On July 9, the Sphaera Ensemble performed three of my pieces, The Attic, Reclusion and In Their Light, in a concert at the Sesi Theatre, Santos, São Paulo, Brazil. I conducted these three and other pieces with the ensemble while I was there in December/January. They first performed The Attic in 2008. Reclusion and In Their Light have been added to their repertoire this year.
Here are some photos of the concert and a video of The Attic performance (taken by Laira Dalileia):
Recently in São Paulo, Brazil, I had a great time working with the very fine Sphaera Ensemble and writing with their conductor and arranger Alexey Kurkdjian. I got to know these guys a few years ago and since then have done several arrangements for them and in 2009 they had two of my pieces in their repertoire, giving several performances. Initial plans were made to have a concert together, but early on we decided to take a different path. We decided to get together for a day and rehearse my music, introduce some NZ classics and then make a recording of our work together. This I was very happy with.
The Sphaera Ensemble consists of:
The music we worked together on was:
It was wonderful to meet the players and have a very productive and rewarding afternoon. They will perform my three pieces as part of their 2010 repertoire. During the afternoon I even managed to get a new piece requested by Will Tomao and his clarinet and double bass duo, Sopro do Contra.
The second project for the trip was a collaboration between Alexey Kurkdjian and myself. The piece is to be premiered at the major New Music Festival in Brazil during August/September 2010, and is for solo violin, flute, clarinet, two violins, viola, cello, contrabass, electric guitar and drums. Fun! Over the week I was there we worked on the piece most days and it shaped up extremely well. It’s a wild fusion between Brazilian and New Zealand rhythms and harmonies. Stay tuned for more on this project.
Some photos from our day together (for the full album visit here):
Sphaera Ensemble, conductor Ryan Youens, 20th December 2009, São Paulo, Brazil. Photos by Laira Dalileia and Wendy Youens.
On November 26 my wife and I depart for 45 days in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay and Brazil. As well as a personal trip, I will be visiting composers and musicians along the way and it will end with a week in Brazil with the wonderful conductor, composer and arranger, Alexey Kurkdjian. We will be working on a very special project together, details on that soon.
The concert version of my score for “The Attic” received a further performance today by the Sphaera Ensemble, conducted by Alexey Kurkdjian. SESI Theatre in Itapetininga City, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. See all the photos here, thanks to Laira Fermi for these.
Hey everyone, well it’s been AGES since my last post so this is a little update on what has been going on.
I just noticed the last post I did actually, the one about the recording with four bass clarinets and four contrabass clarinets. Well a few weeks later the composer Austin emailed with some recordings which I said I’d love to hear in the blog. So thanks for that Austin.
Had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, if you missed our Christmas video, check it out here. Have been back working long days for two weeks now as have a lot of work to get through which is fantastic. Of course I have my wedding approaching fast so want to clear as much work as I can before then. To save waffling on too much, here is a list of what’s been going on:
So it’s a good start to the year so far and of course expecting it to only get busier from here. By the way I got the video from “In Their Light” premiere in Athens last November. I’ve added the video below:
Speaking of YouTube, I’m planning to get a bit more modern this year, so am starting my video blog. More details soon, but it will be all linked into this blog so can just see it all here.
Alright well that’s all for now. Stay well and make some AMAZING music for the world!!
