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EXAUDI

New video – Composing for voices with Finnissy and EXAUDI

Back in March, our professor of composition Michael Finnissy joined the leading contemporary ensemble EXAUDI for a residency at the Britten-Pears centre at Aldeburgh.  Along with EXAUDI's director James Weeks and soprano Juliet Fraser, Michael directed a course that gave young composers the chance to work directly with six of the singers from Exaudi in practical sessions as they developed new work and explored the challenges of composing for voices. Continue reading →

Finnissy and EXAUDI at the Wigmore Hall

Jeanice Brooks (Professor of Music) has been listening to a recent performance of work by Southampton colleagues and friends: Michael Finnissy's extraordinary Kelir for unaccompanied vocal ensemble was the highlight of a Wigmore Hall concert last Tuesday, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Kelir (1981) is the word for a curtain used for the shadows in Javanese puppet theatre. Its text is in Javanese, and consists of a ritual formula declaimed before the play begins. Continue reading →

Places of Remembrance

Among the activities during last month's Remembrance Day premiere weekend was a composition workshop with guests from the world-leading new music vocal ensemble, EXAUDI.  Mate Szigeti describes the pieces he and fellow postgraduate composers created: The rite of remembrance is always connected with a place. We remember at festive dinner tables, we remember in churches, as we do in public spaces designated for this purpose. Continue reading →