New Director of Music at Clare College, Cambridge |
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Graham has been appointed Director of Music at Clare College, Cambridge, succeeding Timothy Brown's extraordinary thirty-one year tenureship. This exciting new role combines overseeing all music making in the College with individual teaching and the directing of the world-renowned Choir in regular evensongs and outside engagements. Graham takes up the post in Autumn 2010. |
Così fan tutte: return to Seillans' Musique Cordiale Festival, August 2010 |
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This summer Graham will return to Provence to conduct a new production of Mozart's Così fan tutte with Vignette Productions at the 2010 Musique Cordiale Festival following from his debut there in 2009 with Le nozze di Figaro. The team will give two performances in Seillans' charming Place du Valet on 9 and 11 August, 9pm. Click here for more details. |
East Anglia Chamber Orchestra, March 2010 |
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Graham has been invited to guest conduct the East Anglia Chamber Orchestra in a programme including Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks and Haydn Symphony No. 88 in performance at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge, on 28 March 2010. See calendar for more details. |
Edington Festival Commission, August 2010 |
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Graham has been commissioned to write a new work for the 55th Edington Festival, to take place this August in Edington Priory, Wiltshire. He will write a new introit to be performed by the Festival Consort conducted by Jeremy Summerly, to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in a Choral Evensong on 25 August 2010. See calendar for more details. |
Assistant conductor at Glyndebourne, Spring 2010 |
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Graham will serve as assistant conductor to Nicholas Collon for Glyndebourne Education's newly-commissioned opera, Knight Crew, a new youth opera for 14–19 year olds written by composer-in-residence, Julian Philips. The opera is a re-working of the King Arthur legend in a modern city setting, to be performed on the Glyndebourne main stage in March 2010. Click here for more details. |
Sydney Opera House: arrangements for Australian Chamber Orchestra and Barry Humphries |
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Graham has been commissioned to arrange a variety of works for the Australian Chamber Orchestra and comedian Barry Humphries, who will perform the works with the orchestra in his multiple roles as Dame Edna Everage, Sir Les Patterson, and himself. Four performances will take place in Australia: two in Melbourne Arts Centre and two at the Sydney Opera House. See calendar for more details. |
Gramophone Editor's Choice, five-star review |
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The Dmitri Ensemble's debut disc for Naxos of James MacMillan's Seven Last Words from the Cross was selected by Gramophone magazine for their Editor's Choice for September. " The disc is little short of a triumph", wrote reviewer Andrew Aschenbach. See Reviews. |
Britten's The Little Sweep: Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh, November 2009 |
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Graham is to conduct Jubilee Opera in a new production of Britten's The Little Sweep in Aldeburgh's Jubilee Hall, exactly 60 years after the work was premièred in the same venue. Four performances will be given on 14/15 November 2009, featuring a superb young cast and local Suffolk schoolchildren, directed by Freddie Wake-Walker. See calendar for more details. |
I sing of a maiden to be published by Encore Publications |
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Graham's winning anthem I sing of a maiden is to be published by Encore Publications, ready in time for the piece's première in Gloucester Cathedral on 11 July 2009. The piece, which won the John Sanders Memorial Prize for Composition, will be performed throughout the UK during 2009/10. |
Ave verum corpus: free download from Choir & Organ |
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Graham's commissioned anthem Ave verum corpus has today been published by Choir & Organ magazine. The score can be downloaded free of charge direct from the Choir & Organ site for the next six months. Graham is also the featured composer in the July/August issue of the magazine in their New Music section. |
John Sanders Memorial Prize for Composition |
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Graham has won the John Sanders Memorial Prize for his a cappella setting of I sing of a maiden. The work will be performed all over the UK during the next year in major UK Cathedrals, with performances at Canterbury, Coventry, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester, Lincoln, Sheffield, St. David's and Portsmouth, as well at Tewksebury Abbey, St. Chad's College, Durham, and at Merton and Queens Colleges, Oxford. The première will be given by the Choir of Gloucester Cathedral on 11 July 2009 at 12.15pm, where another performance will take place as part of the Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester in 2010. For more details visit the Sanders Society website. |
'a radiant performance': The Telegraph 5 star review |
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The Dmitri Ensemble's debut recording of James MacMillan's Seven Last Words from the Cross has been awarded a five-star review in The Telegraph. See Reviews. |
BBC Music Magazine 'Rising Star: Great artists of tomorrow' |
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Graham is featured as 'Rising Star: Great artist of tomorrow' in this month's edition of BBC Music Magazine. The article comes ahead of the June issue of the magazine, which features a glowing five-star review for his debut recording for Naxos with The Dmitri Ensemble. |
'Outstanding... superlative... profoundly moving': The Glasgow Herald review |
