The Scottish premiere of Ave verum corpus (from Three Marian Motets, 2008) will be given this Saturday (11/05/2013) at High Hilton Church, Aberdeen. The piece will be performed by the North East of Scotland’s premiere chamber choir, Con Anima and will be conducted by Paul Mealor. The main piece on the programme will be Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms alongside shorter works by MacMillan, Leighton and Lauridsen.
I was delighted to hear recently that the Choir of Trinty Episcopal Church, Newport, Rhode Island will perform my first setting of the Preces and Responses (2009) tonight in evensong. This is the second choir to perform the work in the USA and I am very excited to hear. For more info click here.
I’ve been getting carried away recently and have made more YouTube videos of some of my scores. Following on from O Salutaris Hostia, I have now made videos of Green, How Clear, How Lovely and I Stood on a Towerfrom the recent JAM concert and a performance of the Evening Service from 2011. All performances from the wonderful Selwyn College Choir, directed by Sarah MacDonald. To view any of the videos, click on the individual pieces above.
I finally worked out how to make a video of one of my pieces with the score visable as well! It’s a bit rough and ready but it is a start. I’m going to finely hone my video-making techniques over the next couple of months. This performance is O Salutaris Hostia (2008), performed by the Camerata Silesia, conducted by Anna Szostak at The Seminar Church, Częstochowa, Poland on the 03 May 2012 as part of “Gaude Mater” International Festival of Sacred Music 2012.
Although much of 2013 has been taken up with my new job at Aberdeen University (and hanging about at airports) I have managed to finish three new pieces and adapt two others. The new pieces are: O lux beata Trinitas a short motet for SATB for the Aberdeen University Chamber Choir; The Eternal Ecstasy for SSAATTBB for the Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge for their forthcoming recording of the same name on Regent Records and Prelude, Interlude and Epilogue a short piano piece and my contribution to the Powers@60 garland of works written to celebrate the 60th birthday of my former tutor Anthony Powers. I have also made a SATB and organ version of The Hazel Wood (2012) and combined the three partsongs I Stood on a Tower (2008), Green (2012) and How Clear, How Lovely (2010) into a set called, imaginatively, Three Partsongs.
On Thursday 21 March, the Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge, conducted by Nicholas Cleobury will perform my Three Partsongs (2010-12) in a JAM concert at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, London. It will be the first complete performance of this set, and the first performance of Green (2012) the second of the partsongs. It looks like an excellent concert with various other composers associated with JAM including Judith Bingham, Jonathan Dove, Paul Patterson and Paul Mealor. The concert begins at 19.30 and tickets can be bought here.
This month has seen three performances of my first set of Preces and Responses (2009) at St Andrew’s Cathedral, in Aberdeen. It has been performed by the Cathedral Choir, conducted by Ed Jones and is the Scottish premiere of this work. Nice to have some performances in my adopted home town. PAC
After three fantastic concerts in St Andrews, Edinburgh and Aberdeen it was nice to have a positive review in The Herald. Here they stated, ‘A compelling rendition of Phillip Cooke’s evocative The Hazel Wood.’ Not a lot, but positive nonetheless. The full review can be read here.
There is a nice feature on me in the local Aberdeen newspaper, the Aberdeen Press & Journal. There is also (as you can see) an obligatory ‘composer with manuscript’ picture, which features an amazing cameo from my forehead. The article can be viewed here in a short form, you’d have to buy the newspaper or download the e-version to read the whole article.
I was recently alerted to this short article on the forthcoming JAM concerts in Scotland in the local St Andrews newspaper (not sure what it is called). I especially like the ‘distinguished composer’ bit (click on the picture to enlarge). There is also a preview of the concerts in The Herald that can be read here.
The Scottish premiere of Ave verum corpus (from Three Marian Motets, 2008) will be given this Saturday (11/05/2013) at High Hilton Church, Aberdeen. The piece will be performed by the North East of Scotland’s premiere chamber choir, Con Anima and will be conducted by Paul Mealor. The main piece on the programme will be Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms alongside shorter works by MacMillan, Leighton and Lauridsen.
