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Suites for Strings

The Suite of string pieces (Cello Suite I-III; Viola Nocturne & Solo for Violin; Duet for Piano and Violin, No. II; see attached PDF SCORES and WEBLINK) was composed for various players, and the individual pieces have been performed in Kettles Yard, Cambridge, Michaelhouse, Cambridge, the Royal Northern College of Music, Cambridge Festival of Ideas and Slovenia.

These pieces are a series of solos and duets written for Mifune Tsuji, award-winning violinist, and was in part inspired by Louis Sclavis’ re-workings of Neapolitan songs. In my case, the starting material was half-remembered fragments of the sort of party music I can recall hearing while I drifted off to sleep as my parents partied with their friends in the 50’s and 60’s hearing records of Rat Pack denizens. None of this is revealed in any explicit way, but rather buried in the textures to only emerge to the forefront for just two or three brief notes , the way that it tends to reveal itself when two or three pitches will suddenly unfold in my mind to suggest a half-forgotten song.

Performances:

(2011) Duet for Piano and Violin, No. II; performed by Mifune Tsuji at the Cambridge Festival of ideas, Oct. 2011

(2011) Solo Sonata for Violin; performed by Mifune Tsuji, Kettles Yard, Cambridge John Cage Week, May

2011) Cello Suite, solo cello, performed by Katarina Majcen, Kettles Yard, Cambridge John Cage Week, May

(2010) Solo Sonata for Violin; performed by Mifune Tsuji, Cambridge Festival of ideas, Oct. 10

(2010) Solo Sonata for Violin; performed by Mifune Tsuji, Cambridge Festival of ideas, Oct. 10

(2010) Cello Suite, solo cello, performed by Katarina Majcen, Slovenia, June 2010

(2010) Cello Suite, solo cello, performed by Katarina Majcen, Royal Northern College of Music, May 2010

• Shortlisted SPMN composer