Royal College of Music: Composer’s Leavers Concert

Programme Robert Baird – There are games being played in the park and you can go play them! – Mixed Ensemble (Accordion, Clarinet, Saxophone and Bongos) (World Premiere) Prog Note Spells is a meditative work which focuses on a quirk of the accordion, where when pressing down multiple buttons or keys and playing very quietly, the air will only travel through the lowest reeds, and the louder you play, the more any higher notes will come through. Throughout the piece chords build and die away, using a near constant tremolo, or bellow shake. Spells is an excerpt taken from Shouts and Spells. Bio Robert Baird is a Scottish Composer whose work looks at player interpretation and choice, the integration of Scottish Traditional Music into contemporary music, and a focus on fun and play in his pieces. His works have been performed across the UK and Europe. Robert is an RCM Scholar. Josh – Prelude to Bill – Solo Piano Magdalene Ho (Piano) Prog Note Prelude to Bill is a tribute to the incredible pianist and composer, Bill Evans. It’s unsurprising that this piece takes so much inspiration from jazz piano improvisation, given that I am Bill Evans’ no. 1 fan, but perhaps more surprising that the piece also has an element of baroque structure in the second half, reducing to a two part unmeasured prelude-esque style, inspired by Louis Couperin and other improvisatory baroque music. I tried to combine the two worlds and create something new and exciting. I hope it is an enjoyable listen! Bio Josh Mitchell-Rayner (JMR) is a multifaceted composer, performer and educator who is originally from the city of Newcastle Upon Tyne. In 2022, Josh was accepted to study composition at the Royal college of music, and is currently doing a Joint Honours between Jazz piano and composition, studying with Mike Moran and with Errollyn Wallen and Haris Kittos respectively. He has been involved in external and internal concerts to the RCM and been involved in education such as RCM sparks, teaching privately as well. Thomas – morning star, cradle – String Quartet Mira Steenbrugge (Violin), Amber Correa (Violin), Becca Marr (Viola), & Ezra Escobar (Cello) Prog Note morning star, cradle is a movement of a larger string quartet I wrote for the Jasmine Quartet, with the intention that each movement is able to be played separately from the larger body and still be a complete piece. The material of this piece reorders a 3 bar cadence from William Byrd’s Fantasia No.2 for strings, and has the material weave its way through itself. The result is an intensely cadential, yet oddly meditative work that has the performers sink further and further into the warping of very simple material. Bio Thomas Shorthouse is a London-based composer and producer from West Yorkshire whose music has been heard across the UK, Europe, and North America. In his music, Thomas balances process-based harmony, digital sampling aesthetics, and influences from non-classical genres, often moving between the hyperreal and surreal, the feverish and sombre, and the playful and obscure. Jamie – Transformations – Tuba and Piano Nathan Mansell (Tuba) and Magdalene Ho (Piano) Prog Note Transformations for tuba and piano, written for Nathan Mansell, embodies a calm and grounded sound world that develops from breath into full-bodied sound. As the tuba’s gestures gradually expand, the sustained piano interacts closely with them, enveloping their sound within its resonance. Breath-shaped phrases invite close attention to the quality of sound, immersing the space in the timbral identities of the tuba and piano as they unfold. Bio British composer Jamie Smith is currently finishing his studies at the RCM with Kenneth Hesketh and Simon Holt. BBC Young Composer of the Year 2023 winner, his work explores the intrinsic behaviour of sound, with recent commissions from the BBC CO and Kew Gardens, alongside leading education projects in Antigua. Asher Joyce – Up-Hill (To the very end) (World Premiere) Robert Baird (Accordion) and Asher Joyce (Voice) Prog Note For our graduating concert I wanted to find a text that summarised the sadness of moving on, and the excitement of seeing what comes next. Christina Rossetti’s poem ‘Up-Hill’ paints a beautiful picture of a scary, exciting journey and the worry of what will be at the end. Bio Asher Joyce is an Australian composer and conductor now based in London. Now in their final year at the Royal College of Music under William Mival, their work is recognised for its storytelling and inviting warmth. Asher is a passionate advocate for contemporary music in education through their work as a singing teacher and in music & disability. Asher is honoured to be a Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Scholar supported by the Charles Richardson Stewart Scholarship for Composition at the RCM. Presented in association with the Royal College of Music