Our Music Blog New Year, New Concerts Jan - June 2022 Season Announced! Christmas is just around the corner and Santa has brought you a very special early present, a season announcement from your favourite (Birmingham) contemporary music group! What could be better? Tickets will be on sale in the New Year for all events and we cannot wait to see you all there. Have a read and make sure to sign up to our Newsletter (at the bottom of the page) to be first in the know. Tickets Black Mirrors | BCMG NEXT 25 Feb 2022, 1pm Jennifer Blackwell Performance Space, Symphony Hall Black Mirrors | BCMG NEXT 25 Feb 2022, 8.30pm Recital Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire BCMG NEXT Ensemble L’instant donné Frédéric Pattar (b. 1969) Composer Frédéric Pattar and acclaimed French ensemble L’instant donné will be visiting Birmingham this February to work with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group’s early career NEXT musicians for some exciting workshops. These workshops will culminate in a special performance by our talented NEXT musicians of the unnervingly beautiful works of Frédéric Pattar. Do we need a new compass? 12, 17 March 2022 Hannover, Birmingham Addressing the need for new directions in contemporary music, bringing our concert culture up to the tempo of global developments, and updating our international musical co-ordinates, seven young composers are answering the question, Do we need a new compass? During a time when global connectivity is both revolutionised by technology, and held back by politics and pandemic, we are determined to move into a better future together. Do we need a new compass sees 3 concerts in 3 countries, by 3 ensembles; FontanaMIX Ensemble, Das Neue Ensemble, and of course Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Featuring brand new commissions, these events will be touching and powerful for both the ensembles, and our audiences. Each ensemble has chosen two composers to write a new piece for one of the other ensembles – creating a beautiful and equal exchange between groups. During our time in Birmingham, we will also see a performance of Pierrot Lunaire by our early career NEXT musicians. Join us in a celebration of unity within the arts, and togetherness in the world. 45 artists and 15 composers from 5 countries, building tomorrow’s music together. Hannover 12 March 2022, 4pm Sprengel Museum Gabriella Teychenné Conductor Anna Dennis Soprano Kaspar Querfurth (b.1990) World Premiere Celeste Oram (b. 1990) Pierrot Laborieux 9’ (2018) Robert Reid Allan (b.1991) Terry Helenson's Revolutionary Dreams 20’ (2018) Daniele Ghisi (b.1984) World Premiere Birmingham 17 March 2022 1pm Symphony Hall Jennifer Blackwell Performance Space BCMG NEXT Lunch time concert with chamber works by composers Kaspar Querfurth, Daniele Ghisi and others. 7.30pm CBSO Centre BCMG NEXT & Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Gabriella Teychenné Conductor Anna Dennis Soprano BCMG NEXT Arnold Schoenberg (b. 1874) Pierrot Lunaire (1974-1951) 40’ Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Daniele Ghisi (b.1984) UK World Premiere Kaspar Querfurth (b.1990) UK World Premiere Cherry Blossom Concert 20 March 2022, 3pm Brindleyplace, Birmingham After numerous postponements, we cannot wait to finally host our Cherry Blossom Concert in collaboration with IKON Gallery! This will be a beautiful, free, and sensory event for all ages. Join us in our ambient sound garden and hear flute, electronic sound projections and relaxing percussion inspired by the beautiful Japanese garden, Ryanoji. BCMG will also be accompanied by our talented BCMG NEXT early career musicians for this special performance. John Cage (b. 1912) Ryoanji (1984) 30’ Raising Icarus 28, 29, 30 April 2022 The REP, Birmingham Directed and designed by an internationally renowned team, and conducted by Natalie Beale Murray, this April Birmingham Contemporary Music Group are performing as part of the new Barber Opera RAISING ICARUS. This raw and powerful new chamber opera by Michael Zev Gordon breaks open an ancient myth to reveal its contemporary, psychological heart - how parental expectation and aspiration risk doing harm to our children. The Icarus myth foreshadows modern parental preoccupations, and yet, until now, focus on the myth has remained rather simplistically on the image of ‘flying too close to the sun’. This much-anticipated opera from Michael Zev Gordon and Stephen Plaice explores the more profound psychology of the Icarus myth that has been overlooked in other tellings. Enter a mesmeric world of curious mechanical devices, dark labyrinths, and ingenious workshops where increasingly dysfunctional relationships eventually bring tragedy. Eccentric Melodies 4 May 2022, 4pm Symphony Hall Jennifer Blackwell Performance Space, Birmingham 8 May 2022, 2pm Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol New Music Festival BCMG are incredibly proud to bring together composers of all generations from all over the world. Oliver Knussen who sadly passed away in 2018 was Artist in Association at BCMG for over a decade, he was incredibly concise in his compositions and discussed what it