JONATHAN WOOLGAR

Although it was disappointing for the LSO Panufnik Workshop to have been postponed due to COVID-19, I am pleased to say that I was kept busy in the lockdown by a new piece for the brilliant cellist Joe Davies and pianist Daniel Chappel. Cello Messages was due to have been premiered later this summer, but all being well the premiere will now take place in late 2020/early 2021. It has been a joy to write for such talented and trustworthy musicians as these. Here’s the first movement stuck up on my wall…

It’s been a thrill to have taken part in the London Symphony Orchestra’s Panufnik Scheme for young composers over the last year, which culminates in the orchestra playing my new piece PROTO-SYMPHONY at LSO St. Luke’s on Thursday 26th March, conducted by the great François-Xavier Roth. My piece will be in the morning session, which runs 10.00am-1.30pm, but the whole day is set to be a really exciting event with brand new pieces by my amazing colleagues on the scheme. Free entry but advance booking required!

I’m thrilled that my most recent piece Song-Messages will be programmed as part of the Devon Song Festival at Ashburton Church on 28th March 2020, once again performed by soprano Héloïse Werner and pianist Natalie Burch along with Britten’s Les Illuminations and a brand new piece by Héloïse (more info here). The performance in Aldeburgh tomorrow has now sold out, but you can still get tickets for the London performance at the Clapham Omnibus, 7.30pm on Sunday 1st December.

My new piece Song-Messages, commissioned by soprano Heloise Werner, will premiere on Thursday 24th October in Aylesbury before travelling to Aldeburgh, London and Cambridge. The piece will be performed by Heloise and pianist Natalie Burch alongside a new piece by Heloise and Britten’s Les Illuminations. The text compiles fragments from various sources which are highly personal to me, and I am especially excited about the performance in Aldeburgh as part of Britten’s Birthday Concert. Tickets are available for now for this performance and for the London performance, and further details about the Cambridge performance will be released soon.

AYLESBURY: St Mary’s Church, 12.45pm, Thursday 24th October 2019 (more info here)
ALDEBURGH: The Red House, 5.00pm, Friday 22nd November 2019 (more info here)
LONDON: Clapham Omnibus, 7.30pm, 1st December 2019 (more info here)
CAMBRIDGE: Cambridge Song Festival, Sunday 16th February 2020 (details coming soon)

My pieces Dream (2018, for tenor and piano) and Six Dream Songs (2014, for solo soprano) will be performed at the Komitas Museum-Institue in Yerevan, Armenia at 7pm on 11th October, alongside new music by Arpine Kalinina, James Moriarty and Alice Hunter, as well as arrangements by Britten and Komitas. This is a continuation of the British-Armenian Musical Bridge project which I have been a part of since it was set up by Arpine in 2017, and is supported by the British Embassy in Yerevan. Although I sadly won’t be able to make it to the performance this time, I am thrilled that tenor Berj Karazian and soprano Sofya Sayadyan be singing these pieces again accompanied by Arpine, and I’m sure it will be a great concert.

I am very excited to announce that I have been commissioned to write a new piece for soprano Heloise Werner and pianist Natalie Burch which will tour around the UK in late 2019/early 2020. The piece will sit alongside Britten’s Les Illuminations as well as a new piece by Heloise. I have worked with Heloise many times over the past few years both with The Hermes Experiment and as a solo artist, including the solo opera Scenes from the End in 2016, and it’s an absolute thrill to be able to do so again and explore a more theatrical approach to song. Full details of where you can hear the piece will be posted on this site closer to the time. We are very grateful for the generous support of the Hinrischen Foundation for this project.

On Thursday 23rd May my new piece Cantata-Roundelay, for soprano, tenor and cello, will be premiered at the Wigmore Hall. The concert is part of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s Voiceworks project, featuring collaborations between writers, composers and singers. The text for Cantata-Roundelay was written by Sophie Rashbrook, and the piece will be performed by soprano Hannah Thomas, tenor Joseba Ceberio Gonzalez, and cellist Leo Popplewell. The concert begins at 1pm, and you can find more details here.

I have some exciting projects coming up for 2019, including taking part in the London Symphony Orchestra’s Panufnik Scheme, which will involve writing a brand new piece for the orchestra. I am also currently working on a new piece for Soprano, Tenor and Cello to be premiered at the Wigmore Hall on Thursday 23rd May, setting a newly-written text by Sophie Rashbrook. Check back for more information about each of these projects later this year.

You can now listen to recordings of three of my latest pieces, Trio-Sinfonie, SEXTET and Frammenti Ricercati online here. Each of these pieces explores the relationship between the fragmentary and the continuous in different ways, putting fragments as short as 10 seconds alongside continuous passages of up to 10 minutes.

Following the world premiere at the Liszt Academy in Budapest on 12th November, my Trio-Sinfonie will receive its UK premiere at Milton Court Concert Hall, London at 7:00pm on Friday 30th November. The 14-minute piece plays with proportion and continuity to create what could be described as a “broken structure”, and its compositional language is inclusive, letting in many of musical loves. The programme also features a new piece by Péter Tornyai along side music by Mozart and Smetana, and you can find more information here.