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The Glasgow Herald has published a glowing review of The Dmitri Ensemble's debut disc of works by James MacMillan for Naxos. 'The message about this new disc is unequivocal: get it. It's an amazing performance'. See Reviews. |
The Dmitri Ensemble NAXOS recording released in UK |
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The Dmitri Ensemble's debut recording for Naxos of works by James MacMillan has today been released in the UK, to be followed by the worldwide release next week. The disc can be purchased direct from the Naxos site by clicking here. |
New work for City of London Sinfonia as winner of Old Mutual/CLS Composer Prize |
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Graham has won the Old Mutual/City of London Sinfonia Composer Prize, resulting in a commission for a new work for the City of London Sinfonia, to be premièred at the CLS Gala Concert at The Mansion House on 24 June 2009, conducted by Harry Christophers. The work will follow in the footsteps of John Ireland in creating A London Overture, a new celebratory work for London in the 21st century. See calendar for full details. |
Assistant conductor for Innsbruck Festival of Early Music |
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Graham will spend two weeks at the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alter Musik this summer as assistant conductor for the Innsbruck Festival Chorus and Ensemble B'rock, working on a programme of Purcell's Hail! Bright Cecilia (An Ode for St Cecilia's Day). Performances will take place in Stams, and then tour to Utrecht. See calendar for full details. |
Re-invitation to Tallis Chamber Orchestra, October 2009 |
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Graham has been re-invited to work with Tallis Chamber Orchestra in Westleton, Suffolk in October 2009, following his debut with the orchestra in 2008. See calendar for full details. |
Commission for London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, May 2009 |
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Graham has been commissioned by organist James McVinnie for another short organ piece, to be premièred at the 2009 London Festival of Contemporary Church Music at Westminster Abbey on 10 May 2009. The new work, Scherzetto, will sit alongside the Toccatina, commissioned and premièred by James McVinnie in the Abbey in 2008. See calendar for full details. |
Re-invitation to Aalborg Symfoniorkester, Denmark, November 2009 |
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Graham has been re-invited to conduct Aalborg Symfoniorkester in November 2009 following his Danish debut in 2008. He will return to conduct a Baroque programme with the Swedish guitarist Göran Söllscher of works by Vivaldi, Boccherini and Handel, as well as Stravinsky's neo-Baroque Dumbarton Oaks. See calendar for full details. |
Choir & Organ commission |
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Graham has been commissioned by Choir & Organ magazine to write a new choral work for their July/August 2009 issue, for which he will be the featured composer. The piece will be downloadable from the Choir & Organ site free of charge for six months, and receive its premiere in 2009. For more information see www.choirandorgan.com and click on 'New Music'. |
Edington Festival performance, August 2009 |
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Jeremy Summerly will direct the Consort at the Edington Music Festival 2009 in the European première of Graham's Crux Fidelis. Commissioned by the Choir of London, the work was given its first performance in Jerusalem 2007. The performance at Edington will take place during the service of Solemn Eucharist in Edington Priory at 11.30am on Wednesday 26 August 2009. See calendar for full details. |
New series of workshops for English National Opera |
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Graham will embark on a series of workshops for the education and outreach department at English National Opera in February, focusing on The Magic Flute in a collaborative project between ENO Baylis and Westminster Council. See calendar for full details. |
Farnham Festival commission, March 2009 |
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Graham's new work, Silver, commissioned by Farnham Youth Choir for their 25th anniversary year, will receive its première at the 49th Farnham Festival on 14 March 2009. It will be performed alongside the world première of another Festival commission from Sir Peter Maxwell Davies - a setting of Gray's Pier by George Mackay Brown. Further performances of Silver will take place throughout the year, including concerts in The Anvil, Basingstoke, and as part of the Association of British of Choral Directors' annual Convention. See calendar for full details. |
RCM Composers' Orchestral Workshop, April 2009 |
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Graham will return to the Royal College of Music in April 2009 to conduct two days of workshops featuring new pieces for full orchestra by RCM composers. See calendar for full details. |
The Dmitri Ensemble to record second disc with Sir David Willcocks |
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The Dmitri Ensemble, of which Graham is co-founder and Principal Conductor, has been invited to record a disc of works by Vaughan Williams in early January with the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, conducted by Sir David Willcocks in his 90th birthday year. The disc will feature recordings of RVW's Folk Songs of the Four Seasons and In Windsor Forest, to be released in 2009 on the RVW Society's own record label, Albion records. See calendar for full details. |
Le Nozze de Figaro, July/August 2009 |
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Graham's operatic commitments in summer 2009 will include a run of performances of Mozart's Le Nozze de Figaro staged first in London's Wilton's Hall and later in Seillans, Provence, as part of the annual Musique Cordiale festival. The opera will be directed by Andrew Staples. See calendar for full details! |
