Event overview
020 7919 7645
The Contemporary Music Research Unit is thrilled to present Diana Burrell talking about her compositional process.
Diana Burrell was born in Norwich in 1948, studied at Cambridge University and now lives in Harwich, Essex. After spending several years as a teacher, she became a freelance viola player but gradually concentrated on writing music.
Her first piece to receive widespread critical acclaim was the 'Missa Sancte Endeliente', a 50-minute work written for the 1980 St Endellion Festival. A massive composition for five soloists, semi-chorus, chorus and orchestra, the 'Missa' incorporates settings of Cornish and Latin texts as well as a wide range of compositional techniques from microtonality to modality.
Brought to London for the Spitalfields Festival of 1983, the 'Missa' provided the launchpad for a wide-ranging body of work, ranging from the string quartet ('Gulls and Angels', 1993) and chamber ensemble ('Barrow', 1991), to opera ('The Albatross', 1987) and the colourful 'Symphonies of Flocks, Herds and Shoals' (1995-6), commissioned by the BBC and premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Her first major orchestral piece, 'Landscape' (1988), won a recent ‘Encore’ award (organised by the Royal Philharmonic Society and BBC Radio 3 and sponsored by the PRS Foundation).
Other commissions include 'Bronze' for the Brunel Ensemble, 'Gold' for Philip Mead and the Royal Northern College of Music, recorded for NMC. Recent works include a BBC commission for Loré Lixenberg and David Alberman with live electronics, a piece for Mark Knoop using accordion and piano, and a major new series of pieces for organ with various ensembles which will be composed over the next five years. This cycle is made possible by the awarding of an Arts And Humanities Research Council Fellowship and is in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Music.
Burrell has succeeded in creating a unique, personal language which is both primaeval and unequivocally of our time.
Photo © Steve Brading (http://www.stevebradingphotography.com) / UMP
This event is free and open to all - no need to book.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Mar 2020 | 6:00pm - 8:00pm |
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