Sounds New -

Posted on: 7th Sep 2012

For those of us still lamenting the passing of this year's Sounds New Festival, I bring glad tidings of great joy. The Rhodri Davies Common Objects Ensemble concert, recorded back in May as part of this year's Festival, is being broadcast on BBC Radio 3 tomorrow night at 10.30pm. The broadcast will also feature that bastion of early Minimalism, Terry Riley's In C. The programme is online here, and will be available to listen again for a week. Sounds News 2012: still sounding. Posted by Daniel Harding

Posted on: 21st Aug 2012

Here at Sounds New, we like to keep you up to date with how events are progressing, in the long, languishing months between one Festival and the next. The International Composer Pyramid composers are busy working - it's going to be a great concert! So please book the date in your diaries for our final concert, December 8th 2012 at 3pm (in asociation with Edition Peters). Another date to book is October 17th 2012 at 8pm, as Sounds New returns to opera this October with the world premiere of Ed Hughes' new work When the Flame Dies. Presented ...

Posted on: 22nd Jun 2012

We’re delighted to announce that Sounds New was awarded 'Destination Canterbury 2012' at last night's Canterbury Culture Awards.  This award, sponsored by ABode, is given to the arts organisation that brings the greatest national and international cultural credit to the city; For an organisation, group or individual who has done most in the last twelve months to raise the profile of the District’s cultural offering regionally, nationally and internationally. We’re extremely proud; the award is a terrific acknowledgement ...

Posted on: 11th Jun 2012

It may have finished last month, but Sounds New continues to sound: tonight at 9.30pm on Radio 2, you can hear the concert that the BBC Big Band gave as part of the Festival. Conducted by composer / arranger Mike Gibbs, the concert also featured Norma Winstone, and was given at the Gulbenkian Theatre as part of this year's Sounds New. The concert is broadcast on tonight's Big Band Special, and will then be available on iPlayer for a week. Posted by Daniel Harding.

Posted on: 28th May 2012

Sounds New may be over, but you can still hear some of it: this Saturday's episode of 'Hear and Now' on BBC Radio 3 features a broadcast of the Arditti Quartet's concert as part of the Festival earlier this month. The concert included Ferneyhough, Philip Neil Martin's An Outburst of Time, and the world première of Festival Director Paul Max Edlin's Frida Sketches. Details of the programme online here: it will be broadcast at 10.30pm, and then remain on iPlayer for a week afterwards. Sounds New: still sounding... Posted by Daniel ...

Posted on: 16th May 2012

And so, this year’s Festival has concluded on a high with the King’s Singers at the Marlowe Theatre last night; with cheers and hoorahs from an ecstatic audience, a packed Marlowe foyer descended on the performers after the concert like pop stars scrambling for photos and autographs: amazing to behold such rampant enthusiasm… The last notes have been struck and sung, the last words have died away, the final applause rung out, and the audiences have returned to their homes. If you’ve been following over the past ...

Posted on: 14th May 2012

Last week's premiere of John Croft's Les Malèdictions d'une Furie was attended by Ruth Duckworth and a couple of friends. Here is their story... 'Would you like to come to the opera at the Turner ?’ I said to two friends. They love the Turner. They have both lived in Margate for many years and feel it has really lifted the place. They have very much enjoyed the exhibitions there to date, which is why I thought they might be adventurous enough to join me. 'Adventurous' would not be the first word that springs to my mind if ...

Posted on: 14th May 2012

As the Festival draws towards its conclusion, time for a penultimate post to highlight two extraordinary pieces at the lunchtime concert by Workers Union. An eclectic programme included Two Elegies Framing A Shout for soprano sax and piano, delivered with astonishing accomplishment by saxophonist Ellie Steemson and pianist Edward Pick. A lyrical first elegy for unaccompanied sax, requiring sustained control of lengthy phrases, is followed by the Shout, in which spiky gestures are punctuated by periods of tense silence, before opening out ...

Posted on: 14th May 2012

We've been celebrating 'Theme GB' with the best of British music all week; along with the lavish sound worlds of Jonathan Harvey, the meditative transcendentalism of John Tavener and the astonishing colours of George Benjamin, this year also offered the chance to hear a colossus of British jazz, pianist Julian Joseph, up close and personal with his trio. The first half opened with a Joseph original, My Brother, with a shimmering piano extemporisation, full of colours, which slowly changed into some solid swing, with some terrific agility ...

