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NCEM Composers Award: Short List Announced
Six talented young composers from across the UK have been short-listed
to take part in the prestigious 2009 NCEM Composers Award in York on
Thursday 14 May.
This is the first year of the National Centre for Early Music's new partnership with BBC Radio 3 and The Tallis Scholars which will see the winning pieces, for four part a cappella (unaccompanied) choir, receive the honour of being premiered by The Tallis Scholars at the opening concert of the York Early Music Festival on 10 July 2009 in York Minster. Highlights from the concert, including the winning composition, will be broadcast on the BBC Radio 3's Early Music Show on the 25th July.
The
short-listed composers are: Michael Perrett (20yrs), from Gosport,
Hampshire, currently studying at the RNCM; William Blake (20yrs) from
Beckenham, Kent, studying at Queens College, Oxford; Paul Edis (23yrs)
from Durham; Thomas Neal (18yrs) from Stockton on Tees; Tom Harrold
(17yrs) from Glasgow and Elizabeth Edwards (16yrs) from Camberley in
Surrey (see biographies in Editor's notes).
They will work with
the composer Christopher Fox on Thursday 14 May prior to a public
performance of their work by York's own Ebor Singers in the evening at
the NCEM. The winning pieces will be announced at an awards ceremony at
the end of this concert.
Each of the six new pieces will be
recorded by University of York music technology students and, as part
of the comprehensive development programme behind this Award, visitors
to the NCEM website will be able to listen to them there.
Delma
Tomlin, director of the NCEM and one of the panel of judges for the
Award, says: "We were absolutely delighted to see so many entries, over
50, from all over the UK and clearly have something very positive to
build on in the future. Our youngest composer was just 11 and whilst he
has not been short-listed, we were particularly pleased to see such
positive enthusiasm. So much so that we have already agreed the Award
will go ahead in 2010 and that the experience would be enhanced by
offering a commissioned set text.
"We are really looking forward
to welcoming Michael, William, Thomas, Paul, Tom and Elizabeth to the
NCEM on 14 May for what is guaranteed to be a very positive, nurturing
and enriching experience for these young composers and one which offers
a valuable opportunity to begin building the all important relationship
with an audience within the supportive surroundings of the NCEM."
Further information about the Composers Award is available from:
www.ncem.co.uk/composersaward or www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/earlymusicshow
Alternatively, contact the NCEM on 01904 632220 or email
info@ncem.co.uk
The National Centre for Early Music is administered by the York
Early Music Foundation and funded by Arts Council England, Yorkshire.
Ends
Press Contact:
Shona Galletly, on behalf of National Centre for Early Music
e:
shona@shonagalletlypr.co.uk
t: 0113 255 1308
m: 07813 796 733
Web: www.ncem.co.uk
Notes to editors
1. Composers' biographies and information on short-listed works
Michael Perrett aged 20 a student at the Royal Northern College of Music living in Gosport, Hampshire.
Born
in Hampshire in 1988, Michael Perrett began playing the clarinet at a
young age and was a chorister in the local parish church. In 2006 he
began studying clarinet at the Royal Northern College of Music with
Professor Linda Merrick.
A committed performer of contemporary
music, Michael has recently given performances of Carter, Birtwistle
and Holt. Michael's formal study of composition began only recently and
he now studies privately with Matthew Sergeant. He hopes to study
composition at postgraduate level.
Michael's piece, entitled
God, is a setting of a minstrel's song from Isaac Rosenberg's
verse-play Moses, published in 1916. A similarly uncomfortable image of
the deity reappears in Rosenberg's poem God of the same year. The piece
is generally meditative, though the tenor/bass duet towards the end
disturbs the calm somewhat.
William Blake aged 20 studying at Queen's College, Oxford University living in Beckenham, Kent
William
Blake (b.1988) is currently a first year undergraduate reading music at
Queen's College, Oxford, where he is a choral scholar. He first started
to compose seriously at school, where he was commissioned to write a
piece for the school orchestra. Last year, while he was a choral
scholar at Wells Cathedral, he had a piece premiered by the cathedral
choir, which was conducted by Matthew Owens. William currently studies
composition under Martin Suckling, having been previously taught by
Sinan Savaskan. Other than his compositional activities, William is
also an active singer and conductor.
William's piece, Why art thou so heavy, O my Soul, takes its title from Psalm 43 vs 5-6:
Why art thou so heavy, o my soul and why art thou so disquieted within me?
O put my trust in God. For I will yet praise him, my saviour and my God.
Paul Edis
aged 23 from Durham has been a composer and performer from a young age.
Paul's formal composition training began when he studied for his degree
at the London College of Music, where he received tuition from Kit
Turnbull, Paul Robinson, Francis Pott and Laurence Roman. Whilst in
London he had works performed at the London Festival of Contemporary
Church Music, as part of the BBC/TVU 'Endangered Species Event' and by
performers including Philip Mead, Suzanne Stanzeleit and Chris I'Anson.
