Wednesday 16 January 2008, 1.15pm
Concert   -  Lunchtime concert - Emerald String Quartet
Victoria Rooms, Bristol

www.bristol.ac.uk/music/events/2008/concert20080116

Samuel Wesley: Minuet in C
Steven Kings: After the dissonance
Richard Barnard: String Quartet and Tape
Susan Coppard: Café Society

This concert features works by three members of the Severnside Composers Alliance, an organisation formed in 2003 to promote the work of composers living in the Bristol and Bath area; a delightful Minuet in C minor by Samuel Wesley, born in Bristol in 1766, completes the programme. The members of the quartet are drawn from Bristol’s own professional chamber group, the Emerald Ensemble, which over the past twelve years, has gained much acclaim for its lively and dynamic performances.

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Monday 10 December, 8pm
NEWS   -  Service of Nine Lessons & Carols at Bath Abbey, to include Susan Coppard's "The Bell Carol"
Sue's early-mediaeval style Christmas anthem for SATB & organ, "THE BELL CAROL", is to be included in the Service of Nine Lessons & Carols at Bath Abbey on the evening of Monday, 10th December. It will be sung by Bath Spa University Music Students.

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Saturday 3 November 2007, 7.30pm
Concert   -  Laurie Gethin & Steven Kings
Bristol Music Club, St Paul's Road, Clifton.

Steven Kings is giving a concert with an excellent young soprano by the name of Laurie Gethin, a former student at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

They will be performing songs by Copland, Debussy, Mendelssohn, Poulenc, Weill and others besides: a huge variety of style, mood and colour to suit every taste. They are also going to perform some of Steven's songs, and there might be a bit of piano music thrown in!

Tickets will cost £8-00 (concessions £6-00), available on the door.

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October 2007
NEWS   -  60x60 project
John Pitts's "60 second Fantasy VII" selected as part of the 2007 International Mix for the 60x60 project - a collection of sixty pieces of electronic music by sixty different composers with each piece lasting sixty seconds. Forthcoming performances include: North Carolina State University, UNT College of Music Denton Texas, University of Central Florida, Concordia University Montreal, New York, University of Sydney and Washington.

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Saturday 2 February 2008, 7.30pm
Concert   -  NEW MUSIC FOR CHAMBER ENSEMBLE - Severnside Ensemble
Bristol Music Club.
Tickets £9 (concessions £6)
from Providence Music (0117 927 6536) or on the door.

A concert based on the instrumentation of Stravinsky's Septet of 1952 - i.e. clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello & piano.

Programme
Stravinsky - Septet
Mozart - 'Double' clarinet quintet K580
Jolyon Laycock - A Dream of Flying
John Pitts - Piano Quartet
Julian Dale - Album for violin, cello and bass
Frank Harvey - Organum at the Seaside
David Simmonds - Lord in Thy Mercy, Hear Our Prayer
Steven Kings - Sextet (world premiere)
plus a work by Sulyen Caradon.

Many thanks go to the RVW Trust for their financial support of this concert.

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Wednesday 18 July 2007, 8pm
Meeting   -  AGM
The Rummer Pub, Grand Parade, Bath. Please do come along to discuss forthcoming concerts and events! All welcome.

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Saturday 30 June 2007, 7.30pm
Concert   -  String Quartet - Roger Huckle and members of the Emerald Ensemble (postponed from 11 May)
Bristol Music Club
76 St Paul's Rd, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1LP
(on the roundabout where Pembroke Road, Queens Road and St Paul's Road meet)

Tickets from Providence Music Shop: 0117 927 6536

Programme
Sam Wesley - Minuet in C minor
Ivor Gurney - Quartet in A major (2 mvts - Moderato & Adagio) - premiere
Steven Kings - 'After the Dissonance' (excerpt)
Frank Harvey - Quartet
David Simmonds - String Quartet No.1 (movements 1 2 3 4)

With support from the Paragon Concert Society, the Ivor Gurney Society, the Wesley Fest, and the RVW Trust.

