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International, Page 3

Meter in the Midwest

Reader in Music Danuta Mirka has just returned from Indiana, where she was a distinguished guest at one of the largest faculties of music in America: Last week I stayed in the US, guest lecturing and teaching in the Music Theory Department of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Bloomington. Continue reading →

Matthew Shlomowitz at the Adelaide Festival

Lecturer in Composition Matthew Shlomowitz reports back about a recent performance at the 2014 Adelaide Festival: Last September I wrote a post for this blog about a sixteen-minute piece I was working on at the time for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, which you can read here. The work was performed on March 9 in the Adelaide Festival and I’m pleased to say it went well. The work features a solo part for drum kit, and my mate Eugene Ughetti played the part brilliantly. Continue reading →

Shlomowitz and Knoop CD Launch in Germany

Lecturer in Composition Matthew Shlomowitz reports back after a recent trip to Germany: In January 2014 Mark Knoop (Turner Sims New Music Fellow) and I travelled to Germany for concerts in Berlin and Hamburg to mark the release of Mark’s CD on the Belgian label Sub Rosa. The CD features two large-scale works for piano and pre-recorded sound by Austrian composer Peter Ablinger and myself. Continue reading →

Interview with Bernhard Lang

In the first of a series of interviews by postgraduate students with eminent composers who are coming to visit us at Southampton MátĂ© Szigeti asks Austrian composer Bernhard Lang some questions: MátĂ© Szigeti (MS): The first word that comes to mind while listening to your music is intensity. A sort of intensity which is familiar for me from my past encounter with trash metal bands' playing. Continue reading →

Michael Finnissy Chi Mei Ricercari Tour Part 2

Senior lecturer Tom Irvine updates us on the how the tour of Michael Finnissy's new piece is going:  Greetings from Hsinchu, Taiwan's own 'windy city' and home of National Chiao Tung University, the hosts of the second of our three concerts. It's been a real whirlwind. We left lovely laid-back Tainan this morning after the very successful premiere there last night, celebrated afterwards with a outdoor (!) reception with new friends and old. Continue reading →

Michael Finnissy Chi Mei Ricercari Tour, Part 1

Senior lecturer Tom Irvine is about to set off for Taiwan where he will hear the premiere of our chair of composition Michael Finnissy's new pieces for cello and piano.  Tom has promised to send posts throughout the tour but already has one advance report on how things are going: I'm still here in comparatively wintery Southampton, wondering if I will set off tomorrow as planned given various air-traffic problems in the skies overhead. Continue reading →

The harp, South American style

Earlier this month Charlie Grimsey and Cerys Beesley (year 2) participated in a fantastic workshop in Turner Sims: On the 4th November the word quickly spread that there was going to be a harp recital at the Turner Sims lunchtime concert series. What we didn’t expect was the charismatic Columbian harpist, Diego Laverde Rojas, to take the packed audience on a whirlwind tour of his homeland. Continue reading →

Chi Mei Ricercari – If cellos could talk

Tom Irvine (Senior Lecturer in Music) tells us about Michael Finnissy's new piece, which had a sneak preview performance last week in preparation for the December premiere in Taiwan: I've been travelling to Taiwan for the department and university regularly since 2009. One of the things that has come of my visits is a partnership with the world-famous collection of fine string instruments held in Tainan (a beautiful and laid-back city in the island's warm and sunny south). Continue reading →

Composing and conducting in Beijing

On completing his PhD at Southampton last year, composer George Holloway was awarded a grant for postdoctoral work in China.  One year in, he tells us how it has been going: Autumn, the best time of year in Beijing, is rapidly giving way to the icy chill of Winter.  I have my duck feather coat ready! I’m in Beijing studying conducting at the Central Conservatory of Music. Continue reading →

Cantum pulcriorem invenire

Postdoctoral researcher Gregorio Bevilacqua finished off the summer with an international conference on medieval music hosted at Southampton.  Here he looks back on the highlights: I was enjoying the first glimmers of British autumn when we welcomed delegates to Southampton for a three-day conference on the “Gothic” era in the history of Western music. Continue reading →