News
Photo: Andrzej Wawrowski
October 2011: Singing Histories - Presteigne Festival education outreach programme 2012
Liz has been commissioned to write a cantata for children's voices and an ensemble of professional musicians which will be performed in July 2012 and again at the Presteigne Festival in August 2012. Singing Histories is a cross artform, cross-border initiative that will involve professional composers, musicians, a poet and children from five primary schools situated either side of the Herefordshire/Powys border. The inspiration for the project is a hugely important and influential historical event which is embedded in the cultural heritage of the Welsh Marches - the battle of Bryn Glas, Pilleth, which took place on 22 June, 1402.
August 2011: commission for the Bristol Festival of Music, Speech and Drama 2012
Liz has been asked to write the 2012 'commissioned song class' song for the winners and runners up of the 14-18 years age group. The song will be around two minutes with words especially written by lovely lyricist Jennifer Henderson, with whom Liz has worked on several previous projects.
June 2011: Review of Antiphonary on 4barsrest.com
Antiphonary was premiered by the Symphonic Brass of the RAF at Cardiff New Brass Festival on Friday 10th June. A review of the work, along with an interview with Wing Commander Duncan Stubbs (conductor) and Liz, can be seen and heard at:
http://www.4barsrest.com/reviews/concerts/con734.asp (review)
http://www.4barsrest.com/news/detail.asp?id=13472 (interview)
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Rehearsal of Antiphonary, Symphonic Band of the RAF, conductor Wing Commander Duncan Stubbs, RAF Northolt,
7th June 2011
May 2011: Royal Wedding trumpeters, as part of the RAF Symphonic Brass, to play new work Antiphonary at Cardiff New Brass Festival
The first performance of Antiphonary will take place at the Cardiff New Brass Festival on 10th June 2011 at 7.30pm as part of the Festival's opening concert, Ensemble Explosion, at Cardiff's Metropolitan Cathedral. Antiphonary was especially written for the RAF Symphonic Brass and is inspired by Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, featuring excerpts of original Vivaldi arias recently discovered at the Castle.
March 2011: Premiere of Chameleon for solo flute at the Arcomis Flute Event, Millennium Centre, Cardiff
Chameleon for solo flute will be performed at the launch of The Arcomis Flute Album on Saturday 2nd April at 5pm. The Arcomis Flute Event is a music festival for everyone, featuring concerts, workshops, masterclasses and special events given by some of the world's finest musicians.
January 2011: Black Dyke Band and Bristol Cathedral Choir to perform Liz's arrangement of David Fanshawe's The Lord's Prayer
The Black Dyke Band and Bristol Cathedral Choir will be recording Liz's arrangement of David Fanshawe's The Lord's Prayer from African Sanctus on 22nd January for a forthcoming CD release. The Band and Choir first performed The Lord's Prayer at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester and Cadogan Hall, London, in 2007.
January 2011: Friends for all Seasons to be performed by several hundred voices at the Spanish Association of Barbershops Convention, Spain, April 2011
Liz has written a new song for En Armonía, the Spanish Association of Barbershop Singers Convention (SABS) which will take place at San Pedro del Pinatar, Murcia, Spain, from the 8th-11th April 2011. Her regular collaborator and good friend Jennifer Henderson, has written the words specially for the occasion. The song will be performed for the first time as the finale of the Festival Show on Saturday 9th April.
Barbershop singing has become increasingly popular in Spain during recent years, with quartets and choruses being formed from both Spanish and English communities throughout Spain. The convention weekend features a full programme of formal and informal events, including quartet and chorus competitions and the Festival Show and En Armonía Show, in which acclaimed guests from the UK will perform including Steel, the 2010 British Barbershop Quartet Champions. A big thanks to Nooj, the quartet's baritone, for compiling the teachtracks for Friends for all Seasons.
Liz is looking forward to attending some of the weekend events and meeting the singers - and is hoping to put into practice some of her recently learnt Spanish!
December 2010: new work for the Central Band of the RAF symphonic brass ensemble
Liz will be writing a work for the Central Band of the RAF symphonic brass ensemble as part of the Cardiff New Brass Festival 2011.