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Saturday 28 April 2007, 12am
Concert   -  British Academy Regional Network meeting and String Quartet concert.
Location: Room 128, Ellen Terry Building, Coventry University, Jordan Well, Coventry CV1
Plentiful parking is to be found in three car parks within a hundred yards of the building.

Agenda
12.00 – Arrivals and Coffee
12.35 - Lunch
13.30 - BARN Open meeting, including Academy presentation (15 mins)
15.00 - Afternoon String Quartet Composition Workshop:
John Macdonald McKenzie String Quartet No 4
Sonia Grossner Dark Adagio String Quartet No 3
Martin Watson String Quartet No 3 (extracts)
Andrew Downes String Quartet No 1 First Movement
Rosemary Duxbury String quartet No 1
Peter Crump Scherzo for String Quartet
Clement Jewitt Be Calm, Move Gently String Quartet
Chairman – Robert Ramskill, CCA member and Senior Lecturer in Music, Coventry University.
17.30 - Tea
18.30 – Concert (approx 60 minutes)
To consist of the above pieces plus a Haydn Minuet and Trio

Cost: Free! I’ve had a number of responses from people saying that they are attending the event.
If you have not informed me, please do so by Monday 23rd April, so that we can confirm seating and refreshment requirements. Thanks Andrew Castle Secretary, Central Composers Alliance 0781 639 5259

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Saturday 5 May 2007, 10.30pm
NEWS   -  Geoff Poole premiere broadcast - "The Colour of My Song"
BBC Radio 3 "Hear And Now" - Geoff's 40-minute concerto for vocalities, performed by its commissioners the 24-voice BBC Singers (with harp and two percussionists) will have its premiere broadcast. Geoff says, "I think its the best music I've done, and the performance of its action-packed 20 movements is vibrant and exciting."

More details about the performers etc. on http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/hearandnow/pip/8muy0/

You can also hear it online (around the world) during the following seven days.

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Saturday 12 May 2007, 7.30pm
Concert   -  Music for two pianos
Bristol Music Club
St Paul's Road in Clifton.

Music by Debussy, Holloway, Milhaud and Rachmaninov, performed by Chris Northam and SCA member Stephen Kings. It's fantastic stuff, by turns lush, colourful and dramatic!
Tickets cost £9-00 (concessions £7-00) available on the door.

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September 2006
NEWS   -  John Pitts was commissioned by Choir & Organ magazine to write I will raise him up at the last day
A feature appears in the Sept/Oct 06 issue, and the piece will be premiered by Andrew Millington (Director of Music) at Exeter Cathedral. It is also available to print for free until March 2007 by clicking here.

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July 2006
NEWS   -  Tonus Peregrinus CD release - Hymns and Songs of the Church - Naxos CD 8.557681 including hymn by John Pitts.

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Tuesday 10 October 2006, 5.15pm
NEWS   -  Congratulations to Geoff Poole, Professor of Composition, who has been made Head of Subject (Music) at Bristol University.
Victoria Rooms, Queens Road
Inaugural Lecture - FREE ENTRY
New Music, a Thing of the Past? The Soft Voice in a Hard World
Geoff Poole reveals the enthusiasms, values and myths that sustain his activity as a contemporary classical composer, and analyses some of the current attitudes to creativity and culture that either support or threaten to undermine serious aesthetic communication in Britain today. With illustrations and recorded examples from his own music.
Followed by a Reception.

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2007
NEWS   -  James Patten's large-scale work Stabat Mater
is set to have two performances next year, one by Vox Humana Choir, Virginia, USA, and also by Christ's College Choir, New Zealand. James has also recently had a performance of an organ piece in Norway, and some of his Christmas music published by Kevin Mayhew is to be performed by Dr. Franz Patocka and co. at the University of Vienna.