Posted on: 13th May 2012

Well, it’s 3.45pm and the final session has just finished here at the Gulbenkian Theatre in the Worldwide Musical Mother’s Day celebrations here at Sounds New. The foyer of the theatre has been thronging with art-workshops, face-painting and wandering school theatre performers throughout the day, whilst inside the theatre auditorium children and families have been introduced to instruments of the orchestra and the wonderful weirdness of Merlin’s Tale, a capella choral singing, modern dance and Minimalism and big band jazz. Fronted ...

Posted on: 13th May 2012

It’s been an epic few days across the Festival recently, ranging from intimate recitals to transcendental meditative states in Canterbury Cathedral. Day seven on Thursday saw a lunchtime recital In Praise of Dreams with soprano Rhona McKail and pianist Yshani Perinpanayagam in their lunchtime recital, before the focus shifted out to the Turner Contemporary gallery at Margate for the world premiere of Les Malèdictions d’une Furie, a monodrama by John Croft performed by Loré Lixenberg. Prior to the performance, both ...

Posted on: 11th May 2012

The University of Kent’s Gulbenkian Theatre will be bursting with music, art, face-painting and more on Sunday 13 May, to celebrate Worldwide Mother’s Day as part of Sounds New this year. From 11am to 3.30pm, Musical Mother’s Day will include performances on the hour, every hour, including art and drama workshops, song, dance, instrumental music, flowery fun, food and more, in an event that will please youngsters of all ages! From 12pm at regular intervals throughout the day, events will feature Canterbury Christ Church ...

Posted on: 11th May 2012

The ‘Curious Curator’ project returns to Sounds New once more this year. One of the festival’s education projects, students from Canterbury College are using the Sounds New Festival programme as inspiration for their own imaginative work in either 2- or 3-D, and will curating an exhibition of their responses to the festival from this Saturday. Organised by Peter Cook, the venue for this year’s project is the former ‘Discovery Centre’ shop in the Marlowe Arcade, Whitefriars, which will house the ...

Posted on: 10th May 2012

An icy-blue glow and plethora of audio-visual equipment turned Augustine Hall into a shrine to electronica last night, a dimly-lit hall and an expectant hush for the start of the Powerplant concert. The waiting audience were greeted with a screen on which the heads of sightless dummies rotated in endless circles, back and forth, a metaphor perhaps for the often de-humanising isolation of modern life which was about to be exploded in vigorous fashion. Striding purposefully onto the stage, percussionist Joby Burgess launched into Piece ...

Posted on: 9th May 2012

If you thought that brash, vibrant contemporary music was the playground simply of the young, here's a sound-bite to change your mind: CSR presenter Josh Thorne spoke on the first day of the festival with Ro, who's proud to be a grandmother and a Sounds New supporter.... Posted by Daniel Harding.

Posted on: 9th May 2012

St Peter's Methodist Church resounded to the sound of home-made instruments yesterday, at the second in the 'All for One' series of educational events as part of this year's Sounds New Festival. Organised by Peter Cook, local school-children flocked to the church to explore a variety of home-made instruments concocted from all manner of found, everyday objects, including plastic piping and kitchen utensils - not the sort of materials you might expect, perhaps! Pictured above is one of them: a fanfare trumpet made from a length of plastic ...

Posted on: 8th May 2012

Courtesy of CSR presenter (and brass-player) Josh Thorne, here's Festival Director Paul Max Edlin reflecting on the first few days of this year's festival, in conversation with Josh yesterday. Paul looks back on various events which occured over the Bank Holiday weekend, the first weekend of this year's Sounds New Festival, including a gig from the BBC Big Band, a visit from the Kent Cultural Baton, live music in Whitefriars in the town centre, the Choral Day, and more. Posted by Daniel Harding.

