News

World premiere of Simaku’s Herkommann Aria

Thomas Simaku’s new solo work, Herkommann Aria, received its world premiere at Kuks International Festival in Prague, on 23 July 2016, performed by the leading Czech clarinettist Ludmila Peterkova.

The piece is based on a Czech baroque melody, Herkommann Aria, which serves as a ‘point of departure’; its character and salient intervallic properties are ‘freely elaborated into a textural format that focuses on the lyrical and echoes the remote atmosphere of the ancient melody’.

Simaku’s award-winning work Soliloquy V – Flauto Acerbo was broadcast on Austrian national radio, ORF, on 12 August 2016

The work was performed by Lorina Vallaster, who gave the Austrian premiere at Vienna Concert Hall, Schubert-Saal, in 2015. Commissioned by Christopher Orton and the BBC Performing Arts Fund, the world premiere was given at the Greenwich International Early Music Festival in 2008.

  • National Radio of Finland Simaku broadcast available online

    Following the success at the 2019 International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM)  – World Music Days , Thomas Simaku’s most recent work, La Leggiadra Luna for mixed choir a cappella, has been broadcast by four European radio stations.

  • Current and former students selected as 2019-20 RPS Composers

    The Royal Philharmonic Society have announced the latest members of their prestigious Emerging Composers scheme, including Robin Haigh, currently studying for a PhD at York with Martin Suckling, and Joel Järventausta, a former York undergraduate.

  • Martin Suckling on Radulescu at IRCAM

    Back in June Martin was invited to speak about Radulescu’s seminal solo viola piece Das Andere alongside violist Garth Knox at the Spectralisms conference in IRCAM.

  • Neil Luck features in 2019 BBC Proms

    Praise for Music Dept students featured in BBC Proms
     
    Following on from his specially-commissioned Radio 3 takeover to extend the Last Night of the Proms 2018, Music Department PhD student Neil Luck was invited to contribute a live set as part of 2019’s first ‘Proms at…’ event.  Joined by second year undergraduate Rebecca Burden and former student James McIlwrath, Neil masterminded three pieces in an event described by the Guardian as a ‘teasing, challenging new-music bill’.  Proms at …

  • Andreas Tsiartis a winner in Discovering Young Composers of Europe

    His new work will be performed by four different ensembles in four European cities and released on CD in 2020

    The objective of Discovering Young Composers of Europe (DYCE) Competition was to bring together the four regions of Europe (North, South, East, West) by inviting the composition students and alumni of all European Academies, Conservatories and Universities to submit a work.

  • Thomas Simaku selected for the ISCM – World Music Days 2019

     

    His work will be performed by a Grammy Award-winning ensemble

    Thomas Simaku’s recent work, La Leggiadra Luna for mixed choir a cappella, has been selected by the international jury for performance at the 2019 ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music)  – World Music Days, which takes place in Estonia from 2 – 10 May.