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Saturday 3 February 2007, 7.30pm
Concert   -  SCA Composers/Performers
Bristol Music Club
76 St Paul's Rd, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1LP
(on the roundabout where Pembroke Road, Queens Road and St Paul's Road meet)

Tickets: £7 & £5 : on the door, or from Providence Music Shop, St George's Rd.
BS1 5UL shop@providencemusic.co.uk  0117 927 6536

Frank Harvey - Night Flight& Prospero Sketches (violin and piano)
Raymond Warren - 5 Bagatelles (3, 4 & 5 in this recording) (piano)
Steven Kings - Pieces for Kirsty & More for Kirsty (piano)
Sulyen Caradon - Nowhere (soprano, flute, viola, bass clarinet)
Julian Dale - Miniatures (piano duet)
Jean Hasse - At the End of the Day, Flight, Across the Room (piano)
John Pitts - Fantasy VI & Aire VII (piano)
Susan Coppard - The Wedding, The Village Green & At the Bar Flamingo (accordion)

Composers performing, plus:
Joanna Morton (soprano) + Julia Page (viola) + David Kniveton (flute) + Richard Carder (bass clarinet) + Daniella Acker (piano) + Jolyon Laycock (piano) + Jonathan Harvey (violin)

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Friday 26 January 2007, 7.30pm
Composer Talk   -  Jean Hasse & Chris Wiggins
These evenings are opportunities for SCA composers to talk about their music and play examples, in a friendly atmosphere with a glass of wine.  Some evenings could involve two composers, each talking about a single piece, or a single composer talking at greater depth or about more!  Non-SCA members are also welcome, space-permitting.  The eight evenings we have had so far have been fascinating (Raymond Warren, Adrian Beaumont, David Bedford, Steven Kings, Geoff Poole, Sulyen Caradon, Sue Coppard & David Simmonds, and Jean Hasse & Chris Wiggins), and we hope to make this a regular spot, every three months or so.  Please contact Sulyen Caradon (01225 313531) or John Pitts (0117 904 8902) to offer your voice!

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Wednesday 15 November 2006, 7.30pm
Composer Talk   -  Susan Coppard & David Simmonds

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Saturday 14 October 2006, 7.30pm
Concert   -  Music from the West (Dead and Alive)
Bristol Music Club
Tickets: £9 (£6) available from Providence Music Shop 0117 927 6536 or on the door


Jonathan Price
Wesley - Sonata in D minor ("Salomon")
Roseingrave - Eighth Sett
Sykes - Chaconne in C minor
Moeran - 3 pieces

Steven Kings
Geoff Poole - 3 pieces from I Ching
Liz Lane - Descent by hot air, Waltz
John Pitts - Toccata
Steven Kings - an improvisation
Julian Dale - After the Yoruba
Steven Kings - 3 pieces

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Wednesday 20 September 2006
Composer Talk   -  Sulyen Caradon

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Monday 11 September 2006, 8pm
Meeting   -  AGM at the Rummer Pub, Grand Parade, Bath

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Saturday 17 June 2006, 7.30pm
Concert   -  Piano Recital
Jolyon Laycock
Bristol Music Club
76 St Paul's Rd, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1LP



Arnold Schoenberg: Klavierstücke op.11, Suite op.25
Raymond Warren: 5 Bagatelles (1967)
James Patten: Nocturnes 1, 3 & 5 (1993 & 1998)
Jolyon Laycock: 3 Studies: L'Abri Pataud, Cap Blanc, Font de Gaume

The programme is a mixture of 20th century classics, contemporary works by a small selection of Alliance members, and poetry.

