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Judith Bingham (photo credit: Patrick Douglas Hamilton)

Who or what inspired you to take up composing, and make it your career? 

I started when I was very small – my mother said I was 4, but I don’t think she really knew. The attraction was its secrecy I think – I was already playing the piano, and liked the fact I could have a secret world that no-one else could influence. I think the person who influenced me to make it my career was Berlioz, my teacher and friend during my teen years when no-one else took me seriously.

Who or what were the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer? 

Apart from Berlioz, two people really encouraged me when I was young, Colin Davis and Hans Keller: both were very selfless with their time though, of course, I didn’t appreciate that until I was much older. I was very lucky to have Hans as a teacher, – his Viennese background with its rigors and psycho-analytical slant suited me very well. He had a hugely improving effect on my writing and was also very kind. Musical influences were The Fires of London, French Baroque music, and probably singing in big choirs.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far? 

Being a composer for a living is continuously challenging! But I think the biggest challenge is being truthful in a world that worships fashion. Inner voices make you doubt what you are doing but there is no Art without Truth. I think as I get older there is a challenge of being brave and fresh and not just doing what you know you’re good at.

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working on a commissioned piece? 

I like the fact that every commission inhabits a separate world, it’s a totally different project from the last. As I was a performer myself for so many years I love working with musicians – I know that sounds obvious, but it is such a magical experience, the transformation from the page to the open air. Trying to get it right – the act of fulfilling the brief – while remaining uncompromised is the great challenge, especially in church music where there are so many restrictions.

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working with particular musicians, singers, ensembles and orchestras? 

Whether they can do what you’ve written! That’s the heaven and hell of life for composers. All composers get a lot of bad or inadequate performances either through their own fault, – having written something that’s miles too hard for the commissioners – or short rehearsal time – or lack of empathy, or all three. A piece has to be very banal for people to get it straightaway, but often there isn’t enough rehearsal time for people to get beyond the stage of getting the notes right. This is the English disease. Often it isn’t to do with money but with a British distaste for too much emotional involvement. There is an idea that repeated performances take the place of rehearsal. But it’s tragic when people commission a big piece, only do it once, and spend most of the rehearsal time doing the Beethoven. The pleasure is when people really engage and go the extra mile – of course, they get more out of it this way, and the experience for everyone becomes extremely uplifting. The real magic happens when people feel free from worry about the notes and start to bring themselves to the performance, then the piece can really travel.

Which works are you most proud of?  

That would be a variable thing, and pride isn’t quite the right word, more a transient sort of satisfaction. But I would choose ‘The Ivory Tree’, a kind of dance drama I did for the Cathedral at Bury St. Edmunds. It was a project that went on for years and had some extremely fraught moments, but ended it fantastic performances.  I like mixing dance and singing, and would love to write an opera-ballet.

Who are your favourite musicians/composers? 

I am really eclectic with composers, though I have stopped listening to any sort of pop music. This might sound snobby, but it is more that there is only so much time. At the moment I’m listening to a lot of Prokofiev. He is a composer with enormous range, and I love the ambiguity of his music. I am trying listen more to women composers, as more and more music is being recorded now, alas, generally by women. I like the discovery of Italian baroque music by nuns, which is gorgeous. Favourite musicians: Roger Norrington, Philippe Herreweghe, Marc-André Hamelin, and people I’ve worked with – Stephen Farr, Tom Winpenny, Peter Skaerved Sheppard, Chamber Domaine, Andrew Carwood – too many to mention.

What is your most memorable concert experience? 

There are some terrible ones! But I can’t really do a league table of the good ones. When I was a student, performing in the Proms was overwhelming, especially Berlioz and Mahler. My first experience of the great roar of a full Albert Hall was extraordinary. Sometimes it is the small unrecorded events that stay with you, or a particular feeling of telepathy with other performers. You might expect big events, big names to be memorable. But it is often something more intimate where a transcendental kind of communication happens.

What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians? 

I like what Peter Maxwell Davies said to students: ‘my first piece of advice is – don’t listen to anything I say!’ or words to that effect. I think I would say that integrity matters: this is even more true in today’s world, where things are remembered for ever on the web. The more you dilute your ideas and your identity the less anyone will value what you do. In the (very) long run what people want from a composer is individuality, and truth. It doesn’t mean an easy life though. Develop your ideas – the music doesn’t think for you. Read and think, and develop ideas on the big mysteries of life. There’s a lot of junk out there: the world doesn’t need any more.

Where would you like to be in 10 years’ time?

Still alive, please, and compos mentis.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

No such thing.

