It was bound to happen in the end - Primavera and Composers of Wales are working together, building towards a special day in Cardiff, at the Canton Uniting Church, Cowbridge Road East. On October 1st composers Julia Usher and Enid Luff will be presenting an evening concert of their music, played by two distinguished musicians, flautist Nancy Ruffer, and pianist Andrew Wilson-Dickson. Enid and Julia have worked in association for thirty years through their publishing company Primavera
May of us know the Canton Uniting Church as a light airy modern church building with an excellent acoustic, which has also served for some years now as a fine concert room, with an excellent piano, and a pleasant adjacent space very well acquainted with cups of coffee. Our concert here will be paired, on October 22nd, with a matching event at St. Botolph's Church and the Firstsite Art Gallery in Colchester.
A special feature of the day will be two open workshops for flute and piano respectively, led by the performers, presenting and commenting on new pieces submitted by professional members of Composers of Wales and others for the occasion.
Look out for more information nearer the time!
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Saturday, 20 August 2011
Primavera concerts!
We are putting our music onstage again this autumn!
On October 1st there will be workshops and a concert in Cardiff, and on October 22nd, similarly in Colchester. On both occasions Nancy Ruffer, flute and Andrew Wilson-Dickson, piano will present our music, and also reach out to welcome and, through the workshops, comment on the music of other composers.
We will present the same programme at both venues, and here it is:
CROSSING BORDERS
On October 1st there will be workshops and a concert in Cardiff, and on October 22nd, similarly in Colchester. On both occasions Nancy Ruffer, flute and Andrew Wilson-Dickson, piano will present our music, and also reach out to welcome and, through the workshops, comment on the music of other composers.
We will present the same programme at both venues, and here it is:
CROSSING BORDERS
Performers:
Andrew Wilson - Dickson ( piano)
Nancy Ruffer ( Flutes )
Pieces to be celebrated during the Festival:
Enid Luff: Sky Whispering Meister Eckhardt’s Flute About the Wind Knell ***
Julia Usher: The Painted Lake *** The Sower of Systems (Watts Centenary
Commission)
Andrew Wilson - Dickson: AHWAK ***
Jon Phipps: AntiKythera *** Michael Parkin: Elegy
THE IMPORTANT DATES AND PLACES:
October 1st, CARDIFF
Canton Uniting Church
a) 2:00 - 3:00 Nancy Ruffer, Flute masterclass/composing workshop.
b) 3:30 - 5:00 Andrew W-D , Piano composition/technical workshop.
c) 7:30 - 9:30 Primavera Concert, “Crossing Borders”.
October 22nd, COLCHESTER
a) 11:00 - 1:00 Flute masterclass and Primavera workshop, in
Education Suite, FirstSite Visual Arts Facility.
b) 2:00 - 3:45 Primavera Celebration Concert,
St Botolph’s Church
(close nearby).
Performers:
Andrew Wilson - Dickson (piano)
Nancy Ruffer (flute)
Jon Phipps ( 8 string guitar)
REPERTOIRE:
LUFF: SKY WHISPERING 10 min PIANO
LUFF: ABOUT THE WIND 6.30 Fl/PF
USHER: THE PAINTED LAKE 10 min? FLUTE
LUFF: KNELL 6 min PIANO/elec?
PARKIN: ELEGY 5 min ALTO FL
USHER: The SOWER OF SYSTEMS (3 movements) 7/7/8 min PIANO
_________________________________________________________________________________
Cardiff Only:
WILSON DICKSON AHWAK 12 min PIANO
LUFF: MEISTER ECKHARDT’S FLUTE 10 min FLUTE
_______________________________________________________________________________
Colchester Only:
JON PHIPPS: ANTIKYTHERA 10 -12 min Bass Guitar
Friday, 15 July 2011
Primavera - who we are
PRIMAVERA: 30 YEARS OF CO- PUBLISHING.
In 1980, if you were a composer who wanted to be published, you had to convince one of the major
Music edition houses to take on your works. They would also take 50 % of your royalties, and quite a bit of
your freedom, how to present and distribute your work. You needed proven high profile and wide success
for that to happen.
At that time there were few women of our generation achieving that high profile: Judith Weir, Nicola
Lefanu, Jennifer Fowler, Margaret Lucy Wilkins and a few others.
We both joined the first committee of Women in Music, a radical group formed to raise the profile of
women composers.
