In June, we are presenting Out of the Shadows at Omnibus Theatre, Clapham as part of 96 Festival, its celebration of queerness and theatre. Out of the Shadows is an evening of my music, featuring two recent cantatas and a selection of my songs performed by tenor Ben Vonberg-Clark, baritone Jonathan Eyers and pianist Nigel Foster. As a little taster, here are two songs from my song cycle, For David, on his Birthday performed by Ben Vonberg-Clark and Nigel Foster and recorded at Hinde Street Methodist Church in 2023 when Out of the Shadows was premiered. The recording engine ..read more

Illustrations of SoundWalk by Ruby Wright Anna Phillips is a harpist who is currently studying for a Master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Music. She had the opportunity to take part in the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields' SoundWalk project as part of an elective with the Open Academy Department at the Royal Academy of Music. The Connection at St. Martin’s is a day centre that supports homeless people to help rebuild their lives, through helping them on their way out of homelessness and through artistic programmes. The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (ASMF) chamber orchestra ..read more

Tête à Tête is not just planning its Summer opera festival in London but is creating a whole Spring and Summer of opera. In May, the company is heading to Newcastle, joining forces with members of the Royal Northern Sinfonia for two days of workshops for opera makers, aimed at encouraging the development of new opera in the North East [further information] June sees the company in London working with student composers from the Royal College of Music (RCM) to present Revolutions, an evening of six short operas by RCM composers performed by RCM students. The programme being presented on 2 ..read more

Mural: chamber music by Gabriel Vicéns; Stradivarius Reviewed 15 April 2024 At times fierce and concentrated, Gabriel Vicéns music can evoke Webern and Felmann, but it also brings in his own visual element New York City-based, Puerto Rican-born composer, guitarist, and visual artist Gabriel Vicéns' fourth studio album Mural, released on the Stradivarius label, features seven of Vicéns chamber pieces for various ensembles including piano trio, Pierrot ensemble, and woodwind quintet.  Gabriel Vicéns is a gifted guitarist and improvisor, as well as performing with a free jazz/experimen ..read more

Pianist/composer Bill Laurance is perhaps best known as a member of the band Snarky Puppy, but he recently joined forces with Manchester-based The Untold Orchestra to release a disc of his music combining the 18-piece string orchestra, conducted by Rory Storm and led by Simmy Singh of the Manchester Collective, with Laurance's keyboards. Whilst he played jazz and swing as a teenager, Laurance studied classical music, composition and performance at the University of Leeds. The new disc, Bloom is released on the ACT label and features nine tracks recorded in Manchester. The disc's official vide ..read more

Islington Festival (Photo: Marc  Gascoigne) Islington Festival of Music and Art is returning with fourteen events across nine venues in and around Islington from 5 to 20 July 2024. This year's festival takes as its theme, From the Homeland, and events take us through the landscapes of Czech Republic, Hungary and Denmark, as well as journeys from India to Scotland and Australia to America. The festival opens with a Czech theme as Joana Ly (violin), Miguel Ángel Villeda Cerón (cello) and Martin André (piano) perform music by Smetana, Martinu and Dvorak, and the festival final ..read more

National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Jessica Cottis Catalyst: Coleridge-Taylor, Julius Eastman, Gavin Higgins, Dani Howard, Prokofiev; National Youth Brass Band and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Tess Jackson, Jessica Cottis; Royal Festival Hall Reviewed 14 April 2024 From Julius Eastman's creative provocation in the Clore Ballroom to the stupendous combined brass band and orchestra in Higgins new piece, an astonishing day of music making full of energy, discipline, control and sheer love of music-making  Under the catch-all title of Catalyst, the National Youth ..read more

The Paradox Orchestra - Fifty Years of Pink Floyd - Leeds Minster The Paradox Orchestra is a relatively new professional ensemble based in Yorkshire. Founded in 2020 by Michael Sluman, a young professional oboist, the orchestra consists mostly of graduates of Leeds Conservatoire. Created to fill what Michael perceived as a gap, the orchestra provides work for young professional musicians in Yorkshire and in three years has developed into an impressive group with educational and charity work alongside its sold-out concerts in historic venues. Describing itself as reinventing pop, rock ..read more

John Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seaven Tears - Sean Shibe, The Dunedin Consort Milton Court Concert Hall Rowallan Manuscript, Straloch Manuscript, Dowland, Purcell, Geminiani, James MacMillan arr. George Duthie, David Fennessy, Linda Catlin Smith, Cassandra Miller; Sean Shibe, The Dunedin Consort, John Butt; Milton Court concert hall, Barbican Reviewed 11 April 2024 Moving from the sheer magic of Dowland writing for lute and viols through to contemporary music for guitar and strings, ending with Cassandra Miller's mesmerising new concerto. A programme full of good things that never quite ..read more

The York Early Music Festival was established in 1977 to celebrate music from the medieval to the baroque within an array of historic venues across the city of York. The festival is administered by the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM). This year's York Early Music Festival, which runs from 6 to 13 July 2024, has the title Metamorfosi and it takes the idea of musical metamorphosis and composers' borrowing, from each other and themselves, as its main theme. The festival's theme is explored in a selection of concerts including The Sixteen in a programme of Lassus and Josquin highlight ..read more