Return visit to the West Bank for production of La Bohème |
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The Choir of London will return to the West Bank in June 2009 for another international festival, following from the successes of the Mozart Palestine Festival in 2007. This time they will tour a production of Puccini's La Bohème, again directed by Samuel West. Graham will conduct the final performance on 19 June 2009. See calendar for full details. |
New commission for The Solstice Quartet |
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Graham has been commissioned by the brilliant young talents of the Solstice Quartet to write a new 15-minute string quartet, to be premièred in June 2009. The Quartet will give another performance of the work on 23 August 2009 in Cratfield, Suffolk in the Blyth Valley Chamber Music concert series. More details of the première will be posted here soon. See calendar for full concert details. |
Four-star review for debut concert with Aalborg Symfoniorkester |
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Graham's Danish debut with Aalborg Symfoniorkester has received a four-star review in Denmark's Nordjyske: 'demonstrating a gift for conjuring up a organic orchestral sound' with 'beautiful and clarified playing'. See Reviews for full datails. |
Walton Belshazzar's Feast; Stockhausen Trans |
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This season Graham is involved as an assistant conductor in two very different projects. He is currently assisting Sir Colin Davis in Walton's Belshazzar's Feast with the the LSO and the London Symphony Chorus, and later this season will to prepare the RCM Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Stockhausen's Trans with Diego Masson in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 1 November 2008. See calendar for full concert details. |
American opera triple bill with Second Movement |
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Graham is to conduct four performances of an American opera triple bill with new highly acclaimed opera company Second Movement. The show will feature Barber's ten-minute opera, A Hand of Bridge, and Bernstein's ever popular Trouble in Tahiti, alongside a new commission and the world première of Fade written by young American composer Stefan Weisman. Performances take place on 22/23/24/25 October in Shoreditch's unique Hoxton Hall. For full details visit the Second Movement website. |
Song cycle The Dalliance of the Eagles to receive première in October 2008 |
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Graham's collaboration with The Knack Singers will fully come to fruition in October with the première of his song cycle, The Dalliance of the Eagles, completed today. All ten movements of the work have been premièred individually across the first nine months of 2008, but on 30 October the first performance of the full work, which lasts just over half an hour, will take place at St John's Wood Church, London at 7.30pm. Further details and ticket bookings available from knacksingers@googlemail.com. |
Major new work for BBC Concert Orchestra and Indian instrumentalists, May 2009 |
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Graham has been selected to write a major new work as part of one of spnm's largest projects to date: a collaboration between traditional Indian instrumentalists and the BBC Concert Orchestra to produce a work for a Western orchestra based on the composition of Indian ragas. The work will be composed over a nine-month process in close collaboration with all musicians involved in the première, which will take place in the Royal Festival Hall on 6 May 2009, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. More details on this exciting project to follow! |
Times Podcast released |
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The Times today released this week's podcast related to this summer's BBC Proms season, featuring Graham's piano duet Pavane pour un Boléro défunt. The podcast, which includes an interview with Graham, is available here from the Times online website. |
The Times Proms Podcast |
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Graham's piano duet Pavane pour un Boléro défunt will feature as one of eight new compositions specially composed for The Times Proms Podcast, presented by Nicola Christie. A 'rewriting' of Ravel's Boléro, which will be performed in this year's Proms season, the Pavane will be performed on the Times website within the Times Proms podcasts, and will to be broadcast and hosted on the Promcast website - www.promcast.co.uk. |
Appointment as Musical Director of Kingston Choral Society |
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Graham has been appointed as Musical Director of Kingston Choral Society from November 2008 onwards. He will begin his tenureship in the Society's 60th anniversary year, during which concert performances will include such works as Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, Fauré's Requiem, Britten's St. Nicholas and Haydn's Nelson Mass. See calendar for full concert details. |
Oxford University Press to publish carol |
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Oxford University Press are to publish Graham's setting of Adam lay ybounden for accompanied two-part choir in their forthcoming publication The Oxford Book of Flexible Carols, building on the success of their Flexible Anthems book last year. Details will be announced here when the book is in circulation later this year. |
Westminster Abbey commission and performance |
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James McVinnie, Assistant Organist at Westminster Abbey will give the first performance of Graham's Toccatina for solo organ on 22 June 2008 at 5.45pm. It will be heard alongside a performance of Giles Swayne's iconic Riff-Raff. Free admission! |
Commission for clarinet concerto, January 2009 |
