A world premiere, 3 UK premieres and a young upcoming composer鈥� 大象传媒 NOW 鈥� NOW! Is our new contemporary series dedicated to the best new music from around the world being written today.
Kicking off the series is 大象传媒 NOW鈥檚 Composer-in-Association, Gavin Higgins, with the concerts world premiere, his Sarabande, before we turn to the exciting multi-award-winning Chinese American composer Tan Dun and his Three Muses in Video Game. This trombone concerto pays tribute to gaming music, whilst reflecting the traditional music of China - with its movements named after ancient Chinese instruments these distinctive sounds are the muse for orchestra and soloist alike. To perform we鈥檙e delighted to welcome J餀箁gen van Rijen, who also gave the works world premiere.
Composition: Wales 2023 participant Anna Whitcombe鈥檚 And the Skies Become Vermillion leads us into a celebration of Ross Edwards鈥� 80th birthday with the UK premiere of his rhythmic, colourful and radiant Chorale and Ecstatic Dance, then comes a UK premiere by Sir James MacMillan. A musical snapshot of Alfred, Lord Tennyson鈥檚 poem Mariana 鈥� the work explores grief through highly charged and expressive modal melodies vying with primal outbursts, lamenting and introverted solos and complex counterpoint.
