Montréal

I’m just back from two fabulous weeks in Montréal where I was a participant in the Bozzini Quartet’s Composer’s Kitchen alongside fellow composers Marielle Groven, Simon Martin and Amber Priestley, as well as mentor composers Laurence Crane and Michael Oesterle. We were all immensely fortunate to work extremely close with the quartet and two incredibly brilliant and insightful mentors and for this I am very grateful. Prior to Composer’s Kitchen, it was a great treat to hear some wonderful English, Canadian and Norwegian music during the Bozzini Quartet’s Salon QB series where they were joined by English Pianist Philip Thomas. These were extremely refreshing concerts with superb performances, with particular highlights for me being afforded the opportunity to hear live performances of Martin Arnold, Laurence Crane, Bryn Harrison, Cassandra Miller, Michael Oesterle & my good friend Howard Skempton. The sound of their music rang in my ears long after the performances had finished.

We hit the ground running with the Composer’s Kitchen and it was incredible. Every day we experimented, refined, rehearsed, discussed and experienced each other’s compositions, with the quartet making every discernible effort to really get inside each of our pieces. Their utter dedication to the music was palpable. This was matched by extremely sound comments and advice from Laurence and Michael which really elevated the pieces. The final concert was a huge success and it was such a warm experience hearing these four pieces really coming to life with expert performances from the quartet.

It was an absolute pleasure and privilege to get to know my peer composers Marielle, Simon and Amber and Mentors Laurence and Michael. A pleasure to hear their music, hear them talk about their music and experience all their little eccentricities and how these filtered into their music. Their music for me was an extension of their personality and it was so heart warming to hear this play out. It was incredibly beautiful to hear their work develop over the week and how it was tweaked, refined, rendered and given birth to in high-definition. For my own part, I was extremely delighted with my own piece Neue Kraft Fühlend and believe it to be amongst the best things I’ve written. It was also such an honour to work with a quartet so dedicated to our music and so interested in bringing it to life. This was trumped only by their friendliness, hospitality, generosity and genuine warmth, with each member of the quartet welcoming us into their families and homes.

I really feel that this was an invaluable experience for my development as a composer and I really feel that I have met some life long friends and co-conspirators. I was immensely sad to have left everyone behind as we went our separate ways, but this was only leg I of our journey together. We will meet again for Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival!

I want to thank the Bozzini Quartet (and Cléo Palacio-Quintin for her hospitality!) for selecting me for participation in this scheme and affording me the opportunity to work with them and to meet so many remarkable people.

À bientôt mes amis du Canada!

Composer’s Kitchen 2013 was documented here, here & here by these lovely people

Bozzini Quartet/Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival Composer’s Kitchen Press Release

TWO UK-BASED COMPOSERS INVITED TO
COMPOSER’S KITCHEN IN MONTREAL
THANKS TO COLLABORATION WITH HUDDERSFIELD CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL (hcmf//)

Seán Clancy and Amber Priestley
to attend seven-day workshop in Montréal: April 21 – 27, 2013

High-octane Montréal-based Bozzini Quartet has invited two young UK-based composers – Seán Clancy and Amber Priestley – to take part in the ninth edition of its annual Composer’s Kitchen workshop from April 21 – 27, 2013 in Montréal.

The composers were chosen for the originality, creativity, artistic vision, and craft shown in the compositions they submitted.

The format of Composer’s Kitchen has been expanded this year – thanks to an ongoing collaboration with Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (hcmf//), the UK’s largest international festival of new and experimental music.
Described as a combination of workshop, laboratory, playground and masterclass, Composer’s Kitchen offers four up-and-coming composers – two from Canada and two from the UK – the opportunity to have their compositions read, played, assessed, analysed, worked on, played again and performed in the week’s closing concert.
The Bozzini Quartet and two mentor-composers (Michael Oesterle, Montréal/Canada, and Laurence Crane, London/UK) will work with the participants in an informal yet intensive atmosphere.

