www.scottishmusiccentre.com

Composers’ Digest

Winter 2010/11

Welcome 3

British Composer Awards 2010 4

Minimal Weekend 5

The Concept 6

Creative Scotland Investment Update 7

Musical Bites 8

Performance Details 9

Calls for Scores 12

Celebrations 15

In the News 17

Next Issue 19

CONTENTS

One of the many highlights of the late summer for us all at SMC was reading your kind and encouraging words on the publication of our inaugural Composer Digest. You seem to have liked it! Now as we head into darker days, we await news from Creative Scotland about their plans for funding (or in more recent parlance ‘investing in’) the 52 Foundation Organisations that make up the backbone of the arts in Scotland. It’s likely that our annual grant will be on standstill at best, for the third year running. However, The Centre has held its own in recent years as we have developed wide-ranging projects that earn money not only for the bills but also our composer members; in particular, our use of new technology improves the speed of our digitisation programme, simplifies the process of sending sample pages to potential hirers worldwide and helps us effectively promote your work on our website. We’ve harnessed technology again into the second Composer Digest by using a new publishing format, Issu - and we will launch our new homepage complete with our first podcast and music clips later this week. As ever, please let us have your comments and suggestions, and keep sending us your news for inclusion in future Digests. Warm wishes from us all at the Centre, Gill Maxwell

WELCOME

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We are delighted to announce that the following composer members have been short listed for this year’s British Composer Awards: Sally Beamish Rory Boyle John McLeod Works by Karen McIver and James McMillan have also been nominated. Biographies of Beamish, Boyle and McLeod can be found in the Current Members section of our website, along with lists of their works, press reviews and performances.

http://www.scottishmusiccentre.com/currentmem/ The eighth annual British Composer Awards will take place at Stationers’ Hall, London on Tuesday 30th November 2010. Presented by BASCA and sponsored by PRS for

Music in association with BBC Radio 3, the event will be broadcast in 'Performance on 3' at 7pm on Wednesday 1st December 2010. The Awards will celebrate the music of today’s composers living and working in the United Kingdom and also UK premières of work by composers from outside the UK

http://www.britishcomposerawards.com/

BRITISH COMPOSER AWARDS 2010

To mark the launch of Glasgow Concert Hall’s three-year journey through the world of minimalist music, the Scottish Music Centre opened as a Minimalist Museum with a view to giving patrons increased insight into this vast and fascinating movement. This was achieved through the screening of composer profiles, key locations and influential works of art. The information was coupled with recommended recordings which were played throughout, and our hotdesks were set up to accommodate live minimalist streamings and radio. Over the course of two days we catered for over 60 visitors to the centre who could relax in between concerts, chat to other audience members and enjoy a coffee or glass of wine. Glasgow Concert Halls’ second Minimal Weekend is programmed for 11th – 13th of February 2011.

http://www.glasgowconcerthalls.com/minimal

Featured Ensemble: Michael Nyman Band

MINIMAL WEEKEND

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Carol Laula led an inspiring song writing workshop for around forty composition students from various Glasgow Secondary Schools. The workshop began looking at generating lyrics from ideas and then looked into using various techniques to create song structures and chordal patterns to form the composition. The young songwriters worked in groups and all managed to have a completed song which they performed at the finale of the workshop. Many left the session very excited and amazed at how simple it can be to begin, improve and finish a song. This session was part of the Scottish Music Centre's popular "Concept" workshops, the value and success of which can be measured by participant Jospehine Sillar’s recent invitation to join Carol on her current tour.

For more info contact:

education@scottishmusiccentre.com

Featured Project: The “Concept” Sessions

THE CONCEPT

We would like to highlight the following funds applicable to Composers and Musicians: Creating New Music for Individuals:

1. Creative Development: time for creation, rehearsal and development of new music by Scottish-based composers, songwriters and producers. £500 - £2000

2. New Music Projects: you can apply for support for

creation, rehearsal and development of new music projects to the stage of readiness for public presentation, and which will have a minimum of 2 performances. £500 to typical maximum £7,500 (Fast Track) or £15,000 (Deadline)

Recording: Individual investment in recording aims to support recording of material for professional release by musicians or artists or groups, bands and ensembles, or Scottish-based composers, sound artists, songwriters and producers who play or create any style of music. £500 - £5000 International Showcasing: International Showcasing for Individuals aims to support individual musicians or groups who have been invited to showcase at key international music industry events in order to advance their careers. £500 - £5000

http://www.creativescotland.com/creating-new-music

CREATIVE SCOTLAND INVESTMENT UPDATE

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Michael Marra with Mr McFall's Chamber recorded live on tour 2010 - available now! Celebrated Scottish singer-songwriter Michael Marra teamed up with Mr McFall's Chamber earlier this year in a tour of Scotland and Northern England. Many of the concerts were recorded, and their best moments are combined on this recording.

