Clapping Music Workshop

Inspired by the London Sinfonietta’s on-going exploration of minimalism we are giving you the opportunity to participate in a Clapping Music Workshop. Led by our Principal Percussionist David Hockings, you can learn Steve Reich’s seminal piece and discover first-hand what makes this composition so thrilling; not only to watch, but to play. Steve Reich himself will perform the piece to kick off the London Sinfonietta’s concert at the Royal Festival Hall in March.

The workshop is free with a booking fee of £2.50 and is open to everyone – regardless of prior musical experience. Space is limited so make sure to book in advance.

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/207907

Five questions with composer Juliana Hodkinson

 

Juliana Hodkinson’s Stills is featuring in the forthcoming one day festival New Music Show 3 on Sunday 2 December at Southbank Centre. Find out more about Juliana and her work below. 

 

Juliana Hodkinson

 

What was the first recording you bought?
A tape cassette of Sibelius’ Lemminkäinen Legends and Swan of Tuonela – after hearing the Legends in Mrs. Parsons’ school music lesson.

 

Can you tell us a little bit about your background? How did you start in composing?
Originally, I guess it was a desire for more pocket money. There was a competition where you could win £50. I think I got second prize, which must have been £25. My violin teacher and his wife played in my piece, for piano and string quartet. Devon County Council ran residential youth-orchestra courses where composition was one of the afternoon activities, so I got my first taste there. The council also employed a composer-in-residence, Christopher Williams, who gave me lessons and pointed me towards Renaissance madrigals, Balinese music and contemporary music. I would never have formulated the idea of composing music if it had not been for these local frameworks, which gave me the opportunity to work with professional musicians on my ideas and get professional feedback, criticism and encouragement. 

 

Who or what inspires you?
That’s an endless list, because it’s always changing. Working together with musicians is a key source of inspiration for each piece in the development process. And the work of other artists; works in other media often provide me with metaphors for compositional concepts or processes that I can then put into sound. I’ve spent the last 14 years chewing over two video pieces I saw in Belgium by David Claerbout. But Varèse’ Ionisation repeatedly packs an immediate punch.

 

If you could pick a favourite project or personal career highlight to date, what would it be?
That would be All the time, an instrumental theatre production I developed in 2001. It was an extreme meeting between the most reduced artistic material I had ever worked with before, and the most extensive/intensive rehearsal and production process. Together with 4 musicians and a theatre production crew, we spent weeks putting soooo much effort into lighting matches, dropping feathers, splitting near-silent tones, unpacking a clavichord in the dark, tuning, tuning and re-tuning ancient instruments… I was exhausted, I had never spent so many hours in a black-box space before, and my music was getting quieter and more sparse, day by day. By the time the journalists came to interview me for the pre-show PR, I hardly had a score left to put on the coffee-table. It was a low point and a high point at the same time. The delicate and pain-staking production of All the time was the moment I learnt how much artifice and rehearsal is required for the simplest expressions, and how rewarding it is to bring the integration of sound and light under control in the same gesture. The next main production I did after that was a huge, loud orchestral electro-acoustic video extravaganza …

 

And finally, name your 3 most listened to pieces of music at the moment…
1. Deep Purple’s Smoke on the water (coming from my son’s bedroom)

2. Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf (a musical toy that hangs over my daughter’s cot)

3. And everything in between: all kinds of radical contemporary music and sound art that I’m researching for my curatorship of Spor Festival in Denmark next May – so I can’t tell you about it, as we want the programme to be A Surprise.

Poetry and music does not mix easily… that is perhaps what is attractive about the union…

The London Sinfonietta’s Blue Touch Paper programme nurtures and promotes the next generation of composers and interdisciplinary collaborators by providing the context and space to develop new work. On Wednesday 16 May collaborative works currently being developed by 3 groups of composers and artists on the programme will be showcased in a works-in-progress preview event at Village Underground, Shoreditch.

