New Music Biennial Composer Residencies

New Music Biennial Composer Residencies took place between January 2017 and March 2018 so that local communities in Hull could spend time and create music with some of the New Music Biennial’s brilliant music creators.

Five New Music Biennial Composers, Errollyn Wallen, Eliza Carthy, Sam Lee, Jason Singh, and Brian Irvine worked with a range of communities from across Hull, creating music inspired by the City, rooted in the experience of it’s inhabitants.

ROOTS OF THE CITY

On the 24 June 2017, the composers, community participants and musicians from the five separate residencies came together at Hull’s City Hall for a free concert titled Roots of the City to perform highlights of what they had created.

This ‘Supergroup’ performance featuring music from the residencies and led by James Redwood also formed part of the  New Music Biennial 2017 festival weekend in Hull, and additionally included the performance of a large-scale culmination piece.

SONGS OF FLIGHT

The Composer Residencies continued beyond July 2017 with New Music Biennial composers, Hannah Peel, Brian Irvine and PRS Foundation mentor and music leader James Redwood returning to the city to work local musicians and music leaders including Em Whitfield Brooks, Sam Pirt, Cecil Jones, Gabrielle Awre, Mambo Jambo, Ben Newton, Gary Hammond, Tom Lawrence, Brad Blackwell and Andrew Melton.

The works from the residencies culminated in the piece Song’s of Flight, which built on the theme of bird migration.  It was performed on 28 April 2018 by massed voices, a range of the participating music groups and the City of Hull Youth Symphony Orchestra at Hull City Hall.

PRS Foundation’s New Music Biennial residency programme was generously supported by Hull UK City of Culture, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Arts Council England.