Работаю надъ лучшимъ альбомомъ! // Werking on the greatest album!

Christian Mason (b.1984) is a London-based composer whose music has been described as ‘astonishingly inventive and powerful’ (The Strad) and as ‘music of atmosphere and hallucinatory powers… that seems extemporised yet deep down is highly organised’ (Classical Source). Mason is enjoying a prolific career with an array of exciting projects and commissions including a flute concerto for Noemi Gyori and Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, premiering in April; two Hölderlin song cycles for Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo), Thorwald Jørgensen (theremin) and Explore Ensemble, performed as part of a residency at Schloss Mediale Werdenberg in May; a residency (2023/24) at Musikdorf Ernen, Switzerland, which will see a new chamber piece and several other works  presented during the festival in August; a new duo with electronics for Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Joonas Ahonen, composed as part of residency at the SWR Experimentalstudio Freiburg during 2024; a ‘concerto grosso’ for Elinor Frey and baroque ensemble Il Gardellino; and a new CD ‘Time Space Sound Light’ recorded by Octandre Ensemble for release on Winter & Winter in March 2024.

Major projects from last season include Invisible Threads, a 70-minute performance installation – for the Arditti Quartet, Neue Vocalsolisten, Gareth Davis and Krassimir Sterev – which premiered at Witten festival in April 2023, with a second performance at Eclat Festival in Stuttgart on the 1st of February 2024; The Singing Tree, an environmental cantata setting texts by Paul Griffiths, for BCMG, Neue Vocalsolisten and Finchley Children’s Music Group, conducted by Michael Wendeberg at Birmingham Town Hall in May 2023; In Unknown Elements… In Endless Transmutation…, a sound installation celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, which was presented at the Boulezsaal Berlin and Tonhalle Zürich. In France, Christian concluded his two-year residency with the Orchestre National d’Auvergne, with the premiere of Voix Terrestre for string orchestra, enhanced by an hour-long radio portrait by France Musique.

2022 saw the completion of Time and Eternity, an orchestral cycle in three parts premiered respectively by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (with Christian Thielemann), the Konzerthausorchester Berlin (with Christoph Eschenbach), and the hr-sinfonieorchester (with Michał Nesterowicz). Past commissions include pieces for Philharmonia Orchestra (with Anu Komsi), Münchener Kammerorchester, Orchestre National de France (Alla Breve), and Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (at Donaueschingen Festival); ensemble pieces for Ensemble Recherche, the CONNECT project (London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Remix, Ensemble Asko-Schönberg), Lucerne Festival (Ensemble Intercontemporain), BBC PROMS (London Sinfonietta); and chamber music works for Arditti Quartet (Paris Philharmonie), Ligeti Quartet, Britten Sinfonia and ‘Nouveaux Horizons’ festival at the Grand Théâtre de Provence in Aix; solo/duo works for Carolin Widmann, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Momo Kodama, Midori, Mieko Kanno, Jack Adler-McKean (tuba) and the Orléans Concours International (Brin d’Herbe).

A 2015 winner of an Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung Composer Prize, Christian is a visiting teacher of composition at the University of Cambridge, and mentor for the LSO Panufnik Young Composers Project, the Philharmonia Composers’ Academy and the Hong Kong Composers’ Scheme (2023/24). He has been a resident artist at Eton College, Villa Concordia, Civitella Ranieri and at SWR Experimental Studio in Freiburg. In 2012 he was awarded the Mendhelssohn Scholarship and received a British Composer Award. Christian completed a Ph.D at King’s College London with George Benjamin and worked as Composition Assistant to Sir Harrison Birtwistle. He previously studied at the University of York. He is a founding Artistic Director of the Octandre Ensemble and plays the Theremin. His works are published by Breitkopf & Härtel. His works are recorded on the London Sinfonietta Label, LSO Live, Col Legno, Winter & Winter and nonclassical.