November 2010: music for the Mary Rose
Liz has been commissioned to write a work to celebrate the opening of the new museum to house the conserved Mary Rose ship, Portsmouth in 2012. The work, for which plans are still being discussed, will include a suite for youth brass group.
September 2010: Why Cats Sit on Doorsteps performed at Kammermusik Workshop
Why Cats Sit on Doorsteps in the Sun for wind dectet, piano and narrator, first commissioned by New Harmonie and subsequently performed in Seattle, USA, will be workshopped and performed at a Kammermusik Workshop in late September at St Edmund College, Oxford. Coached by Stephen Stirling of the Albion Ensemble, the work will be rehearsed throughout the day, with a performance taking place in the evening.
September 2010: Anniversary Fanfare for Bristol Brass Consort's 25th Birthday Concert
Liz has written a new fanfare to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Bristol Brass Consort and will be performed at a celebratory concert on 2nd October 2010 at St George's Bristol. A chance meeting in 1985 between Liz and fellow ex-founder and trumpet player Lawrence Dunn, led to the formation of the quintet, in which she played the french horn for several years before moving away to University.
Bristol Brass Consort, well-known and respected throughout the Bristol area, recently returned from a successful trip to Paris and now performs mostly as a ten piece. The fanfare, entitled Anniversary Fanfare, lasts for four minutes and is scored for four trumpets, horn, four trombones and tuba with optional percussion; it will open the second half of the programme and precede Bernstein's Westside Story Suite.
July 2010: David Fanshawe 1942-2010
David Fanshawe: friend, mentor, colleague and musical collaborator, sadly died on 5th July 2010. I have worked closely with David during the last few years; he was a great friend and professional colleague to many people. This website commemorates his amazing life: www.davidfanshawe.com.
May 2010: Fascinatin' Rhythm
Liz has been commissioned to arrange Gershwin's Fascinatin' Rhythm for double wind quintet. The arrangement will be for a concert on 26th September 2010 given by wind dectet New Harmonie entitled The Golden Age of Popular Songs and Dance, featuring specially commissioned arrangements of music from the 1920s, 30s and 40s.
April 2010: USA performance of new work for brass band
Liz is writing a new work for brass band which will receive the US premiere by Brass Band Northwest in Seattle next Summer. The music and title will be inspired by the original manuscripts of Vivaldi, recently discovered at Gloucestershire's Berkeley Castle.
March 2010: premiere and concert recording of Jaleo
The Carducci Quartet's performance of Liz's new string quartet, Jaleo, received two ovations at its premiere in Cardiff on 2nd March. Described by one audience member as "a shifting kaleidoscope of colours and textures that managed to be evocative while never falling back on the merely picturesque", the recording can now be heard on Sound Clips.
February 2010: Inspiration Choir and Northern Sinfonia/Orchestra of Opera North to play The Lord's Prayer
The Inspiration Choir and Northern Sinfonia will play Liz's arrangement of David Fanshawe's The Lord's Prayer from his African Sanctus at The Sage, Gateshead on Sunday 21st March. The two concerts, entitled Sing Together: Celebration with Inspiration Choir will take place at 3pm and 7.30pm. A further performance will take place on Sunday 28th March with Orchestra of Opera North at Leeds Town Hall.
December 2009: PhD
Liz has completed and passed her PhD in Composition and is thrilled! She studied at Cardiff University where her supervisor was Professor Anthony Powers, also taking lessons with the composer Judith Weir.
The centrepiece of her PhD portfolio is a large-scale 40 minute symphonic work for orchestra, Time Travel, of which the final movement, Somewhere Unknown, was performed by the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera in October 2008. Also included is Words, Wide Night, a song cycle for tenor voice, piano and string quartet (first performed by Andrew Kennedy, Daniel Hill and the Carducci Quartet in 2007). Smaller works include Through the Window 1729 for clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, violin, double bass and percussion, Three Motets for unaccompanied choir, Heritage: Horizons for euphonium and piano, Landscapes for baritone voice and piano, Cloud Colours for brass dectet, Linear Lines for solo horn (commissioned by the US horn player Marlene Ford for a series of lecture-recitals in 2010) and the Spanish influenced string quartet Jaleo (which will be premiered by the Carducci Quartet in March 2010).