http://www.delphianrecords.co.uk

Music of Thomas Wilson on YouTube

With numerous selections of Thomas Wilson’s music appearing on iTunes over the coming months, six preview inserts have now been published on YouTube for your enjoyment!

http://www.yoututbe.com

Featured Recording: Michael Marra with Mr McFall's Chamber

MUSICAL BITES

Whilst our main site details the vast majority of up and coming concerts within Scotland across all musical genres, we would particularly like to highlight those featuring Scottish Composers over the next four months. Since the launch of our first issue, the number of forthcoming events catalogued has tripled, so please continue to keep us updated. Numerous listings have also been contributed from Chamber Music Forum Scotland. Monday 1st – Friday 3rd December; Various Venues, Nationwide Buzz Records present: Devil’s Left Hand Album Tour Featured Composer: Dave Arcari Tuesday 2nd – Saturday 6th November; Tramway, Glasgow Cryptic present: Orlando Featured Composers: Craig Armstrong and AGF Tuesday 2nd November 2010; Cowdray Hall, Aberdeen Sound Festival presents: The Edinburgh Quartet Featured Composer: William Sweeney Work: Quartet No.2 Thursday 4th November 2010; City Halls, Glasgow BBC SSO present: Romantics Unbound Featured Composer: Sally Beamish Work: Kirschen (World Première)

PERFORMANCE DETAILS

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Friday 5th and Sunday 7th November; Duff House, Banff and Woodend Barn, Banchory Sound Festival presents: The Rautio Piano Trio and Oliver Beamish Featured Composer: Sally Beamish Work: The Seafarer Saturday 6th November; Lochwinnoch Parish Church, Glasgow Alastair Savage presents: The Alastair Savage Trio Wednesday 10th November; The University of Glasgow Concert Hall Music in The University of Glasgow Presents: The Edinburgh Quartet Featured Composer: William Sweeney Works: Quartet No.2 and 3 Friday 12th November; Woodend Barn, Banchory Sound Festival presents: Emily White and Steve Bingham Featured Composer: David Ward Work: Emails from Palestine (World Première) Sunday 14th November; Music Hall, Aberdeen Sound Festival presents: Aberdeen Sinfonietta, John McLeod and Ian Watt Featured Composer: John McLeod Work: Guitar Concerto

Wednesday 17th – Saturday 20th November; The Winchester Club, Glasgow conFAB present: Club Gateways Featured Composer: Andrew Cruickshank Friday 19th November; Falkirk Town Hall, Falkirk Enterprise Music Scotland and Classic Music Live! present: Ceol Alba Featured Composer: George MacIlwham

Friday 19th November; Kloster Seeon, Seeon-Seebrück Featured Composer: John Maxwell Geddes Work: Three Bavarian Dances Saturday 20

th November; The University of Glasgow

Concert Hall Music in The University of Glasgow Presents: The Da Vinci Piano Trio Featured Composers: Sally Beamish, Edward McGuire and William Sweeney Works: Elegy, Piobaireachd and Yet Ha’e I Silence Left Sunday 5

th December; Gatehouse Church, Gatehouse of

Fleet Enterprise Music Scotland presents: Hoot Featured Composer: Edward McGuire Work: Folk Memories in Summer

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We continually endeavour to feature the majority of worldwide music competitions and calls for scores on our website. Although these frequently apply to music students and/or recent graduates, many of our posts cater for our entire composing membership:

City Chorus Commission Competition Deadline: 3rd December 2010

City Chorus (London, England) is celebrating its 90th birthday season in 2010-2011: the culmination of their anniversary year will be a concert in July 2011, which will feature a newly commissioned 20-minute work for chorus. Composers from around the world are invited to apply for this £2000 commission. City Chorus is an adult mixed choir, open to all without audition, and their 'ideal' composer would be able to write music that is original and exciting, yet within the capability of our amateur singers.

Featured Institution: University of St Andrews

CALLS FOR SCORES

The University of St Andrews 600th Anniversary Composition Competition Deadline: 7th January 2011 The University of St Andrews Symphony Orchestra is looking for a new piece of orchestral music to celebrate their 600

th anniversary. This Competition is aimed at young

composers, who are encouraged to submit new works. The winning composition will be performed throughout the University's 600th Anniversary celebrations, and the winning composer will be awarded £1,000.