Douglas Boyce writes chamber music that draws on Medieval and Renaissance traditions and modernist aesthetics, building rich rhythmic structures that shift between order, fragmentation, elegance, and ferocity.  His approach is deeply historical and broadly philosophical.  Many of his works have an direct historical touchstone, such as his  Etude on 'Pymalion qui moult subtilz estoit' (A Book of Etudes, Quire 4, No. 1) which features quotations of and elaborations on music from 15th century Cyprus, or La Deploration for clarinet, violin, and cello, which couples Josquin's lament on the death of Ockeghem with works of his own teacher Robert Suderburg, synthesizing jazz and Renaissance approaches. Other works draw on sources from antiquity, such as the string quartet Alcyone, a partially spoken setting of a tale of Ovid's Metamorphoses, or Tethys, a violin concerto which links the sea-goddess to geological time and tectonic change.
Literature and philosophy are also significant points of articulation: The Winter Journey, a current project commissioned from the ensemble Yarn|wire, is based on a short story by George Perec; the story itself  takes the form of a 19th century fairytale of memory and loss, and so the new composition will involve transformation of the French and German art-song tradition of the 19th and early 20th century. A song cycle focused on settings of American poets (Jorie Graham, BJ Ward, Wallace Stevens) entwines with the poems fragments from philosophers (James, Aristotle, Husserl, Bergson). The piano trio 'Fortuitous Variations' draws upon the language of William James and C.S. Peirce in inspiration, organization, character markings, and movement titles. This approach and the works themselves connect to many aspects of the scholarship in the humanities, including history, anthropology, literary studies, and philosophy. 
His works have been praised many times in the press.  Regarding his Quintet “l’homme armé”, Allan Kozinn wrote “he couches [the medieval melody] in such thoroughly modern scoring that the ear is lured to other things, including the juxtaposition of eerie string writing with playful material for the clarinet and piano, or the lively interplay among all five instruments.” (The New York Times March 12, 2005.) Regarding A Book of Songs (2006), the Stephen Brookes wrote “[they] can only be described as drop-dead beautiful. Easily the most captivating works on the program, these songs of love and death are extraordinarily well written and insightful.” (The Washington Post May 23, 2006)  Regarding La Déploration, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim wrote that "...the violinist, cellist... and clarinetist... spread out throughout the crypt. Against vaporous harmonics and ghostly fragments of Renaissance music played by the strings, [a] warm, clear clarinet announced itself as very much alive as it sashayed in and out of blues territory and laughed in the face of their mournful keening." (The New York Times May 17, 2015.)
He has been awarded the League of Composers ISCM Composers Award (2005), the Salvatore Martirano Prize (2006), and the Robert Avalon Prize (2010), and a Fromm Commission (2012). He is a MacDowell Fellow in Winter 2017, and an Avaloch Music Farm Fellow in Fall 2017. His music has been performed by  counter)induction, Aeolus Quartet, Inscape Chamber Orchestra, Redlight Music, Dan Lippel, Robert Baker, Trio Cavatina, Edge Ensemble/Contemporary Music Forum (DC), pianists Ieva Jokubaviciute (Shenandoah University), Alice Belem (State University of Minas Gerais), and Ning Yu; cellists Elise Pittenger (Federal University of Minas Gerais) and Schuyler Slack (Richmond Symphony) and Lori Barnett (George Washington University); and clarinetists David Jones (Washington National Opera), Benjamin Fingland (Dorian Winds).
He is a founding member, curator, and composer-in-residence of counter)induction, a composer/performer collective active in the New York region (www.counterinduction.com).

I'm a London-based composer working across both acoustic and electronic music, often combining live instrumentalists and singers with richly textured electronics to create hypnotic and all-enveloping soundworlds.