Posted on: 8th May 2012

Fresh from touring with Peter Gabriel, percussionist Joby Burgess comes to Canterbury tomorrow night with Powerplant, promising an audio-visual feast including music by Graham Fitkin and Gabriel Prokofiev. Find out how Joby answered the 'Three Questions' about contemporary music and coming to Sounds New in an earlier post here, where you can also hear him performing some of the music appearing in the concert. Details of the concert online here. Where multi-media meets minimalism: don't miss it... Posted by Daniel Harding

Posted on: 8th May 2012

If you missed some of the events that took place over the course of the Festival during the Bank Holiday weekend, you can catch up with everything that happened on the 'Sounds New Festival Paper,' our very own e-newspaper. The Festival e-paper is a round-up of recent articles and features about Sounds New, published at intervals throughout the week. It also includes related features about contemporary music drawn from other publications. Today's issue includes reviews of concerts from across the opening weekend of this year's festival ...

Posted on: 7th May 2012

Young artists from the Park Lane Group demonstrated talent far beyond their years in the lunchtime concert earlier today, Sprite! Taking the concert's name from Patrick Nunn's puckish and mischievous piece for solo piccolo which appeared in the programme, flautist Rosanna Ter-Berg and pianist Leo Nicholson displayed a degree of technical mastery which was, if you'll forgive the pun, simply breathtaking in scope. The programme opened with David Matthews' Duet Variations, a piece full of rich colours and lush textures that shows Matthews ...

Posted on: 7th May 2012

There was a choral theme to the third day of Sounds New yesterday, beginning with Sunday Mass at Canterbury Cathedral and two contemporary works from the Cathedral Choir; Jonathan Dove's Missa Brevis and Gabriel Jackson's setting of O Magnum Mysterium. At lunchtime, the CoMA Ensemble London gave a concert at St Gregory's Centre, conducted by Gregory Rose. The choral theme resumed in the afternoon, as choirs from around Kent amassed at Augustine Hall to present various contemporary pieces which they had been preparing, before coming together ...

Posted on: 5th May 2012

The second day of Sounds New saw outdoor events in Whitefriars in the town centre, including Wide-Eyed Theatre, live jazz from several ensembles, and a visit from the Kent Cultural Baton, a roving vehicle that has been traversing the county celebrating culture in the run-up to the Olympic Games. Shoppers and tourists in the heart of the historic city were treated to live jazz from Kent Youth Jazz Orchestra, Christchurch University Big Band and Sounds New's very own 'Big Brand New.' Here are two of the players with the 'Big Brand New,' ...

Posted on: 5th May 2012

This year’s Sounds New launched yesterday with a fistful of events. The festival announced itself from the rooftop of Augustine Hall, with brass players performing several especially-written fanfares to herald the beginning of this year's celebration of 'Theme GB.' Following this heraldic display, renowned conductor Diego Masson took time before rehearsing later in the day with the London Sinfonietta, to appear in conversation with Artistic Director of the Festival, Paul Edlin. In the afternoon, over 130 children thronged at St Peter's ...

Posted on: 4th May 2012

For the second year running, the written and spoken word play an important part in Sounds New as Sounds New Poetry returns to the festival. Jointly organised by the University of Kent’s centres for Modern Poetry and Creative Writing, events this year encompass a poetry-writing workshop, readings, collaborative events between poetry and improvised music, an assessment of British poetry since 1950 and an ‘open mic’ session for budding poets. National and international poets also appear at the Festival; American poet Marianne ...

Posted on: 4th May 2012

In just over one hour’s time, brass fanfares will ring out over the rooftops at Augustine Hall to announce the start of this year’s Sounds New Festival. From cutting-edge commissions and world premières to explorations of sound in music and poetry, visual art and dance, family events and educational workshops, Canterbury will be abuzz with national and international performers, composers, all celebrating ‘Theme GB’ – the best of British in music. Keep up with all that’s happening both here on ...

Posted on: 3rd May 2012

If you’re a budding critic, journalist or musicologist and would like to review some of the hottest contemporary music around, Sounds New gives you the opportunity to do so! You can choose a concert from this year’s festival, and in return for a free ticket, write a review of not more than five hundred words – or, if you want to be more creative, you can respond to the event in the form of a poem, a film, photo or painting. Reviews will be featured here on the Sounds New website, and in the past have been published in ...

Posted on: 3rd May 2012

With less than twenty-four hours to go until this year's Festival gets underway, we launch Sounds New on Pinterest - the Festival's very own virtual pinboard. Here you'll find photos from the Festival, videos of some of the music appearing this year, blog features and other related articles. Visit it - Like it - follow it! Sounds New on Pinterest: keeping you up-to-date with all that's happening. Posted by Daniel Harding.

