William Cole on composition

Britten Sinfonia will premiere William Cole's new work, Versa est in luctum in March. Through the Musically Gifted scheme you can help support William's new work - donations close at 5pm on Friday 7 March. William was the winner of the 2013 University of Cambridge's composition workshop held in partnership with Britten Sinfonia and recently graduated from Clare College, Cambridge. We asked William a few questions about himself and his inspirations;

What do you love about Music?
I do a lot of singing. From a young age I’ve sung in a lot of large spaces. My attraction to music, a lot of the time, is how music sounds in space. And it depends on the acoustic, like large cathedrals. I’ve sung a lot of church music where you have soaring lines and lots of space so there’s time for the music to really sound in a large space. This piece will be in a smaller concert hall but I still feel like that tactile sense of sound in a space is really important to me.

As a child, what brought you towards music?
I was a chorister. There is something very physical about making music and I liked the sense that music was something that you had a rather relaxed attitude with and just did all the time. Treating it with respect but not too much reverence, which I think is quite important for composers and musicians today, to not spend too much time worshiping the music but treating like a living object.

What inspires you?
The music that I do, that I sing and play is often a starting point for music, and actually the notes themselves as well. The way they interact and the games they seem to be playing in and of themselves I find really inspiring when I’m sketching.

The process of sketching is utterly absorbing and it breeds itself, you can start with a very small object and you just explore it, and see it from different angles. It almost seems sometimes that out of a small idea there can be four or five pieces that go in different directions somewhat. So a lot of the time I don’t actually lack for inspiration, it is actually finding the right space and frame for the idea that is the challenge.

So in terms of inspiration, it doesn’t often work that it’s just a musical object that appears to you that you just then put down on paper; a lot of the time the inspiration has to do with one particular gesture that you think might start a form rolling. A lot of the inspiration is about form and shape and the dual process is to try to find the material that suggests that shape and then try to get the material into that shape. I suppose the inspiration comes from extra musical things or other music, but also from the very process itself.

Are you inspired by anything else than music?
Landscape is often a very powerful force. I’ve done a lot of travelling as a musician, touring, and seeing a lot of different things. Not necessarily nature, often urban landscapes are very exciting to see. Words, text, the relationship between text and a piece of non-verbal music is an interesting one, how some words can inspire a particular sound. I suppose it depends on what type of poetry you’re working with. But actually, music is the main influence.

What do you think about new music and what we’re doing with Musically Gifted?
It’s absolutely brilliant because it opens up the piece in terms of ownership to a larger number of people. I think theres something really beautiful about a piece of music which everyone feels is part of a collective ownership. Like music that we all know, folk songs, the national anthem, big hit tunes that we sing at football grounds and the rugby grounds.

I can’t imagine that what I write will be sung in a football ground but the hope is that it has some kind of feeling of being part of those who come to listen to the piece, that it feels like an event that is shared amongst us rather than just between composer, player and then audience. So they’re not the last link but there’s a full circle and they’re there from the beginning so it’s one collective object.

If you hadn’t become a musician, what might you have done?
I did quite a lot of acting when I was in school, which was fascinating. I also might have been a chef, I am a big cooking fan - especially a pudding or breakfast chef, probably would have been my career of choice.

What’s your musical guilty pleasure?
I’m a real fan, in my spare time, of Simon and Garfunkel. The sound of it is very beautiful, but also some of the songs, when they just have the same tune round and round again and different words, it’s exactly what Schubert was doing. The way that those words are set is unbelievably poignant sometimes, and using the same tune ever again has different meanings each time and you get a really bittersweet feeling. I can learn a lot from them. It’s not particularly guilty compared to what some people listen to.

That’s not guilty on any level!
No ok. Sorry. Shall I try again?! I don’t really have any guilty pleasures I suppose…

How and where do you relax?
I’m the kind of person, I think, that doesn’t relax very much. But when you’re on tour and you’re doing music, you kind of have little pockets of time where you have to switch off, because you have to switch back on. So because of that, I like to travel and explore new cities and new places. I like reading, and cooking, it’s quite a good way of relaxing.

How do you see yourself in ten years’ time?
Hopefully doing lots of different musical things. I’ve always composed but also sung and I do a lot of conducting as well. So hopefully I’ll find a way to keep all of these things in balance because I think they really feed into each other and they’re a really good way of not getting too obsessed on one thing at one time.

