Explore the music of English composer George Holloway
About three weeks ago, my eponymous Holloway Children’s Choir held a party to celebrate the fifth anniversary of our trip to the UK for a competition and tour. Five years ago, I never would have imagined that they would hold a reunion party every year for the next five years, each time with a different…Continue Reading “Holloway Children’s Choir- UK Tour Fifth Anniversary Party (Sept.’24)”
Robert Hugill has written a nice review of Sam Cave’s CD “Refracted Resonance”, which features my two guitar sonatas. You can read the review here: https://www.planethugill.com/2022/05/magical-places-sam-caves-refracted.html Hugill writes of my first sonata: George Holloway’s Guitar Sonata was written for Sam Cave and the work explores the contrasts between clouds of harmonics and normal fretted chords. The work…Continue Reading “CD Review of Sam Cave “Refracted Resonance” (April ’22)”
吉他演奏家Sam Cave有委約我為他的新的CD以及音樂會項目「Felix namque」創作一部新獨奏作品。本項目的主題圍繞著15、16世紀英國作曲家常用的體裁，叫做“Felix namque”。這種鍵盤作品，像更知名的體裁「In nomine」一樣，是基於Felix namque es的聖詠之複音音樂作品。我很榮幸可以跟Michael Finnissy、Christopher Fox、John Croft以及其他作曲家一起參與本次項目。 有關「Felix namque」，Sam Cave有寫過： “This project aims to create eclectic and contemporary responses to the English tradition of composing ‘Felix Namques’ by commissioning a range of composers to write new works for solo guitar. These works will engage with the plainsong source material, Felix namque es,…Continue Reading “「Felix namque」的吉他創作項目：由吉他演奏家Sam Cave委約的新獨奏作品“bountiful”（《穰穰》）已完成（2022年）”
Guitarist Sam Cave discussed and performed extracts of my sonatas in a research seminar at Brunel University, UK, in December 2019. He’s recently put it online and shared the link with me. He speaks with authority on my guitar music– after all, I wrote it for him, and we spent many happy hours rehearsing, refining…Continue Reading ““Refracted Resonance”- Sam Cave’s Seminar in Brunel University, 11th December 2019 (late upload)”
Sam Cave’s CD, Refracted Resonance, was released on Metier in 2019. In press reviews both sonatas were described as “a mix of beautifully spacious soundscapes”, as “worthy of repeated attention”, and my second sonata in particular was described as “severe or laconic, [which] carries a barren beauty, like a windswept landscape” (full text of the…Continue Reading “Metier CD launch concert and reviews (May 2019)”
The mother of a singer in the children’s choir wrote a moving and lively report of the UK tour, which I’ve translated into English and accompanied by photographs. Enjoy! 陶妈手记之那年夏天英国行 Mummy Tao (Snow)’s record of our Summer travel in the UK 为了参加Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod（兰戈伦国际音乐节），Holloway Children’s Choir（霍洛韦童声合唱团）师生及家长一行55人，在指挥卢长剑老师和“经济人”周婷婷的带领下，从中国到英国，穿越8266公里，天津-伦敦-兰戈伦-牛津，历时16天，9场演出，2场比赛，2次大师课，3次快闪，21首中外歌曲（7种语言），开启了一次意义非凡的快乐之旅。 The fifty-five members of the Holloway Children’s…Continue Reading “Holloway Children’s Choir UK Tour 2019: tour diary”
The Holloway Children’s Choir’s two competition performances at Llangollen were broadcast live on Llangollen TV: Children’s Folk category: Children’s Folk Choirs | Corau Alaw Werin i Blant Junior Children’s Junior Children’s Choirs | Corau Plant Iau After performing nine times at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod, the choir began preparing for our Oxford concert on Monday…Continue Reading “Holloway Children’s Choir: Llangollen TV competition performances, Oxford and London Concerts (July 2019)”
The Holloway Children’s Choir toured the UK in July 2019. I founded the Holloway Children’s Choir in Tianjin, China, in January 2018. The choir aims to introduce Tianjin children to the European, and especially the British choral tradition both liturgical and secular, and to involve Chinese children in the joys of music-making and choir-singing. We…Continue Reading “Holloway Children’s Choir competes and performs at Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod (July 2019)”
The recording for Sam Cave’s CD is all done now, and Metiér (a division of Divine Records) are due to release the disc early in 2019. I’m honoured that Sam has recorded my Guitar Sonata and Second Guitar Sonata to include on the disc; these are pieces which I wrote specially for Sam, and he’s…Continue Reading “Sam Cave forthcoming CD release on Metiér: Guitar Sonatas”
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”
I’m looking forward to the release of Sam Cave’s CD, which will feature both of my guitar sonatas, alongside Murail’s Tellur, Fox’s Chile and Radulescu’s Subconscious Wave, all of which are possibly world premiere recordings. Sam has described this disc as the “cumulative expression of the last ten years of my guitar playing”, and I am very proud that my…Continue Reading “Recording session with Sam Cave: Guitar Sonata”
My two guitar sonatas were both written for and dedicated to Sam Cave. Thanks to Sam, these two pieces have become my most often performed compositions! Sam is preparing a professional recording of both sonatas, which I eagerly await. In the meantime, I post here the videos of Sam’s earlier performances (from his visit to…Continue Reading “Guitar Sonatas 1&2”