Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

• CrossCurrents Festival
  Festival programme

Richard Baker conductor
Lucy Schaufer* mezzo soprano
Christopher Yates+ viola

• Berio
  Erdenklavier
  Wasserklavier
• Tansy Davies
  grind show (BCMG Integra commission)
• Judith Weir
  Distance and Enchantment
  On Buying a Horse*
  Blackbirds and Thrushes*
• Feldman
  The Viola in My Life II+
• Richard Baker
  crank
• Michael Zev Gordon
  Seize the Day (world premiere/BCMG Sound
  Investment commission)
• Various composers#
  CrossCurrents* (world premiere)

#Judith Weir, Richard Baker, Charlotte Bray, Joe Cutler, Howard Skempton, Ed Bennett, Michael Zev Gordon, Scott Wilson, Daria Kwiatkowska, Federico Favali, Patrick Giguere

The UK’s leading contemporary music ensemble BCMG closes the inaugural CrossCurrents festival with a multifaceted programme featuring no fewer than twelve world premieres. The New Music Ensemble presented Berio’s Folk Songs on the first day of CrossCurrents, BCMG closes the festival with the performance of a new set of specially commissioned songs by eleven composers, including compositional staff at the University of Birmingham and Birmingham Conservatoire. Along with Charlotte Bray, Judith Weir, Richard Baker and postgraduates from each organisation, these composers have been invited to write their own folk songs inspired by Berio’s 1964 original. The programme also includes BCMG Sound Investments commission Seize the Day, and the music of Tansy Davies, Judith Weir, Morton Feltman and Richard Baker.

Pre-concert panel discussion (18:30-19:00)

Join the composers of the CrossCurrents songcycle as they discuss their varying approaching to writing a song for this new work.

Venue: Elgar Concert Hall, Bramall Music Building 

Admission: £14, £10, £5 students, £1 under 16s (Available via the online shop or on the door)