My music has been commissioned by Sky Arts, the Union Chapel, V&A, Royal Opera House and East London Dance, and supported by Bristol Old Vic, Ovalhouse, Spitalfields Music and Snape Maltings. I'm currently Composer-in-Residence at Handel & Hendrix in London and also an Associate of the LSO Soundhub scheme. My recent work has included pieces for Eliza McCarthy, James McVinnie, Daniel Pioro & Liam Byrne through my concert series SOLO and larger scale works for the London Contemporary Orchestra and Crash Ensemble.

In theatre, I work with a variety of companies to create sound design and original music. My work on Remnants by Erratica was nominated for the Best Sound Design award at the 2017 Off West End Theatre Awards and Sister - a collaboration with director Rebecca Hanbury as Hanbury & Groves - premièred to critical acclaim at Ovalhouse last Autumn.

Rebecca and I collaborate on a wide range of projects and are currently Open Space artists at Snape Maltings where we’re working on our next music theatre work alongside a nationwide choral songbook commissioned by Sky Arts.

My music has been presented at the Royal Opera House, V&A, Union Chapel, Rich Mix, Ovalhouse, National Theatre Studio, Stratford Circus, VAULT Festival, Soho Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, Somerset House, King's Place, The Cockpit and Nonclassical, broadcast on NTS Radio, Resonance FM and BBC Radio 6 Music, and released on influential Icelandic label Bedroom Community.

American viola and viola d’amore player Clifton Harrison has performed as a chamber musician, recitalist, and in orchestras throughout Europe, the United States, Central America, and Asia. He is the viola player in the acclaimed Kreutzer Quartet with whom he has recorded extensively. As a member of the quartet Clifton has been artist-in-residence at Goldsmiths, Southampton, and Bath Spa University with close ties to the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Oxford.

Parallel to his quartet duties, Clifton regularly gives masterclasses, workshops, and lectures worldwide.  An avid freelance viola player, Clifton has worked with many UK ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra, London Contemporary Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Rambert Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, and most of London’s period performance ensembles. Clifton also records regularly for film and television. He has toured worldwide with countless classical ensembles as well as performed with popular artists as wide ranging as Björk, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, David Rodigan & the Outlook Orchestra, and Mumford & Sons.  Clifton has been heard in festivals throughout the world, from the muddy fields of Glastonbury to the EFG London Jazz Festival, Ghent Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, and London’s BBC Proms.

As a researcher, Clifton focuses on two distinct areas:  Seventeenth and eighteenth century viola d’amore music from the Germanic region, and Black and Minority Ethnic classical and contemporary composers/sound artists.

Clifton is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, America'‘s top boarding school for the arts. This was followed by studies at the Juilliard School with Dorothy Delay (violin) and Karen Tuttle (viola) and at the Royal Academy of Music with Yuko Inoue (modern viola) and Jane Rogers (baroque viola).

Recent releases are on the Hyperion, Universal Music, Sony, NAXOS, Warner Music, Navona Records, NMC Records, Métier, and Signum Classics labels. 

(Kindly use the form on the contact page at www.cliftonharrison.co to request an updated biography for concerts and promotions.)

_flutist based in Germany
_artistic director of the „Konzerte in der Elfenbeinstadt Erbach(i.Odenwald)“
_founder of new music ensembles Lunaire & Broken Frames Syndicate, the Duo Zweisam, Duo |H:S|, and the chamber orchestra O!Contraire
_part of Ensemble Sargo, Asambura ensemble & the artist collective Intertwining Arts
_International Ensemble Modern Academy 2017/18

WOMEN* COMPOSERS Project
I am currently working on a repertoire list for flute music by women* composers.  Please get in touch with me...
...if you are a women* composer and would like to be included
...or if you know pieces that should be included in the list. 

The full list is available on my website. Any exchange about this topic or remarks are welcome! Thank you!

Composer, flute player in The Whistlebinkies

Get into our HOUSE, unlimited copies of each release available for everyone!...
ONE LOVE, MUSIC LOVE

Followers of Clifton Harrison