Tŷ Cerdd is pleased to announce that Jack White and Iestyn Harding have each been awarded grants to enable them to bring new work to the concert platform, alongside community performing groups. Jack and Iestyn had been part of an original cohort of eight artists selected for the 18/19 CoDI Buddies programme pairing composers with local societies. To facilitate this, each composer and performing group received an initial grant from CoDI, with the pairings collaborating over a series of workshops in early 2019.
Jack White worked with Côr Aduniad from Cwmbran to develop Beacons, an experimental vocal piece that features the use of moving audio speakers. It takes its name from the Brecon Beacons mountain range, on which fires would be lit to warn of approaching armies. Fire is used as a metaphor for potential change in the work, and the choir moves around the performing space before coming together in the last section. The additional grant of £750 will allow Jack to work with the choir (who receive £250) to complete the piece ready for its premiere in March 2020.
Iestyn Harding workshopped sketches for a triple concerto with musicians from the Abergavenny Symphony Orchestra over three workshops during June. Building on these experiments, he will now work with the group to complete his work for solo violin, flute, horn and orchestra ready for its first performance during the summer of 2020.
Buddies is one of multiple strands run as part of CoDI, Tŷ Cerdd’s development programme for Welsh composers. From January to June 2019 eight artist / community music group pairings workshopped new pieces that included music for wind quintet, experimental electronic music and a piece for massed brass bands. Jack White and Iestyn Harding’s proposals for developing their initial work were selected by Ty Cerdd’s panel to go forward to development.
Matthew Thistlewood, of Ty Cerdd said: “It’s been a pleasure to see the range of excellent work that has been developed through CoDI over the last year – and heartening to see such vibrant links between professional composers and our thriving societies. Jack and Iestyn’s projects were both artistically imaginative and accessible for the groups they were working with – and we’re so pleased that the ensembles want to work with the composers to bring them to audiences.”
A call to artists for the 19/20 CoDI Buddies opportunity will be made in mid-October.
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