Through my good friend, and duo partner Lee Ferguson, I met the composer James (‘Jake’) Romig. https://www.jamesromig.com

They are both Alumni of the University of Iowa, and Lee has championed his work ever since those days- performing chamber works in the USA, at BISYOC Summer course concerts and with the Black Forest Percussion Group. Jake also, naturally, wrote a duo Contour piece.

'MICROSONNET II, for unaccompanied trumpet, was written in December 2000 for Stephen Altoft. The work is an adaptation of a page from SONNET 2, for for solo flute. It features two pitch-strands of counterpoint -- the first a more or less standard string of twelve-tone isomorphs, the second a string of pitches produced by the modulus array, a technique derived to produce modulus-based unequal pitch repetition (providing momentary "tonicizations" of various pitches). In this work, the counterpoint between the two vastly different collections of pitches can be heard explicitly in sections where the music is actually written in two voices, and the trumpet-player must expertly juggle two lines at once.' (JR)

Post Production: Donald Bousted

James Romig - Microsonnet II (2001)

Trumpeter specialising in contemporary music, and especially microtonal music.

Born in New Zealand in 1961, I learnt piano with my grandmother, french horn and composition with my father.  
I have plenty of information about harmonics and just intonation on my website (thebrasswhisperer.com) and my YouTube channel (Tuning the Horn - The Brass Whisperer).
From 2017 I've been co-curating SydneyMicroFest, a celebration of microtonal music.
I've composed for a variety of ensembles along with songs and percussion works. A large number of my compositions include intervals from the harmonic series, extended just intonation. My music is published by Wirripang Pty Ltd (www.australiancomposers.com.au). 
I've held full-time playing positions with a number of Australian orchestras including Principal Horn, Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra. I'm now a regular with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra (playing historical horns), Opera Australia Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and have performed with most orchestras in Australia. Chamber music credits include my ensemble LOCANA and Omega Ensemble. Recitals include EUROMicroFest2017 in Freiburg.
Teaching is an important part of my work such as schools in Sydney including Inaburra School, for which I've written a band program for beginners.
My music degrees are Doctor of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong (2011); MPhil in composition, University of Queensland and MMus in Musicology, Griffith University.

James Batty is a composer, pianist and harpsichordist based in London. He is currently an LSO Soundhub Associate.

Even before he first discovered the piano at the age of eight, James was fascinated by sound and music, and has been improvising, composing and performing ever since. He studied composition and piano at Chetham's School of Music, and it was there that he began to develop his unique musical language, which won him a place in the final of the BBC Young Composer competition. James went on to hone his technique at Trinity College, Cambridge, the Gnesin Academy in Moscow and the Royal Academy of Music. He has written for a wide range of musicians and ensembles, including Zoë Martlew, Mark Simpson, Huw Watkins, Cheng Yu (with Psappha) the BBC Singers, Carice Singers, Noxwode, CHROMA Ensemble, E-MEX Ensemble, Opera North Youth Chorus, National Youth Jazz Orchestra and Riot Ensemble. His music has been performed in Belgium, Italy, Poland, Russia and Sweden as well as around the UK. James’s work has appeared at the Spitalfields, Cheltenham, Norfolk & Norwich and Davos Festivals, as well as on BBC Radio 3, SWR2 and Rai Radio 3. His recent ballet collaboration with choreographer Cameron McMillan was performed by a dance company from the Central School of Ballet in 2023.

James is fascinated by deep history and its relevance our lives and challenges in the 21st century, and his work reflects this. His music also explores a passionate interest in language and the human voice, and in sound-worlds beyond standard Western tonality.

His songwriting work has been synced on BBC 2 and as a film composer, James has written the scores for several short films and documentaries, one of which was screened at BAFTA. His collaboration with filmmaker Shanshan Chen, The Outsiders, was presented at the Shanghai Biennale.

In 2016, James released his debut solo project, Sanctuary (Overtones and Deviations), an album in which he combined traditional piano compositions with electronic soundscapes, retuned pianos and other acoustic instruments. The music is introspective and emotive, and the album reflects his fascination with microtonality and just intonation. Sanctuary (Overtones and Deviations) has been critically acclaimed and aired on radio across Europe and in the US. Following on from this, James  collaborated with Grammy-winning producer Haydn Bendall to record his first solo piano album, Until I Set Him Free. The album is a collection of emotionally-charged compositions for which James devised a brand new spectral piano tuning, and is available now on Blue Spiral Records.

James is currently working towards a PhD in Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, supervised by David Gorton. He completed his Master’s studies there with distinction in 2021, during which he was taught by Gary Carpenter and Rubens Askenar. He held the Sterndale Bennett Scholarship, and was generously supported by the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust, Stapley Trust, Sidney Perry Foundation, English Speaking Union and Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust. Recent competition successes include being commended for the Priaulx Rainier Prize and highly commended by Michael Zev Gordon for the Alan Bush Prize.

James Romig - Microsonnet II (2001)

Stephen C. Altoft