Composer Philip Venables and poet Steven J Fowler’s work The Revenge of Miguel Cotto, explores the violence, sanctioned by society, that is boxing.  Steven writes…

Tragedy is a subject best approached indirectly, certainly one runs immense risks in writing tragic poetry in 2012. We opened ourselves up to that contingency when we decided to take on the narrative that we did. When first Philip and I agreed, at my gentle urging, to formulate a piece about the boxer Miguel Cotto, he had yet to rematch the man who beaten him into a state of near death using (discovered posthumously) hand bandages loaded with plaster of paris. It is boxing’s own particular brand of madness that such a rematch with this man, Antonio Margarito, was allowed to happen at all. All to our advantage. The point being our work together was born of possibility, of chance, of contingency and we welcomed that into our process and our collaboration. Poetry and music does not mix easily, nor gently, and that is perhaps what is attractive about the union. And beyond that, when first scores were being drawn, staging arranged, poetry mooted we did not even know whether the piece would be a story of tragedy or of revenge.

As Philip has trusted me into the world of boxing (and poetry) so I have trusted him to shape the narrative beyond the narrative, and therein lies the key to our work being successful, that it might utilise notions apparent in the subject to embody something original, and powerful, perhaps even aggressively so. And as I have suggested, it has always been my experience that music doesn’t synthesis easily with poetry – it requires innovation, intention and a fair measure of sacrifice. So I believe our piece, as it nears its beginning (which can feel like an end, strangely, for the preview show) has become defined by its rough edges and at its core, will retain something of the volatility of both our subject and our method. I have been asked already if our piece might allow those who don’t appreciate boxing to enter into my perception, and thus appreciation of the sport … I can only say I feel it’s not for me to say, nor has it become a concern of ours. Boxing is a repository for a palpable sense of being, of alive-ness, whether it is enjoyed or not. And I would venture the same goes for good music and good poetry. If our piece comes close to achieving the same sensation, we will be exceedingly happy.

Steven J Fowler, poet, The Revenge of Miguel Cotto 

A lesson in Panpipe making…

Last month, the London Sinfonietta performed as part of Glasgow’s Minimal Extreme festival.  One of the works, Louis Andriessen’s Hoketus called for some rather unusual panpipes. Eliza Marshall explains…

On receiving a copy of the panpipe parts for Louis Andriessen’s Hoketus, it was quite apparent that we would need to customise our pipes to suit the desired pitches. Whilst both Dave Cuthbert and I play on Romanian-made pipes, they were not specific enough for what we needed.

Eliza's panpipe making kit

Buying other makes would have been expensive, and we would have had to break them up to add/take away notes that we needed/didn’t need. The geography of the notes when playing the panpipes is very important, so having any unwanted notes in the way was unhelpful for a fast moving piece like Hoketus.

We decided that the best optionwas to make our own.

3 metres of black conduit tubing, a tube cutting instrument,  some champagne corks and several hours later we had the exact notes required! David worked out rough measurements for each pitch, and cut the tubing accordingly

Panpipe making in progress

This was reasonably quick. Cutting the cork so that it was the right size was a little more time consuming, but very important to fully block the end of the tube, whilst also being movable so as to allow for tuning the pipes. Then some strong carpet tape and we were ready to go!

Our first rehearsal with Bang On A Can and the guys seemed quite impressed with our home creations. Mark Stewart commented on the fact that he has many instruments that he makes for different occasions and Louis Andriessen also seemed very happy with the instruments.

Eliza, with the finished panpipes

Hoketus is a great piece to play on panpipes, and I will now be adding my black tube creations to my ever-growing bag of ethnic flutes and random instruments.

Eliza Marshall, Panpipe player

Interview with Netia Jones, Projection Designer

We are delighted to be working with Netia Jones, designer of projections for our performance on Saturday 21 April as part of Impossible Brilliance: the music of Conlon Nancarrow. We caught up with Netia to find out what’s involved in producing and  designing her projections.

Can you tell us a little about your background?  How did you end up working as a projection designer?

I currentlywork as an director/designer in opera and concerts always using projection and film. I studied music and visual art simultaneously and introducing technology was a natural progression. Along the way I have worked in editing, installation and interactive media to forage for techniques that can best be applied to dealing with live music in performance, which has its own very specific demands and negotiations.

How do you go about designing projections to accompany existing works?

On any given project I will spend an earnest amount of time in preparation, both listening and reading up. Some projects have a greater narrative content and some, as this one, are just about creating a supporting layer to enhance the listening experience. There is always a visual language that emerges after this period of research, which can only really come out of total immersion.

 And how do you go about realising them?

I film and collate all the visual material, and edit to sound or to scores depending on the project. Then there is an extended period of programming to enable it all to be played live. The fundamental idea is that the film and projection follows the live performance, rather than the other way around. For me visual technology is a fantastic toolbox for responding to sound worlds in a way that enriches the experience of participating in live music. Projection can be as simple as integrated projected text, or it can encompass interactive triggers, sound, live cameras, film, or any combination of these.

