Clement Power: How many ears? Improving musicianship training for performers of new music / Frederick Viner: Bad Breath: Meditation Gone Awry in Etude III
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Event details
Name: Clement Power
Title: How many ears? Improving musicianship training for performers of new music
Abstract: New music performers get taught all sorts of instrumental techniques, but mostly receive little musicianship training to help them negotiate the demands of new music. I'll discuss how this situation arose and why the problem is particularly acute right now, and suggest some ways forward.
Biography: Clement Power (b. 1980) studied at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music, then held assistant conductorships with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Ensemble Intercontemporain, where he worked closely with Pierre Boulez.
Title: How many ears? Improving musicianship training for performers of new music
Abstract: New music performers get taught all sorts of instrumental techniques, but mostly receive little musicianship training to help them negotiate the demands of new music. I'll discuss how this situation arose and why the problem is particularly acute right now, and suggest some ways forward.
Biography: Clement Power (b. 1980) studied at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music, then held assistant conductorships with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Ensemble Intercontemporain, where he worked closely with Pierre Boulez.
Known for his interpretations of major works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Clement frequently collaborates with leading new-music ensembles including Klangforum Wien and Ensemble MusikFabrik. Recent conducting engagements include the Philharmonia, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo), RSO Stuttgart, Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Contrechamps, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Ictus Ensemble, Ensemble Modern, and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. He has been the guest of festivals including Lucerne Festival, Salzburg Biennale, Darmstadt, Wien Modern, Acht Brücken (Cologne), Eclat Festival (Stuttgart), Warsaw Autumn, Venice Biennale, Aldeburgh, and IRCAM Agora. Clement has given over 200 world premieres, including works by Georg Friedrich Haas, Péter Eötvös, Benedict Mason, and new commissions for the instruments of Harry Partch. Opera premieres include Hèctor Parra Hypermusic Prologue (Liceu, Barcelona), Wolfgang Mitterer Marta (Opéra de Lille), and Liza Lim Tree of Codes (Cologne Opera). His CD recordings are released on Kairos, col legno, and Wergo.
As an educator, Clement has worked with young musicians of the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz (Cologne), the Haute école de musique (Geneva), impuls academy (Graz), the National Youth Orchestra of Catalonia, the Lucerne Festival Academy, the NEXT academy (Birmingham Contemporary Music Group), as well as students of three London conservatoires, with the aim of helping them play new music better together.
Name: Frederick Viner
Title: Bad Breath: Meditation Gone Awry in Etude III
Abstract: My latest Etude, titled ‘Meditation’, depicts just that, albeit gone slightly awry. In this talk I will give a general overview of the recent composition, including how I develop Messiaen’s technique of ‘Pedal Music’ to represent that desired (but rare) meditative state: where thoughts are merely observed and not judged or critically and emotionally engaged with.
Biography: Born in 1994, Frederick Viner studied composition at the University of York (BA 2016) and at the University of Oxford (MSt 2017). He is currently studying towards a PhD at the University of York as a WRoCAH scholar.
Viner’s music has received many accolades. In 2015, he won the Ebor Organ Prize and in 2016 he was awarded 1st prize in the Royal Northern Sinfonia’s Mozart’s of Tomorrow competition. After graduating from York with distinction, he was appointed Artist in Residence with Sage Gateshead’s Young Sinfonia and was also commissioned by the Brundibár Arts Festival. In 2017 Viner won three more awards: 1st prize in William Howard’s Love Song Composing Competition; the Henfrey Composition Prize; and the prestigious National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award. Having graduated from Oxford with distinction, Viner then worked at Eton College for two years as composer in residence. During this time he worked on several commissions, including by Choir & Organ Magazine and Orchestra for the Earth, and had performances by the Royal Tunbridge Wells Symphony Orchestra and the Chapel Choir of Selwyn College. In 2020 he was awarded a further two prizes: the STR Music Composition Prize and the Lefanu Prize. Most recently, his piano music has been performed around the world in the UK, Thailand, Germany, Turkey and Austria by distinguished pianists such as Paul Barton and Vadim Chaimovich.