Blog
Lyrebird Brass presents five contemporary brass quintets, including Grace-Evangeline Mason’s ‘As Bronze,’ in BOOK OF BRASS, an album shaking up the scene with an assortment of boundary-pushing works by highly lauded and awarded composers, released August 16 on Navona Records.
Saturday night saw the German Premiere of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ at Belvedere Palace, Weimar, directed by Jochen Biganzoli by Studierende Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar under conductor, Márton Terts.
The Apollo Saxophone Quartet have released an album called ‘Continuum’ on 1st May. The new disk features recordings of their most recent commissions, including ‘In the Fragrant Air’ by Grace-Evangeline Mason.
After giving the world premiere of ‘A Memory of the Ocean’ in June 2023, Bristol Choral Society under Hilary Campbell recorded the piece back in October for inclusion on their new disk with Delphian Records.
Harpist Lauren Scott’s new album Sea of Stars is a brilliant showcase of Lauren’s inimitable style and casts Lauren’s own compositions alongside original works by Grace-Evangeline Mason, Rüdiger Opperman and Monika Stadler. Out 19th April on Avie Records.
As part of Choir & Organ Magazine’s New Music series in partnership with the Choir of King’s College London and supported by PRS for Music, the November/December issue is out now and includes a new work by Grace-Evangeline Mason titled ‘O Sapientia'‘ for Advent, which is free to download and sing.
The 6th October saw the Dutch premiere of the collection of pieces ‘A Memory of the Ocean’ by the Dutch Radio Choir Groot Omroepkoor with a solo from soprano Varvara Tishina, pianist Hannes Minnaar, and cellist Anton Spronk under conductor Florian Helgath for AVROTROS Vrijdagconcert at TivoliVrendenburg, Utrecht to standing ovation.
Conductor Mark Wigglesworth brought ‘The Imagined Forest’ down under for its Australian premiere this week with two performances by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in Adelaide Town Hall, South Australia, to positive reviews.
Tuesday night saw the premiere of ABLAZE THE MOON performed by BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under Mark Wigglesworth as part of The BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, London. The piece was commissioned to be a short concert-opener to be followed by a programme of Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto performed by Sir Stephen Hough, and Mahler’s First Symphony.
The new concert-opener, ‘ABLAZE THE MOON’, was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to be premiered at the Royal Albert Hall on 18 July by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Mark Wigglesworth. The new five-minute work draws inspiration from American lyric poet Sara Teasdale. with melodies mirroring the lunar arcs heard in lines from the poem ‘Tonight’
‘A Memory of the Ocean’, a new work for choir, concertante piano and solo ‘cello, was premiered by Bristol Choral Society under Hilary Campbell on 24 June 2023 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams and co-commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society, Vaughan Williams Foundation, and Netherlands’ AVROTROS Friday concert.
On Friday 19th, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under their new music director, Jonathon Heyward gave the US Premiere of 'The Imagined Forest' at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in a programme with Xavier Foley's 'Soul Bass' and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6, followed by two further performances; Saturday 20th, at Strathmore Music Center and Sunday 21st at JMSH, Maryland.
On Thursday night, the Philharmonia Orchestra presented a variety of concerts curated by and including Anna Clyne. The first concert was part of their Music of Today series, conducted by Delyana Lazarova, of a programme including the world premiere of Grace-Evangeline Mason’s ‘The Water Garden’ described as ‘an intricate, luxuriant parade of aqueous imagery’ [The Guardian] for wind dectet and harp.
A few BBC Radio 3 broadcasts to listen out for this month including ‘The Imagined Forest’ performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Mark Wigglesworth, ‘Tenebrae Factae Sunt’ sung by the BBC Singers under Will Dawes, and ‘Whirl Up, Sea—‘ for solo cello performed by Theo Bently Curtin.
The Apollo Saxophone Quartet presented their latest series of commissions from some of today’s most exciting and innovative composers in two concerts at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, including the world premiere of Grace-Evangeline Mason’s In the Fragrant Air.
On September 6th, last week, the Philharmonia Orchestra under John Axelrod brought ‘The Imagined Forest’ to the stage of the world-renowned Teatro alla Scala, Milan, in a programme with Grieg and Rimsky-Korsakov as part of MiTo SettembreMusica.
The international music festival MiTo SettembreMusica opened in Lingotto, Torino last week on September 5th with a concert at the Auditorium Giovanni Agnelli, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra under conductor, John Axelrod with the Italian Premiere of Grace-Evangeline Mason’s The Imagined Forest.
Saturday night saw the premiere of ‘In Her Own Valley’, a cantata based on the life and principles of Hannah Lightbody, an activist during the Industrial Revolution, with words written by librettist, Lila Palmer. The work was performed by the combined Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Children’s and Youth Choirs under conductor, Simon Emery.