New Hellawell piano recordings by Clare Hammond Rising star Clare Hammond makes her CD debut with Piano Polyptych, a collection of contemporary British piano music that includes Das Leonora Notenbuch and Bashö by Piers Hellawell. Acclaimed by The Daily Telegraph as a pianist of “amazing power and panache”, Clare Hammond has performed across Europe, Russia and Canada and has appeared over the past year at the Wigmore and Barbican Halls in London and the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Her recent Purcell Room debut for the Park Lane Group concert series was praised by The Guardian for its “crisp precision and unflashy intelligence”. Her new disc, on the ASC Prima Facie label, is available by clicking the home-page image or this link: http://www.primafacie.ascrecords.com. More information on Clare Hammond can be found at www.clarehammond.com Sound Carvings from the Bell Foundry in Australia and Canada! Sound Carvings from the Bell Foundry will receive Australian and Canadian premieres this autumn, when Stockholm Chamber Brass, who commissioned it in 2006, give performances in Melbourne and Toronto. They will play it in the Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne on Tuesday 27th September, and a month later at Soundstreams in Toronto, on Sunday 30th October. More information about the ensemble at Melbourne International Festival of Brass is at www.mifb.com.au/artistInfo.php?artistID=123. Since its premiere in 2006 the work has already been given numerous times both in Nordic countries and as far afield as Mexico. Hellawell is currently working on a concertante work for Stockholm Chamber Brass and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. Piani, Latebre performances this autumn This autumn sees two UK performances of the piano solo set Piani, Latebre, premiered by William Howard at the 2010 Spitalfield Festival. William Howard will again perform it in London, at King's Place, on Sunday 11th September at 12.15 pm, along with music by other composers with whom he has been especially associated - Judith Weir, Howard Skempton and Pavel Novak. More information is at www.kingsplace.co.uk The work will also be given in Manchester, at St Philip with St Stephen Church, on 1st November at 1pm. The pianist on that occasion is another long-term collaborator of Piers Hellawell, Richard Casey. Also in the programme will be works by Beethoven and Nielsen, and Richard Whalley's 5 Preludes. Edinburgh world premiere Sarah Watts (bass clarinet) and Antony Clare (piano) gave the world premiere of Piers Hellawell's Minnesang on Wednesday 9th March, at the St Mark's ArtSpace, Castle Terrace, Edinburgh at 6pm. The piece was written as a response to Sarah Watts's artistry on her instrument and her infectious enthusiasm for it; she has done much to create a modern British repertoire, and she champions that repertoire in numerous concerts across the U.K. Her programme in Edinburgh, for example, also included music by John Hails, Thomas Simaku and Iain Matheson. Hellawell Dublin portrait in RTÉ NSO 2011 'Horizons' series On February 22nd 2011 the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra gave a Hellawell portrait concert, as part of its lunchtime 'Horizons' series of living composers in Dublin's National Concert Hall. The central work was Agricolas, the clarinet concerto from 2007 commissioned by Robert Plane, who played it here. Also included were works from Hellawell's Degrees of Separation series, pieces written for the new concert halls of Sage, Gateshead in 2004. The concert, promoted by RTÉ, was conducted by Garry Walker, and was preceded by a talk by Hellawell. More details are at http://www.rte.ie/performinggroups/2011/0222/horizons2011hellawell.html on the RTE website. World Premiere at Spitalfields Festival 2010 17th June saw the world premiere, in Shoreditch Church, London, of Piani, Latebre, commissioned by William Howard with funding from Landmark Chambers for premiere at the 2010 Spitalfields Festival. Piani, Latebre (layers, hiding-places) is a set of three diverse pieces for solo piano, preceded by an introductory flourish presenting a tiny preview of their core material. The order of the three pieces is the choice of the pianist; differences of character between them suggest alternative dramatic narratives, depending on the ordering. The world premiere was given as part of a piano double bill in the festival, a pair of recitals given back to back by William Howard and, before him, Melvyn Tan. Leverhulme Research Fellowship Piers Hellawell has been awarded a coveted Leverhulme Research Fellowship for spring 2011, to provide time away from teaching for the composition of a major work for brass quintet and chamber orchestra. The project, initiated by Stockholm Kammarbrass, is a joint commission between British and Swedish orchestras. Quartets Old and New at the South Bank Three Hellawell piano quartets of different sizes, and one trio, featured in the 10th Anniversary celebrations for Chamber Music 2000, in the Purcell Room, London on Wednesday 10th February. The birthday party for this project, which has created over 60 new chamber works for young musicians since 2000, included the premiere of Hellawell’s fourth commission for CM2K, Hide In The Attic, which was performed by primary-level musicians from Henrietta Barnett School; the programme also included one of Piers Hellawell’s previous CM2K works for students, A White Room. Meanwhile professional performances were given of two large-scale works, The Building of Curves, his 1998 work commissioned by the Schubert Ensemble (founders of CM2K) and Etruscan Games: this, the London premiere of the piano trio of 2007, was given by the Lawson Piano Trio. To read a review by Bernard Hughes, click here click here Another Hellawell premiere in London is due in June when the Spitalfields Festival hosts the premiere of Piani, Latebre for piano, given by William Howard, as part of a double-bill of piano