Since then Paul has completed an MA in Composition at the
University of York under the supervision of Dr John Stringer, and he is
currently in his second year of a PhD in Composition at York. Two of
Paul's works have recently been selected in competitions - A Series of
Variations for Brass Trio, to be performed by the Chimera Ensemble, and
Nocturne for String Quartet, selected in a national call for scores by
the internationally acclaimed Kreutzer Quartet.
Paul has written both music and text for his piece entitled, Redemption.
To cease to blame, to fail to recall
Would leave no shame or pain at all
To forgive and forget is not easy
To muddle through without reflection.
Grudge ingrained in heart and mind,
Nature's conviction would see us blind,
And yet, if we could only unwind,
To cease to blame, to fail to recall
Would leave us free of guilt,
Happy, once and for all.
This
is a setting of a poem of the same name which Paul wrote based on the
common expression 'forgive and forget'. It is a reflection on
forgiveness and guilt.
As with the poem, there is a three part
structure to this piece, the first and last section being closely
related. The music draws upon a small number of motives and is rooted
in the intervals of a major 7th and a perfect 5th.
Thomas Neal
aged 18 from Stockton on Tees began his initial musical education as a
violinist and pianist, and as a chorister at St Peter's Church,
Stockton, where he is now Organ Scholar. He is taught by James Parsons
as a student of the St Giles International Organ School, and in July
2008 gained his first diploma with the Royal College of Organists.
Thomas is a keen musicologist, focusing on early choral music, and
recently completed a paper on word-painting in Bach and Palestrina. He
is becoming increasingly active as a choral director, recently leading
two chamber choirs to success in the National Festival of Music for
Youth and leading workshops on music by Bach and Allegri. He sings
regularly with the Tees Valley Youth Choir (runner-up, BBC Choir of the
Year 2006) and in the Tallis Quartet. He is currently preparing to sit
A-level exams and hopes to meet his conditional offer to read Music at
Clare College, Cambridge in 2009.
Thomas' piece, Pange lingua,
is written in memoriam to Josquin des Prez (c1450-1521) and is a
polyphonic motet, based on the plainsong 'Pange lingua' (Of the
Glorious Body Telling).
Tom Harrold aged 17 was
born in Glasgow, Scotland and is now in his final year at The Music
School of Douglas Academy, a specialist music school funded by the
Scottish Government. He studies composition under Colin Broom and Dr.
Robert Marshall, piano under Jean Hutchison and viola under Andrea
Gajic.
He was a winner of the BBC Proms /Guardian Young
Composers' Competition 2007 and has had his music performed and
recorded in London, Amsterdam, Glasgow and Aberdeen, with several BBC Radio 3
broadcasts and two live BBC performances in 2007 and 2008. His music
has been performed and work-shopped by members of the BBC Scottish
Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Aurora Orchestra
and the Endymion Ensemble. He has received commissions from the BBC
Proms, the Scottish Centres of Excellence in Music and several
professional soloists. Tom was joint winner of the 2009 Heriot-Watt
University Young Composers' Competition. In addition to this, he was
asked to write a new work for solo tuba and percussion to be performed
at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.
Upcoming
projects include the release of the recently recorded "Beastie" on the
Brass Classics Label and a commission for a new fifteen-minute work to
be performed by the Scottish Philharmonic Orchestra.
In September 2009 Tom will begin undergraduate studies in The School of Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Tom's
piece, The Day is Done, has a text adapted from Longfellow: The day is
done and the darkness falls from the wings of the night as a feather is
wafted downward from an eagle in his flight
And the cares that infest the day shall fold their tents like the Arabs and as silently steal away
Elizabeth Edwards
aged 16 from Camberley, Surrey, attends Farnborough Hill School in
Hampshire where she is studying for her GCSEs. She began playing the
cello aged 4 and is now Principal Cello with the Surrey County Youth
Orchestra. In October 2008 Elizabeth won the Surrey Heath Young
Musician Competition and in Easter 2009 she was invited to, and did,
play with the Youth Orchestra of the Middle East in Dubai. She attends
Colourstrings Saturday Music School in South London, where she learns
cello with Miguel Calvo and piano with Shay Loya. She also studies
singing with Roy Rashbrook and composition with the Guildford-based
composer, Will Todd. At school, Elizabeth plays bass recorder in the
recorder consort, string bass in the swing band and sings in the senior
choir. Elizabeth has won a place as a music specialist at Wells
Cathedral School and will begin her A level studies there in September
2009.
Elizabeth's piece is called Arise with text from Isaiah
chapter 60 Arise! Shine for your light has come and the glory of the
Lord rises upon you