Posted on: 2nd May 2012

The first day of May saw me talking with Peter Cook, the Education Project Manager for Sounds New, jazz saxophonist, teacher, and self-styled ‘Fleet Commander’ (you’ll have to listen to the interview for the explanation for that one!). The educational aspect of Sounds New is a crucial part of the festival’s mission, to engage younger audiences with contemporary music, to find ways in which they can participate in and respond to it. ‘’That’s really the big vision of Sounds New,’’ Peter ...

Posted on: 1st May 2012

Internationally-renowned conductor, and a terrific champion of contemporary music, Diego Masson will be appearing In Conversation on Friday May 4th at 11am at Augustine Hall. Masson is recognised as one of the world’s leading exponents of contemporary music. In 1966, following a period of study with Pierre Boulez, he formed Musique Vivante which became famous for its regular concerts presenting important contemporary works. After considerable success as Music Director of the Marseille Opera in the 1970s, Masson went on to pursue an ...

Posted on: 30th Apr 2012

With only four days until the start of this year's festival, Master of the Queen’s Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, comes to Sounds New in person: at the end of this week! A significant figure on the British compositional landscape for sixty years, one of our country’s foremost composers will be appearing In Conversation on Friday 4 May at Augustine Hall, (where, as Festival Director Paul Max Edlin observed with enthusiasm at this year’s festival launch, ‘’You can ask him tricky questions! About swans!’’). In ...

Posted on: 29th Apr 2012

Starting next Friday, there is once more a host of free events occurring as part of Sounds New. Friday 4 May, musician and author David Toop appears in discussion at the Sidney Cooper Gallery on the High Street at 3pm as part of Open Ear 2012. An hour later, also at the Sidney Cooper Gallery, Salvage! Open Ear 2012 sees a melange of electronics, music and dance with students from the Music Technology course at Christchurch University and Dancers from the Folkestone Dance Company. Sunday 6 May, 2.30-4.30pm: Sounds New Choral Day at Augustine ...

Posted on: 29th Apr 2012

The three winners of the 2011 International Composer Pyramid will each be having their work performed at Sounds New starting next Friday. The London Sinfonietta and Diego Masson will be performing Edmund Finnis’ Frame/Refrain and Benjamin Oliver’s Momentum in the opening concert at the Marlowe Theatre on Friday 4 May; the programme also features George Benjamin’s magical at First Light and Maxwell Davies’ A Mirror of Whitening Light. London-based Finnis has previously studied with Julian Anderson, and has written ...

Posted on: 28th Apr 2012

Ahead of their appearance at Sounds New on Sunday 6 May, I put three questions to  Marlene Dröge Nielsen and Matthew Jones of the Danish chamber ensemble, Ensemble MidtVest. The ensemble is renowned for its creative programming, pushing the boundaries of the traditional classical concert form through creativity and excellence. I asked them about the group and what lies ahead next week. 1 Tell us about yourself / your ensemble We’re a chamber music group, founded in 2002, consisting of eleven outstanding musicians from ...

Posted on: 27th Apr 2012

When asked what I’m looking forward to at Sounds New this year, I’ve found it really hard to choose a highlight from the Festival; with works by major composers strewn like confetti across the programmes, or major national and international performers and ensembles popping up around Canterbury like spring flowers, or pieces which are new to me which I feel I really must hear, condensing my Festival Favourites into a ‘Top Five’ list is difficult (and too alliterative as well, perhaps...!). So, I’ve decided to ...

Posted on: 27th Apr 2012

Cornwall-born Graham Fitkin’s Chain of Command comes to Sounds New on Wednesday 9 May. Commissioned by Powerplant and toured by them in 2008, the percussionist uses a MIDI-marimba to trigger speech samples; a technique Fitkin used with menacing political overtones in No Doubt, his concerto for MIDI-harp from 2010; It’s a path well-trodden by Steve Reich, certainly, in pieces such as Different Trains and City Life, although for Fitkin, the speech samples are used less for their ability to generate particular pitch-sets than ...

