| BACK | |
| |
|
| ❨Photographs courtesy of the official NYO weblog❩ | |
By virtue of a portfolio submission made in June 2009 and an ❛audition❜ on 18/10/2009, I was selected to be part of the National Youth Orchestra Composers' Course 2010, which entailed writing music for the formal pre-concert events in April and August 2010, to be performed by a select group of players, conducted by Gerry Cornelius (first rehearsal directed by Timothy Lines), entitled the ❝Composers Ensemble❞ (the absence of an apostrophe being deliberate in order that no hierarchal inference be drawn).
In order that the aforementioned pieces could be rehearsed, we were required to largely complete them prior to the actual residential courses, during which a plethora of various activities were undertaken, from workshops and lectures to being drafted in as honourary percussionists for the original version (with gargantuan demands inasmuch as instrumentation is concerned) of Varèse Amériques, not to doubt that various composition and improvisation (an excuse to play instruments!) tasks were undertaken (sometimes in groups, an unusual and at times uncomfortable working method…), including electronic ❛installations❜ and fanfares for the NYO Brass Quintet to perform in Victoria Square Birmingham, featuring the principal trumpet on the roof of the Town Hall!.
I also had the privilege of giving the world première of a pianoforte piece, composed by one of the players in the orchestra, in the Chamber Concert on 02/08/2010.
The course was led by Paul Patterson, ably assisted by Larry Goves and Anna Meredith. Visiting artists included Adam Gorb, Professor Peter Manning, Brian Irvine, and Julian Anderson, whose orchestral work Fantasias was performed thrice by the orchestra in August 2010 (European première).
