COMPOSER NEWS

DIANA BURRELL has been shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music 2008, for her work Paragraph. Written for mezzo soprano, violin and electronics, Paragraph was premiered by Loré Lixenburg and David Alderman at Spitalfields Festival in July 2007. At Spitalfields this year, several of Diana’s works are being performed, including the world premiere of Lauds, for organ and electronics. For more details of this and the other concerts, see our performance listings online or at the back of this newsletter. The London Festival of Contemporary Church Music will also feature Diana’s music, with a special lunchtime concert on 16th May to celebrate her 60th birthday. The choir of St Pancras Church conducted by Chris Batchelor will perform a selection of Diana’s choral music, including The St Pancras Evening Canticles, which was written for and first performed at the festival in 2005.

STEPHEN MONTAGUE will be the featured composer at the Contemporary Music Festival in Mexico City at the end of May, and a Jury Member at the Seroki Composition Competition in Warsaw, Poland, in early September. Closer to home, a new ballet entitled Breach, by Ballet Black, will be performed on 9th-12th April at the Linbury Theatre Studios, Royal Opera House, and at the Cambridge Arts Theatre on 20th April. The ballet is choreographed to Stephen Montague’s Paramell Va for solo piano, among others.

RICHARD BARRETT is currently working on a number of important new works: Mesopotamia, a commission for 17 players and electronics from the London Sinfonietta, Nacht und Träume for cellist Arne Deforce and pianist Yutaka Oya, an orchestral work Thought Experiments for the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and an evening length work CONSTRUCTION for the Elision ensemble.

EDWIN ROXBURGH is the recipient of a bursary award from the Elgar Trust for a commission for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, to be premiered in 2010. Other commissions include a work for violin and piano for Jennifer Pike, winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year 2002, and an RVW Trust commission for a clarinet quintet, which will be recorded in June. More details will follow in future issues. Currently there are recordings taking place of Edwin’s string, percussion and oboe music.

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NEW ONLINE HIRE CATALOGUE

We are delighted to announce that our new Hire Catalogue is now available. It contains the title, duration and complete instrumentation of thousands of works from more than two dozen publishers. The complete listing is also available online here. For a hard copy please contact our hire library on hire@ump.co.uk.

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