Composing Myself

Composing Myself returns for 2024 with Wise Music Group CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham speaking to American composer Ellen Reid. In this episode, we learn how both Tennessee and Thailand shaped Ellen’s musical language, what it’s like to win Pulitzer Prize, and delve into the thinking behind her pioneering “GPS-enabled work of public art” Soundwalk.https://www.ellenreidmusic.com/Composer Ellen Reid has lived in a lot of places: she grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, went to college in New York City, and spent a couple years in Thailand before settling in California, where she ultimately found her creative voice. Ellen’s love of sounds and music blossomed early; she was fascinated by the natural world, sang in her church choir, and studied piano and percussion in school. She didn't meet another female composer until she was 25, and never dreamed writing music could be a viable career path.Ellen is inspired by landscape, emotions and storytelling. She started composing her sophomore year of college, writing a musical and creating sound design for theater and film productions, before “stumbling into opera” working with Thai musicians in Thailand. Her beautifully-wrought music easily creates a sense of place, whether physical or emotional, conjuring sunlit valleys, heartbreak, craggy cliffsides, joy, or bustling cityscapes.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anoushka Shankar is our guest on this latest episode of Composing Myself, beaming in from her home in London for a captivating chat with Wise Music Group Creative Director and CEO Gill Graham and Dave Holley. During the course of this enchanting conversation we learn how a childhood discovery of Peter and the Wolf led to a realisation of the power and imagery of music and her subsequent interest in playing the sitar, how studying with her father Ravi Shankar shaped Anoushka's musical discipline, how she fostered a conscious change of relationship with her instruments - “I had to find a way to see my instrument more as a friend than something scary”, how she “never rebelled around the music”… and indeed, the answer to the great question of where music comes from.https://www.anoushkashankar.com/To read a list of Anoushka Shankar’s accomplishments is to read many life stories in one: masterful sitarist; film composer; impassioned activist; the youngest and first female recipient of a British House of Commons Shield; the first Indian musician to perform live or to serve as presenter at the Grammy Awards with nine nominations under her belt, and the first Indian woman to be nominated; one of the first five female composers to have been added onto the UK A-level music syllabus. Immersed from a young age on the world stage, with over a quarter-century’s performing behind her, she is a singular, genre-defying artist across realms - classical and contemporary, acoustic and electronic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s a real privilege this week to talk to one of the world’s most complete musicians, Rufus Wainwright, beaming in from a Philadelphia hotel room to join hosts, Wise Music group CEO and Creative Director Dave Holley and Gill Graham. In this fascinating chat we discover how a guitar case came to be Rufus’ first crib, the key difference between critics and composers and why “if there is no turmoil in the process it’s probably not a very good piece”, and a passion for opera bringing forth two majors works for the stage among a myriad of other gems and revelations. Unmissable.https://rufuswainwright.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We travel to early-morning Santa Monica in this latest edition of Composing Myself, where multi-million-selling songwriter, record producer, music supervisor and label executive Richard Rudolph is bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and fizzing with energy in his creative headquarters. In this fascinating hour-long chat, helmed by Wise Music Group CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham, we take a journey through Richard’s illustrious, six-decade career - including a stop, of course, at a riveting retrospective on jointly producing Minnie Riperton - “one of the great loves of my life” - alongside Stevie Wonder. Unmissable. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Norwegian vocalist and composer Maja S. K. Ratkje joins Wise Music Group CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham in this latest episode of Composing Myself, beaming in from her basement home studio on the fringes of Oslo. Maja talks about how as a child her sound world of birdsong and languages influenced her music, the intention of “using classical music to say something about the lives we are living in our time”, studying at the Norwegian Academy of Music and the first piece she wrote for other people to perform, how her experimental improvisational work draws a parallel with extreme sports, and her environmental protest sound art project ‘Desibel’ - the world’s largest mobile horn loudspeaker system.https://ratkje.no/The performing composer Maja S. K. Ratkje is at the forefront of the musical avant-garde. Despite its boldness and originality, her music is meant for sharing. At its heart lies Ratkje’s own voice, an open door to her individual musicianship and a constant tool for realigning her work with natural expressions and human truths.Karlheinz Stockhausen, Olivier Messiaen and Arne Nordheim all tantalized Ratkje during her studies. She played in a gamelan ensemble, worked with the experimental percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love and joined the ensemble SPUNK as a vocalist, a move that would have a lasting impact on her day-to-day creativity.Ratkje’s exploration of her own voice’s timbral properties led to its involvement in the compositional process. In 2002, she released the album Voice, a catalogue of previously unexplored vocal production techniques fused with electronics that was awarded the Prix Ars Electronica. Ratkje’s exploration of the voice as an instrument came to maturity in Concerto for Voice (2004), commissioned by Radio France.Ratkje’s music frequently involves stark contrasts, more often in the delivery of balance and kinetic action than in the creation of shock or effect. Her ability to hold disparate materials in her grasp is as apparent as her care and restraint with that material. ‘Form is the most important aspect of composition and the reason I consider myself a composer,’ Ratkje once said.While many of Ratkje’s scores are notated, many stretch beyond the confines of traditional notation in aspiring to both greater precision and greater liberation. Some reveal her DNA as a performing and improvising musician; some ask performers to improvise or produce material themselves.Her music has links her to Norwegian identity and politics (Ro-Uro, 2014), to her beloved Japanese culture (Gagaku variations, 2002), to children under the age of three (Høyt oppe i fjellet, 2011) and to instruments as varied as the viol consort (River Mouth Echoes, 2008) and the world’s largest mobile horn speaker system (Desibel, 2009).Ratkje’s work Waves IIb was awarded Norway’s coveted Edvard Prize and was further honoured by UNESCO and the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. Ratkje was the inaugural winner of the Arne Nordheim Prize and was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2013. She has been Composer-In-Residence at numerous institutions and festivals, has contributed to well in excess of 100 albums and has written music for dance, radio plays and gallery installations. She is a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cameroon-born, London-raised choreographer and composer Dickson Mbi is our guest on this week’s Composing Myself, beaming in from Glasgow for a riveting chat with Wise Music CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham. Hot topics discussed with this engaging and charismatic creative polymath include:- how Youssou N’Dour and Neneh Cherry’s ‘7 seconds’ “was the song that smashed it for me” and pulled a young Dickson away from football- getting into dance “because of girls”- a chance discovery of his first popping crew after escaping a dance class in Covent Garden- being clandestinely enrolled in dance school by a friend’s dance tutor who saw limitless untapped potential - the importance of late-70s and early-80s funk - Earth, Wind & Fire, Cameo etc - on Dickson’s palette of influences and how he was given his first job in dance by Shalamar’s Jeffrey Daniel- why an “epic snare” is absolutely crucial- a life-changing return to Cameroon and the village where his parents grew up… “I really understood who I am as a person just from that experience”- how the sound of a tiger’s roar affects the human stomach!- why “when a matriarch falls, everything falls apart”https://www.dicksonmbi.com/Dickson Mbi was born in Cameroon and grew up in London where he studied at Lewisham College and London Contemporary Dance School. He is a world-renowned dancer in the Hip Hop dance community and best known for his popping skills which is integral to the work that he creates today. Dickson has featured in multiple TV campaigns including BALMAIN X H&M (2016), AUDI E TRON (2014), and was the face for LUCOZADE REVIVE (2012). Over the course of his career, he has worked with award-winning artists such as Russell Maliphant, Boy Blue Entertainment, Robbie Williams, Corrine Bailey-Rae, Black Eyed Peas and choreographed the 'Leave A Trace' music video for CHVRCHES. ​He is an award-winning choreographer and has been commissioned by several theatres, festivals and arts organisation. In 2018, Sadler's Wells Theatre commissioned a documentary ‘Street to Stage’ about Dickson's artistic journey for BBC4’s Danceworks series. Later that year, Sadler's Wells commissioned him to create work for their elderly company - The Company of Elders. In the following year, Dickson was commissioned by BBC Young Dancer to create the winning choreography UNSTRUNG performed by Max Revell.  ​As a leader in his community, Dickson focuses on fostering the future generations of dancers with his partner Brooke Milliner in their battle crews Prototype and FIYA HOUSE. As a choreographer, Dickson enjoys making works for other companies as well as presenting his own works under Dickson Mbi Company. Well worth a listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