Here’s a video of some of Netia’s previous work:

Who, or what, inspires you?

I am completely inspired by quiet geniuses, the kind of creative innovators who are impelled along a certain path whether anyone is listening or not. I’m afraid I am also slightly obsessed with mechanisation, machines, mathematics, science, technology and projected light.

If you could pick a favourite project or personal career highlight to date, what would it be?

Projecting 30 metres high onto Sizewell Nuclear Power station while performing Ligeti, Scelsi, Ockeghem and Mazulis. I can’t believe I was allowed to. Possibly I dreamt it.

Can you tell us about the projections in Impossible Brilliance: the music of Conlon Nancarrow?

Unlike other projects that are more narrative or concept-driven, I see projection in this concert to be a way of supporting this amazing and exhilarating programme, and perhaps suggesting, or allowing, some ideas about the composer to emerge. We have some really wonderful images of Nancarrow, and the tools of his fairly unique trade are so beautiful that I think some reliance on stills, and possibly text, can bring together these startlingly brilliant pieces and create some kind of picture of the man behind them. I am very interested in this quote from Nancarrow: “My essential concern, whether you can analyze it or not, is emotional; there’s an impact that I try to achieve by these means”. I have been slightly in love with Nancarrow for quite a while and it is a pure joy to be working on this project.

 And finally, what is the most played piece of music on your mp3 player right now?

Conlon Nancarrow String Quartet No.1, Oliver Knussen Upon One Note, György Kurtag Jatekok.

Principal Player Focus: John Constable

John Constable, the London Sinfonietta’s Principal pianist and YouTube clip enthusiast is March’s featured Principal player.

When did you realise you wanted a career in music?

John Constable, London Sinfonietta Principal pianist

At school.  All I ever wanted to do was to play the piano and listen to music.

 What was the first recording you bought?

I don’t remember the first recording I bought myself but I well remember two that I was given by my parents; Artur Schnabel playing Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto and Victoria de los Angeles singing The Maiden and the Nightingale by Granados.

 What piece of new music changed you?

The Whale by John Tavener, the first piece I played with the London Sinfonietta which started me on this fantastic journey with my marvellous colleagues.

 What piece of music brings a smile to your face when you see it on your music stand?

Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro.

 What has been your favourite London Sinfonietta experience?

There have been so many marvellous experiences that it is impossible to pick just one! I suppose it has to be a tie between our first ever tour of Europe with Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio and David Atherton and our performances of the Quartet for the End of Time in the Italian Chapel on Orkney in a building built by Italian prisoners of war and so close to Scapa Flow.

 What is perfection?

Something which every performer aspires to but knows they well never reach.  There is always something more one could have done with the music.

 What is your most valued posession?

Something which is not a posession at all. My family.

 And finally, which London Sinfonietta concert are you most looking forward to in 2012?

It has to be In Portrait: Harrison Birtwistle on 24 May.  Harrison Birtwistle has been such a central part of our concert giving from very early days and the concert will be conducted by David Atherton, our founder!

John’s next performance with the London Sinfonietta will be on Friday 23 March in Glasgow where we’ll be perfoming a double-bill as part of the Minimal Extreme Festival.  Click here for more details.

To receive John’s monthly YouTube recommendation, sign up for the London Sinfonietta e-zine.

Five Questions with Andrew Watts

Andrew Watts, countertenor and soloist in In Portrait: Olga Neuwirth talks about Hommage à Klaus Nomi, his ideal musical collage, and who he’d most like to be for a day…

Countertenor Andrew Watts

On Saturday 11 February, you’ll be performing as soloist in Olga Neuwirth’s Hommage à Klaus Nomi.  Can you tell us a little about Nomi’s character and how this influences your approach to the role?

Taking on the persona of someone like Klaus Nomi is almost impossible. Unlike such things as Stars in Your Eyes on the television the role is in no way meant to be an impression of Klaus Nomi  (vocally or in a fashion sense!), it is more an evocation of the times and spirits of the period when Klaus Nomi was singing and performing.

My approach to singing this music is to treat it simply in a classical form even though some of the songs are based in the rock genre. Good singing along with a natural performance style is needed for these songs. The arrangements by Olga Neuwirth are incredible and full of musical nuances and detail.

