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Archive for the ‘Projects’ Category
These Visions
Works by: John Metcalf, Hilary Tann, Chris Painter, Mark David Boden, Ashley John Long, Chris Petrie and Peter Reynolds.
‘Gwyneth Lewis’s words that emblazon the façade of the Wales Millennium Centre express not only a confidence for the future of the arts in Wales, but also a quiet optimism for their present good health. Certainly for composers working in Wales there are now a multitude of possibilities, collaborations and different media in which they can work: possibilities undreamt of thirty years ago. One such development are young professional groups of musicians such as Lunar Saxophone Quartet, three of whose members trained in Cardiff (at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama) and now lead busy careers both in Wales (under the auspices of the Live Music Now, Cymru / Wales scheme) and London. Working with a line-up of four saxophones means that commissioning new scores and good arrangements of pre-existing material represents the life-blood of the group’s repertoire. There is no fallback position into the repertoire of the past.
Taking as their motto the words of Shakespeare which stand at the top of Mark David Boden’s piece on this disc, the LSQ have worked for several years to bring to fruition a project that combines the music of some of Wales’s youngest and most gifted composers with that of more established figures such as John Metcalf, Hilary Tann and Christopher Painter. With the exception of Mark David Boden’s piece (which was still composed for LSQ), all the works in the These Visions project were written both for a tour in the autumn of 2010 and for inclusion on the Signum Classics disc These Visions for release in November 2010.’
Peter Reynolds, 2010.
The These Visions project is supported by 
Flux
Works by: Graham Fitkin, Gabriel Jackson, Keith Tippett, Michael Nyman, Lucy Pankhurst, Ashley John Long and James Williamson
The LSQ’s Flux project started in 2006 with the idea of expanding on the traditional repertoire for saxophone quartet by including a piano. After commissioning Eric Schwartz and Lucy Pankhurst to write new works for the project and reworking Michael Nyman’s ‘De l’hotel de la ville a la concorde’, the LSQ approached British jazz pianist Dave Stapleton to write a large scale work for the project.
The resulting piece, ‘Just around the next Corner’ for saxophone quartet and piano is a 50 minute through composed work for saxophone quartet and piano, however, the commission was soon expanded to include bass (Paula Gardiner), drum kit (Elliott Bennet) and trumpet (Neil Yates). The new working of the piece titled ‘Catching Sunlight – Music from an imaginary film’ was recorded and released on Edition Records in 2008 to critical acclaim, receiving 4 star reviews in Jazzwise Magazine and The Independent on Sunday as well as 5 Star reviews across Russia and Germany.
The original commissions by Eric Schwartz and Lucy Pankhurst along with Michael Nyman’s piece are included alongside commissions and premiere recordings without piano by Gabriel Jackson, Graham Fitkin, Keith Tippett, James Williamson and Ashley John Long for the LSQ’s March 2011 release on Signum Records Flux.
UPDATE: 16/09/2010
The Lunar Saxophone Quartet will be touring their Flux project across music festivals in the UK during the Summer of 2011 to to promote their Signum Records release.
Live Music Now!
The LSQ are proud to be members of the Live Music Now! scheme. With the scheme they have toured North Wales and Lincolnshire, performed at many of the UK’s top music festivals and have performed internationally in Salzburg, Austria as part of the first ever Live Music Now international exchange.
About Live Music Now!
LMN is the largest provider of live music to the UK’s welfare, educational, justice and health sectors, with a unique resource of specially trained musicians. For over thirty years, LMN has been putting into practice the visionary ideals of its founder, Yehudi Menuhin and Ian Stoutzer; bringing the joy and inspiration of live music to those who have limited access to conventional music-making, and helping to develop the careers of young talented musicians.
LMN’s music programmes (comprising over 3,000events each year) deliver social, emotional, physical and education benefits to participants of all ages and abilities through the promotion of:
Active Engagement – supporting social cohesion, teamwork, participation;
Life Skills – developing confidence, communication, transferable skills;
Health and Wellbeing – effecting positive improvements in mental and physical health;
Professional development – training musicians and staff in the welfare, educational, justice and health sectors in delivery of music outreach.
Catching Sunlight
‘Sometimes words are not enough. Sometimes you just have to listen, let the music catch you and carry you with it. Sometimes the music is everything. Catching Sunlight has everything.
The Lunar Saxophone Quartet and pianist/composer Dave Stapleton’s album Catching Sunlight is filled with gorgeous melodies, drenched in sensual harmonies and driven by subtle, shifting rhythms and strange, exotic time signatures.
New Music group, the Lunar Saxophone Quartet, commissioned Stapleton to write a long work in 2007 for four saxophones and piano. Catching Sunlight is the result. As the work progressed, it became clear that doing it justice required a greater number of voices to allow its rich and glorious colours and tones to emerge. The answer was simple – a full Jazz rhythm section using Stapleton’s regular musical partners bassist Paula Gardiner and drummer Elliot Bennett with the addition of trumpeter Neil Yates.
Yates was an inspired choice – not only is he a formidable and gifted improviser, he is also a master of texture with one of the purest, most beautiful brass sounds in British Jazz. Stapleton uses him both as principle voice but also as a contrast to the softer, reedier sounds of the saxophones, just as the improvisation contrasts with the strong written material that underpins it. Each of these eleven tracks unfolds like the next movement in a symphony, as Stapleton draws on a staggering breadth of compositional ideas and influences. Most remarkable of all, is the way that this young composer shows how extended composition in Jazz can be both cerebral but still ‘retain the Funk’, to use George Russell’s well-chosen phrase.
The Lunar Saxophone Quartet aim to bring new music to the widest possible audience without pandering or patronising. Their standards are exacting and they only commission the best. Their albums These Visions and Flux feature new works by the UK’s most sought after composers including Graham Fitkin, , Michael Nyman, Keith Tippett, John Metcalf, Hilary Tann and Gabriel Jackson. With Catching Sunlight they succeed on all counts and Dave Stapleton joins this august company.
The titles for these pieces are taken from a poem by Julie Tippetts. Each line somehow capturing the mood of its piece. As The Lunar Saxophone Quartet weave and intertwine these delightful dancing melodies over the rhythm section’s steady, supple pulse and Neil Yates’ trumpet floats above the ensemble. There are so many delights to be discovered in Catching Sunlight. Words, however, well-chosen are sometimes simply not enough.’
LSQ New Music Award
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2012 COMPETITION APPLICATION FORMS NOW AVAILABLE
Click here to download the application form and competition guidelines. If you have any questions please contact us via our contact page.
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The LSQ are passionate about commissioning new music. The group felt that with such a wealth of compositional talent at Universities and Conservatoires, students should have a platform to write for the saxophone quartet genre and showcase their works.
The biannual competition sees students submit previously unperformed works to a yearly changing criteria. Entries are shortlisted and a live final at The Warehouse in London sees the pieces performed by the LSQ to a panel of expert judges which in previous years has included Graham Fitkin, Andy Scott, Gabriel Jackson, Andrew Poppy and Sarah Field.
The LSQ New Music Award is now in its third season with previous winners including James Williamson (RAM), Mark David Boden (RWCMD) and Benjamin Tubb (RNCM). Winners pieces have been recorded on the LSQ’s two Signum Records These Visions and Flux and also published by contemporary music specialists Staunch Music.
The next competition final will take place in July 2011 with entries being accepted from November 2011 – February 2012.