This summer has been full of lots of exciting things, including performances with my band, with my mother-and-son duo with Viktoria Mullova, ZiroBop and the folk singer Sam Lee‘s amazing new group. Amongst all the traveling and nearly missing early-morning flights I have also spent many many hours buried at home in London desperately trying to finish writing and orchestrating my new Cello Concerto before the fast-approaching deadline of 10th September which is next week.
This project, which is jazz-inspired and features lots of improvisation, is a commission from Radio 3 and the piece is being written for the BBC Concert Orchestra and (just to add to the family connections this year) my step-father Matthew Barley who is one of the best cellists around and also bridges the classical and improvising worlds very beautifully. The world première of the concerto will take place on Saturday 23rd November at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and is part of this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival!
I have almost finished writing the piece – the first deadline for submitting parts for the initial workshop with the orchestra is next week – the same day I fly to Copenhagen to record my third album as a bandleader for Edition Records! I am really looking forward to finally recording a lot of the music we have been playing for 2-3 years now.
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