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Atlantic Music Festival- Dances in Time and Vertical Space- quintet version world premiere (7th July 2018)

Categories -, Atlantic Music Festival, chamber, Chamber Music, Links: Video, Piano, Video, Violin, woodwind
Atlantic Music Festival- Dances in Time and Vertical Space- quintet version world premiere (7th July 2018)

Amazing performance today at the Atlantic Music Festival of my piece Dances in Time and Vertical Space. You can watch the full performance here (solo violin: Nicholas Hatt): For Chinese users: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzc5ODg0Mjk4OA==.html   I took some videos of the dress rehearsal yesterday: For Chinese users: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzcxMDcwNjIzMg==.html   For Chinese users: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzcxMDcwNjI0NA==.html          …Continue Reading “Atlantic Music Festival- Dances in Time and Vertical Space- quintet version world premiere (7th July 2018)” →

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PhD Portfolio and Commentary (2012)- download link

Categories -, amateur music-making, Chamber Music, choral, CoMA South, Exaudi, Federico Garcia Lorca, Finchley Chamber Choir & Orchestra, Guitar, Isaiah, Li Po (Li Bai), Lithuania, Lucy Williams, music for strings, PhD Commentary and Portfolio, Piano, sacred music, Sam Cave, Southampton University, Southampton University Contemporary Music Group, University of Southampton, Viola, Violin, Vocal

I finished my PhD at the University of Southampton in 2011, and passed the viva with minimal corrections in early 2012.  It has been sitting on my computer (and in the Hartley Library at S’ton) all that time, and I thought I ought to put it up here, as it contains a lot of ideas…Continue Reading “PhD Portfolio and Commentary (2012)- download link” →

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Novella (Chapter One) for cello and piano (Premiere, Dec. 2017)

Categories Cello, Chamber Music, Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, Links: Audio, Piano
Novella (Chapter One) for cello and piano (Premiere, Dec. 2017)

In November/December 2017 I was honoured to visit Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and rehearse my piece for cello and piano, Novella (Chapter One) with Fang Yijia and Li Xinyuan.  They premiered the work on the 1st December, in what was one of the most enjoyable and awe-inspiring concerts I’ve ever seen (check out the…Continue Reading “Novella (Chapter One) for cello and piano (Premiere, Dec. 2017)” →

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Opera for Children’s Choir: Cao Chong Weighs the Elephant 童声歌剧：曹冲称象 （2017）

Categories amateur music-making, children's choir, Chinese Instruments, choral, conducting, Links: Video, Mulan children's choir, Music-Theatre, opera, Piano, Tianjin Conservatory of Music, Vocal
Opera for Children’s Choir: Cao Chong Weighs the Elephant 童声歌剧：曹冲称象 （2017）

You can see the documentary Tianjin International TV made about my rehearsals with the delightful Mulan Children’s Choir on this project here: Tianjin International TV: Hello! Tianjin documentary http://georgehollowaycomposer.com/?p=521 July 2018: Update I’ve got the videos of the three performances up online, you can see them here: For people in China, youku links below: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzcwNDY1OTk4NA==.html…Continue Reading “Opera for Children’s Choir: Cao Chong Weighs the Elephant 童声歌剧：曹冲称象 （2017）” →

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Ling 《灵》Improvised music, theatre and dance performance (2015/6)

Categories Dance, Guitar, Improvisation, Links: Video, Music-Theatre, performance, Piano, solo, Theatre, Vocal
Ling 《灵》Improvised music, theatre and dance performance (2015/6)

  I worked with the director Cao Jing on her production of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis in Summer 2015.  I was so impressed by her imagination and talent, I was clear that I wanted to work with her on an improvised performance involving music, dance and theatre.  This eventually became Ling, which we performed (each time utterly different)…Continue Reading “Ling 《灵》Improvised music, theatre and dance performance (2015/6)” →

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Brief Journey (2007) for soprano, alto, erhu (or violin) and piano

Categories Chamber Music, conducting, erhu, Li Po (Li Bai), Links: Audio, Links: Video, May Music Festival, performance, Piano, Tianjin Conservatory of Music, Vocal
Brief Journey (2007) for soprano, alto, erhu (or violin) and piano