What do you enjoy doing most?

Thinking, starting a new project, researching pet subjects.

What is your present state of mind?

Stressed as usual.

Born in Nottingham in 1952, and raised in Mansfield and Sheffield, Judith Bingham began composing as a small child, and then studied composing and singing at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She was awarded the Principal’s prize in 1971, and 6 years later the BBC Young Composer award. Recent composition prizes include: the Barlow Prize for a cappella music in 2004, two British Composer Awards in 2004 (choral and liturgical) one in 2006 (choral) and the instrumental award in 2008.

Read Judith’s full biography here
Interview date: October 2013

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Ben Parry, composer, conductor, arranger, singer and producer

Who or what inspired you to take up composing and singing, and make it your career?

I guess my dad was my biggest inspiration – he was a church organist all his working life (he had a stroke 6 years ago and can’t play any more) and I immersed myself in church choral music from a very early age. All my brothers and sisters sang in the choir, as did many other local families, and I fondly remember great choral evensongs at the end of each month, including music by Stanford, Parry, Howells, Britten and so on.

Who or what were the most important influences on your composing? 

The British choral tradition – and, most importantly, Benjamin Britten. I was born and brought up in Suffolk – and have recently returned to live here (in fact I direct Aldeburgh Voices, the resident choir at Snape Maltings). I attended concerts at the Aldeburgh Festival and met Britten once in his sports car! The harmonic language of my own music is also tinged with my love of a cappella close harmony – the Great American Songbook, Latin styles and so on.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far? 

My managerial and administrative roles as a director of music at St Paul’s School and Junior Academy in London have been challenging, as well as character-building! Having to make strategic decisions, which are sometimes unpopular, is difficult but often necessary, and sometimes I wish I could just get on with the music-making.

Which performances/compositions/recordings are you most proud of?  

I conducted a production of Menotti’s opera Amahl and the Night Visitors in Scotland – and Menotti staged it for us. I’d met him at a concert in Haddington by my vocal group Dunedin Consort (which I co-founded – something else I’m proud of) and he promised to work on it with me. My choral pieces Flame and Three Angels are special to me – Flame was my Proms debut last year, and Three Angels was sung by King’s College Choir on the TV last Christmas.

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in? 

I’ve performed in many, many venues – New York, Los Angeles,Tokyo, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, – but Snape Maltings Concert Hall takes some beating, as does King’s College Chapel for sacred music.

Favourite pieces to perform? Listen to? 

I love performing Stockhausen’s Stimmung! It becomes other-worldly after a while, and quite trance-like. I’m not sure the audience feels the same way. I love listening to Beatles songs, which are timeless and so inventive. The Sergeant Pepper album is genius.

Who are your favourite musicians?

Who would I pay money to hear?!

Classical – Tenebrae Choir

Jazz/Contemporary – The Real Group (5 part Swedish a cappella group)

What is your most memorable concert experience? 

Take Six at the Barbican in 1991, or The Rolling Stones at Wembley 1982.

What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians? 

Practice, of course, but love what you do, and always remember to learn from your experiences.

What are you working on at the moment? 

A piece for choir and orchestra, and strategic planning in my new role as Director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. Plus all the other stuff!

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

A good work/life balance – but is it ever achievable?

Ben Parry has made over sixty CD recordings and his music is published by Peters Edition and Faber Music. He works regularly with young musicians as a director of the Eton Choral Courses and as Director of Junior Academy at the Royal Academy of Music. He has just been appointed the new Director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain.

Ben is co-Director of the professional choir London Voices, and worked with Sir Paul McCartney on his classic choral work, ‘Ecce Cor Meum’, as well as conducting and singing on many major film soundtracks. He regularly collaborates with writer Garth Bardsley, and their choral piece, ‘Flame’ was performed at the 2012 BBC Proms. He is also Music Director of the Aldeburgh Voices.

As a singer Ben has worked with Taverner Consort, Gabrieli Consort and Tenebrae and was a singer and music director with The Swingle Singers. As a conductor he has worked with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, National Youth Orchestra, Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville, Vancouver Youth Symphony, Cumbria Youth Orchestra, London Philharmonic Choir and Philharmonia Voices.

www.benparry.org

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Who or what inspired you to take up composing, and make it your career? 

My grandfather was a composer, so he definitely inspired me. My mum did a music degree when I was about 9 years old so we had a small music studio at home where I learnt to use Cubase. It was around then that I remember writing my first composition, a Morris dance that was used in a local production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (my mum wrote the rest of the music for the production).

