A new work entitled ‘Movement’ will be premiered on Saturday 6 May 2017 at Bath University, as part of the university’s 50th Anniversary celebrations. It will be performed by Bath Spa Brass Band.
After the success of a transcription of Michael Nyman’s ‘Prospero’s Magic‘, performed at Bath Abbey, I was invited to compose a new work for brass band. The brief was to compose music that represented the movement of people and cultures from different places, arriving in one place and finding a unified voice at the end of that journey. In essence the journey of every student and academic to Bath University, leading on afterwards to their life as a postgraduate.
Rehearsals have been going well and I am looking forward to hearing the work being performed live. There is nothing quite like the sensation of hearing live, unamplified music, and the Bath Spa Brass Band will be performing a whole program of exciting music they have been preparing, in addition to my piece. If you’ve never heard brass band up close I highly recommend doing so: the sheet range of colours, timbre and volume is an assault of the senses!
The festival will not just be music either! It is shaping up to be a packed day of free activities and includes some of the following:
- Red Devils free fall display team at midday
- dry Bobsleigh track (over 18s) -Climbing wall and zipline
- test-tube cocktails and treats
- Team Bath racing wheel change competition
- human submarine
- 100m bubbles
Full details can be found here.
Entry is free and the festival runs from 11am to 4pm.