recitals in Shoreditch Church. Up in (Northern) Lights Sound Carvings from the Bell Foundry returned to Norway when Stockholm Kammarbrass gave two performances north of the Arctic Circle: Hellawell’s 2006 brass quintet, which was co-commissioned by the Kristiansand Festival, travelled north to Tromsø’s NORTHERN LIGHTS Festival on Thursday 4th February and to ILIOS FESTIVAL in Hårstad on Friday 5th February. Recent BBC Radio 3 broadcast: Degrees of Separation The first broadcast of the orchestral piece from Piers Hellawell’s 2004 set Degrees of Separation, delayed in Radio 3’s ‘Hear and Now’ schedules last year because of the sudden death of Maurizio Kagel, was in the ‘Hear and Now’ programme on the night of Saturday 29th August. The Ulster Orchestra is conducted by Fergus Shiel. Degrees of Separation was commissioned by The Sage, Gateshead for its opening ceremonies, and consists of pieces for various instrumental media, which were premiered in the different venues of The Sage; this orchestral work is the centrepiece. More information about the music is available on this website. Sustained Excellence Teaching Award Piers Hellawell’s 30-year career as a teacher of composition has been recognized by a Sustained Excellence Teaching Award from The Queen’s University of Belfast. The citation for the award reads: “This award is made to a skilled communicator and inspiring teacher of composition within the School of Music and Sonic Arts. Professor Hellawell is providing an enriching learning experience for his students and has developed innovative teaching strategies to communicate difficult concepts. He is interested in the learning journey of each of his students and provides them with opportunities to develop skills which not only prepare career composers, but are transferable to other careers in music. He provides timely and constructive feedback to students, which effectively supports his students’ assessment for learning.” Publishing Deal In November 2007 Piers Hellawell’s work was acquired by Peters Edition Ltd (London). Peters Edition will represent the catalogue throughout the world through its sister companies in Frankfurt and New York and its international network of agents. Agricolas – A sculptural concerto Piers Hellawell’s latest large scale concertante essay, Agricolas, is a work for clarinet and orchestra commissioned by Robert Plane. He was the soloist, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Michal Dworzynski, in the world premiere at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival on 11 September 2008 – see www.valeofglamorganfestival.org/2008_festival/bbcnow.asp for more information. The premiere was broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Hear and Now’ on the evening of Saturday 20th September, introduced by the composer. Agricolas takes its title and concept of design from the work of the American sculptor David Smith, many of whose works were grouped into sets in terms of their shared titles – for example the Agricolas. The work for clarinet and orchestra reflects the modular structure of many of Smith’s pieces by replacing the concerto’s characteristic narrative structures with a series of discrete items scored for fragmentary ensembles; the sequences of these sections form two overall movements. The solo clarinet is conceived in the role of commentator: eschewing strident display and conflict, it is free to explore a variety of chamber associations around the orchestra. CD Release Spring of 2008 saw the release of Dogs and Wolves, the latest CD collection from Metronome Recordings of Piers Hellawell’s work, featuring substantial orchestral and chamber works from the last ten years. This period has seen a number of major scores from Hellawell, including several commissioned by the artists appearing on this disc, to consolidate what The Gramophone has called Hellawell’s “steadily building reputation as a musical non-conformist”. Two recent orchestral works frame the disc, which also includes Hellawell’s 2nd string quartet Driftwood on Sand and two chamber works widely performed by the Schubert Ensemble. Writing in The Gramophone's Awards 2008 edition, Richard Whitehouse hailed the disc's title work, Dogs and Wolves, as offering a "subtle inference of blues and folk elements in perhaps the most engaging British orchestral showpiece this decade." He went on that "the performances are as expert as one might expect from musicians with whom Hellawell has collaborated extensively over the years." He concludes that "the composer's own annotations offer numerous intriguing pointers to his composing. Those who are yet to make its acquaintance could certainly start here." The whole review can be read in the section Reviews. Sound Carvings on tour Stockholm Chamber Brass continues to perform Sound Carvings from the Bell Foundry, which it commissioned in 2006, around the world. This summer has seen two performances of the work in Mexico – one acclaimed by the festival audience in Oaxaca and the other, in Mexico City, given live on Mexican Television; these are followed by another performance in Norway, this time at Bergen’s BrassWind Festival, on 28th September. Glasgow Premiere The earlier part of 2007 saw the composition of Etruscan Games for piano trio, commissioned by Gerry Mattock and Beryl Calver-Jones, which was premiered by the Da Vinci Trio on 6 March 2008. Overseas Premiere of Litholatry In February 2008 'Litholatry' (2001) received its first overseas performance, given by the new music ensemble of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. It was featured in two concerts given in The Roundhouse, Vancouver, Canada on 17th and 18th February 2008, conducted by Rosemary Thomson. Review Vancouver described it as a rousing Canadian premiere… all swirling circles and colour and movement, with ideas shifting rapidly, a kind of Impressionistic palette with riffs". Reviews are given in full in the Reviews section under ‘Composition’.