Tickets £7 (£5) from Providence Music Shop 0117 927 6536 1 St Georges Road, Bristol, BS1 5UL
or online from:

The concert is framed by two of Arnold Schoenberg's most innovative piano works: the 3 Klavierstücke op.11, the first complete work to be written without a key-signature, and the Suite for piano, op. 25, the first in which he employed the 12-note method throughout. But these are not impenetrable mathematical experiments in cacophonous sound. Opus 11 is a passionate, sometimes angst-ridden emotional roller-coaster, often seen as prophetic of the 1st World War. Opus 25 is a quirky parody of the mannerisms of a Baroque keyboard suite, like the English and French Suites of Bach seen through a cubist prism.
Raymond Warren's 5 Bagatelles are early works, written in an idiom which owes much to the influence of Schoenberg, with echoes of Michael Tippett. They give a fascinating glimpse of the genesis of Warren's later style. They are by turns dramatic, quirky, passionate, declamatory and, finally, breathlessly calm.
James Patten achieves an incredibly powerful atmosphere of calm, motionless serenity in his five Nocturnes. I will be playing a selection of three, including the very long first Nocturne, written for Kathron Sturrock, and the third which incorporates haunting, extremely quiet harmonic effects.
My own 3 Studies are selected from a larger set of piano studies to which new pieces are still being added. The first two explore resonant impressionistic sonorities. The third is dramatic and virtuosic. Their titles refer to Paleolithic sites in the Dordogne region of France, and each piece is prefaced by a poem with the same title.
JL

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Thursday 25 May 2006
Composer Talk   -  Dr Geoffrey Poole

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Friday 5 May 2006, 7.30pm
Concert   -  Piano Recital
Peter Jacobs
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL
Tickets: £10 & £8

Richard Barnard: On Erin Shore
Ivor Gurney: Five Preludes
Steven Kings: Fingers Pointing
Jolyon Laycock: L'Abri Pataud
Jack Moeran: Stalham River
James Patten: Nocturnes 2 & 3
John Pitts: Aire & Fantasy
Geoffrey Self: Sonatina
David Simmonds: Ashleworth
Raymond Warren: Sonata 2

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Friday 28 April 2006, 7.30pm
Concert   -  SCA Composers/Performers
Bristol Music Club
76 St Paul's Rd, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1LP

Tickets: £7 & £5 : on the door, or from Providence Music Shop, St George's Rd.
BS1 5UL shop@providencemusic.co.uk  0117 927 6536

Geoffrey Self: Sonatina (clt. & piano)
Julian Dale: Double Bass Miniatures (recording mvmt 2)
John Pitts: Aire V
Jolyon Laycock: Font de Gaume (piano)
Nick Moor: 4 Blake Songs
John Pitts: Fun for Three (piano, soprano sax and hand) (recording previous perf. With oboe)
Frank Harvey: Flashbacks (piano)
Sulyen Caradon: Half-life (4 mixed players)
Sue Coppard: 3 Accordian Pieces (recording Musette Blues)

Played by those above, plus: Hannah Perrins (sop), Richard Carder (clt), Steven Kings (piano), Raymond Warren (vc)

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Wednesday 1 March 2006
Concert   -  Piano Recital
Peter Jacobs
Lunchtime concert at the Victoria Rooms 1.15pm

Frank Bridge: Miniature Pastorals (set 2)
Steven Kings: Fingers pointing to the Moon
Jolyon Laycock: L'Abri Pataud
Frank Bridge: Capriccio in A minor, Through the eaves, Gargoyle
Raymond Warren: Piano Sonata no. 2

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Thursday 23 February 2006 - 7.30pm
Composer Talk   -  Steven Kings

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Saturday 7 January 2006
Meeting   -  Committee

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Thursday 24 November 2005
Composer Talk   -  David Bedford

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Saturday 5 November 2005
Meeting   -  British Academy Regional Network
www.wmc.org.uk
Hosted by Composers of Wales and held in the Millennium Centre, Cardiff
during a NEW MUSIC DAY hosted by Composers of Wales in conjunction with spnm (the Society for the Promotion of New Music). followed by a concert of modern jazz works.

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Saturday 15 October 2005, 7.30pm
Concert   -  Song Recital
Clare Griffel (mezzo)
Philip Lancaster (baritone)
Steven Kings (piano)

Bristol Music Club, 76 St. Paul's Rd, Clifton.

