Composition Wales shortlist announced

David John Roche's Six Prayers has been nominated for the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award 2020. David features alongside composers from Spain, Hong Kong and China on a shortlist selected by Thomas Adès, from 93 entries from 32 countries. The 4 nominated works will be performed on 31 May 2020 at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall. MORE

Tŷ Cerdd has announced that composer Mark Bowden has been selected to represent the Welsh Section at the 2020 World New Music Days, to be held in New Zealand, 21-30 April: his Five Memos for violin and piano will be performed alongside the best in new music put forward by ISCM sections from around the world. read more

Nathan James Dearden talks about his new work Three Postcards , composed as part his 2018/19 Making Music Adopt a Composer collaboration with Swansea Philharmonic Choir. "When writing for voice or grouped voices, I have always considered the text’s relationship to musical form and structure, which often guides harmonic decisions and the pacing of the music, but have never had the opportunity to work as closely to the source of the text – the poet. This is a key aspect of the music making process that I feel can be overlooked; amazing when you consider how significant, if not the most significant, the element of the text can be for vocal music. As part of the workshops with the Swansea Philharmonic Choir and conductor Jon Rogers, we have created three responses in the form of 'postcards' to the city of Swansea, marking the 50th anniversary of Swansea being given city status and the choir’s 60th anniversary. Two of the responses have already received a preview performance during the process, and all three will be premiered as a set in December." read more