British-American composer and force of nature Tarik O’Regan meets Wise Music Group CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham in this whirlwind of an episode of Composing Myself. Conversational ping-pongs gently batted about the table this week include:- driverless taxis in San Francisco and “the dominance of tech” in our everyday lives- John-Paul Jones and the aborted arrow dance- a brief stint in banking- what the devil is a fugue?- long childhood car journeys listening to Led Zeppelin, Madonna and a selection of local Algerian oud players- a fascinating, globe-spanning family tree including great-great-great grandfather, renowned Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton, and the influence it's had on Tarik’s musical output- the not-entirely-pressure-free task of composing for none other than the coronation of King Charles IIITarik is a brilliant raconteur and this ebullient episode is one of our best yet.https://www.tarikoregan.com/Tarik Hamilton O'Regan is a London-born composer based in San Francisco. In recent years much of his work has investigated and been influenced by his dual Arab and Irish heritages.Tarik is Composer-in-Residence with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO), where he is also overseeing an ambitious new commissioning initiative. The 2022/23 season sees performances by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Choir, the Carducci Quartet, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Alexander String Quartet, and PBO, and the televised world premiere of a commission from His Majesty King Charles III for The Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey.Tarik’s output, recognized with two GRAMMY® nominations and two Ivors®, has been recorded on over 40 albums, and is published exclusively by Novello. He maintains a longstanding commitment to education and service to the arts in general. Most recently, this has been recognized by his election to an Honorary Fellowship of Pembroke College, Oxford, and to the board of Yaddo, one of the oldest artists’ communities in the USA. Tarik was also included in the Washington Post’s annual list of creative artists “changing the classical landscape” for 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scottish composer Helen Grime is this week’s guest on Composing Myself, talking to Wise Music Group CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham about her life in and out of music. Melodic motifs on the conversational score today include her formative years studying the oboe, why a first rehearsal is more nerve-wracking than a premiere, experiences at Tanglewood - the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, why passing knowledge forward through teaching and learning is so important, and the nature of inspiration - “sometimes I seek it, and sometimes I really need it”. As ever, a joyful and enlightening hour.https://helengrime.com/The music of Helen Grime has been performed by leading orchestras around the world, among them the London Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductors who have championed her music include Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Mark Elder, Pierre Boulez, Kent Nagano, Oliver Knussen, George Benjamin, Daniel Harding, Marin Alsop and Thomas Dausgaard. Her music frequently draws inspiration from related artforms such as painting (Two Eardley Pictures, Three Whistler Miniatures), sculpture (Woven Space) and literature (A Cold Spring, Near Midnight, Limina) and has won praise in equal measure for the craftsmanship of its construction and the urgency of its telling.Born in 1981, Grime attended St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh and, following studies at the Royal College of Music in London, was awarded a Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to attend Tanglewood Music Center in 2008. Between 2011 and 2015 she was Associate Composer to the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester and in 2016 was appointed Composer in Residence at Wigmore Hall in London. She was Lecturer in Composition at Royal Holloway, University of London, between 2010 and 2017 and is currently Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She was appointed MBE in the 2020 New Year Honours List for services to music. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s an exciting first for Composing Myself this week, with this episode’s guest holding a position in none other than The Royal Household of the United Kingdom. Judith Weir - Master of The King’s Music (and former Master of The Queen’s Music) – talks to Wise Music Group CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham about an illustrious life of creative adventure, from a fortuitous mentorship by Sir John Tavener to being appointed to a Royal position by Queen Elizabeth II. Stops along the way include the Battle of Stamford Bridge (“an iconic moment in English history”); how deadlines – “the composer’s curse” – are actually a big help; Judith’s inspiring work in the broader community; why singers are “the most amazing people in our profession”, and the myriad joys of blogging. A life less ordinary reflected on by a wonderfully eloquent composer.https://www.judithweir.com/Judith Weir (b 1954 to Scottish parents in Cambridge, England) studied composition with John Tavener, Robin Holloway and Gunther Schuller. On leaving Cambridge University in 1976 she taught in England and Scotland, and in the mid-1990s became Associate Composer with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and Artistic Director of Spitalfields Festival. She was a Visiting Professor at Princeton (2001) Harvard (2004) and Cardiff (2006-13) and in 2014 was appointed Master of the Queen’s Music. Since Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022, Weir is now Master of The King's Music. From 2015 to 2019 she was Associate Composer to the BBC Singers.She is the composer of several operas (written for Kent Opera, Scottish Opera, ENO and Bregenz) which have been widely performed. She has written orchestral music for the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony and Minnesota Orchestras. Much of her music has been recorded, and is available on the NMC, Delphian and Signum labels. She blogs about her cultural experiences at www.judithweir.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welsh composer Paul Mealor is our guest on this week’s episode of Composing Myself, presented by Wise Music Group CEO and Creative Director Dave Holley and Gill Graham. Topics covered across this warm and inspiring conversation include:- a childhood discovery of Iron Maiden -“people were just singing from the heart; they didn’t care about anything other than the music”- why boys get into heavy metal- the “visualness” of Debussy and Ravel- being “step friends” with Aled Jones- the benefits of daily composing in fending off writer’s block - “you’re not afraid of the blank manuscript”- Dylan Thomas’ influence on Roald Dahl- how his Military Wives Choir number one single changed the rules of the UK charts- composing for the Royal FamilyAs ever - not to be missed!https://www.paulmealor.com/Paul Mealor’s music has rapidly entered the repertoire of choirs and singers around the world; his music has been described as having, ‘serene beauty, fastidious craftsmanship and architectural assuredness… Music of deep spiritual searching that always asks questions, offers answers and fills the listener with hope…’. Mealor was catapulted to international attention when 2.5 billion people heard his motet, Ubi caritas, performed at the Royal Wedding Ceremony of His Royal Highness Prince William and Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey, 29th April 2011.Mealor studied composition privately from an early age with John Pickard, at the University of York with Nicola LeFanu (1994-2002) and in Copenhagen with Hans Abrahamsen (1998-99). Since 2003 he has taught at the University of Aberdeen, where he is currently Professor in Composition, and has held visiting professorships in composition at institutions in Scandinavia and the United States. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s guest is British composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad, who talks to Composing Myself hosts Wise Music CEO and Creative Director Dave Holley and Gill Graham about her fascinating life in and out of music. Starting with her formative years leading to her getting a place as a cellist at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Cheryl talks about being a shy child and how finding composition at an early age gave her a voice she might otherwise not have discovered. We also learn about her work with young performers and in particular the I Am You, Brave and Strong project, built to ensure young creatives of all persuasions and skill levels “feel part of that bigger thing, making that great sound”. In addition: the strange connection between the cello and the swift, and the life advice Dave is going to pass to his son!https://www.cherylfranceshoad.co.uk/Admired for her originality, fluency and professionalism, Cheryl Frances-Hoad has been composing to commission since she was fifteen. Classical tradition (she trained as a cellist and pianist at the Menuhin School before going on to Cambridge and King's College, London) along with diverse contemporary inspirations including literature, painting and dance, have contributed to a creative presence provocatively her own.Intricate in argument, sometimes impassioned, sometimes mercurial, always compelling in its authority (Robin Holloway, The Spectator), her output - widely premiered, broadcast and commercially recorded, reaching audiences from the Proms to outreach workshops - addresses all genres from opera, ballet and concerto to song, chamber and solo music. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wise Music Group CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham beam out to the south of France in this latest episode of Composing Myself, to chat to American composer, performer and founding member of The National Bryce Dessner. Stops on this week’s conversational journey include:- learning how to play at a school with no music department, utilising the musical skills of a rebellious English teacher- why taking time off is as critical for creativity as the creative process itself- the fascinating genesis of Mari, conceptualised and created during the COVID-19 pandemic- what it’s like living with another singer-songwriter, his wife Mina Tindle, and how they leverage their co-existence to influence and hone their works- the inspiration behind The National’s latest album The First Two Pages of FrankensteinAs ever, a thoroughly riveting and illuminating listen.https://brycedessner.com/Bryce Dessner is a vital and rare force in new music. He has won Grammy Awards as a classical composer and with the band The National, of which he is founding member, guitarist, arranger, and co-principal songwriter. He is regularly commissioned to write for the world’s leading ensembles, from Orchestre de Paris to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and is a high-profile presence in film score composition, with credits including The Revenant, for which he was Grammy and Golden Globe nominated, Fernando Mereilles’s The Two Popes and Mike Mill’s C’mon C’mon.Dessner collaborates with some of today’s most creative and respected artists, including Philip Glass, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Paul Simon, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Sufjan Stevens, Fernando Mereilles, Thom Yorke, Bon Iver, Nico Muhly, and Steve Reich, who named Dessner “a major voice of his generation.” Dessner’s orchestrations can be heard on the latest albums of Paul Simon, Bon Iver and Taylor Swift.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of Composing Myself sees Wise Music Group CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham venture - digitally, naturally - to the wild hinterlands of northern Finland for a highly illuminating conversation with Outi Tarkiainen. Winding through subjects as diverse as motherhood, how synesthesia affects and influences the compositional process, foraying into the world of jazz, and breaking down long-standing taboos in classical music, this is forty-five minutes you’ll be glad to have spent listening closely to.https://www.outitarkiainen.fi/en/Outi Tarkianen was born in Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland, a place that has proved a constant source of inspiration for her. She has long been drawn to the expressive power of the human voice, but has written vocal, chamber and solo instrumental works as well as works for orchestra and soloist. ‘I see music as a force of nature that can flood over a person and even change entire destinies’, she once said.Outi has been commissioned by orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestras and her music has been taken up by the symphony orchestras of St Louis, Detroit and Houston, among others. Her early work with jazz orchestras culminated in Into the Woodland Silence (2013), a score that combined the composer’s sense of natural mysticism with the distinctive textures of the jazz orchestra tradition. Major works since include an orchestral song cycle to texts by Sami poets The Earth, Spring’s Daughter (2015), the saxophone concerto Saivo (2016, nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize) and Midnight Sun Variations premiered at the BBC Proms in 2019 (nominated for the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco’s Musical Composition Prize). Her first full-length opera, A Room of One’s Own (2021), was commissioned and premiered by Theater Hagen in Germany.Outi studied composition at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Guildhall School in London and at the University of Miami. She as been composer in residence at the Festival de Musique Classique d’Uzerche in France and was for four years co-artistic director of the Silence Festival in Lapland.