MAGNUM OPUS 2024: NEW MENTORS ANNOUNCED
Britten Sinfonia’s composer development schemes have expanded, with new composer mentors Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Michael Zev Gordon joining our current Programme Directors, Dani Howard and Raymond Yiu.
Britten Sinfonia is renowned for its nurturing and commissioning of composers, ranging from established stars to those taking their first steps in the professional world. Our Opus composer development schemes give composers at different career stages the chance to write for our players and have their pieces workshopped, recorded and performed, with support and advice from the programme directors.
Magnum Opus
Our headline Magnum Opus programme gives more experienced emerging composers the opportunity to be embedded with Britten Sinfonia for a year, building relationships with players and the administration team, and writing two new commissions. Applications for the 2024 intake are now open, with a deadline of 5pm on Thursday 4 January.
In 2024, current Magnum Opus Programme Director Dani Howard will be joined by Michael Zev Gordon. His music has been described as “a clockmaker’s craftmanship [which] somehow coincides with romantic phantasmagoria” (Paul Driver, Sunday Times). His music has an eclectic, individual voice, in which tradition and modernism happily rub shoulders. Current commissions include a piano quintet for the Presteigne Festival 2024, for Huw Watkins and the Piatti Quartet, and a large-scale work, on the subject of the long shadow cast by the Holocaust, for Britten Sinfonia, to be premiered in 2025. Gordon has been active as a teacher of composition for many years in the UK and abroad. He is currently Professor of Composition at the University of Birmingham.
Dani Howard says: “It has been so wonderful to see how these early career composers have developed their work over the course of the programme. We can clearly see the learning curve they have had through working with professional musicians for the first time, and it is so exciting to witness this part of their journey, and we look forward to following their promising careers. I’m looking forward to Michael Zev Gordon joining me this year – he brings a wealth of experience as a composer and teacher.”
Michael Zev Gordon says: “I’m really delighted to have been asked to be a mentor for Britten Sinfonia’s Magnum Opus composers’ scheme. Such projects are absolutely essential for nurturing emerging composers and helping them perfect their craft. It’s deeply admirable that Britten Sinfonia has managed to continue to make the scheme a core part of its work. Hats off to such an inspiring example.”
“We can clearly see the learning curve they have had through working with professional musicians for the first time, and it is so exciting to witness this part of their journey,”
Opus 1
Meanwhile The Opus 1 programme gives composers with little experience of writing for professional instrumentalists the chance to gain experience of writing for and working with them. For 2024, current Programme Director Raymond Yiu will be joined by Cheryl Frances-Hoad.
Cheryl Frances-Hoad trained as a cellist and pianist at the Menuhin School before going on to Cambridge University and King's College, London, and both the classical tradition and diverse contemporary inspirations, including literature, painting and dance, have contributed to a creative presence provocatively her own. “Intricate in argument, sometimes impassioned, sometimes mercurial, always compelling in its authority” (Robin Holloway, The Spectator), her output ranges from opera, ballet and concertos to song, chamber and solo music, and is widely premiered, broadcast and commercially recorded, reaching audiences from the BBC Proms to outreach workshops.
Welcoming her to the role, Raymond Yiu says: “It has been a joy to be co-directing Opus 1 and Magnus Opus with the wonderful Dani Howard in the past two years. As well as sharing a philosophy of stylistic openness, we often found ourselves learning new things from each other, as well as from the cohorts of composers that we were lucky to have. I am delighted that Cheryl and Michael – two fantastic composers and friends – are joining the team. enriching Britten Sinfonia’s Opus schemes with their experience and expertise.”
Frances-Hoad comments: “I’m absolutely delighted to join the Opus 1 programme and can’t wait to work with the composers and Britten Sinfonia this year.”
Opus 1 will open for its next intake in spring 2024.