And finally, could you please summarise yourself in one sentence?
Omnivorous in a number of ways!


William Cole's new work will be performed by Britten Sinfonia as part of its At Lunch series on Friday 14th March at Norwich's Assembly House, Tuesday 18 March at Cambridge's West Road Concert Hall and on Wednesday 19 March  at London's Wigmore Hall. Click here for more info.

You can support William Cole's's new commission through Musically Gifted. Donations must be received by 5pm Friday 7th March. Click here for more info.

Meet Nicholas Mulroy

Many of our audiences were enthralled by Nicholas Mulroy's performance as part of Britten Sinfonia Voices in our recent At Lunch series feautring the part-songs of Schubert and Schumann. This Easter he returns to Britten Sinfonia to sing the role of the Evangelist in  Bach's St John Passion. He took sometime out from his busy rehearsal schedule to answer a few questions;

What has been the highlight of your career so far?
I’m pretty excited about singing with Britten Sinfonia! But also, I’ve had the fortune to sing with some incredibly talented, dedicated and inspired musicians, so there are probably too many memorable experiences to mention.

When are you happiest?
Hanging around with my family.

What is your greatest fear?
That something awful might happen to them.

What is your earliest musical memory?
Singing ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ in school and crying at the sad ending. I had to pretend I had a headache.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?
My wife, Annie. She’s excellent in just about every way.

What was your most embarrassing moment?
I don’t embarrass very easily, but I took a pretty spectacular fall during a show in Scarborough a few years back. Alan Ayckbourn, who was in the audience, said it was one of the best prat-falls he’d seen. I wasn’t brave enough to admit it wasn’t deliberate.

What would your super power be?
Something that made traveling take less time.

If you were an animal what would you be?
I’m not sure I’m the best person to answer that.

What is your most unappealing habit?
Being glued to my phone.

What is your favourite book?
I’m reading One Hundred Years of Solitude at the moment.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Cadbury’s Biscuit Boost.

Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Assuming all my friends are busy, how about JS Bach, Picasso, William Byrd and my wife? I don’t think it would be boring.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?
At this time of year, I always find myself incredibly curious to know what those first performances of the John Passion would have sounded like, and how they would have been received.

How do you relax away from the concert platform?
I’m a fan of Liverpool FC, which isn’t always relaxing as such, and England cricket (ditto). I like watching TV and of course spending time with family and friends. Standard stuff.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I’m hoping it hasn’t happened yet…

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Listen.

In a nutshell, what is your philosophy?
Be kind, constructive, or quiet.

Nicholas Mulroy performs the role of the Evangelist in Bach's St John Passion with Britten Sinfonia at Cambridge's West Road Concert Hall on Wednesday 16 April, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw on Thursday 17 April, London's Barbican on Good Friday 18 April, Saffron Walden's Saffron Hall on Saturday 19 April and Norwich's Theatre Royal on Sunday 20 April. Click here for further information.

Musically Gifted - An Update

This time last year, we were busy setting up our newest fundraising campaign: Musically Gifted. In case you’ve missed it (and we hope you haven’t!) the aim of the game is to enable people from all walks of life to be a part of something special and timeless - the opportunity to help us commission a new piece of music and be credited in the score forever.

With composers ranging from Sally Beamish, James MacMillan and Nico Muhly (plus many more), we’re delighted to offer such a wide range of musical worlds and we know that there is something to please every ear.

We’re also extremely pleased to be able to include lesser known composers in the roster, which gives them a real chance of gaining exposure and creating an emotional link with listeners right from the very start of their careers.

The varying benefits received by donors depending on the size of their gift is also something we are thrilled with. All donors are credited in the score forever, although you can opt out if you wish to remain anonymous (and many do). There is then a wide range of gifts going from a signed front page of the score to the possibility of having Afternoon Tea with the composer and musicians (which we hear through the grapevine is quite a lot of fun!).

Our first commission received the support of 24 donors, our second had 35. We’re liking this trend and hoping that each commission will get increasingly popular.

Let’s not forget that Arts Council England will match-fund pound for pound each gift that we receive until 31 March 2014, which is an incredible fundraising opportunity for us. Of course, we believe it is vital for our orchestra to perform new music, and all money we raise through this campaign will permit us to commission yet more emerging and well-known composers.