Grawmeyer Award for Music Composition 2012 Deadline: 18th January 2011 Often regarded as one of the most prestigious composition awards, the University of Louisville offers an international prize in recognition of outstanding achievement by a living composer in a large musical genre: choral, orchestral, chamber, electronic, song-cycle, dance, opera, musical theatre, extended solo work etc. The award will be granted for a work premièred during the five-year period between 1st January 2006 and 31st December 2010. The amount of the award to the composer will be one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.00)

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Brighton Festival Fringe Deadline: 31st January 2011 Composers are invited to create a choral work for the celebrated Brighton Festival Fringe 2011, to be performed by 3 choirs, The Brighton City Singers, The South London Choir and The West London Choir, under the inspired musical direction of MJ Paranzino. This is a great opportunity for composers to write for a large, high profile community choral concert with over 200 adult voices.

The Reveille Trumpet Collective Deadline: 1st March 2011 Reveille is a collective dedicated to exploring new paths for trumpet while connecting performers, composers and audiences in innovative ways. They use commissions and premières as starting points: opportunities for composers to communicate directly with audiences worldwide, for audiences to interact with artists, and for performers to gain intriguing glimpses into new repertoire. All composers born 1976 or later are invited to submit unpublished, unpremièred works for trumpet and piano of at least 5 minutes' duration.

http://www.scottishmusiccentre.com/competitions/

The Scottish Music Centre would like to acknowledge the following Composer Birthdays for winter 2010/11: David Horne: December 2010 William Wordsworth: December 2010 Erik Chisholm: January 2010 William Sweeney: December 2010 With the launch of our new homepage and the centre’s increasing educational value we have decided to introduce Composer Podcasts: short interviews detailing the life and work of our Composer Members which are available to all of our online visitors. If you would like to be considered for future recordings please contact our Digest Administrator. In celebration of Rory Boyle’s 60

th anniversary and recent

British Composer Award nomination we thought it was only fitting that he should be our first guest. You can access his enthralling Composer Podcast on our homepage when it launches in November. Composer Profile: Born Ayr, 1951. Rory Boyle was a chorister at St George's Chapel, Windsor, and studied composition with Frank Spedding at the RSAMD, as well as piano, organ, clarinet and conducting. A Caird Travelling scholarship enabled him to continue his studies with Lennox Berkeley in London. 'While his Scottish roots are never far away, Boyle's music

CELEBRATIONS

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has a strong, mainstream European, Stravinsky-based rigour, with his own brand of virile, challenging but always comprehensible counterpoint, dissonance which is hard-fought yet never gratuitous, an unsentimental lyricism and unerring sense of architecture'. (Nicholas Cleobury) He has won several important awards, most notably the BBC Scottish Composers Prize for Variations on a theme of Orlando Gibbons, and the Zaiks Prize for Winter Music which was premiered in Krakow, Poland. His list of works covers most genres from large orchestral scores to incidental music for television. He has been commissioned by many festivals, music societies and leading performers, and he has also written extensively for younger players with four children's operas included in the list. His music is performed and broadcast widely both in Britain and abroad, and several works have been recorded on CD. He lives in South Ayrshire and divides his time between composing and teaching at the RSAMD in Glasgow. In 2003 he took up a three-year appointment as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's Composer Laureate for Schools and in 2006 he won a Creative Scotland award towards his production of an opera based on the life of Kaspar Hauser, which premièred in March of this year.

http://www.scottishmusiccentre.com/directory/e1923/

Below is a selection of key articles encompassing contemporary and classical music which have been published over the last two months. Full cuttings are located in the News section of our website.

The Lammermuir Festival takes flight RSAMD seeks £60,000 for fund to help students pay their way TV documentary goes behind the scenes at the BBC SSO The band plays on – part time – but Scottish Opera is sinking Should Creative Scotland be in the business of creating profit form culture?

Hitting the high notes with prison opera in the round Ambiguity leads to variations on a theme at the Scottish International Piano Competition Make your own kind of music at Glasgow University These go to eleven: The problem of noisy orchestras

Scottish animation inspires composer Lost Vivaldi concerto discovered in Edinburgh

IN THE NEWS

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NYCoS National Girls Choir: A Ceremony of Carols Interview: Svend Brown, artistic director of Glasgow Concert Halls Artists have come to aid of Scottish Opera, but the market looks a bit shaky Colin Currie drums up support for the Sound festival The Scottish Chamber Orchestra are delegated with the task of introducing young minds to Greek myths and String theory Scotland’s musicians take their partners for a new season Scottish Opera’s rising star Kate Valentine prepares for her biggest home role to date Future of Arts & Business services to the Scottish cultural community

http://www.scottishmusiccentre.com/news

Featured Ensemble: NYCoS Girls Choir

February 2011

October 2010: MTV crashed the Scottish Music Centre

If you would like any material published on our website or in our Spring edition, please contact our Digest Administrator:

chris.glasgow@scottishmusiccentre.com

NEXT ISSUE

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