Composers Edition are delighted to welcome Richard Barnard who we first came across via Barnard and Karani’s Lockdown series – a comic take on the perils of an online musical life created with Soprano Elizabeth Karani and pianist Edmund Whitehead. We’re pleased to have discovered Barnard’s fine vocal writing for soloists, choirs, opera and theatre as well as instrumental compositions. He has been commissioned by amongst others Welsh National Opera, Opera North, CBSO and Bath Festival, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and worked with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Mark Padmore, Morgan Szymanski, Juice Vocal Ensemble and BBC Singers. He is also one the UK’s leading composer-animateurs, working regularly with leading orchestras and opera companies.
On joining Composers Edition Barnard says:
I am very excited to be joining Composers Edition. I look forward to working with such a great team, dedicated to encouraging new music and helping professional composers connect with performers and audiences.
In some ways it seems a terrible idea to do this in the midst of a global pandemic! Selling sheet music, particularly choral and vocal scores, does feel counterintuitive at a time when so many people cannot sing together or perform to audiences. On the other hand, I cannot think of a better time to try new things, to make new connections and to look beyond this current situation, believing in the future of live music-making.
We’re pleased with the news of three live performances of his works in October, including a commission premiere:
Friday 2 October
The Alvor Ensemble perform Our Great Grief and Joy
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff
1.15pm (and later available online)
Friday 9 October
The Gesualdo Six and Matilda Lloyd (trumpet) perform the world premiere of Aura
St John’s Smith Square, London
1.05pm & 7.30pm
An initial selection of works with Composers Edition includes choral, solo vocal and chamber instrumental works and we look forward to publishing more of his catalogue over the coming months.
A Light Snow-Fall After Frost
for unaccompanied SATB choir
Atmospheric setting of Thomas Hardy poem.
Our Great Grief and Joy
for flute, harp and viola
An instrumental development of ideas from Woolf Letters.
Ghost Songs
for tenor and guitar
Setting of three poems by Cornish poet Charles Causley, composed to celebrate the centenary of his birth.
The Moon Shines Bright
for unaccompanied choir (SATB with divisi)
Choral version of a traditional Christmas song of medieval origins.
Out in the Dark
for choir (SSAATTBB) and alto saxophone
Setting of one of the last poems Edward Thomas wrote before he was killed in April 1917 during the battle of Arras.
Three Early Stroll Songs
for baritone, mezzo-soprano and piano
After Ian McMillan’s short poems, commissioned by Helen Charlston and recorded for Delphian Records.
Woolf Letters
for mezzo-soprano and piano
Song cycle of text drawn from Virginia Woolf’s letters to her sister Vanessa Bell.
Tags: Alvor Ensemble, Barnard & Karani, Bath Festival, BBC Radio 3, BBC Singers, CBSO, Edmund Whitehead, Elizabeth Karani, Juice Vocal Ensemble, Mark Padmore, Mirga Gražinyté-Tyla, Morgan Szymanski, Opera North, Richard Barnard, The Gesualdo Six, Welsh National Opera