I am the person who sends you the thank you card, wraps your scores in purple ribbon and makes sure that the adventure is worth it, and I must say it’s been a real pleasure this far. I love having a close connection with the composer as well as with the donors, and I really hope that we’ll be able to develop this campaign into a staple of what Britten Sinfonia offers to their followers.

Right, I think it’s time for you to discover it yourself. Get stuck in at www.musicallygifted.org.uk and get inspired.


Gabrielle Deschamps
Development Assistant

Schubert and Schumann

Our At Lunch 2 concerts featuring Roderick Williams and Britten Sinfonia Voices focus on the part songs of Schubert and Schumann. SinfoniaStudent, Anna Kaye explores both composers in this fascinating article;

Schubert and Schumann are composers that I first encountered quite late in my musical education. I was sixteen before I played the cello line of the Unfinished Symphony, and I still have only listened to much of Schumann’s lieder where I have sung many of the other major composers of the mid-Romantic period. As I reflected on this, I was initially frustrated by the fact that such wonderful music was absent from my repertoire for so long. But it is in reflection that I understand that this was perhaps a good thing.

Schubert was the epitome of the tortured artist. It is estimated that in his lifetime that only 10% of his works were actually performed. Despite this, Schubert lent respectability to song as a form that would not have been seen before. He changed the public’s perception of song as a genre, and this change was no less momentous for being posthumous. Lieder was the field of the amateur composer, of the homespun musician, and of the inexpert singer. Part songs were equally trivial, being composed to suit the requests of whichever choir performed them. Schubert took these genres and transformed them into something that required skill, and more importantly, taste, on the part of the performers. One need only listen to a substandard performance of Du Bist die Ruh to see that it highlights, rather than masks, the weaknesses of the singer - and, to a lesser extent, the accompanist. The part songs are no less forgiving for the singers. The favour of high tenor lines seems to have been founded in Schubert’s early life working with the boys’ choir of the Imperial Chapel, and the combinations of soloist and chorus, accompanied and unaccompanied, are certainly reminiscent of the demands and abilities of a group which fluctuated between boys’ and men’s voices.

Schubert tended to follow an instinct that allowed music to flow from his pen, and wrote very little literature for such a prolific composer of music. Robert Schumann was, first and foremost, a writer. His On Music and Musicians continues to provide some of the definitive reviews of music that we musicians value today. There is a particularly well-thumbed edition from my college library that has made the near-permanent move to my room as I continue to review it, much to the chagrin of the four other music students at my college. But it is not necessarily musical interest that drives me to return to Schumann again and again. It is the simple joy of reading such eloquent and expressive writing. Certainly, one cannot deny that Schumann is a skilled composer. Mondnacht, which Roderick will be singing in At Lunch 2, is a fantastic piece of music and one of the best examples of Schumann’s strophic song. But, in my opinion, it is the poetry that flowed from Schumann that is what elevates him above Schubert in the composition of song. In the words of the composer himself:

“People who are unfamiliar with the most significant manifestations of recent literature are considered uncultured. The same should apply to music.”

Schumann believed that the piano had a voice independent and equal to the singer. He was not entirely trusting of the singer and their ability, but his faith in the abilities of the piano is all too clear, not only in his song but in his solo piano compositions such as Traumerei, one of the greatest and most popular piano pieces ever written, so much so that it features heavily in one of my favourite novels - Jilly Cooper’s Appasionata. Make of that what you will.

Schumann and Schubert were complex people and both their lives ended in tragedy - Schumann’s in an asylum, and Schubert’s taken by syphilis. However, their vocal music transcends these unhappy circumstances to lift up the listener to a calmer, higher place. Schubert, particularly, was adamant that the purpose of music was to raise the listener “closer to God”. It is indeed complex music but it is also music that is returned to again and again - much like my borrowed copy of On Music and Musicians.

The reason I am glad that I didn’t attempt to perform the work of these composers until later in my life, and the reason I am glad I have yet to perform the majority of them, is because the performance of their works requires great tenacity in one’s technique and a superior judgment that leads the performer away from self-indulgence. I possessed neither of these when I was younger, and it will be a while yet before I will feel secure in performing a song cycle like Winterreise. It is a excellent thing then, that those attending At Lunch 2, will have the pleasure of hearing performers like Roderick Williams and Britten Sinfonia Voices, whose judgment and taste I trust implicitly.