Posted on: 26th Apr 2012

Gosh, Paul Patterson is a very busy man; catching up with Paul is something of a challenge, as he combines composing with a hectic schedule of teaching and travelling both around the country and abroad. I managed to do so yesterday when Paul was visiting Canterbury on one of his days teaching at Christ Church University, where he is Visiting Professor of Composition; the previous day, Paul had been teaching in Manchester; he recently attended a performance of his Magnificat in Paris, and on the day before the same piece is performed at Sounds ...

Posted on: 26th Apr 2012

This Saturday, two works by Jonathan Harvey will be on BBC Radio 3’s Hear and Now; his Song Offerings, a setting of poems from Tagore’s ‘Gitanjali’ sung by Claire Booth with the Nash Ensemble, and Summer Clouds Awakening, for choir, flute, cello and electronics. Harvey’s music appears at Sounds New this year on several occasions: more details in the recent feature devoted to the composer on this blog: click here to read more. The Hear and Now programme will then be available online for a week – neatly ...

Posted on: 25th Apr 2012

Ahead of their concert in the new Marlowe Theatre on Tuesday 15 May, which will bring this year’s Sounds New Festival to a close, I put three questions to Jonathan Howard, bass with the group, who describes himself as  ‘’twenty-five, six-foot five, brown hair, likes travelling and sushi, dislikes peanut butter,’’ about why the group is so excited about coming to Canterbury… Tell us about your ensemble The King's Singers have been around for over 44 years. There are just six of us - two counter-tenors, ...

Posted on: 24th Apr 2012

Responsible for some of the most important contributions to contemporary music through their commissioning of new works, the Arditti Quartet continues its trail-blazing trajectory as it comes to Sounds New on May 7th. Since its foundation in 1974, the Quartet has commissioned pieces from a veritable Who’s Who of giants of contemporary music, including Stockhausen, Ligetti, Britten, Andriessen, to name but a few. In an interview back in 1999, first violinist and founder member Irvine Arditti reflects on the impact the Quartet has had ...

Posted on: 24th Apr 2012

Artistic Director of the Festival, Paul Max Edlin, and Festival Manager Michelle Castelletti, were interviewed on CSR, Canterbury Community and Student Radio, on Saturday, where they introduced the ideas behind this year’s Sounds New Festival and some of the events to look forward to this year, and in particular jazz at the festival: the BBC Big Band and the Julian Joseph Trio (and sneakily pay tribute to Michelle’s astonishing string of academic qualifications!). As Paul observes, Sounds New is all about what’s happening ...

Posted on: 23rd Apr 2012

Sprite, by locally-born composer Patrick Nunn, appears at Sounds New in a lunchtime concert on Monday 7 May, performed by flautist Rosanna Ter-Berg. Of the piece, Nunn himself writes: ‘Sprite was completed in November 1998 and is dedicated to my then six-month-old nephew. The piece portrays the playful and agile nature of a mythical sprite - qualities that I then associated with my wonderfully animated nephew. ‘ Here's Nunn's 21 Century Junkie, written for six pianos and tape; a whirlwind evocation of the frantic, information-consumption-driven ...

Posted on: 23rd Apr 2012

Raising the curtain on the start of this year’s Sounds New Festival next week before it all gets into full swing, a performance of music and dance at Canterbury College features amongst a varied programme a new work by Philip Neil Martin, An Outburst of Time next Monday, 30 April. Also to be performed by the Arditti Quartet at their concert the following week, on this occasion the piece is to be presented with dance and film projection. Performers include dancers from Christ Church University, Simon Langton Girls Grammar School, ...

Posted on: 22nd Apr 2012

I love Julian Joseph’s playing. Since coming across his playing as one of two pianists on Emanon (1987) with a youthful Vaughan Hawthorne (the other pianist being Jason Rebello), hearing him behind that great British jazz vocalist (and member of the short-lived but hugely influential Jazz Warriors), Cleveland Watkiss, on the latter’s Blessing in Disguise (1991) and then finding his solo album, Reality (1994), I’ve always been enamoured of his robust, no-nonsense approach to jazz playing. I saw him perform a solo gig in ...

