I’m a keen birder. By sheer good fortune, when we moved down to Pembrokeshire nearly 30 years ago, we happened to live 3 miles down the road from one of the biggest starling roosts in Britain – at its height upwards of 2 million birds. I’ve been watching starling murmurations for the last 25 years – how can anyone tire of the awesome sight of a flock of 300,000 birds running the gauntlet of birds of prey waiting like fighter aces 10 o’clock high, having gained height and wind direction on their targets (my personal record is 8 buzzards, 3 peregrine falcons, a goshawk [they’re deadly!] and 5 sparrow hawks!)? You don’t have to go to the Serengeti to see some of the most extraordinary sights in nature!         
Everyone will be familiar with tv and YouTube images showing the breath-taking gyrations of a murmuration, but few will have actually heard the sounds associated with these displays. There’s an entire repertoire of calls, noises and sounds associated with starling flocks – I’ll describe just two. For a huge flock of starlings, roosting is the most life-threatening moment of their daily cycle (facing that gauntlet I’ve already described). When the flock comes in in the twilight they’re understandably nervous and so are continuously chatting and communicating with one another; imagine a pantomime audience of hundreds of thousands of children screaming ‘it’s BEHIND you!’ The other unforgettable sound happens only at dawn. Wingbeats are surprisingly percussive! When, say, half a million birds suddenly take to the air in a split second, the sound is deafening, a veritable explosion of wings.
That’s about all you need to know about my piece. A glance at my score will tell you that there’s plenty of acrobatic gyrations to listen out for – arpeggios rule, ok! – but what excited me most in trying to write this piece was to capture some of those sounds.

Murmurations

Recorded by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra as part of the NZSO Young Composer Todd Awards. 

Impetus

River Song Quintet recorded live at MultiKulti, Chicago, July 21, 2014

River Song Quintet is: Lauren Baba (Viola, Violin), Alina Roitstein (Voice), Andrew Rowan (Cornet), Harrison Kirk (Trombone), and Gregory Uhlmann (Guitar)

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Gene Nemirovsky

Great thanks to Mike Kalas of MultiKulti, Joshua Gunti of Consensus, and the generously attentive audience.


6 River Song Quintet At MultiKulti Chicago - Blackbird

I'm still shocked by the terrible Charlie Hebdo assasination, and i feel deeply saddened.There is also a lot of anger and powerlessness, that the freedom of opinion and the values of democracy have been attacked in such a cruel and mean way. Since i could not join the millions of people today , who marched to commemorate and celebrate the victims of last week’s terror attacks, i want at least send a musical sign with this little requiem. Mes sincère condolences à ceux, qui resent.

Johannes Heinen - Requiem

Spectral layer cake

Images of a Trip
5 movements
1. Storm (departure)
2. Hiking the Trail
3. Waltz
4. The Lake
5. The Return

Images Of A  Trip

World premiered by China Juvenile Orchestra at Central Conservatory of Music attached school on June 1, 2015 

[LIVE] Fay Wang - 頑劇 | 玩具 Wan Jü - The Play of Toys (China Youth Orchestra)

Section from Incantatie IV composed by the Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt. Performed by Rondane Quartet. Info and bookings: www.rondanekwartet.nl/contact/

Bunga Bunga

The Techno Spiritual 2016
in memoriam Jouni Kaipainen
for string quartet
FINESTre
Kati Tuominen-Heroja, violin
Heidi Kuula, violin
Heili Hannikainen, viola
Elina Sipilä, sello

String quartet no. 1 - Teknospirituaali

Fay Kueen Wang (Wang Fei-nan), composer / vocalist
Ashley Bathgate, cello
Vicky Chow, piano
David Cossin, percussion
Ken Thomson, bass clarinet
Greg Chudzik, bass
Derek Johnson, electric guitar

Ecstatic Music Festival, Merkin Hall, NYC
March 14, 2013
Live recording from WQXR

[LIVE] w e l t i n s e l n - Fay Wang - Bang On A Can All Stars (2013 PCF Concert @ Merkin Hall NYC)

His work has been broadcast and widely performed in Britain, Europe and the U.S. Prizes include the Yorkshire Arts Young Composers' Competition (1978), the MidNAG award (1979) and his work 'Elegy' for solo alto flute was one of only two UK works selected for Gaudeamus International Musikweek in the Netherlands. 'Inevitable Inventions' was awarded first prize in the 1996 Match TM Composition Award. In 1994 he was one of the featured composers at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival and he has since been regularly programmed at the festival. 

In 2006 he received the prestigious Creative Wales Award to enable him to write two large scale orchestral works.

His work ranges from a chamber opera, 'Cheap Tricks' (1984), to a large number of solos and duos written for individual performers; notably 'Inevitable Inventions' (1994) for the violinist Madeleine Mitchell, 'Music for the Cyber Cafe' for the clarinettist David Campbell, and the solo trombone piece 'Sinfonia', premiered by Barrie Webb at the 1987 Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music.

In contrast to the reflective, internalised nature of these pieces, recent work over the last ten years, such as the 4 string quartets, and the orchestral works 'Still Life', 'Srebrenica' and  'On the Banks of the Nile' mark a return to a much more dramatic and public language, using large scale forms and forces.

Murmurations

michael parkin

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