Dani Howard is a British composer and orchestrator who is quickly gaining international recognition with regular performances across Europe, the US and Asia. 2019 marked her debut with the LSO  (a new commission for Cheltenham Festival conducted by Elim Chan), BBC Symphony Orchestra and a return to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic with a new commission for the opening of their 2019-20 season conducted by Vasily Petrenko. In 2021 she looks forward to the premiere of a new Trombone Concerto written for Peter Moore (Principal Trombone, LSO) with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. As well as commissions with the Marian Consort, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the ORA singers among others. 

Bobbie-Jane Gardner is a composer, arranger and educator based in Birmingham. Her music stems from a love of African-American orchestral RnB and Soul from the 60s and 70s, Hip Hop sampling culture, jazz, soul and funk. Bobbie has received commissions from Vivid Projects, Grand Union, Heart n Soul, Spitalfields Music, Black Country Touring, Onyx Brass and Wild Plum Arts. Her work has been performed by leading ensembles including Psappha, Project Instrumental, City of London Sinfonia, London Symphony Orchestra and Ethereal World.Bobbie’s music has been performed at international festivals, including the Cheltenham Music Festival, Frontiers Festival and the London Jazz Festival.

Diana Yukawa is a revolutionary violinist and composer of electronic classical music. Writing and releasing her own original music, a dynamic performer appearing on some of the worlds most prolific stages, she is one-third of Ghost Harmonic. Diana demonstrates that the violin is a diverse instrument captivating event-goers with her powerful performance and through her original compositions has created a refreshing, electronic classical sound that enthrals audiences all over the world.

Steven Daverson an alumnus of the Royal Northern College of Music & the Royal College of Music; studied under David Horne, Jonathan Cole and Mark-Anthony Turnage. His work has been featured across Europe, from Aldeburgh Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Traiettoria Parma to the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik. In 2011, Steven was the youngest-ever recipient of the Composer’s prize of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung. Recent projects include a revised version Arkanar: A Report from the Interior for microtonal tuba and live electronics, performed at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse in 2018 with a UK première in 2019. In 2019-20, he became a fellow of the Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia in Bamberg.

Photo Michael Aust

Samuel Andreyev is a composer, author, professor and host of the Samuel Andreyev Podcast.His chamber, orchestral, vocal and solo works have been performed, recorded and broadcast throughout the world. His YouTube channel, interviews and lectures have reached millions of people.                                                                                                   Samuel Andreyev’s music has been featured in portrait concerts in Bern, Geneva, Toronto, Paris, Kyiv, Strasbourg, Montréal, Tours, and many other cities. Andreyev is a laureat of the Henri Dutilleux Prize (2012, for ‘Night Division’), and the Grand Prix Lycéen des Compositeurs (2020, for ‘Vérifications’). He is also Vice President of the music council of the Fondation Prince Pierre (Monaco).

 

Thomas Hyde is a composer described by Opera Magazine as ‘clearly his own man on his own turf’ . His largest work to date is the one-man opera, That Man Stephen Ward, premiered to great acclaim in 2008 and revived by Nova Music Opera at the Cheltenham Festival in 2015. A commercial recording, featuring Damian Thantrey was issued by Resonus Classics in 2017 was described by one reviewer as, ‘the most impressive and genuinely exciting work by a young British composer I have heard in years'.                                                                                                                                            Recent compositions have included a Symphony premiered by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow in March 2018, and a comedy overture inspired by Les Dawson for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales premiered at the 2018 Lichfield Festival, as well as a setting of the Magnificat for The Sixteen, commissioned by Concertgebouw Bruges.

Garry DW Judd is a contemporary classical composer whose music is driven by such diverse influences as the English Experimentalists, Erik Satie and Percy Grainger. His music has been played on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, and other broadcasters in the USA, Germany and France, by such performers as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Leslie Howard and Courtney Pine. He is now working on a music project inspired by the sculpture and art of Henry Moore, working with the Henry Moore Studios & Gardens.

photo Matthew Cheale

Reproduced by permission of the Henry Moore Foundation

Outside Music and supporting composers and artists; one from my favourite pastimes is whisky. So especially in a time of not much socialising I thought I might share the whisky I am mostly drinking this week!