Posted on: 20th Apr 2012

John McCabe’s work is appearing twice at this year’s festival; the King’s Singers perform his highly evocative Scenes in America Deserta at the Marlowe Theatre on May 15, and the Grimethorpe Colliery Band bring Cloudcatcher Fells to Canterbury Cathedral on May 12. McCabe’s recording of the complete Haydn piano sonatas for the Decca label is a bastion of the repertoire on disc, and (as a part of my father’s ridiculously eclectic record collection) was my first introduction to McCabe, as a pianist. (A review ...

Posted on: 20th Apr 2012

Just announced, this season’s Proms series is probably one of the most exciting I’ve seen, with a plethora of world and UK premières and a feast of contemporary music. The festival gets off to a bang with Mark-Anthony Turnage at the opening night, Canon Fever, première, also Sir Michael Tippett’s Suite for the Birthday of Prince Charles, which includes a movement employing the wonderful melody ‘Angelus ad virginem.’ John Adams conducts Prom 4 which includes his City Noir and Prom 74, a performance ...

Posted on: 19th Apr 2012

Ahead of their concert at Sounds New on Monday 14 May, saxophonist and group-member, Ellie Steemson answers three questions about the youthful and vibrant ensemble, Workers Union. Tell us about your ensemble  Workers Union Ensemble initially came together for a performance of Louis Andriessen's epic work of the same name whilst its members were studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Since it formed in 2008, the group has evolved into its unusual six-piece line-up consisting of sax, oboe, piano, double bass and two percussionists, ...

Posted on: 19th Apr 2012

Music from some of the composers featuring at Sounds New next month coming up on Radio 3: three new pieces, commissioned as part of the New Music 20x12 for the Cultural Olympiad, and others can be heard on Radio 3’s Hear and Now this Saturday. Anna Meredith’s HandsFree will be performed by the National Youth Orchestra, whilst Sally Beamish’s Spinal Chords, with actress Juliet Stevenson as narrator, is played by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment . The Manchester Chorale and Black Dyke Mills Band perform Luke Carver ...

Posted on: 18th Apr 2012

This year, the education arm of Sounds New presents ‘All for One,’ a series of three concerts at St Peter’s Methodist Church, Canterbury, which brings new music to children and families, along with fun and a few surprises! The series kicks off on May 4 with Merlin’s Tale, a brand new work for seated audience by composer John Perfect. Groups will prepare short passages of music to be performed on the day together with the composer and Peter Cook, Sounds New’s education project leader. Both performers and audience ...

Posted on: 17th Apr 2012

Coming to Sounds New on 9 May, Powerplant, led by percussionist Joby Burgess, represents a kaleidoscope of percussion, electronics and multi-media. I first came across Powerplant in the form of the novel twist Burgess provided on Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint. Originally written for jazz-guitarist Pat Metheny, with Metheny playing against pre-recorded multi-tracks of guitar and bass guitar lines to create Reich’s trademark tapestry of interlocking sounds, I approached a percussive incarnation of the piece with some trepidation; ...

Posted on: 15th Apr 2012

I was reminded of the title of Bruce Weber’s documentary on the life of Chet Baker when reading John Terauds' feature on Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach on his vibrant blog, ‘Musical Toronto’ recently. The Glass-Wilson libretto-less opera is being given its Canadian première in June this year, and Terauds asks if the work’s success is in part due to the fact that, as an audience, there is nothing that we have to understand in the work: as Wilson himself has apparently said, it’s ‘a work ...

Posted on: 13th Apr 2012

Wild, punchy and exhilarating, I first came across the music of Tansy Davies when she unleashed her Wild Card at the Proms in 2010, when a brooding bass clarinet skulked around the back of the texture in her brilliant orchestral piece. The work represents a journey through a deck of Tarot cards, and the opening ‘Devil’ card is full of implied menace as the bass clarinet looms and lurks underneath the orchestra. Her music combines a brash and vibrant sound with strong jazz/funk-inflected rhythms in a manner reminiscent ...

Posted on: 12th Apr 2012

George Benjamin’s At First Light comes to Sounds New on Friday 4 May, with the London Sinfonietta conducted by Diego Masson. Written in 1982 for a fourteen-piece chamber orchestra, the work was inspired by JMW Turner’s painting Norham Castle: Sunrise. The piece was a commission from the London Sinfonietta, received the day after he had made his compositional Proms debut with a performance of Ringed by the Flat Horizon in 1980 at the tender age of twenty, making him the youngest-ever composer to be performed at the Proms. An ...