Anna Kaye
Britten Sinfonia, SinfoniaStudent

At Lunch 2 performances take place on Wednesday 5 February 2014 at London's Wigmore Hall, Sunday 9 February 2014 at Saffron Walden's Saffron Hall and on Tuesday 11 February at Cambridge's West Road Concert Hall. Click here for more details.

Click here to find out more about SinfoniaStudents

Songs of No Man's Land

Britten Sinfonia’s Creative Learning team are currently working on Songs of No Man’s Land – a series of family and schools concerts celebrating the centenary of World War I. The schools concerts are now all sold out in Norwich, Peterborough and London, with over 1500 children attending – but there are still tickets available for our Family concerts, this Saturday 1st February at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge. 

The concert is based on a fantastic true story called War Game by author and illustrator Michael Foreman. I recommend the book to you, for 7-11 year olds, and their parents. It’s beautifully illustrated and includes lots of real facts, original propaganda and images from the period. The book tells the story of Michael Foreman’s Uncles; William, Frederick,  Billy and Lacy  all of whom died fighting in the Great War, when they were just young men, aged 18 – 24.

In our concert, the Great War is explored from a personal angle - we are placed in the shoes of the four young lads from Suffolk; passionate about football and naively ready to sign up ‘for an adventure’. The story tells us about Christmas in the trenches. It feels funny discussing these events in January, when we’re all sick of Christmas, but the young audience and performers share a poignant moment singing Christmas carols in English and German, and imagining what it would have felt like to be far from home, cold, hungry and scared at Christmas time. We also explore keeping rats as pets, trench foot and eating lice – uurrrrgggh! As well as the carols, the young men shared a game of football in no-man’s land and we hear about this, accompanied by exciting new music composed by Tim Watts. The music and action capture young imaginations and we imagine the pride our heroes felt, playing for ENGLAND!  Finally, the concert depicts the four young men being sent over the top, and gunned down by the opposition.

The children in the audience understand how our hero, Will, died and that lots of people died, but I wonder if any of us can really comprehend the massive loss of life that took place at that time. By the end of the war, over 9 million soldiers had been killed, and another 21 million wounded. Over a million soldiers were killed in the infamous Battle of the Somme alone, including about 30,000 in just one day. Its bigger, and sadder than we adults can get our heads around. Although the children in the audience understand the concept of War, and that people die – in an abstract senses, the real thoughts of loss and the numbers of young men who died, on both sides are incomprehensible to the age group.

I believe our concert explores the war in a sensitive and delicate way, and will hopefully encourage questions and further thought about the reality of war but won’t leave children overwhelmingly sad or confused. It is so important, as we mark 100 years since the start of the first World War, that we continue to remember those who lost their lives, and we have a duty to pass on knowledge of the events of WWI to the next generation.

Click here to find out more about the concert, learn the songs and book tickets.

Isobel Timms
Creative Learning Director

Mark Simpson on composition

Britten Sinfonia will premiere Mark Simpson's new work, Geysir in February. Through the Musically Gifted scheme you can help support Mark's new work - donations close at 5pm on Friday 31st January. Mark won both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year  in 2006. Since then he has been commissioned and had his works premiered by ensembles including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Aronowitz Ensemble and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.  We asked Mark a few questions about himself and his inspirations;

How would you summarise yourself in one sentence?
Passionate, ambitious, a dreamer, full of energy, wanting to be moved, wanting to move people, inspire people, be inspired by people, a perfectionist, constantly searching for those rare musical moments when time seems to stop.

What do you like most about music and composing?
The duality between the head and the heart, which for me as an emotional person who enjoys thinking, is the perfect match. Music encompasses everything. I can experience things that I would not have otherwise have been exposed to, ideas about philosophy, literature, poetry, biology, language, politics, physics, art, psychology. But I also FEEL music coursing through my body. The greatest pieces of music stimulate a part of my brain in way that is both exciting and hyper-emotional.

What inspires you?
Great literature, great poetry and art, things that move me, people who awaken a passion within me and share the intense passion I have.