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Graham has won the Aldworth Philharmonic Orchestra's 2008/09 Young Composer Award and has subsequently been commissioned to write a concerto for clarinet and orchestra. The work will be based on the mythological tale of Echo, the mountain nymph. The Orchestra will give the first performance of the work on 17 January 2009 at Reading Town Hall. See calendar for full concert details and watch this space for updates! |
Concert with BBC Young Musician of the Year finalist, October 2008 |
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Graham will return once again to the Sinfonia of Cambridge on 4 October for a concert for chorus and orchestra featuring Beethoven's Choral Fantasy with pianist Cordelia Williams, a finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2006 competition. The programme will also feature Brahms' Alto Rhapsody with mezzo-soprano Kate Symonds-Joy, alongside Brahms' rarely-performed op. 17 Gesänge for female choir, harp and two horns, and Sibelius' Rakastava for strings and percussion. See calendar for full concert details. |
Appointment as director of Concordia Chamber Choir, London |
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Graham has been appointed as director of Concordia Chamber Choir, a 30-strong adult chamber choir based in Dulwich, London. Only the second person to hold this post, he will begin working with the Choir this month, with forthcoming planned performances in 2008/09 of works such as Parry's Songs of Farewell, Rachmaninov's Vespers, and a special ten-year anniversary performance of Tallis's Spem in alium. See calendar for full concert details. |
composition:today interview |
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An interview with new music website composition:today has been published, detailing information about Graham's work as a composer and as co-founder and Principal conductor of The Dmitri Ensemble. You can read the article here. |
Concert with Tallis Chamber Orchestra, October 2008 |
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Graham has been invited to work with the Tallis Chamber Orchestra in October 2008 culminating in a concert in Westleton, Suffolk on Sunday 19 October at 3pm. Programme tbc. More details available soon. |
UK Festival performance announced |
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The gentlemen of the choir of St Pancras Parish Church will give the London première of O Sacrum Convivium at this year's London Festival of Contemporary Church Music on 18 May 2008. See Calendar for more details. |
The Dmitri Ensemble PASSIONTIDE TOUR review |
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"The star of the evening was the Dmitri Ensemble" (Classical Source, March 2008). The Dmitri Ensemble's debut concert in St. John's, Smith Square as part of their PASSIONTIDE Tour 2008 has today been favourably reviewed in Classical Source. See Reviews for full datails. |
Aurora Orchestra: Lebanon, February 2008 |
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The Aurora Orchestra will give the première of Graham’s new arrangement of Delius’s The Walk to the Paradise Garden for their chamber-sized forces as part of The Al Bustan International Festival of Music and the Arts in Beirut, Lebanon on 20 Feburary 2008. Commissioned by the Aurora Orchestra, the arrangement is scored for thirteen players, and will performed alongside Brahms’ Serenade No. 1 and Wagner’s Siegfried-Idyll. |
| 12.10.07 | The Dmitri Ensemble PASSIONTIDE tour and recording |
The Dmitri Ensemble has today announced a major new project to take place at Easter 2008. The group, of which Graham is co-founder/director, will present a Passiontide tour of Giles Swayne's Stabat Mater and James MacMillan's Seven Last Words from the Cross in four major UK venues, including Norwich Cathedral, St John's, Smith Square and St Paul's Cathedral. The tour, generously supported by BBC New Talent, will culminate in the Ensemble's first commercial audio release: a disc of works by James MacMillan, to include two première recordings, to be released on the NAXOS label in 2009. See The Dmitri Ensemble for more details. PASSIONTIDE 2008 TOUR poster (PDF file): The Dmitri Ensemble PASSIONTIDE 2008 tour poster PASSIONTIDE 2008 TOUR flyer (PDF file): |
| 05.10.07 | Re-engagement with Sinfonia of Cambridge |
| The Sinfonia of Cambridge have once again invited Graham to conduct them in concert in January 2008. The programme will feature Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été with mezzo-soprano Olivia Ray, and culminates in one of the most celebrated and controversial symphonic works of the twentieth century, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. The concert will take place on Saturday 19 January 2008 in West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge. See Calendar for more details. |
| 28.09.07 | Concert with Aalborg Symfoniorkester, November 2008 |
| Graham has just been invited to conduct the Aalborg Symfoniorkester in Denmark on 13 November 2008. More details on this exciting engagement to follow soon. |
| 22.09.07 | spnm's Adopt-a-Composer scheme collaboration |
| The Society for Promotion of New Music (spnm) and Making Music has today announced its 2008 Adopt-a-Composer pairings, and have selected Graham as one of six composers to take part in the sceheme. Over the next twelve months, he will work with The Knack Singers to produce a substantial work for the group, to receive its first performance in September 2008. The scheme, now in its eighth year, is run by Making Music in partnership with spnm and the Performing Rights Society Foundation for New Music. |
| 15.09.07 | BBC Radio 3 Remembrance Day broadcast |
| The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge has commissioned Graham to write an anthem for their Remembrance Day service, to be given its first performance during a live broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Choral Evensong programme on Sunday 11 November 2007, at 4pm . The work will be a setting of Secret Music by Siegfried Sassoon, once also a student at Clare College, and features in a service with music and texts by other Clare alumni. |
