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2012 PERFORMANCES
Performances of Paul's music will be featured by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, ANAM and the Adelaide Chamber Singers in 2012. Here are a few to watch out for!
Throbbing: Kitchener Waterloo Symphon (Canada), cond. Outwater, 29 & 30 March
Fantasia on a Theme of Vaughan Williams - Queensland Symphony Orchestra, cond. Northey, 28 April
Exile Lamentations: Adelaide Chamber Singers - 16 June
My Song is Love Unknown (Piano Quartet): Selby and Friends - 4 September
Sydney Symphony Education Series 2012 – Featured Composer
Three of Paul's orchestral works feature in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's Schools performances for 2012. These sparkling short works will be performed to young audiences throughout the year in Sydney and also on a regional tour. Bravo to the SSO Education unit for its continued support for Australian composers!
Jet Stream (Fanfare for Orchestra): 23, 24 & 25 May, 10am & 11.30am - Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC Centre, Ultimo (Sydney)
Groundswell: 24 July, 10am & 12.30am - Eugene Goossens Hall; 25, 26 & 27 July, Sydney Olympic Park
Spin Dance: 31 October, 1 November & 2 November, 10am & 11.3am - Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC Centre, Ultimo (Sydney)
2011 News:
QINOTH - New Piece for AC02
Qinoth - a new string orchestra piece for the Australian Chamber Orchestra's youth training ensemble, ACO2, received a preview performance at Verbrugghen Hall in Sydney on 30th November and its official premiere on 3rd December at the Vasse Felix Festival in the Margaret River (WA). The commissioning process of Qinoth has attracted considerable attention in addition to the piece itself. The Creative Music Fund – a collective of individuals who are interested in supporting and engaging with cultural practice. Various articlessuch as this one in the Sydney Morning Herald underline the successful way this collective approached the commissioning process and participated in a lecture and rehearsals. Let's see more of this - Australia's culture is enriched when people become engaged in such matters!
As for Qinoth, the piece takes its title from a Hebrew word meaning 'lamentation' or 'sorrow'. It is related in a sense to the Exile Lamentations cantata (see below) in that Jewish Cantillations from the Lamentations of Jeremiah form part of the musical material. The other element in this piece is the use of the baroque 'teardrops' music – descending scales in various forms. These elements interact in a vigorous coutnerpoint. The piece received an extremely passionate and intense premiere by the wonderful ACO2 led by Dale Barltrop. A local reviewer writes:
This work takes its title from a Hebrew words meaning sorrow or lamentation and is built around the descending “sigh” motif used in many forms of music from the Baroque onwards.
Guest director Dale Barltrop, who was born in Brisbane but is mainly known for his work in the US, led a formidable team of players which included three ACO regulars along with the youngsters.
Among the seniors was Daniel Yeadon whose cello etched out a Hebrew melody in the opening moments of Stanhope’s work while the lamenting violins descended from the heights.
This gave way to a faster, more energetic section which showed off the orchestra’s excellent ensemble work. (Steve Moffat)
Members of AC02 with Paul during rehearsals for Qinoth.
FESTIVAL FESTIVITIES!
Two Festivals on different continents featuring Paul's music. The first is local: the innovative and incomparable Bangalow Music Festival (near Byron Bay) which has perhaps the strongest lineup of Australian Music ever seen in a regional festival. All compliments to festival director, Paul Dean, for this inspired lineup of musicians and music. The festival features a performance of Paul's Oboe and Harp ConcertoYanihndi (14 August at 11.30am) which was commissioned by BMF in 2003, as well as the slightly insane chamber orchestra work Throbbing (13 Augus,. 9.30pm).
