Classical Music Now

Raymond Yiu is a Hong-Kong born, London-based composer, jazz pianist, conductor and writer on music. Originally trained as an engineer, Yiu was self-taught as a composer until he undertook his DMus under the auspice of Julian Anderson at Guildhall in 2009. His debut album The World Was Once All Miracle showcases his talent with three identity-exploring works informed by his time at Guildhall. How to get your foot on the ladder as a self-trained composer Why he won’t be getting a publisher any time soon Why Raymond never wrote the Cantonese pop songs that inspired him so much https://raymondyiu.com/ This episode is sponsored by Dorico: the next-generation music notation software from Steinberg. Educational & crossgrade versions available at significantly discounted prices. Get your 30-day free trial version of Dorico that will allow you to try out all of the features Dorico has to offer with no restrictions. Links and Show Notes Raymond Yiu: The World Was Once All Miracle out now on CD (with great liner notes) Lontano ensemble directed by Odaline de la Martinez North West Wind recording Raymond with Odaline de la Martinez’ Raymond with Lukas Foss No Dice’s latest spoken word gig Joe Hisaishi of Studio Ghibli scoring fame (I said his name wrong) Benetton’s ad with an image of David _Kirkby_ — Enjoying the podcast? Leave a kind word on iTunes to help others find us Join our mailing list to get everything No Dice first

Aubrey and I geek out about marketing in the classical realm. Why classical’s core product will always be live music Why we shouldn’t be streaming whole concerts for free Plus Aubrey gives her advice on how new groups should approach finding and keeping new listeners, and how to get around the fear of the unknown with newly written music. If you’re a musician or arts administrator of any kind, this is an essential listen. If you fall outside of that, enjoy looking behind the curtain at what an orchestra exec spends her time thinking about. Some Aubrey bio fun facts: she grew Seattle Opera’s BRAVO! Club to the largest group for young patrons in the US, led the Bumbershoot Festival to achieve an unprecedented 43% increase in revenue, and propelled the California Symphony to double the size of its audience and nearly quadruple the donor base. https://www.aubreybergauer.com/ This episode is sponsored by Dorico: the next-generation music notation software from Steinberg. Educational & crossgrade versions available at significantly discounted prices. Get your 30-day free trial version of Dorico that will allow you to try out all of the features Dorico has to offer with no restrictions. Links and Show Notes 💿 Get our CD Stillness with 25% off when you order before Christmas 💿 It’s a CELLO-BRATION! - California Symphony (Available till Dec 11 2020. Emphasis mine.) The referenced LSO video. Click ‘show chat replay’ to see Maxine Kwok in action. Jill Robinson at TRG Aubrey’s excellent blog. This post is California Symphony’s ‘Public Commitment to Diversity’, which I love. Geffen Playhouse’s Zoom play: The Present San Francisco Symphony: Throughline (free!) Live with Carnegie Hall: Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg (also free!) — Enjoyed season 1 of Classical Music Now? Leave a kind word on iTunes to help others find us Join our mailing list to fill the void in your heart between now and season 2 in March

Shruthi Rajasekar is a composer from Minnesota USA who straddles the worlds of Western contemporary music and south Indian Carnatic music from a truly unique position. Having grown up in the US with prominent Carnatic musician Nirmala Rajasekar as a mother, Shruthi is a joy to talk with as we cover: Choral culture and education in the US vs UK How the pandemic is actually improving conversations around pieces in the rehearsal process Shruthi’s experience at SOAS and RNCM We also get super into the weeds discussing how despite its insane cross-rhythms, Carnatic music never changes time signature – plus how Shruthi breaks those rules in her piece, Numbers. Shruthi Rajasekar https://www.shruthirajasekar.com/ This episode is sponsored by Dorico: the next-generation music notation software from Steinberg. Educational & crossgrade versions available at significantly discounted prices. Get your 30-day free trial version of Dorico that will allow you to try out all of the features Dorico has to offer with no restrictions. Links and Show Notes Many thanks to NMC for allowing Shruthi’s piece Numbers to be played in this podcast. Find out more about their great Young Composers Scheme album on their website or stream the piece. Shruthi’s ‘German and Sanskrit’ piece, Devotee (played throughout) Shruthi’s mum, Nirmala Rajasekar Out of Context #1: Diversifying Programming with Integrity – Shruthi’s article for I Care If You Listen B C Manjunath's Instagram: “My mood for few days has simply been in Triplets, Sextuplets and Duodeciplets” 😅 Transcribed madness. 42:28s anyone? Music played in this episode Devotee Numbers — Get new podcast episodes straight to your inbox and a piece recommendation every month