Later in the year the four composers will reconvene in Huddersfield during the 2013 hcmf// (November 15 – 24) for a three-day follow-up masterclass culminating in a public concert of works by each of the composers, performed by the Bozzini Quartet.

The Canadian composers selected for the 2013 Composer’s Kitchen are Simon Martin (QC) and Marielle Groven (CAN).

Seán Clancy

Birmingham-based, Dublin born composer Seán Clancy’s (b. 1984) music has been described as ‘exploring the tensions between found and original material, narrative and rupture, elite and vernacular values, and between innovation and intervention’ (Journal of Music).
His music has been commissioned and performed internationally by world renowned artists including; The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Susan Narucki, Garth Knox, Orkest de ereprijs, Crash Ensemble, Fidelio Trio, Schubert Ensemble, Darragh Morgan & Mary Dullea, Lontano, Decibel, Dublin Guitar Quartet, Duo Vita, Ensemble ICC, Ergodos Voices, The Curious Chamber Players, Thumb, Steve Potter and the Composers Ensemble and has been broadcast on amongst others; RTÉ lyric fm (Ireland), BBC Radio 3 (UK), and Klassika Raadio (Estonia).
Website: www.seanlclancy.wordpress.com

Amber Priestley
Born in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Amber Priestley has lived in the U.K. since 1991. She obtained her BA at the University of Sussex and her doctorate in composition at the University of York. Some recent performances include: Then You Are In Clover (Queens’ College, Cambridge commission); Such Nights I Get All The Free Margins (Damien Harron/spnm commission); and If you really loved me, you’d stop playing that piano and listen to me (Claudia Molitor commission).
The majority of her work deals directly with musicians performing both music and theatre.  Another of her major preoccupations lies in open-form scores: Amber is interested in trying to allow again for a possibility where time is not fixed, and each time a piece is experienced the music has the chance to be different. She is also interested in allowing the performers’ individuality to emerge through her scores.
Website: www.amberpriestley.com

Forthcoming Performances

12 February 2013 – World Premiere of Décès for 4 voices and Ensemble. UCD Ad Astra Scholars conducted by Ciaran Crilly. 8pm National Concert Hall, Dublin. More Info

1-3 March 2013 – Workshop of Red, Blue, Orange for piano trio. Fidelio Trio. National Concert Hall, Dublin (details to be confirmed). More info

10 March 2013 – World Premiere of Strange to See You Again for solo violin, solo saxophone and ensemble. BCMG & Thumb conducted by Dan Watson. c. 9.30pm CBSO Centre Birmingham. More info

11 march 2013 – I See Now Why People Hide for ensemble. Decibel conducted by Daniele Rosina. 7.30pm Kings Place, London. More info

12 March 2013 - I See Now Why People Hide for ensemble. Decibel conducted by Daniele Rosina. 7.30pm Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham. More info

27 April 2013 – New Piece for string quartet. Quatuor Bozzini. 5pm Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur, Montreal. More info

This is the news

2013 has gotten off to an incredibly busy start, kicking off with a wonderful performance of Findetotenlieder in Birmingham by Thumb conducted by Dan Watson. In January I was selected to participate in the New Music Dublin composer workshop in March with the incredible Fidelio Trio and Johannes Maria Staud as part of Ireland’s EU Presidency Cultural Programme and am busy putting the finishing touches to this piece right now. More details available here. It is a fantastic opportunity to work with Johannes Maria Staud and the Fidelio Trio as well as to be featured alongside such a talented group of composers. 

I am also delighted to announce that I have been selected to participate in the Bozzini Quartet’s composer Kitchen project in Montreal and at the 2013 Huddersfield contemporary music festival. I’m really looking forward to participating in this fantastic project and working with musicians that I have the utmost admiration for. More details available here.

I am grateful for such opportunities and look forward to getting stuck in to the compositions!