On the other side of the world, Paul's Piano Trio Dolcissimo Uscignolo will be performed by the Atos Trio at the City of London Festival. This year's theme is based around music from Australia and New Zealand. Here are the performance details:
Atos Trio
St Margaret Pattens, Eastcheap, London EC3
Monday 11th July, 2011, 6pm
TWICE HONOURED WITH AUSTRALIAN MUSIC CENTRE / APRA AWARDS
Paul has been twice awarded in the inaugural Australian Art Music Awards hosted by APRA and the Australian Music Centre. In an award ceremony compered by the Chaser's Julian Morrow, Paul received two prizes:
Instrumental Work of the Yearfor his String Quartet No. 2, performed by the Pavel Haas Quartet in 2010
Vocal/Choral Work of the Year for Deserts of Exile for SATB Choir, performed by the choir of Trinity College, Cambridge in 2010
This movement, from the larger Exile Lamentations(see below) was performed in the ceremony at the Sydney Theatre by Sydney Chamber Choir on 3 May, 2011.
Click here to see an article in the Sydney Morning Herald (featuring a certain moggy) on the preview to the awards. (Photo by Jacky Ghossein)
Click here to see the Limelight magazine online article.
Exile Lamentations - a cantata for tenor and soprano soloists, SATB choir and oud, rebeq and viola da gamba (2007-2011)
Performance details:
Sunday 17th April, 6.30pm. Sydney Chamber Choir, Great Hall, University of Sydney.
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This is an exciting major new cantata by Paul. Although the choral movements from this new vocal work have been performed, this cantata-length work was premiered on Sunday 17 April at the Great Hall, Sydney University. Examining the troubled schism between Israel and Palestine, this piece is based around the Lamentations of Jeremiah at its core, looking to Jewish traditions as well as setting of contemporary texts by Israeli and Palestinian poets. Instrumental interludes by master exponent, Joseph Tawadros, topped off a unique experience in contemporary vocal music that the audience found profoundly moving. Vocal soloists Lana Nesnas and Joel Nothman rounded out the outstanding contributions from the choir and instrumentalist. Here is Peter McCallum's review from the SMH:
Sometimes it is the simplest things that say the most. In the epilogue of Paul Stanhope's cantata Exile Lamentations, the soprano Lana Nesnas sang a short Arabian/Palestinian song, Yarabba Ssalami, which was followed by an Ashkenazi Jewish melody, Shalom Aleichem, sung by the tenor Joel Nothman.The melodies where then sung simultaneously, the choir swelling with well-rounded polyphony laced with improvisatory gestures from oud player Joseph Tawadros, underscored by viola da gamba (Jennifer Eriksson). To close, Nothman offered a phrase,
Nesnas answered and they sang the closing line together. Nesnas is of Palestinian heritage and Nothman is a Jewish cantor, but neither made too much of this. It was still an apt musical and expressive culmination of a work that had focused on the ancient, historical and contemporary meanings of the Old Testament lamentations in the book of Jeremiah. They form a key part of Jewish and Christian practice and in Stanhope's view, find an echo in the Palestinians' plight. Exile Lamentations comprised three substantial choral numbers with an introduction, two interludes and epilogue, providing opportunities for solo meditation on voices and instruments. Stanhope's choral writing was moulded around mellifluous harmonies from the Sydney Chamber Choir, which he conducted, and demonstrated a capacity to handle complex textures, as in the soft choral bedding singing the biblical text behind solo lines by the Arabian poet Tawfiq Sayigh in Lament.
Omega Dance for clarinet, horn, string trio and piano (2011)
This is a short new work for instrumental sextet
commissioned by Ars Musica Australis.
Performance details:
Sunday 10th April, 4pm. Sydney Omega Ensemble, Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House.
This is an exciting major new cantata by Paul. Although the choral movements from this new vocal work have been performed, this will be the premiere of the cantata in its entirety. Taking on the fascinating yet troubled schism between Israel and Palestine, this piece is based around the Lamentations of Jeremiah at its core, looking to Jewish traditions as well as setting of contemporary texts by Israeli and Palestinian poets. Instrumental interludes by master exponent, Joseph Tawadros, will top off a unique experience in contemporary vocal music that is profoundly moving.
2010 NEWS ARCHIVE
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