Bucharest World Premiere

Shame I couldn't make it to Bucharest this weekend to hear the World Premiere of my trio for clarinet, violin and piano. But then the piece is only one minute long! Hopefully I'll be able to see the performance on Youtube soon.

Another new musical in the pipeline!

Today I've been working on a project commissioned by St Nicholas Church in Pevensey. I'm writing a work for children's choir to be performed next year, when the church celebrates its 800th anniversary. I'm collaborating with Starshine publisher and writer Ruth Kenward. This is a new process for me. We are meeting regularly to exchange ideas and then working separately, emailing suggestions and amendments back and forth! It's certainly good to have someone to bounce ideas at, but at times one has to accept that a passage of music you initially think is great just won't work. A humbling but thought-provoking and valuable process.

New Publication

I'm really pleased that one of my compositions has been published in a new collection. Back in 2013 I was shortlisted for the Pallant Prize, an international composition competition. The six winning entries have now been published by Chichester Music Press. I've just looked closely at the cover and realised that it's my piece on the front!

New musical coming along

Today I've been working on the songs for a musical I'm writing about the school where I am Head of Junior Music. As the school is celebrating 140 years since it was founded, the show will focus on how the school came into being. The finale of the show will be our school hymn, which the founder wrote in 1875. I just need to find a way of jazzing it up a bit as it's not the catchiest of tunes! Once I've done that, I just have eight songs to go! Some of them will be 'recycled' from other shows I've written in the past, with some new words. I'll post a few extracts here soon!

Corelli Ensemble

I'm currently busy arranging a version of Massenet's Meditation from Thais. This will be performed by the fantastic Corelli Ensemble. This hauntingly beautiful piece was oringinally written for full orchestra. My arrangement is for violin soloist, harp and string orchestra. I'll post details of its premiere soon.

Jules Massenet 1842-1912

It's all very exciting here as my first children's musical, The Zany Zoo, has just been published by Starshine Music. The songs have been professionally recorded on a CD which accompanies the book, allowing schools to hear demonstrations of the songs and also to sing along to backing tracks. I have worked with Ruth Kenward on the project, who has written a lively, witty script for the show. The musical is aimed at children aged 7 to 11 and song extracts can be heard here, and are also available on iTunes.