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Schubert, Singing and Sexuality

Music's Dr David Bretherton was the mastermind behind last week's Schubert concert and masterclass - participants heard fabulous music, explored issues around composers' sexuality, and watched our students learn from international artists: During LGBT History Month 2019, the Department of Music and Turner Sims Concert Hall held two Schubert events connected to my Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Leadership Fellowship on queer music theory. Continue reading →

Composing, Line upon Line

Postgrad composer Olly Sellwood travelled to Texas last month to workshop his new piece for percussion: This January I took a long ride over to Austin, Texas to take part in Line Upon Line’s winter composer festival and course. Line Upon Line (a percussion trio made up of Matt Teodori, Adam Bedell and Cullen Faulk) has been performing together since 2009 premiering, performing and recording works by composers from Aaron Cassidy to Jessie Marino. Continue reading →

When Harry Met . . . Part 4 – Drew Crawford

The last in Harry Matthews's series of composer interviews in the runup to SHIFTS - now time for us all to perform in and listen to the concert tomorrow! Harry Matthews (HM): As a composer you have such a diverse and creative output. For you, is there a separation between the creative process of composing a film score and composing Waves Of… (the piece featured at the upcoming SHIFTS concert)? Drew Crawford (DC): The short answer to that is, no. Continue reading →

When Harry Met (Some More) Composers – Part 2, Ben Oliver

Music's own Ben Oliver tells about his compositions and other pieces on Sunday's SHIFTS concert, and what it's like for students and staff to play new music together: Harry Matthews: Let’s start by talking about the upcoming concert Shifts. What gave you the idea to curate a concert that focuses on aspects of minimalism? BO: We do performance projects quite regularly at Southampton where we bring in people to perform alongside our students. Continue reading →

When Harry Met (Some) Composers: Part 1 – Brona Martin

Ahead of our big SHIFTS performance next week PhD composer Harry Matthews is interviewing 4 of the 5 composers involved in SHIFTS on 27th January at Turner Sims (Steve Reich isn't reachable on Skype this week!). In this first interview Harry caught up with electroacoustic composer and Southampton Teaching Fellow Dr Brona Martin to talk about her recent work Sowing Seeds (2018), which will be featured in the concert. Continue reading →

Sowing the Seeds of Community Engagement

Composition lecturer Dr Brona Martin tells us about an exciting recent commission and the sounds and connections it has fostered: Earlier this year I was commissioned by Seed Studios in collaboration with the Vonnegut Collective and the MANTIS Festival (Manchester Theatre in Sound), Manchester to facilitate some workshops in soundwalking, field recording and composition. Continue reading →

Panatical Pans

Malika Green is Director of Steel Orchestras at the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras. With the support of a prestigious Fulbright award, she has been on a three-region tour researching youth steelpan pedagogy in Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, the UK.  In her travels she has had the opportunity to understand the benefits and obstacles that occur when using both Western European Art music practices and non-Western practices when teaching the steelpan. Continue reading →

Hong Kong adventures

While Rosie Shepherd was admiring the snow during her year abroad in Norway (see her post of 4 July), Jordan Stock headed for warmer climes. Read on for his impressions of his year in east Asia: It has now been nearly one year since I left the refuge of Southampton to travel to about as far as you can get on the other side of the world, Hong Kong. I can only sum up the year with one word: Wow. Continue reading →

Getting Together with Southampton Composers

Postgrad composer Andrew Fowler tells us about the composition-fest that rounded off the academic year: On the third and fourth of July, the University of Southampton played host to its annual composer’s ‘Get Together’, which consisted of talks and workshops aimed at sharing the work of composers affiliated with the university and guest musicians with one another. Unsurprisingly, the event was entirely successful in achieving its objective. Continue reading →

My Year in Norway

Rosie Shepherd tells us about her life-changing experience during the study abroad year of her undergraduate Music course: At the beginning of August last year I embarked on a new adventure – packing up everything important to me and moving to Bergen, Norway to study for 10 months. To say those months have flown by would be an understatement, but the amount of knowledge, life experience and fantastic memories I have gained in that time have made it more than worth it. Continue reading →

Working in Music

As third year students are approaching the end of their course, finalist Emma Atkins looks back to a February workshop aimed at helping undergraduates think about career choices in music: As I'm interested in many different aspects of music, this careers day was extremely beneficial. When I graduate I hope to work in the business side of the music industry, particularly in music marketing. In addition, at some point in my career I hope to work on cruise ships. Continue reading →

Tracing a Trio

Hannah Shilvock (clarinet/bass clarinet, year 3), Ellie Purvis (violin, year 3), and Adam Rean (piano, year 2) have formed the Woodnote Trio, playing together for their Ensemble performance module this year and performing in different venues around the region as well. We interviewed them to find out what their year has been like. The combination of clarinet, violin and piano is unusual. What are the challenges of playing in this formation? Ellie: Balance is quite tricky. Continue reading →