How do you feel about new music and what we’re trying to do with Musically Gifted?
I feel a lot of things about 'New Music'. That question is quite broad and possibly too big for discussion within this short interview. But what I would like is for young composers (I'm including myself in this!) to be more daring. Embrace the future of our art form and do something amazing with it. Influences are hard to shake off, but when we reach for ideas that seem impossible, great art happens!

What was your reaction when Britten Sinfonia commissioned you?
I was honoured. It will be such a privilege to work with musicians that I've looked up to since I was a teenager starting out.

What would you like to be recognised for?
Writing great music, inspiring as many people as possible and bringing classical music to as wide an audience as possible without ever patronising them or distilling the great art form we have.

What’s your musical guilty pleasure?
I'm not sure I like the idea of a 'guilty pleasure'. It presupposes a hierarchy of style with classical at the top which I don't necessarily buy into.  I like listening to things that aren't classical, as much as I listen to 'classical' music, as long as it's good: the music of Jason Robert Brown, Beyoncé, 80's music, folk music, German indie bands, house and techno music, Indonesian funeral music. There's nothing I'm really embarrassed to say I listen to, because I wouldn't listen to it if it wasn't worthwhile!!

At the end of a long day, how do you relax?
A quiet drink with friends, in a local pub, in bed before midnight.

If you hadn’t been a musician, what might have happened?
I probably would have done something with Art or German. I had two very inspiring teachers in both subjects at High School who awoke a real passion for both.

Is there anything else you want to share with the world?
I have been a question on The Weakest Link and University Challenge, and once appeared in an episode of Grange Hill!

Mark Simpson's new work will be performed by Britten Sinfonia's wind principals on Thursday 13th February at Cambridge's West Road Concert Hall and on Friday 14th February at London's Milton Court Concert Hall. Click here for more info.

You can support Mark Simpson's new commission through Musically Gifted. Donations must be received by 5pm Friday 31st January. Click here for more info.

Meet Emma Feilding

This February Britten Sinfonia oboist, Emma Feilding  performs alongside the orchestras wind players and regular collaborator, Imogen Cooper in a concert featuring Mozart's towering masterpiece, the Gran Partita and Beethoven's Quintet for Piano and Winds in E flat. She took some time out from her busy schedule to answer a few questions;

What has been the highlight of your career so far?
There have been so many Britten Sinfonia concerts that have been highlights for me but I remember the first time I played at the Wigmore Hall with the Guildhall strings and Nicholas Daniel as being particularly memorable as my beloved granny was there waving her handkerchief at me. Working with the theatre company Punch Drunk and performing Mozart’s wind serenade with the Haffners are also favourite highlights.

When are you happiest?
Pure happiness can strike at any time and with anyone but giggling in the bath with my 5 year old daughter never fails to bring it on.

What is your greatest fear?
Heights

What is your earliest musical memory?
Spinning around on my granny’s piano stool aged about 5.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?
My daughter, for her ability to live so completely in the moment, and her carefree passionate nature.

What was your most embarrassing moment?
Fainting during a recital at the Royal Academy of Music!

What is your most treasured possession?
Two pictures- one of my grandmother’s house in Norfolk where I was so happy as a child, and another painted by a good friend.

If you were an animal what would you be?
I Like to think it would be a tiger or something dynamic,but think a sloth is probably more realistic.

What is your most unappealing habit?
Interrupting people when they are speaking.

What is your favourite book?
I love reading and could never choose a favourite but J.D Salinger’s short stories, For Esme – with love and squalor,  are just heartbreaking.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?
My tendency to watch rubbish television, is a bit embarrassing but I don’t think I
feel guilty about any pleasure.

Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Me, Woody Allen and Gerard Depardieu would be fun for me, oh and someone to
cook!

If you could go back in time, where would you go?
A particularly glorious childhood summer in Norfolk in the 1970s spent riding and sailing.

How do you relax away from the concert platform?
Like most people I imagine, laughing with friends, watching films, playing with my daughter, reading and practising yoga.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Returning to playing the oboe after nearly 9 years not playing at all and producing my gorgeous daughter.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
The bad times never last.

In a nutshell, what is your philosophy?
You are never too old to dance and ‘a messy house is better than a life unlived’.

You can catch Emma performing with Britten Sinfonia on Thursday 13th February at Cambridge's West Road Concert Hall and on Friday 14th February at London's Milton Court Concert Hall. Click here for more info.