africa, by Tim Deighton (Professor of Viola, Penn State University) and Juliet White Smith (current president of the American Viola Society). 'Cortège?' for violin and piano was played by Siân Philipps and Anthony Hewitt at one of the National Portrait Gallery's evening concerts on 16th May. 'Urizen' for viola and piano was played by Yuko Inoue on February 5th at the Romanian Embassy in London as one of the Enescu Society concert season and will play it again in March, at Newcastle University. Patricia McCarty played 'Urizen' at Florida State University in Tallahassee on February 24th, and will play it again at the Boston Conservatory on March 3rd. 'Cortège?' was played by Tom Gould and John Reid at the Royal Academy of Music's David Josefowitz Hall on 25th January in a concert in the 'Music Past and Present' series and again at a special event for the Highgate and Hampstead Festival on February 11th. 'Worlds Apart' for double bass and piano was played by Duncan McTier and Kathron Sturrock at St Mary's in Putney on 23rd January as part of a concert by The Fibonacci Sequence. They played it again at the Freiburg, Germany Hochschule für Musik, on 30 January. 2008 PERFORMANCES Music by John Hawkins played in graduate recitals in 2008 included 'Tri' and 'Shadows' (at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama), 'Worlds Apart' and 'Urizen' (both at the Royal Academy of Music). 'Cortège?' for violin and piano was played at Highgate's Lauderdale House by Emily Pringle (dedicatee of the solo violin piece 'BoBop'). It will be played again next January by Tom Gould and John Reid at the RAM. 'Disturbed Nights' for oboe solo was given its first performance at the 'Red Hedgehog' venue in North London on 12th February 2008. The piece imagines an increasingly desperate parent trying to get a restless infant to sleep - the lullaby itself becoming madly hyperactive in the process. 'Disturbed Nights' is featured on the 'Voices from the Sea CD played by the same soloist, Christopher O'Neal. 2007 PERFORMANCES Viola player Yuko Inoue, having given the world premiere of the chamber orchestra version of 'Urizen' in Japan in 2006, gave two performances in September of the original version for viola and piano – one in London and the other in Derbyshire. A biography of my former teacher Malcolm Williamson was published in 2007. 'Malcolm Williamson: A Mischievous Muse' was published by Omnibus Press, it is highly enjoyable, full of great stories about Malcolm's scurrilous life and, it is to be hoped, will lead to more performances of his astonishing output! 'Seven into Eight' for string Quartet is a single movement of c. 5mins. Commissioned by the Haworth family for violist father Jim's eightieth bithday in May 2009 – hence the title and the structure of the piece. Unusually, the 2nd violin part was written to be equally playable by cello (don't ask why!). 'Lost in Translation' is one of seven new piano pieces written to celebrate John McCabe's 70th birthday and the Haydn Centenary. They will be played at the Presteigne Festival on 30th August 2009. 'Tri' is (are?) three substantial pieces for the odd combination of 6 violas. The first was written for the International Music Academy of Solsona summer course. That went so well that I immediately wrote the second and 3rd movements. Total duration c. 10 mins. 'Disturbed Nights' the 'lullaby for parents' for oboe in a new version with string trio (written for oboist Christopher O'Neal). The oboe part is exactly as the solo version, with the string trio giving it a completely new 'context'. The piece lasts about 6' 30". 'Footnote' for Organ was one of the winners in the 2007 'Inspired by Handel' competition and the recording was released in 2007. Click to order the 'Handel Inspired' CD.
'BoBop' for solo violin (commissioned and first performed by Emily Pringle). 'These Lovers' for flute and 'cello written for the 2006 'Music Past and Present' concert series. Duration c.5 mins. 'Gospel and Collect' for soprano and organ performed at the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music May 2006. Duration c. 3 mins. 'Footnote' for organ was premiered at th the same festival in 2007. NEW 'EDUCATIONAL' PIECES: 'Parades' for trumpet and piano and 'Break Even' for saxophone and piano were written for Faber Music's 'Fingerprints' series (published in 2006).
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