Summer 2010

The Summer term has been full of excitement with the culmination of 2 big projects: Banded About with BCMG and the Birmingham Hub, and Creative Partnerships at St John's School, Bedford. Now lots of new beginnings are now being focused on...

40:40 a new string quartet for the Fitzwilliams

Ben Hartley Reflections - a new suite of pieces for solo cello...

 

Liz Johnson conducting at the CBSO Centre

So...Spring 2010 has been an exciting patch - here's me conducting the fabulous combined forces of the Banded About Project Practitioners on a CPD day earlier in the season...

Banded About is a massive music-making project in schools across Birmingham and I'm working for BCMG in 2 schools with musicians Elaine Ackers (cello) and Ben Markland (bass and sax). At City Road Primary the two Year 6 classes have been creating wonderful ideas based around "The Quest" as a starting point. In March, class 6J did a fabulous performance at the CBSO Centre which showed all their performance skills to their best. In Our Lady Of Fatima RC School I've started working with the Year 6 children on a time machine piece which we'll be finishing off at the end of the Summer Term, and the Year 5 class is currently creating songs about BCMG.

I've just finished working on the BCMG Families' Concert, which is always exhilerating, and I've been running creative composing sessions at Yardley Primary School with the 3 Year 5 classes over the last couple of months. We've been creating new versions of Bruno Maderna's Serenade for a Satellite, Berio's O King and Param Vir's Constellations, all of which featured in the concert on Sunday 18th April at the CBSO Centre Birmingham and Saturday 24th April at the Barbican, London.

My Birmingham Conservatoire teaching this year has included running a Music and Health module with Esther Jackson at Heartlands Hospital. This involves nine undergraduate performers who are now working with children on the wards at Heartlands in teams of three - a steep learning curve for the students but a really exciting area to be working in.

Composing-wise there's lots cooking on the stove - some tenor songs for the lovely tenor James Geer and his excellent accompanist Ron Woodley to make a set with Cabbage Dreams (which they performed last Autumn in Birmingham and Durham), and a new set of pieces for solo cello inspired by the paintings of Ben Hartley - Ben Hartley Reflections which will be performed as part of the Ben Hartley exhibition in Plymouth this coming November.  Two anniversary pieces are a 40th birthday celebration piece for the Fitzwilliam Quartet which receives its premiere on November 19th 2010, and a 20th Anniversary piece for the Bournville Young Singers which is being celebrated next Spring.

Other performances include another saxophone concert featuring the fabulous Kyle Horch:

June 14th 1pm St Peter's Church, Notting Hill O Vos - Liz Johnson performed by Flotilla

New projects include working at St John's School in Bedford over the summer months to create some songs and music with the disabled students at the school using Soundbeam, samplers and other acoustic things too!