 

2012-2013

Things have been so busy of late that, this small tiny pocket of the internet has become dreadfully neglected, but I’m taking this little respite in work to rectify this situation for anyone that is interested.

2012 was quite a crazy year, despite being one of the most personally difficult years I have experienced with much emotional strum und drang, it was probably the most fruitful professionally with many highlights worthy of mention. In February my SAM/BCMG residency came to its conclusion culminating in a performance of what is in my opinion, my most significant work, Findetotenlieder. This was undoubtedly the highlight of my career and I am incredibly grateful to have been afforded the opportunity to be a resident composer with BCMG and to have been able to write this piece for such a fantastic group of musicians. In march a performance of White Paintings took place, in which I experimented with some new compositional ideas and the piece was hugely successful. Hopefully it will have a fruitful performance history. Also in March, it was a great honour to have my piece I See Now Why People Hide performed in the Heiner Goebbels frontiers + festival at Birmingham Conservatoire by my good friends Decibel. Decibel are some of the most brilliant musicians around and a group I have the deepest connection with and every performance of my music they are involved with is always filled with energy and sensitivity. It was one of the highlights of the year having Heiner around Birmingham for the week of his festival and he had many, many interesting and insightful things to say about the music he heard during his time here. In April my orchestral piece Changing Rates of Change was performed by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. I was immensely happy with this piece and it was an absolute delight to work with the orchestra and Gavin Maloney. I learned so much from this experience both from the point of view of a student and a teacher and it was an incredibly riveting and worthwhile experience. May, June, and July were spent writing up my PhD, which has really changed my perception on composing and the nature of art. I hope it makes for interesting reading for others when it becomes available. In addition to this, I spent these months writing and workshopping Ping Cutlets, a companion piece to Joe Cutler’s brilliant Ping as part of the London 2012 festival. This was a fantastic experience to be part of, intervening on Joe’s piece and re-imagining it for a number of different Children’s string ensembles (Lewisham’s Fabulosity project & Pembroke House Community Music) These projects really make a difference to Children’s lives and the effect of this was palpable at the performance in the Queen Elizabeth Hall in July. In August I wrote another orchestral piece Toile Brûlée for the UCD Symphony Orchestra which was subsequently performed in the National Concert Hall in Dublin in November. Again, it was a really nice experience to work with the orchestra and conductor Ciaran Crilly and the group gave it their all. The same day (in the morning), I had my PhD examination, which was one of the most intense, difficult, fascinating and enjoyable debates I’ve ever had. I am incredibly grateful to my examiners for really pushing me and making me stand behind my sometimes contentious arguments. The rest of 2012 was spent writing commissions for the beginning of 2013 whose fruits will shortly be harvested.

2013 began with me hitting the ground running. At the beginning of the year. My space rock band Nippons released their debut album which was a lot of fun to make and contains some brilliant/weird/funny/offensive music. Last Tuesday my piece Findetotenlieder was given a super performance by Thumb conducted by Dan Watson. I was really thrilled by this performance and Thumb are a group going from strength to strength. It will be a delight to work with them again in March on a new double concerto Strange to See You Again written for them and BCMG soloists. In February a new piece Décès will be performed in the National Concert Hall in Dublin by the UCD Ad Astra Scholars and in March my good friends Decibel will again perform I See Now Why People Hide in a brilliant concert of music including works by some of my most revered composers. There is much more to come but for now I’ll finish by stating what a privilege it is for me to be involved with Birmingham Conservatoire. Having completed PhD Studies there I had the most wonderful supervision from Joe Cutler, Howard Skempton and Edwin Roxburgh for which I am eternally grateful. The Conservatoire is such a vibrant place with so much interesting music coming out of it and I am so very fortunate to have such wonderful teaching colleagues and such brilliant students. It is fascinating to see where music is going next. All best wishes for 2013!