As for making it my career, I actually came to it fairly late – 8 years after completing my degree. At the time, I didn’t think it was possible to make a living from composing and I didn’t want to teach, so I took an office job to bring the pennies in. It’s only since getting married and having a baby that I’ve been able to stay at home and write music, but it’s been the best decision I ever made!

Who or what were the most important influences on your composing? 

I consider myself to be a self-taught composer, as I don’t recall ever receiving much direct feedback on my work. Even at university, our composing sessions consisted of listening to new music rather than learning compositional techniques and tips. This is my memory of it anyway! So my composing hasn’t been directly influenced by any teachers.

Instead, I would say that my main influence initially was music I had played in orchestras. I used to say that I wanted my music to have the harmonies of Debussy, the rhythms of Stravinsky, the Englishness of Vaughan-Williams, and the passion of Rachmaninov. However, since returning to composition in 2011, I’ve opened my ears to the wealth of new music that has been written since the time of those composers, right up to music being created in the present. As a result, my style has changed a little, I have learned a lot, and my ideas are more creative. I’ve started to look outside of music to find influences, for example ancient history and nature.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far? 

As I left it so long after university, I didn’t have any tutors to promote me, enter me for competitions, or show me how to turn this from a passion into a career. I have had to do a lot of research into how composers get paid, how to be noticed, how to get my music performed, etc. I have also had to find the performers for myself, something which would have been a lot easier had I still been at university and surrounded by musicians. This has actually been a good thing though, as I have made connections with a lot of fantastic performers.

Which performances/compositions/recordings are you most proud of?  

I’m extremely proud of winning the Yorkshire Late Starters Strings composing competition 2011/12 with my 15 minute piece “Battle of the Winwaed”. The piece was written for the YLSS, who comprise adult string players of grades 2-8. To get round the challenge of writing for mixed abilities, I split the cellos into parts 1 and 2, along with the usual 1st and 2nd violins, violas and basses. I also wrote parts for a solo violin and solo cello, to add more complexity for those players of the highest standard. The orchestra performed the piece twice in 2012.

I’m also very proud of my third string quartet, “Cross Quarter Days”, which was recorded in 2012 and has been released on iTunes, Amazon, and on my website. The piece is in 4 movements, each representing one of the four key dates in the Pagan calendar that divide the year into quarters. It represents a big leap in terms of my development since the second quartet, written just a year earlier, and I feel it’s the work that best represents me as a composer.

Favourite pieces to listen to? 

One of my favourite pieces to listen to is Michael Torke’s July for saxophone quartet. It’s so funky, I don’t think I could ever get tired of it! Other favourites include the Rite of Spring, Turangalîla, the Planets, Ravel and Debussy’s string quartets, White Man Sleeps by Kevin Volans, Gabriel Prokofiev’s Jerk Driver… I also listen to a lot of 80s pop music and Steely Dan!

What is your most memorable concert experience? 

Performing Turangalîla with the County Youth Orchestra at Snape Maltings, I think it was in 2003. Such an overwhelming piece to perform, and in such a fantastic venue. I feel very privileged to have had that experience. I remember walking off stage with my cello at the end and saying to the conductor, “wow, that was amazing!”.

Regarding performances of my own work, the most memorable is probably when I performed my own concerto for cello and string orchestra at university in 2002. Having my Christmas carol “On A Gentle Winter’s Night” performed in Guildford cathedral in front of 1000 people in 2001, and then its second performance in New Zealand last year, are also very memorable occasions!

What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians? 

Be true to yourself. Don’t give up. Have an open mind. Listen. Network. Take criticism constructively. Make things happen, don’t sit around waiting to be noticed.

What are you working on at the moment? 

I’m currently about halfway through my largest commission so far – a 25 minute suite for full symphony orchestra entitled “Legends of the Tor”. The work will be in 5 movements, each referencing a different legend relating to Glastonbury Tor in Somerset. The piece has been commissioned by my local symphony orchestra, after they successfully applied for a highly competitive “Community Music” grant from the BBC Performing Arts Fund. The community element will be the involvement of 5 local schools, who will each have a group of children composing their own music on the theme of “Myth and Legends”, with the help of workshops led by myself and members of the orchestra. The children will perform their pieces at the concert in June when the orchestra will premiere my piece.

Where would you like to be in 10 years’ time? 

My goal is a commission for the BBC Proms! I’ve set myself a 10 year target, so we’ll see what happens! Failing that, I’d be happy to have my music performed regularly and to continue receiving commissions so that I can carry on writing.