Around that date, quite a few composers decided that the technology of desktop and specialist
photocopying was reaching a point where composers could produce their own editions, and keep all their
rights and assets.
Enid Luff and Julia Usher met at Composers’ Weekends during the late 70’s held by the Society for the
Promotion of New Music. After a lecture on composer-publishing, Enid and Julia agreed: this was the new
way forward. Primavera was set up, and
trading began with a boom.
We made a list of around 30 works each that we would like to sell eventually, producing simple
handwritten scores and getting them photocopied.
We didn’t realise that Blackwells in Oxford at that time bought 12 copies of every newly published piece
of music, to supply libraries. it was a shock - we had to produce around 500 scores for our first outing,
before our editions were quite ready............piled into the back of a car, all the way to Oxford.
We came home with the car empty, and a surprising cheque to open our account.
Publishing life has never been that astounding since. Technology swept us on; and Enid kept us up with it.
She was an early advocate of computer notation, and both of us were among the early pioneers of using
the first Sibelius programmes. There remained a backlog of handwritten scores, too big to copy to
computer.
Distribution.
Music shops across the country in most towns were the main clients.
We had to visit personally, on little sales trips, or when travelling with the family.
There were larger distributers then took over more widely, and the big corporations - and the small shops
began to disappear.
The Internet revolutionised the distribution and selling of sheet music; now often available through
specialist websites like Tutti.co.uk; as well as larger companies. You can buy from individual composers
from their webpages, and download pieces and soundtracks instantly, to customers anywhere in the
world.
Performance.
Julia and Enid mounted London Primavera concerts during the 90’s: the most notable being Primavera
Digital Opera; where Julia created “ Vocalism”, a piece for virtuoso soprano and piano which was the first
work to use a computer sequence played live from the BMIC Acorn computer.
Primavera Across Borders.
By 2000 Enid had moved to her home country Wales with her husband Alan Luff; and Julia moved out of
London with Rod Usher to live in Colchester. Distances seem far, but improved trains and the internet
breach the borders.
In 1980, if you were a composer who wanted to be published, you had to convince one of the major
Music edition houses to take on your works. They would also take 50 % of your royalties, and quite a bit of
your freedom, how to present and distribute your work. You needed proven high profile and wide success
for that to happen.
At that time there were few women of our generation achieving that high profile: Judith Weir, Nicola
Lefanu, Jennifer Fowler, Margaret Lucy Wilkins and a few others.
We both joined the first committee of Women in Music, a radical group formed to raise the profile of
women composers.
Around that date, quite a few composers decided that the technology of desktop and specialist
photocopying was reaching a point where composers could produce their own editions, and keep all their
rights and assets.
Enid Luff and Julia Usher met at Composers’ Weekends during the late 70’s held by the Society for the
Promotion of New Music. After a lecture on composer-publishing, Enid and Julia agreed: this was the new
way forward. Primavera was set up, and
trading began with a boom.
We made a list of around 30 works each that we would like to sell eventually, producing simple
handwritten scores and getting them photocopied.
We didn’t realise that Blackwells in Oxford at that time bought 12 copies of every newly published piece
of music, to supply libraries. it was a shock - we had to produce around 500 scores for our first outing,
before our editions were quite ready............piled into the back of a car, all the way to Oxford.
We came home with the car empty, and a surprising cheque to open our account.
Publishing life has never been that astounding since. Technology swept us on; and Enid kept us up with it.
She was an early advocate of computer notation, and both of us were among the early pioneers of using
the first Sibelius programmes. There remained a backlog of handwritten scores, too big to copy to
computer.
Distribution.
Music shops across the country in most towns were the main clients.
We had to visit personally, on little sales trips, or when travelling with the family.
There were larger distributers then took over more widely, and the big corporations - and the small shops
began to disappear.
The Internet revolutionised the distribution and selling of sheet music; now often available through
specialist websites like Tutti.co.uk; as well as larger companies. You can buy from individual composers
from their webpages, and download pieces and soundtracks instantly, to customers anywhere in the
world.
Performance.
Julia and Enid mounted London Primavera concerts during the 90’s: the most notable being Primavera
Digital Opera; where Julia created “ Vocalism”, a piece for virtuoso soprano and piano which was the first
work to use a computer sequence played live from the BMIC Acorn computer.
Primavera Across Borders.
By 2000 Enid had moved to her home country Wales with her husband Alan Luff; and Julia moved out of
London with Rod Usher to live in Colchester. Distances seem far, but improved trains and the internet
breach the borders.
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