The Past Week

It has been an incredibly busy week, but one that has been extremely fruitful and afforded me the opportunity to hear a lot of wonderful music have some incredibly insightful discussions about music and work with some fantastic musicians. On Monday my PhD viva voce took place, which was the culmination of a little over three years of research and composition. It was an incredibly interesting, stimulating and enjoyable debate and really forced me to stand behind all I have been saying and doing for the past number of years and afforded me the opportunity to solidify my compositional thought. I passed with minor corrections which was the best possible outcome for me and I am grateful to my examiners for such an interesting debate, as I am to my supervisors for all of the help and support I have received over the past number of years.

This process was quickly followed by a flight back to Ireland to hear a new orchestral piece of mine Toile Brûlée in Dublin’s National Concert Hall performed by the UCDSO, conducted by Ciaran Crilly. I was so honoured to have been commissioned by the UCDSO on what was a very special event for the orchestra, their 10th anniversary and the group did a fantastic job on what was a difficult piece for them, performing with the energy and sensitivity that the piece required. They followed this with a truly riveting performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony which was truly stunning and resulted in a sold out National Concert Hall standing ovation, testament to the amazing effort and Trojan work that Ciaran Crilly and the orchestra invested in both pieces. It was a fantastic experience to work with the orchestra and a pleasure to have gotten to know the players after the concert.  

On Thursday I was one of the immensely fortunate attendees at composer Ed Bennett’s group Decibel performing a portrait concert of his music culminating in a performance of Dzama Stories with the unbelievable saxophonist Paul Dunmall as soloist. I have always been fond of Decibel having worked with them a number of times on my own music. However, on this occasion they really were something else. Beginning with Sometimes Everything Falls Apart the group built up minimal textures delivering the heartbreaking poignancy contained within the notes before unleashing a torrent of sound at the piece’s climax. This was followed by two pieces which seem to have become stock-in-trade for Bennett; Monster for Bass Clarinet & Electronics performed expertly and ferociously by soloist Paul Roe and Stop Motion Music which I have heard many times before. This time however, the group seemed to have internalised the music and really executed the piece perfectly with the required animation and intensity that this music so deserves. The highlight of the concert came however with Dzama Stories an extended multi-movement composition with Paul Dunmall as an improvising soloist. The group were superb from beginning to end, providing a sometimes intense and violent, sometimes lyrical and beautiful backdrop for Dunmall, like some crazed alchemist, to wail his Soprano and tenor saxophones over his musicianship judging perfectly just the right material to throw into the space provided by the ensemble. It was truly a wonderful experience and Decibel seemed right at home in the surroundings of Stan’s Cafe at A.E. Harris. Credit is also due to composers & Birmingham Conservatoire students Cameron Dodds and Josh Herring who provided support and like two fine chefs procured a a delicious set of electronic music h’orderves, creating just the right ambience before Decibel took to the stage.

The week finished with an incredibly interesting talk given by composer Richard Baker with BCMG which dealt with the poietics of his latest commission for the group The Tyranny of Fun. It was a fantastic opportunity to hear Richard talk so animatedly about the gestation of his piece and much of what he said resonated deeply with my own practice as an artist. It’s so welcoming to know that one isn’t completely insane and that other artists hold similar views as to the nature of musical material and where it can come from.

This week has given me much to think about and I am very grateful to everyone who had any part in its events, particularly to all of the well wishes I got from Friends & Family on Monday! For now however, it’s back to composing…

World Première of Toile Brûlée November 19 2012

The world Première of my latest orchestral piece Toile Brûlée will take place on Monday 19 November 2012 at Dublin’s National concert hall performed by the UCD Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ciaran Crilly. The piece was commissioned as a celebration of the orchestra’s 10 year anniversary and is both a companion piece to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (which also features on the programme) and an artistic intervention on Sigur Rós’ Glósóli.

The concert is now sold out! However, returned tickets may become available on the door on the night.

More info is available here

I’m really looking forward to what promises to be a spectacular evening of music!