Klaus Nomi used music to adopt a new persona.  If you could be someone else for a day, who would you choose, and why? 

I am fairly happy with being the person I am but if I were to become a person for the day I think I would like to be the President of the United States of America. I have become obsessed with the TV series The West Wing and carry it with me when away from home singing opera around the world. It is incredibly written and has a real insight into the working of politics in the US.  Being President would give me access in to the most secure building in the world.

Olga Neuwirth has said that she has been intrigued by Klaus Nomi since the age of 13 and “was always a fan of his songs and his personality.”  Which performer or hero, real or imagined, intrigues you?

I guess as a classical singer I am supposed to think of some other singer who has influenced me or who has inspired me. Most of the great singers have had some influence on me; I simply love the human voice. This is my healthy obsession. However if there was a person who intrigues me then I would have to say Diana, Princess of Wales. I had the pleasure of meeting her both publicly and privately and together with the rest of the world I still wonder what went on in her mind behind the smile and the gentle nature.

In Hommage à Klaus Nomi, Olga Neuwirth takes inspiration from 9 Klaus Nomi songs that were originally performed by a great variety of performers.  If you were to create your own musical collage of favourites, what songs would you include?

This list can be endless! Looking at my iPod to see what I listen to all the time, I would include the following; The Carpenters We’ve Only Just Begun; The Weather Girls It’s Raining Men, Elton John’s Candle in the Wind,  Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked This is the Moment from the musical Jekyll and Hyde, Isolde’s Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, Whitney Houston’s One Moment in Time and anything by Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson.

And finally… in a previous period of his life, Klaus Nomi worked a pastry chef.  If you hadn’t become a musician, what would you be now?

Well I have done many jobs in my time before this music thing took off. I cleaned offices, put the jam in the middle of doughnuts in the local bakery, worked in the local grocers weighting out vegetables, worked in restaurants and pubs, played cocktail piano in a wine bar, and cooked pub food.  I often wonder if I had not been a musician what would I have actually been doing now.

Click here to watch Klaus Nomi on YouTube

And hear to listen to Andrew Watts performing Olga Neuwirth’s Five Daily Miniatures.

Principal Player Focus: Joan Atherton

Joan Atherton, London Sinfonietta Principal second violin

In our second Principal Player Focus, the London Sinfonietta’s Principal second violinist Joan Atherton tells us about touring to the Arctic Circle, her most valued possession and which London Sinfonietta concert she’s most looking forward to in 2012…

What was the first recording you bought?

When I was ten I received a record token for Christmas.  I chose Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite (attracted by the pretty cover) and would spend many hours dancing to the music.

What has been your favourite London Sinfonietta experience?

It’s difficult to pick one just one because there have been numerous good ones. I particularly enjoyed a ten day tour of Norway in January 1994, when we went to many places including the Arctic Circle.  Everywhere we played the local people were so hospitable and the landscape at that time of year was breathtaking; the sky exhibiting different shades of blue and turquoise.  I enjoyed the tour so much that I chose to go back the following year with my two daughters on our annual skiing holiday.

When did you realise you wanted a career in music?

I was about twelve, but at that stage I wasn’t sure in which direction I would go.  I loved singing, playing the piano accompanying my friends and adored orchestral playing and chamber music.

Who or what inspires you?

My late father, who taught me the piano, was a great mentor.  Today, I’m inspired by my wonderful colleagues.

Who would play you in a film of your life?

Meryl Streep

What is your most valued possession?

My Italian violin (Mantegatia) made in Milan in 1764.  I once accidentally left it in a restaurant in Basel and was distraught when I realised.  Fortunately, when we returned, the violin was where I’d left it.

And finally, which London Sinfonietta concert are you most looking forward to in 2012?

I’m looking forward to In Portrait: Harrison Birtwistle on Thursday 24 May at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, when we’ll perform Cortege.  We have challenging solos to play and the piece, which was written for us, has become like an old friend.  It’s also an opportunity for me to catch up with my brother David who will be conducting the rest of the concert.

Joan Atherton’s next performance with the London Sinfonietta will be in Wolfgang Rihm at 60, on Tuesday 24 January.

Shiva Feshareki reflects on Valentine’s Rhapsody

On Saturday 5 November the London Sinfonietta premiered a selection of chamber works by our Writing the Future composers.  After the event  Shiva Feshareki sent us this blog post about her thoughts on both the concert day and afterwards. Thank you Shiva!

