GEORGE CLINTON BRINGS THE FUNK TO GLASGOW: MATTHEW WHITESIDE BRINGS THE ELECTRIC TO THE VIOLA D@AMORE

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LONDON CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL 2013 BOLD TENDENCIES, PECKHAM CAR PARK 25 JULY – 4 AUGUST

This month's caption competition

I have been a bit cheeky about the UNESCO City of Music project in the recent past: it gets a pass because Sven Brown is involved, and he doesn't have to prove himself after his curation of the Minimal festivals (over the past two years, they've taken me from wishing I could see the great names of contemporary classical to being blase about them doing a gig in the City Halls).

The last UNESCO project, despite being conceptually brilliant (a live feed to the Finnieston Crane) was ruined because no-one thought to check whether there would be a massive demolition across the road from GOMA, effectively drowning the symphony of creaks and cracks. However, I received a press release in my inbox today that ought to be seen as a direct challenge to programmers who want to be down with the new music.

Cut'n'paste begins here.

Sound Four is excited to announce the first ever London Contemporary Music Festival (LCMF 2013). Adventurous and all-embracing, LCMF 2013 will take place in partnership with the capital’s most talked about new arts venue, Bold Tendencies, situated on the top four floors of Peckham multi-storey car park, and will be the only music festival in Britain dedicated to commissioning and staging the best new music the world has to offer regardless of genre – and all for FREE. 

Free? In a car park? A good start: and the line-up includes plenty of work that Arika would have presented back in the day, before they started throwing shapes in the ballroom. 

UK PREMIERE and the FIRST VISIT by Glenn Branca and the Glenn Branca Ensemble to the UK for nearly a decade

LIVE SETS from SND, Raime, Russell Haswell, Jem Finer, Steve Noble and Anthony Pateras

Charlemagne Palestine performing his SEMINAL work for solo piano Strumming Music

A performance of the near-complete solo piano works by Germany’s greatest living composer, HELMUT LACHENMANN, alongside an unlikely companion, Lachenmann’s favourite composer and Hollywood favourite, ENNIO MORRICONE

8 HOURS OF CONTINUOUS PERFOMANCES charting the evolution of drone music from its minimalist beginnings to its sound art and dance music present

A rare outing for Philip Corner’s INFAMOUS Piano Activities, in which the pianist will destroy a grand piano

The suggestion that the festival has been started 'in celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the riot at the Rite,' doesn't convince me - I can't see anything that is especially inspired by The Rite of Spring, even the electronic recomposition of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. That said. here's some more action.

• the RETURN of Kate Whitley and Chris Stark’s The Orchestra Project, whose car park performance of The Rite of Spring two years ago was described as “the most exciting development in classical music in decades, if not centuries” (The Times)
• acclaimed soprano Allison Bell takes the central role in the WORLD PREMIERE staging of Gerald Barry’s opera La Plus Forte
• performances by Allison Bell, SND, Steve Noble, Ed Atkins, Jennifer Walshe, Glenn Branca, Raime, Russell Haswell, Tony Conrad, Jem Finer, Mark Knoop, Lore Lixenberg, Aisha Orazbayeva, Lucy Railton, Max Baillie, David Massey, Roderick Chadwick, Anthony Pateras, Leon Michener and Jane Chapman
• a mixture of classic and rare work by Helmut Lachenmann, Bernard Parmegiani, Ennio Morricone, Michael Finnissy, Philip Corner, Brian Ferneyhough, Laurie Anderson, Eliane Radigue, Philip Glass, Gyorgy Kurtag, Brian Eno, Jennifer Walshe, Aaron Cassidy, Frederic Rzewski, Kurt Schwitters, Steve Reich, Iannis Xenakis, Alvin Lucier, Terry Riley, Gyorgy Ligeti, Louis Andriessen and La Monte Young.
• several new or recently created works by young composers, artists, choreographers and theatre-makers from Britain and abroad, including Kate Whitley, Ed Atkins, Alexander Zeldin, Lauren Redhead, Aisha Orazbayeva, Sam Underwood, Ambrose Seddon and Melanie Lomoff

Over 50 works - over half of them premieres or pieces created since 2000 - by over 40 different composers and artists.

The gauntlet has been thrown down. Can UNESCO rise to the challenge? Does Glasgow have a car park that can serve as a venue? How badly will eight hours of drone impact on the consciousness of the listeners? Game on. 

Usui gets a new gig

Although my usual beat is Glasgow when it comes to New Composition (and I know there are exciting times ahead for composers in Scotland, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group are one of the few reasons that I might want to live further south. However, their latest appointment, of Edinburgh-based Shiori Usui as its Apprentice Composer-in-Residence for 2013, suggests that BCMG are trying to get my attention by supporting artists in Caledonia.

During her time in residence, Usui will compose two new works - one on a small scale (promising the original line up of oboe, trombone, percussion, piano and cello) and one on for a  chamber sized ensemble.

The press release mentions that The Times described Usui  as a composer with “individual ears.” I am  trying to resist a joke about how the press ought to stop concentrating on the way composers look and talk about the music. 

Over to the press release for more information....

More about Shiori Usui

Originally from Japan, Shiori Usui moved to UK at the age of seventeen and studied composition at the University of Edinburgh with Nigel Osborne and Peter Nelson. Her works have been performed in Japan, Europe and USA by diverse range of soloists, ensembles and orchestras, including performances by Rolf Hind and the Duke Quartet at the Wigmore Hall, London; by A Far Cry at Jordan Hall, Boston, USA and by Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Naoto Totsuka at Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall in Japan.

In May 2012, her orchestra piece Warai was awarded the 3rd prize at Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (judge: Toshio Hosokawa) in Tokyo, Japan with highest acclaim.

Ms. Usui is also a recipient of the prestigious Civitella Ranieri Music Fellowship in conjunction with UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists Programme, and has worked as a composer in residence for BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Cove Park from October 2010 until February 2011.

Ms. Usui has produced works in both radical instrumental music and with motion capturing sensors; many of her compositions are inspired by the theme ‘using the body as a musical instrument’. She enjoys playing in the improvisation groups in Edinburgh and Lisbon as a “noise” vocalist and pianist. Ms. Ushui is a co-founder and a secretary of Edinburgh Contemporary Music Ensemble.

More about Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group celebrates its 25th anniversary season in 2012/13. Emerging from within the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 1987, the Group quickly established a reputation for brilliant performances, ambitious commissions, innovative collaborations, and a vibrant learning programme. With a central commitment to composers and the presentation of new work, BCMG’s open and inclusive approach takes people of all ages through the rich and fascinating world of contemporary music.

BCMG has premiered over 150 new works, many commissioned through its pioneering Sound Investment scheme. In addition to a busy schedule of concerts in the UK and abroad, BCMG runs an extensive learning and participation programme, working with young people in and out of school and with adults in a range of community settings, as well as presenting ground-breaking Family and Schools’ Concerts.

The Group has two Artists-in-Association, Oliver Knussen and John Woolrich, and Sir Simon Rattle is Founding Patron. BCMG has received a host of national and international awards, has an extensive catalogue of CD recordings and broadcasts regularly on BBC radio.