Musicians from Oxford University - Oxford 2016

Photo credit: Mike Ko

i) Holding my Breath
ii) When the Light Fades

Echoes as a title is an allusion to the experience of discovering and exploring a vast cave. The idea of ‘holding one’s breath’ that characterises the first movement is to imply a feeling of nervousness and excitement, as if one is crossing into unknown territory. 'When the Light Fades' is a more descriptive title that imagines walking into a cave so far that one loses the light from the familiar realm left outside.

The title of this piece, 'Echoes' can be seen as serving a double function. Firstly, it provides the context through which the conceptual image of a cave may be deduced. Secondly, it hints towards the relationship between the movements that was central to crafting the musical material and their developments. Thus, just as echoes are paradoxically isolated and distinct sounds yet whose identity relies on another pre-conceived sound, the second movement of this work relies on the preparation in the first movement in order for its own sound world to be understood.

Echoes for String Quartet (2016)

Winner of the UK Critics' Circle Young Artist Award 2021 for his "compelling and individual" works, Alex Ho is a British-Chinese composer whose music and stage works have been described as “menacing and poetic" (The Guardian), "important and impressive" (Opera Today), and a "fresh, different idea that captured the imagination" (Scottish New Music Awards 2021). Alex is resident composer at Glyndebourne Opera (2023-26) and was formerly Artist-in-Residence at Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier (2021-24) and Associate Composer at Oxford International Song Festival (2022-23). His music theatre piece, Untold, premiered to critical acclaim at Concertgebouw Brugge and O. Festival Rotterdam in Spring 2023 and won the FEDORA Opera Prize 2023 for a "bold and moving creation".

 

Alex has had pieces performed/commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, BBC Radio 3, Royal Philharmonic Society, Royal Opera House, Het Concertgebouw, National Opera Studio, Music Theatre Wales, London Sinfonietta, Riot Ensemble, VOCES8, and National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. His works have featured in venues across the UK, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, USA and China, on platforms including SoundState Festival (Southbank Centre, London), Sound Unbound (Barbican Centre, London), Hearing China (Shanghai Symphony Hall, Shanghai), nonclassical (London), Cheltenham Music Festival, and BBC Late Junction. Alex is co-director of Tangram, a music collective currently Associate Artists at LSO St Luke's.​ Alex graduated from Oxford and Cambridge universities and completed a doctorate at the Royal College of Music with a full AHRC scholarship (LAHP studentship supported by the RCM).

Alex is represented by Intermusica: https://www.intermusica.co.uk/artist/Alex-Ho