Michael Tippett: Songs for Ariel
Julian Dale: parmi lesquels
Constant Lambert: Long-Departed Lover
Sulyen Caradon: Silver, Pine Forest, Winterfall
John Pitts: Was There E'er, The Pilgrim, When Most I Wink
William Alwyn: Nocturnes
Adrian Beaumont: The Pale Horizon
David Simmonds: Menolly, Cloths of Heaven
Frank Harvey: Fly, A Quoi Bon Dire, Beeny Cliff, Night
Alan Rawsthorne: Carol, Away, Delights
Raymond Warren: Drop, drop

Our thanks to the Paragon Concert Society for their continued financial support.

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Wednesday 28 September 2005
Meeting   -  Committee

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Tuesday 5 July 2005
Meeting   -  AGM at the Rummer Pub, Grand Parade, Bath

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Saturday 14 May 2005
Concert   -  2 Pianos
Steven Kings & Chris Northam
Bristol Music Club, 76 St. Paul's Rd, Clifton.

Martinu: Three Czech Dances
Lutoslavski: Paganini Variations
David Bedford: Hoquetus David
Robin Holloway: Gilded Goldbergs
Steven Kings: red land spring
Jolyon Laycock: Die! A1 Sparrow
John Pitts: Changes

recorded by Dunelm Records - CD available now.

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Saturday 14 May 2005
Meeting   -  British Academy Regional Network
Bristol Music Club, 76 St Pauls Rd, Clifton.
British Academy Regional Network of composer-groups around the country, to which we are affiliated. On the way to setting up our group, Sulyen Caradon has been to other groups meetings in Birmingham, Portsmouth and Brighton (see October report below). 2pm - a round-up of activities around the UK, followed by a tea-break. c.3pm to 5.30pm - conference on `Music in the Community' with three speakers: Raymond Warren on his operas for children Mark Bick from the Forest of Dean Music Makers David Bedford on his community projects

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Friday 15 April 2005
Composer Talk   -  Dr Adrian Beaumont

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Wednesday 23 February 2005
Concert   -  Severnside Composers’ Alliance Inaugural Piano Recital
by Peter Jacobs
Michael Tippett Centre, Bath Spa University College, Newton Park

Ivor Gurney: 10 Preludes
Richard Barnard: On Erin Shore
Sulyen Caradon: Dorian Dirge
Sue Coppard: Round and Around
Steven Kings: Fingers Pointing to the Moon
Jolyon Laycock: L’Abri Pataud
James Patten: Nocturnes 3 & 4
John Pitts: Aire 1, Fantasies 1 & 5
Geoffrey Self: Sonatina
Raymond Warren: Monody & Chaconne

recorded by Dunelm Records - CD available now.

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Wednesday 1 December 2004
Social   -  at PamPams in Clifton

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October 2004
Meeting   -  British Academy Regional Network
In Brighton, attended by members from Portsmouth, London and Wales. Patrick Harrex, the Chairman of Brighton New Music had organized a conference on funding for concerts with speakers from the Arts Council, PRS, and Local Authorities, with plenty of time for questions from the floor afterwards. In the evening there was an excellent concert with an instrumental line-up of violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, guitar & piano; all except 2 of whom were members of the BNM. The standard was exceptionally high and produced a most enjoyable concert, with members offering overnight b & b to travelers.

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Wednesday 29 September 2004
Composer Talk   -  Raymond Warren

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Monday 19 July 2004
Social   -  Rummer Pub, Grand Parade, Bath

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Saturday 15 May 2004
Meeting   -  
Meeting at Bristol Music Club to decide constitution, and talk from David Bedford about the PRS.

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Saturday 26 April 2003
Meeting   -  
The inaugural meeting of the proposed group at Bristol Music Club (76,St Paul's Road, Clifton)

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All material copyright (c) 2005 Severnside Composers Alliance  0117 904 8902  severnsidecomposersalliance@blueyonder.co.uk