Posted on: 11th Apr 2012

One of the composers featuring in the Powerplant concert at Sounds New next month on Wednesday 9 May, composer Max de Wardener can be heard on Late Junction on Radio 3 tomorrow night. A bass-player, composer, and graduate of the University of York and the Guildhall, de Wardener has written for film and television, and builds his own percussion instruments. Commissions have included works for the Elysian String Quartet and the London Symphony Orchestra, and he was one of four composers to be commissioned to write a new work in celebration ...

Posted on: 10th Apr 2012

Sunday Mass at Canterbury Cathedral on 6 May features music by Jonathan Dove and Gabriel Jackson, both of whom have become stalwarts of contemporary British choral composition. Dove’s musical language is at once vibrantly new and yet instantly accessible in a way that doesn’t compromise its individuality or descend into the saccharine. At home whether writing for the opera-house, community music projects or church services (his sublime Three Kings was commissioned for the 2000 Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s), compositions ...

Posted on: 7th Apr 2012

There’s a very moving Guardian interview with Jonathan Harvey, whose music was the subject of a  ‘Total Immersion’ celebration at the Barbican back in January, in which the composer reflects on his opera, Wagner Dream, written in 2007. He talks about the twin poles of his musical and spiritual selves: Wagner and the philosophy of Buddhism. "I love Wagner's music. …When I was a teenager, that was what obsessed me, to discover how Wagner created these other places, these visions, in his music, to find where that ...

Posted on: 4th Apr 2012

With exactly one month until Sounds New bursts into life in Canterbury, we’ll be marking the countdown to the beginning of the festival with a series profiling performers, composers and pieces appearing throughout the season, beginning with Sir John Tavener. John Tavener regards The Veil of the Temple ‘as the supreme achievement of my life and the most important work that I have ever composed.’ Huge in concept, and in its original form lasting for seven hours, the piece is in eight sections, or ‘circles,’ ...

Posted on: 2nd Apr 2012

We’re delighted to reveal that Sounds New has been shortlisted in two categories for the 2012 Canterbury Culture Awards. Set up in 2011, the awards are a way of celebrating the vast spectrum of cultural activities, talent, organisations and individuals working in the east Kent area, and recognising the array of events that makes Kent an exciting cultural centre. The awards ceremony last year brought together artists, local businesses, philanthropists and arts supporters, in celebrating the cultural diversity at the heart of the area. This ...

Posted on: 28th Mar 2012

Coming to Sounds New this season on Wednesday 9 May in the Powerplant concert, Graham Fitkin is also one of the composers associated with this year’s London Olympic Games and the New Music 20x12 project.  His piece Track to Track: the Athlon premièred at the Cadogan Hall last Thursday, performed by the Fitkin Band and the London Chamber Orchestra, setting words by the poet Glyn Maxwell. The piece was written to be broadcast on the 'Javelin' train, as it travels between King's Cross and the Olympic arena. The New Music ...

Posted on: 26th Mar 2012

The Barbican’s 2012-13 season, announced several weeks ago, has an exciting crop of premières, contemporary works and ‘Total Immersion’ series on the horizon. There’s an intriguing mixed bag this October in an eclectic-looking individual concert that includes American wunderkind Nico Muhly, wide-ranging pianist Joanna Macgregor, British saxophonist Andy Sheppard, and a première from Scotland’s James Macmillan. Also appearing at Sounds New this May, Mark-Anthony Turnage will be taking up a residency ...

Posted on: 24th Mar 2012

There's an exciting programme of modern works and premières at this year's Edinburgh International Festival, for which tickets have gone on sale today. An intriguing series of programmes from the London Symphony Orchestra and Gergiev sees pairings of Szymanowski and Brahms; the Cleveland Orchestra under Wesler-Möst in Lutoslawksi's Concerto for Orchestra; and there's a première from James Macmillan; the European Youth Orchestra perform Debussy's evocative Nocturnes alongside a new work by Richard Causton; and the CBSO ...