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We travel to Gdansk in this latest episode of Composing Myself for a chat with Polish composer Hania Rani. During the course of this wonderful forty-five minute conversation with Wise Music CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham we learn about Hania’s early love for Beethoven’s sonatas and the struggle of having to choose between Britney and J-Lo, her accidental, into-the-frying-pan introduction to singing, her work on the posthumous music of Polish rock musician and composer Grzegorz Ciechowski, and why it’s not music but “all the other things” that inspire her. Enchanting, enlightening stuff.https://haniarani.com/--------Hania Rani is a pianist, composer and musician who was born in Gdansk and splits her life between Warsaw, where she has her home, and Berlin where she studied and often works.Her debut album ‘Esja’, a beguiling collection of solo piano pieces, on Gondwana Records was released to international acclaim on April 5th 2019 including nominations in 5 categories in the Polish music industries very own Grammys, the Fryderyki, and winning the Discovery of the Year 2019 in the Empikchain's Bestseller Awards and the prestigious Sankiaward for the most interesting new face of Polish music chosen by Polish journalists.Rani also composed the music for her first full length movie "I Never Cry" directed by Piotr Domalewski and for the play "Nora" directed by Michał Zdunik. Her song "Eden" was used as a soundtrack of a short movie by Małgorzata Szumowska for Miu Miu's movie cycle "Women's Tales".Her follow-up album, the expansive, cinematic, ‘Home’, was released on May 15th and finds Rani expanding her range: adding vocals and subtle electronics to her music as well as being joined on some tracks by bassist Ziemowit Klimek and drummer Wojtek Warmijak. The album reunites her with recording engineers Piotr Wieczorek and Ignacy Gruszecki (Monochrom Studio) and the tracks were again mixed by Gijs van Klooster in his studio in Amsterdam and by Piotr Wieczorekin Warsaw ( Ombelico and Come Back Home). Home was mastered by Zino Mikoreyin Berlin (known for his work on albums by artists such as Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds). For Rani, Home, is very much a continuation of the work she started on Esja, “the completion of the sentence” as she puts it. The album offers a metaphorical journey: the story of places that become our home sometimes by chance, sometimes by choice. It is the story of leaving a place that is familiar and the journey that follows it. Home opens with the fragment of the short story "Loneliness" by Bruno Schulz, which can be seen as a parable of a journey that does not necessarily mean going beyond the physical door but can signify going beyond the symbolic limits of our knowledge and imagination. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The tenth episode of Composing Myself sees Wise Music Group CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham once again stretch their hands across the ocean to New York to embark on a wonderful journey of memories, anecdotes and musings with veteran composer John Corigliano. The conversation covers John’s formative years growing up in a musical family and how the lingering nerves he reserved for his father affected his professional journey (“for the first ten or fifteen years of buy compositional life I never sat in the hall for a performance”); the impact of the early Disney oeuvre (Bambi, Dumbo etc) on his creative spark; winning Grammys, Oscars and a Pulitzer Prize - and the award he’s most proud of; the harrowing story behind Symphony No. 1; how a personal black spot with the catalogue of Bob Dylan led to a Grammy-winning setting of Dylan's poetry; and the painstaking creation of The Ghosts of Versailles. Not to be missed!http://www.johncorigliano.com/John Corigliano's music has been commissioned, performed, and recorded by many of the most prominent orchestras, soloists, and chamber musicians in the world. His honors include the Pulitzer Prize for Symphony No. 2, the Grawemeyer Award for his Symphony No. 1 (given over 300 performances worldwide), the Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Original Score (The Red Violin), and, of his five Grammy Awards, three for Best Contemporary Composition (Symphony No. 1, String Quartet, and Mr. Tambourine Man.)Recent scores include a second opera, The Lord of Cries, with a libretto by Mark Adamo based on The Bacchae of Euripides and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Corigliano's first opera since The Ghosts of Versailles for The Metropolitan Opera in 1991, The Lord of Cries is commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera for premiere in 2021. A new Saxophone Concerto for the San Francisco Symphony's 2020-2021 season will be Corigliano's tenth piece for soloist and orchestra, after his concerti for piano, oboe, clarinet, flute (Pied Piper Fantasy), guitar (Troubadours), violin (The Red Violin), and percussion (Conjurer), as well as the orchestral song-cycles Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan for amplified soprano, and One Sweet Morning for mezzo-soprano. Other scores include Symphony No. 3: Circus Maximus for multiple wind ensembles, as well a rich folio of chamber works.The French premiere of The Ghosts of Versailles, in a co-production with Glimmerglass Festival, is scheduled by the Royal Opera of Versailles for December of 2019; this follows its 2015 staging by Los Angeles Opera, which collected 2017 Grammys for Best Opera Recording and Best Engineered Classical album. In spring of 2019, Corigliano's Symphony No. 1 travelled to Hong Kong and returned to the New York Philharmonic, both engagements conducted by Jaap van Zweden. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Composing Myself starts 2023 as we mean to go on, with Wise Music Group CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham embarking on a bracing, invigorating meander through the conversational hills with Icelandic composer and multi-instrumentalist Ólafur Arnalds. Subjects broached include the minutiae on how phonographs work and Ólafur’s formative teenage hardcore punk band Cone Heads, the long and winding road from hardcore bands to composing theBroadchurch score, and the development and creation of his ingenious, ground-breaking musical software Stratus. https://olafurarnalds.com/Ólafur Arnalds is a multi-instrumentalist and composer - internationally known for his haunting musical style. He captivatingly combines elements of ambient, classical, electronic, pop and rock music. His recent album “re:member” (2018) follows the success of his innovative musical project Island Songs (2016). “re:member” features Ólafur’s new software, Stratus, which transforms the humble piano into a unique new instrument.Ólafur has been praised for his extensive soundtrack work, including composing the score for ITV’s Broadchurch, for which he won the 2014 BAFTA for Best Original Music. He has been involved in various other media projects and his music appears in many films, television shows and advertisements.Together with Barði Jóhannson (Bang Gang), Ólafur composed music for “Dyad 1909”, a Random Dance/Wayne McGregor project. This music was released as an album in 2009.Furthermore, Arnalds formed the experimental techno project “Kiasmos” together with Janus Rasmussen. They have released two albums so far: “Blurred” (2017) and “Kiasmos” (2014). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

American composer Missy Mazzoli joins us from her home in New York for this latest episode of Composing Myself. It’s a customarily broad-ranging chat with Wise Music CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham. Topics on today’s conversational menu include Missy’s childhood obsession with Beethoven and learning to play on a piano bought in a flea market, how writing made her feel like she was “putting the world in order”, getting stuck in to the Pennsylvania Riot Grrrl scene as a teenager, her long-standing collaboration with librettist Royce Vavrek, and how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the creation of her most recent opera The Listeners.https://missymazzoli.com/Recently deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (NY Times) and “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out NY), Missy Mazzoli has had her music performed by the New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, the Cincinnati Orchestra, the National Symphony, LA Opera, Scottish Opera, eighth blackbird, Kronos Quartet and many others. In 2018 she became one of the first two women, along with Jeanine Tesori, to receive a main stage commission from the Metropolitan Opera, and was nominated for a Grammy award in the category of Best Classical Composition. From 2018-2021 She was Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and from 2012-2015 was Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia. Upcoming commissions include works for Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Lyric Opera, Norwegian National Opera and Third Coast Percussion. In 2016, along with composer Ellen Reid, she founded Luna Composition Lab, a mentorship program for young female, nonbinary and gender nonconforming composers. Her works are published by G. Schirmer.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir beams in from Reykjavik to join Wise Music CEO and Creative Director Dave Holley and Gill Graham for this seventh episode of Composing Myself, for an illuminating conversation spanning her raison d’être and innate need to create music, the influence of Icelandic culture and geography on her compositions, the crucial importance of communication between composer and players, and the “magic in the dimensions” unique to an orchestra of 80-100 people. https://www.annathorvalds.com/Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b. 1977) is an Icelandic composer whose "seemingly boundless textural imagination” (NY Times) and "striking” (Guardian) sound world has made her "one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary music” (NPR). "Never less than fascinating” (Gramophone), her music is composed as much by sounds and nuances as by harmonies and lyrical material, and tends to evoke "a sense of place and personality” (NY Times) through a distinctive "combination of power and intimacy” (Gramophone). It is written as an ecosystem of sounds, where materials continuously grow in and out of each other, often inspired in an important way by nature and its many qualities, in particular structural ones, like proportion and flow. Anna’s works have been nominated and awarded on many occasions - most notably, her "confident and distinctive handling of the orchestra” (Gramophone) has garnered her the prestigious Nordic Council Music Prize, the New York Philharmonic's Kravis Emerging Composer Award, and Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award and Martin E. Segal Award. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joby Talbot is the only living composer to have written the music for three full-length ballets for The Royal Ballet in London. In this sixth episode of Composing Myself Wise Music CEO and Creative Director Dave Holley and Gill Graham catch up with the genre-bending maestro to talk about his “horrible” jobs before he became a composer (Night shift at the local mortuary! Laundry at a mental institution!), working with Nigel Godrich and their close professional bond, the key differences between composing for animations versus live action projects, the culinary genesis of the Like Water For Chocolate ballet score, and the upside-down sensibility of composing for choreography - “you’re trying to give a platform for the choreographer and the dancers to do their thing, without knowing what that thing is”. -----http://www.jobytalbot.comhttps://www.instagram.com/jobytalbotmusic/-----Joby Talbot was born in London in 1971. He studied composition privately with Brian Elias and at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, before completing a Master of Music (Composition) at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Simon Bainbridge.Talbot's diverse catalogue includes full-length narrative ballets (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , 2011; The Winter's Tale, 2014) and contemporary dance works (Chroma, 2007); small- and large-scale choral and vocal works (The Wishing Tree, 2002; Path of Miracles, 2005; A Sheen of Dew on Flowers, 2019); orchestral pieces (Sneaker Wave, 2004; Chacony in G Minor, 2011; Worlds, Stars, Systems, Infinity, 2012); concerti (Desolation Wilderness, 2006; Ink Dark Moon, 2018); and scores for the screen (The Lodger, 1999; The Dying Swan, 2002; Vampyr, 2018).Talbot's critically acclaimed first opera, Everest, was given its premiere in 2015 by The Dallas Opera. His second opera based on the true story The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, a further collaboration with librettist Gene Sheer, premieres in November 2023. Like Water for Chocolate, Talbot's third narrative ballet with Christopher Wheeldon premiered in June 2022 at The Royal Ballet and will be presented by partner commissioner ABT, in March 2023 in Costa Mesa and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in June 2023.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The fifth episode of Composing Myself sees Wise Music CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham convene with French-British composer Josephine Stephenson for an illuminating and insightful meander through the fertile meadowlands of conversation. Topics covered include;- a formative introduction to the works of Mahler (“powerful music for a tiny child”)- how you really know when something is finished- collaborations with Damon Albarn, Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead- redressing the balance in COVIDAs ever, this is a chat full of interesting and thought-provoking insight into the creative process and nuance of the life of a professional composer. Not to be missed!----------Josephine Stephenson is a composer, arranger and performer working across contemporary classical and indie music.  "A bewitching combination of dissonance and sweet-toned cantabile" (Bachtrack), Josephine's music has been commissioned by insitutions such as the BBC, Radio France, Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, Nonclassical and Spitalfields Music, and broadcast on France Musique and BBC Radio 3. She has written for acclaimed performers including the London Sinfonietta, Aurora Orchestra, s t a r g a z e, Miroirs Étendus, Explore Ensemble, The Hermes Experiment, Tenebrae, the Maîtrise de Radio France, tenor Allan Clayton, gambist Liam Byrne and guitarist Laura Snowden.Interested in harmony, sonority and dynamic immediacy in her music, she has collaborated with theatre companies La Raffinerie, L'Éventuel Hérisson Bleu and FellSwoop Theatre and filmmakers Julia Hart and Scott Vickers. She also regularly works as an arranger for songwriters and bands, which have included Damon Albarn, Daughter, Lisa Hannigan, Benjamin Biolay, NZCA LINES, James Righton, Ana Silvera, Evergreen and others.She studied composition with Giles Swayne while an undergraduate at Clare College Cambridge, before completing a Masters in Composition at the Royal College of Music under Kenneth Hesketh, graduating with Distinction. She was a Britten-Pears Young Artist in 2015-16 and a London Sinfonietta 'Writing the Future' composer for 2017-19.In 2021-23 she is composer in residence at the Opéra Grand Avignon.https://josephinestephenson.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.