This vocal work sets the poetry of Li Po (Li Bai) in Chinese.  The world premiere performance from my “Music for Voices” composer portrait concert in Southampton in 2012,  was sung by English performers, and I did my best to coach them in the mandarin pronunciation (although of course Li Po’s own pronunciation is nothing…Continue Reading “Brief Journey (2007) for soprano, alto, erhu (or violin) and piano” →

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Mutability (2013) for solo soprano and piano

Categories Chamber Music, Links: Video, performance, Piano, Vocal

Setting of P.B. Shelley’s poem of the same name.  During the first of my two years in Beijing (2012-3), I did not have many opportunities to make music.  I was in the wilderness somewhat with my Chinese language learning.  This was a welcome opportunity to perform my own music, although it was admittedly  terrifying playing…Continue Reading “Mutability (2013) for solo soprano and piano” →

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A Spark Lights the Void Within (2009) for soprano and string orchestra (or piano and double bass)

Categories Chamber Music, chamber orchestra, Composer Portrait Concert, conducting, Links: Audio, music for strings, performance, Piano, Song Cycle, Vocal
A Spark Lights the Void Within (2009) for soprano and string orchestra (or piano and double bass)

This song cycle was written for, and premiered by soprano Ruth Hopkins.   A Spark Lights the Void Within was written in memory of Lydia Press.  I wrote the texts of the three recitatives in the wake of Lydia’s passing away, and later chose the Cavafy and Shelley poems to accompany my own.  Southampton University Strings premiered…Continue Reading “A Spark Lights the Void Within (2009) for soprano and string orchestra (or piano and double bass)” →

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Bird Songs (2007-9) song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano

Categories -, Chamber Music, Composer Portrait Concert, Danae Eleni, Druskomanija, Julija Karaliunaite, Links: Audio, Links: Video, Lithuania, Lucy Williams, performance, Piano, Vocal
Bird Songs (2007-9) song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano

Bird Songs (2007-9) “Fifty-Nine Swans” (Yeats) “Black Rook in Rainy Weather” (Plath) “The Hierarchies of Sound” (Evans) I’ve uploaded 3 performances of my song cycle for mezzo and piano, “Bird Songs”. Each time working on this song cycle from scratch with a different singer was extraordinarily fun, and a tremendous challenge and learning experience.  I…Continue Reading “Bird Songs (2007-9) song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano” →

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Two Pieces for Violin and Piano (2008/10)

Categories Chamber Music, Composer Portrait Concert, Links: Audio, Links: Video, Piano, Violin
Two Pieces for Violin and Piano (2008/10)

  http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzE2NDE1ODcwMA==.html?spm=a2hzp.8253869.0.0   Program Note i. Chanson ii. Epitaphium The “Two Pieces for Violin and Piano” are actually two sections that together form one complete piece.  In the first, the piano plays a systematically accelerating and decelerating sequence of rhythms, presenting a sequence of pitches based around the interval of a minor sixth; the violin…Continue Reading “Two Pieces for Violin and Piano (2008/10)” →

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Originalemelodie (2010) for solo piano

Categories performance, Piano, solo
Originalemelodie (2010) for solo piano

Originalmelodie reflects upon lyricism in music, and upon the boundary between independent melodic line/contrapuntal ‘voice’ and figuration/accompaniment.  It is also a tapestry of reminiscences, visiting Gustav Mahler, Charles Ives, Kaikhosru Sorabji, Ferruccio Busoni, traditional Taiwanese song, Jean Barraqué, Brian Ferneyhough and Felix Mendelssohn; only the last of these is quoted directly, whose Songs without Words were first published in London as Original Melodies for…Continue Reading “Originalemelodie (2010) for solo piano” →

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Selected “early” works

Categories Chamber Music, chamber orchestra, choral, conducting, Druskomanija, duo Oneplusone, electro-acoustic, Emperor Hadrian, Exaudi, flexible instrumentation, Isaiah, Julian Jacobsen, Links: Audio, Lithuania, Piano, solo, Southampton University Contemporary Music Group, University of Southampton

  This recording is Julian Jacobsen’s intensely expressive and exacting performance from 2007 (Turner Sims Concert Hall). This was the first piece I completed during my Masters study with Michael Finnissy; it was on the basis of this piece that I was chosen for the SPNM Shortlist (2006-9). The final form of the piece was…Continue Reading “Selected “early” works” →