Posted on: 22nd Mar 2012

There was an expectant audience and an eager buzz at last night’s gathering to launch this year’s Sounds New Festival. The majestic atrium of Augustine House was abuzz with visitors and distinguished guests leafing through this year’s new brochure, hunting for favourite composers, major works or big-name performers coming to Canterbury this May. The welcome address from Ian Odgers, Chairman of the Board of Directors, reflected on the importance of Sounds New as a means of enhancing the status of Canterbury and east Kent ...

Posted on: 21st Mar 2012

Many people are put off of classical music because of the apparent anachronism in the very label used to define it, believing it to refer largely to that body of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century music of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. In this light, classical music can appear to have no contemporary relevance; it has no meaning to today's cultural consumers, and is interesting only as a museum piece, or something that advertisers and marketing companies can employ as shorthand to imply a product or service has value or a sense ...

Posted on: 19th Mar 2012

Our brochure for this year's festival is now available to view on-line in digital format, and also to download (PDF). Everything that's happening this year, from curtain-raisers to cutting-edge contemporary commisions (is that too alliterative ?!) is yours to browse. Click here to explore this year's rich plethora of exciting events, or here to dowload your copy. Prepare to get excited! Posted by Daniel Harding.

Posted on: 19th Mar 2012

Death comes to Canterbury this Wednesday, as Death’s Cabaret marks the official launch of this year’s Sounds New Festival. Written by Belfast-born Stephen Deazley, with text by Martin Riley, and performed by cellist Matthew Sharp, the pieces explores the  cultural collision between folklore, cabaret and the concerto; it promises to be an alluring event. Deazley’s interests are wide-ranging, and include working in classical, music theatre, opera, dance and film; he has also been the Creative Director of the Scottish ...

Posted on: 16th Mar 2012

For those of us who can’t wait until Friday 4 May to hear Sir Peter Maxwell Davies ‘In Conversation’ at this year’s Sounds News, tune in to ‘Hear and Now’ on BBC Radio 3 tomorrow night to hear his Eight Songs for a Mad King. Also in the programme will be Anthony Payne’s A Day in the Life of a Mayfly and the première of Sally Beamish’s The Sins, all performed by Psappha. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies will be at this year’s Sounds New Festival on Friday 4 May at 6.30pm, as he appears ...

Posted on: 13th Mar 2012

I was heartened  by an article in The Guardian a few weeks ago, which proclaimed that 'difficult' concert programmes are attracting audiences in their droves, and that contemporary music audiences are actually in robust health (Audiences flock to ‘difficult’ contemporary classical music, 30 January; click here to read). Alex Needham`s article paints a portrait of people turning out in their droves to a plethora of modern works being programmed over the coming months, from a festival of Minimalism in Scotland to political ...

Posted on: 9th Mar 2012

Lovers of Prog Rock had the chance to see Caravan at work (and play) in the Sounds New 'Prog Rock Weekend' last week. A weekend of workshops and open rehearsals also hosted a 'Battle of the Bands' competition, in which the winners 'The Boot Lagoon' were able to team up with Canterbury's own Caravan on-stage at the latter's headlining gig at Agustine House. Since the early intimations of prog rock’s immortality in Sergeant Pepper and Procul Harem’s Bach-indebted Whiter Shade of Pale, progressive rock has occupied a love-it-or-hate-it ...

Posted on: 9th Mar 2012

We're delighted to be launching the Sounds New blog, which this year will both accompany the festival as well as lead up to it, with news, features, event reviews, profiles and more. Spread over two weeks in May, 'Theme GB' is a celebration of everything British in music, including works by Oliver Knussen, George Benjamin, Peter Maxwell Davies (who will also be appearing In Conversation), Brian Ferneyhough, James Dillon, Thomas Ades, James Macmillan, Graham Fitkin, and Mark-Anthony Turnage to name a few; there'll also be a chance to hear ...

Posted on: 14th Feb 2012

The countdown to 2012's Sounds New Festival, featuring all things British, is well and truly underway now, with the exciting announcement of this year's programme in full. Audiences this year can look forward to some of the best performers that the Isles have to offer, including London Sinfonietta, Grimethorpe Colliery Band, Canterbury Cathedral Choir, BBC Big Band, the dynamic Joby Burgess, Tenebrae, Worker's Union and the sublime King's Singers. Having said that, it wouldn't be the international festival of previous years if it wasn't ...