really means to write new music. It is thanks to him we have a close relationship with composer Elliot Carter, whose works with Oliver Knussen and BCMG have been critically acclaimed. Before our world changed last year, we had the extraordinary pleasure of premiering Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s latest work, ...when falling asleep and are thrilled to be continuing this special relationship. We make these connections through the melodies we make. Join us for an immersive experience with very special audience participation, in the two creative cities of Birmingham and Bristol. On 4 May Eccentric Melodies will follow the CBSO matinee Kazuki Yamada: Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony. Read more about this here: https://cbso.co.uk/event/kazuki-yamada-mendelssohns-scottish-symphony Stephan Meier Conductor Elliott Carter (b.1908) Canon for Four (1984) 6' Con leggerezza pensosa - Ommaggio a Italo Calvino (1990) 7’ Oliver Knussen (b.1952) Secret Psalm (1990) 5’ Eccentric Melody (1998) 3’ Charlotte Bray (b.1982) Trail of light (2008) 2’ Guillaume de Machaut (b.1300) Ma fin est mon commencement (< 1377) 4’ Sir Harrison Birtwistle (b.1934) Hoquetus David (1969) 4’ Arrangement of Machaut’s motet (1300) Duet 4 (2000) 2’ Roddy ′ s Reel (2009) 7′ >music & maths< Iannis Xenakis 100 29 May 2022 In celebration of revolutionary composer Iannis Xenakis’s centenary, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group have created a festival for all senses, with partners from Sound and Music, University of Birmingham, and PRiSM (Royal Northern College of Music). We are proud to celebrate the communal and creative beliefs of Xenakis, by sharing music from young participants in Birmingham and showing the beauty of maths through sensory visuals and sounds. Join us in the afternoon for a family drop-in session; Drawing Scoring, talks from our partners at University of Birmingham and PRiSM, and for an invigorating performance from our musicians. This will be a wonderful day of activity culminating in an evening performance of electro acoustic music by BCMG and BEAST. 3pm /performing /drawing /scoring CBSO Centre Join us for the afternoon celebrations of composer Iannis Xenakis’s centenary! We will be performing exciting pieces of his work alongside visuals by animator Simon Russell and mathematician Marcus de Sautoy. Come see, and hear, the selected digital compositions created by young participants in Birmingham during our Drawing Scoring Workshop. At this workshop people of all ages were invited to use the free software Synethesia to draw and create their own scores using brush strokes and shapes, inspired by Xenakis’s work, these pieces were then re-instrumented for BCMG performers. We will also hear BCMG NEXT, our early career musicians perform some of Xenakis’s well-known work. BCMG NEXT Iannis Xenakis (b.1922) Nomos Alpha (1966) 12’ Anaktoria (1969) 11’ Phlegra (1975) 14’ 5pm ∞ (infinity) CBSO Centre In the 1950’s Iannis Xenakis was employed in the LeCorbusier’s offices for architecture and was viewed as an outsider by many of his peers for his orchestral, vocal and electronic music. He applied maths, random probability, and graphic software to sound, creating worlds previously unheard of. Ironically, these musical pieces revealed both the most inner simplicity, and complexities of music despite him coming to composition as a “musical outsider”. On 29th May 2022, we are celebrating Xenakis’s legacy by presenting some of his classics, pieces less frequently heard, and dramatic new works linking maths and music. Anna Dennis, Soprano Gabriella Teychenné, Conductor Iannis Xenakis Jalons (1986) 15’ Ittidra (1996) 9’ Akanthos (1977) 11’ Emily Howard Compass SI commission (2022) World Premiere Samantha Fernando Breathing Forest* (2022) World Premiere 15‘ *Commissioned with Sound and Music 7pm Acousmatic Concert w/ BEAST The Exchange, Birmingham Join the finale of our Iannis Xenakis 100 celebration with an immersive electroacoustic performance with BEAST. BEAST (Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre) is a complex sound system of the University of Birmingham’s Electroacoustic Music Studios and are recognised as one of the leading groups for presenting electronic music and soundscapes. During this ambient evening we will also hear from Christopher Haworth, Senior Lecturer in Music at University of Birmingham for an insight on the work of Xenakis and his influence on music. What better way to experience the works of Iannis Xenakis than by filling the newly opened Exchange building with his work using revolutionary sound technology. This is a poignant celebration of cross-genre music, science, and the arts as a whole. Iannis Xenakis La Legende d’Eer (1978) 45’ Sergio Luque World Premiere Tickets Thank you to our Partners and Supporters Partners: Association Iannix, Integra Lab, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, PRiSM, Royal Northern College of Music Manchester, CBSO Centre, University of Birmingham, BEAST, Buzzing Light Support by: Arts Council England, Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne (NEXT) Manage Cookie Preferences