The concert on Saturday 5 November was one of those strange, surreal experiences.  In my opinion, I had the country’s finest instrumentalists on stage ready to perform my piece Valentine’s Rhapsody.  So I was at ease… in that sense. The issue, I must confess, was the feeling of self-doubt.  You see, I had written an extremely personal and difficult piece emotionally, and it is dedicated to someone I love dearly – Valentine Davies – and who has (without exaggeration) saved my life.  I wanted this piece to show a transition, mirroring my life. This is what the piece is about and how Valentine’s impact changed who I am, and for the better.   My doubt was that, on a personal level, this is the most significant piece I have written.  Will it ever have that massive, heart-wrenching impact it had on me whilst thinking and composing it, but in performance? …to others?

I think the conclusion is that one shouldn’t over-think these things (something I have to remind myself every second of everyday).

A) I wrote a piece.
B) I quite literally translated an almost brutal auto-biography.
C) I was honest.
D) The performers respected that honesty.
E) It all represents this eventually positive journey into a short, purposefully understated piece.
F) It was performed better than I could imagine, and it had the opportunity to be heard.

First Conclusion: A+B+C+D+E+F = What more could I want?

Second conclusion: once a piece is written – it is permanent – it does not wither.  So the person the piece was written for will have a permanent reminder of how she helped me, and especially, helped me help myself.  And as for ‘Writing the Future’, quite literally I hope the piece lives on in the future (or at least, I hope that the score of it that I threw into the River Thames off the Embankment Bridge, drifts like a message in a bottle… at least in my thoughts and ponderings).

Thank you to the London Sinfonietta’s Writing the Future for supporting and promoting new music with the same relentless, unique passion as it takes for me to write the music.  This is a relationship that I will cherish, and will inspire me further, both musically and personally.

Click here to  listen to Valentine’s Rhapsody and other Writing the Future works premiered on Saturday 5 November.

 

Principal Player Focus: Mark van de Wiel

London Sinfonietta Principal clarinettist, Mark van de Wiel

Over the coming months we’ll be profiling a selection of the London Sinfonietta Principal players, giving you the chance to learn a little more about the people you watch on stage at our concerts.  This month, Principal clarinettist Mark van de Wiel tells us about his favourite London Sinfonietta experience, what piece of music makes him smile, and what inspires him…

What was the first recording you bought?

I can’t remember that, but I can remember the first recordings I listened to as a child on LP’s belonging to my father, of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, and Mahler’s First Symphony.

What has been your favourite London Sinfonietta experience?

Our week in Sydney during January 2003 when we started out with lunch for the whole group at Doyle’s fish restaurant on Watsons Bay and played a wide range of repertoire in the Sydney Opera House over three concerts, was very special.  However, playing Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time in the Italian Chapel on Orkney a few years ago was probably the most special of all. We played this very emotional piece twice, at 10 pm and then 11.15 pm, I think, emerging after midnight- and it was still daylight.  An amazing experience!

What’s the most unusual thing you’ve been asked to do in a musical work?

To sing down the clarinet while its bell rested on top of a timpani, adjusting the angle of the bell and making fast pedal changes to the drum with my right foot, all at the same time, in Vinko Globokar’s Dedoublement.

What piece of music brings a smile to your face when you see it on your music stand?

Ligeti’s Piano Concerto. It’s very difficult, but great fun and exhilarating to play- and I know that my trying to negotiate the ocarina solo (which the clarinettist is required to play) will always amuse my colleagues….

Who or what inspires you?

My colleagues and my students.

What piece of new music changed you?

Ablauf, by Magnus Lindberg, for clarinet and two bass drums. It was the first piece I performed with extensive use of such techniques as multiphonics, quarter tones, and simultaneous singing and playing, and encouraged me to make this type of music a major part of my career.

Who would play you in a film of your life?

It would have to be myself. Nobody else would accept the part.

And finally, which London Sinfonietta concert are you most looking forward to in 2012?

In Portrait: Harrison Birtwistle, on 24 May, which contains so much great music, including Cortege, which was written for us, and the marvellous Five Distances for Five instruments, for wind quintet.

Mark van de Wiel’s next performance with the London Sinfonietta will be in Wolfgang Rihm at 60, on Tuesday 24 January.