William Sweeney News
British composer
- opera
- United Kingdom
- composer, musicologist
Last update
2024-03-26
Refresh
2023-12-01 03:27:00
Sondheim Slanted Evening
Hopefully the post title is reason enough to be wary of where we're headed here. Just two years and one day ago, I was writing a tribute to the remarkable creative force behind Company, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods, and here I am presenting a couple of silly distortions of his exquisite musical/lyrical ideas. But it certainly comes from a place of affection.First up, a couple of months ago, I mentioned seeing just a two-bar cadential figure shown in a question on a Facebook group and I knew at once I'd played this flourish.It took me a bit of time to realize it's the closing gesture (hear at 2:29 here) from On the Steps of the Palace, Cinderella's big number from Into the Woods. When I mentioned this to some friends online, one repeated a suggestion she'd made before about combining Sondheim's Steps with Borodin's lovely orchestral tone poem In the Steppes of Central […]
2023-11-06 09:28:00
From the venue that we didn't know we needed to vibrant arts hub, Kings Place celebrates 15 years
[…] performed at Kings Place since 2008, and the programming each year continues to prioritise new music and the support of contemporary composers. Kings Place has commissioned and co-commissioned 19 works, including pieces by Nico Muhly, Space Afrika/Jack Sheen, Hauschka, Cassie Kinoshi, Tansy Davies, Thomas Adès, Oliver Leith and Judith Weir. Looking ahead to 2024, the venue will see a diverse range of premieres and commissions from Anna Meredith, Jasdeep Singh Degun, LVRA, Donald Grant, Aileen Sweeney, Ninfea Crutwell Reade and Helen Grime. The venue's annual Unwrapped series has become increasingly imaginative, after Unwrapping Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, Minimalism Unwrapped (2015) won Kings Place’s first RPS Award and since then there has been Cello Unwrapped, Time Unwrapped and Venus Unwrapped with Sound Unwrapped in 2023 featuring Hannah Peel and Space Afrika as artists in residence, and next year sees Scotland Unwrapped with Karine Polwart as artist in residence and Jackie Kay and Aidan O’Rourke as guest curators.Full details […]
2023-09-29 08:28:00
From a 1000 year old Celtic lament to Judith Weir and a Jasdeep Singh Degun premiere with the Scottish Ensemble: Kings Place's 2024 Scotland Unwrapped
Kings Place has announced the next instalment of its Unwrapped series. 2024 is to be devoted to Scotland Unwrapped, a celebration of music and spoken-word from Scotland encompassing traditional and regional arts as well as the vibrant contemporary scene, with a wide range of musical genres from contemporary composers, folk musicians and Scottish classical ensembles.Things kick of on 13 January 2024 when sitarist and composer Jasdeep Singh Degun joins the Scottish Ensemble to present work from his Anomaly album as well as the London premiere of a new work [see my recent interview with Jasdeep]. Other premieres during the year include Anna Meredith, LVRA, Donald Grant, Aileen Sweeney, Ninfea Crutwell Reade and Helen Grime. The Colin Currie Quartet present the world premiere of a Kings Place commission, Anna Meredith’s Dodgem Studies arranged for percussion quartet, as well as the world premiere of a new work from Ben Nobuto and the London premiere of Aileen Sweeney’s new work for […]
or
- timeline: Composers (Europe). Performers (Europe).
- Indexes (by alphabetical order): S...