⭐ Revolutionary alternatives to tokenistic diversity programmes ⭐ Deconstructing boundaries between jazz and classical and freeing yourself to make the music you want to make ⭐ Methods for sneaking improvisation in front of classical musicians without them freaking out Vijay Iyer is an ECM-signed artist. He has worked with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, written violin concertos for Jennifer Koh, and music for the LA Phil New Music Group. He has been ‘Jazz Artist of the Year’ more times in more magazines than it is polite to count and it is my immense honour to welcome him to Classical Music Now. If you want to access the work for yourself and check go to https://en.schott-music.com/shop/autoren/vijay-iyer Links and Show Notes MixTape by Vijay’s students Wadada Leo Smith Fluxus movement Mutations – Vijay Iyer Shepard tone demonstration Probably the most famous use of it in music Time, Place, Action – Vijay Iyer (extracts) Still Life With Commentator – Mike Ladd, Vijay Iyer Vijay Iyer presents Ritual Ensemble at Wigmore Ensemble Vijay’s conversation with Georgina Born We didn’t really dig into Vijay’s views on genre and community, but they're really good so if you're interested you can hear him talking about it in an interview for the Ojai Music Festival, where he was musical director in 2017 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUtV9E5AB_I Music played in this episode Emergence – Vijay Iyer Read Hugh’s article on Emergence that sparked this episode! — Get new podcast episodes straight to your inbox and a piece recommendation every month Acknowledgements Vijay Iyer EMERGENCE Published by Schott Music Corporation, New York NY Emergence was commissioned by the National Forum of Music in Wroclaw, Poland which organizes Jazztopad Festival. It was premiered by the NFM Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra in April 2016.

Illy Quane: trumpet player extraordinaire, composer, and very funny guy. If you’re looking for some light lockdown distraction, this is it. We chat about our disappointment with existing brass repertoire (apart from one piece for brass ensemble), Illy explains his developing thoughts on creating gran-friendly contemporary music programmes, and Joe recounts the moment he realised The Sixteen had more than sixteen members. All in-betweeny music composed or arranged by Illy, and can be heard in full at the links below. Links and Show Notes Penderecki - Threnody (Animated Score) starts 0:32 Illy playing with the University of Manchester Brass Band (I’m at the back right) Kantos Chamber Choir AGBEKO - ‘22-legged Afro-Party Monster’ A Fela Kuti tune - Water no get enemy EXCLUSIVE: Secret Footage of Quartet Menine Performing The Metal by Tenacious D Found in Deepest Darkest Corner of YouTube Quartet Menine playing an arrangement of Debussy’s Dr Gradus ad Parnassum Shout out Darren Bloom The New New Manchester Manchester School School presents: And And And And I’ll [Live] (discussed later) Other members of The New New Manchester Manchester School School, Izzy Williams and Aaron Breeze. Worship Music The Lion King (but the songs are different and the plot is terrible) Jacob Collier’s beautiful performance of Hallelujah live for BBC BeatSketch_#1 - BIRD SCUFF ‘Like those videos of people playing along with a Nigel Farage Speech’ example ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Subscribe to the mailing list and get new podcast episodes straight to your inbox, as well as a piece recommendation every month and exclusive ticket discounts (oooh)

Today we are blessed with a great window into the world of arts reviewing and writing thanks to Hugh Morris, and the similarities and differences to creative writing thanks to Georgia Affonso. The pair collaborated on a piece for No Dice Collective in 2019 based on a photo of Anthony Burgess (the Clockwork Orange guy) walking his dog, and we share the stories behind the piece in this episode and play the piece in full. Hugh Morris - https://www.facebook.com/hughmorrismusic Georgia Affonso - https://twitter.com/georgia_writes Links and Show Notes Harrison Birtwistle Mask of Orpheus - ENO ENO Baylis scheme For those as fashion unconscious as me... Chorus of rage as ENO gives critics’ coveted extra tickets to young bloggers - The Guardian Georgia and Hugh’s object: Anthony Burgess walking his dog Georgia Affonso x Sophie Sully - Dilly the Slug Hugh makes it on Buzzfeed Good King Agatha | Hugh Morris & Edmund Phillips | Manchester Contemporary Youth Opera (check out more of Hugh’s work!) As ever, thank you for spreading the word about the podcast! Subscribe to the mailing list for podcast episode news and a piece recommendation every month

I chat with composer David McFarlane and writer Gregory Kearns on their 2018 collaboration about the Christmas apocalypse, which all stemmed from a set of small bells David received in a Christmas cracker set. As well as hearing excerpts of their piece, Carol For Our Children, performed by No Dice Collective, we branch out into chats about leading community workshops, space to make mistakes, struggling to take our own creative advice, hang-ups about writing overtly emotional work, and the role of intuition and emotion vs formalised thinking in the creative process. A really interesting, cross-disciplinary chat that touches on broad themes of individual creative processes. Should be interesting to anyone with a creative urge! David McFarlane - https://d-mcf.com/ Gregory Kearns - https://twitter.com/gregorykearns Rate us on iTunes - it really helps! Subscribe to the mailing list for new episode notifications Links and Show Notes David McFarlane’s eye-tracking head theramin Cath Snow 33 ⅓ Series: 93. J Dilla’s Donuts Alicia Keys, John Mayer & Questlove- If I ain't got you / Gravity Tweet us your poem! Jonathan Harvey famous bell piece Meet The Composer Podcast - New Music Fight Club (great name) NB: My non-binary life Christmas in L.A. - Vulfpeck Christmas In L.A. - The Killers The Handsome Family - So Much Wine The Road OST - Nick Cave & Warren Ellis What did you think of episode two? Send us a tweet!