Congratulations to composition lecturer Nathan James Dearden who has been announced by The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as one of the 20 composers commissioned as part of their Sounds New initiative
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra announce the 20 composers that have been commissioned as part of their Sounds New initiative which will see works premiered by the Orchestra at Symphony Hall, Birmingham on Sunday 29 January 2023 in a showcase of new music and snapshot of the new music being produced in the UK today. As part of this, Director of Composition at Royal Holloway, Nathan James Dearden's new work anthem (2022) was premiered by the world-famous CBSO.
In the programme work to this new piece, scored for large orchestra, Nathan writes: "Anthems can unite and can divide. Anthems can speak to a cause and bolster a movement. Anthems can be used as ammunition. Anthems can be rousing or moments of repose, expressions of collective action or prop up a cult of personality."
About the project
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra are delighted to announce the 20 composers that have been commissioned as part of our Sounds New initiative which will see their works premiered by the Orchestra at Symphony Hall, Birmingham on Sunday 29 January 2023 in a showcase of new music.
As part of the CBSO’s centenary in 2020, the Orchestra continued its commitment to championing the music of living composers with its most ambitious commissioning programme to date. 40 Centenary Commissions will have been performed over four seasons; 20 of these were major works from composers across the globe, the last of which will be premiered in the 22-23 season including World Premieres by Brett Dean, Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir, Freya Waley-Cohen and Dani Howard and the UK Premiere of Thomas Larcher’s Third Symphony.
In Sounds New the Orchestra shines a spotlight on 20 diverse, creative voices from across the country, who will each write 4-minute works for full orchestra. These short works will be given their World Premieres in a celebration of new music by the CBSO, conducted by Clark Rundell.
The composers are: Anna Appleby, Kristina Arakelyan, Tyriq Baker, Stephane Crayton, Nathan James Dearden, Benjamin Graves, Millicent B James, Joel Järventausta, Chloe Knibbs, Ryan Latimer, Florence Anna Maunders, Ben Nobuto, Laurence Osborn, Rakhi Singh, Angela Elizabeth Slater, Aileen Sweeney, Liam Taylor-West, Héloïse Werner, Bethan Morgan-Williams and Yfat Soul Zisso.