Alison Wrenn’s new work for piano trio Between the Mountains and the Sea receives its premiere at the Halstatt Classics Music and Literature Festival on 17th August. Further details here

 

Alison Wrenn (b.1981) is a British composer, whose style brings together influences from the English Pastoral Tradition, elements of popular music and media music as well as strains of Celtic and some aspects of American minimalist music.

Full biography

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Tom Hodge

Who or what inspired you to take up the piano/composing, and make it your career? 

I made a choice to give some kind of career in music a chance whilst in my last year studying Social and Political Sciences. However at the time I was not exactly sure what, where or how and in some respects I am an accidental composer, as a result of taking a job making tea in a post-production house that specialised in the sound for commercials.

I found my piano improvisation (or fast composition) skills were in demand and it developed from there. At the time, I was setting strict targets about what I needed to achieve (e.g. after 6 months, I said to myself I would quit if I was still making tea!), but after 3 or 4 years with about 100 or so broadcast adverts under my belt, I realised I had become a ‘professional’ musician. This prompted me to go and study! Although this time, I did Composition for the Screen at the Royal College of Music.

Who or what were the most important influences on your playing/composing? 

The composers I particularly remember enjoying playing when I was studying piano at school were Bach, Chopin, Liszt, Bartok and Gershwin. I had a flat mate, Tim Fairhall, for a couple of years who was working towards a jazz bass postgrad and playing with him I developed a further interest in improvisation and I started to compare classical and jazz approaches to playing and writing. Now my wife, Kim Sheehan, who is an opera singer, has an important influence on my music-making, as she is always pushing me to be better!

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far? 

My first orchestral film session was pretty scary. It was for Vito Rocco’s indie feature called Faintheart. I did my best to pretend I was an old hand at such stuff, but everyone could see straight through me obviously!

The first year or so of Piano Interrupted too was very challenging: first finding a synergy in the studio we were happy with between piano and laptop and then working out how on earth we would play our intricate digital musings live. And life as a musician- managing the business of music if you like- is of course a constant challenge.

Which performances/compositions/recordings are you most proud of? 

Perhaps I am doing that musician-and-their-most-recent-project thing, but I am proud of how my first dip into the fashion world turned out last February, writing the music for Carolina Herrera’s New York Fashion Week show. We made the recording in the overwhelmingly-historic Abbey Road Studio 2 with the London Contemporary Orchestra and the ‘premiere’ was for 1000 guests of Mrs Herrera in the Lincoln Center in New York.

 Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in? 

I am only now becoming a regular performer. And the types of venues Piano Interrupted are likely to play tend to be slightly alternative, rather than the traditional concert hall system. I very much enjoyed playing in the Union Chapel in Islington, London.

Favourite pieces to perform? Listen to? 

I’m not very good at favourites! I like the early/mid 20th century Russians, the American minimalists, Jazz from the 60s and 70s. I also try in general to support music written by people who are still alive.

As for performing, it’s all Piano Interrupted at the moment and it’s a privilege to be playing my own music.

Who are your favourite musicians? 

I’m a sucker for a world-class jazz pianist- Brad Mehldau, Fred Hersch, Ethan Iverson. And any fabulous opera singing too- Gerald Finley in Doctor Atomic or Florez and Dessay in La Fille du Regiment immediately spring to mind as being utterly mind-bogglingly good.

What is your most memorable concert experience? 

Radialsystem with Piano Interrupted last December. We had not played a concert outside of the UK, but we were given a fantastic (sold-out) welcome in Berlin. I think Radialsystem started life as a water factory and now it is a beautiful arts space. The artists the night before had hired a Steinway D, so I got to borrow that too! I find German audiences are particularly receptive to new and/or experimental music. Or at least my music at any rate!

What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?  

Nurture your talent, practice hard, make as many connections with other creative people as you can, keep an open mind to different styles, approaches and attitudes towards music. I firmly believe that the harder you work, the luckier you’ll be.

What are you working on at the moment? 

I am just starting on what is easily my biggest and most challenging project to date. I have been commissioned by Silvana Schroeder and Thüringen Staatsballet to write an 80-minute ballet for about 60-70 players. It is called ‘Waiting Room’ and Silvana and I are also collaborating on the book together. I will also be incorporating lots of live electronics, so all in all it promises to be some undertaking. The premiere is on the 6th June 2014.

Before that, Franz Kirmann and I have to get the second Piano Interrupted album out the door by August, so we can tour it in November.

What is your most treasured possession? 

The Steinway that I don’t own yet!

What is your present state of mind?

Excitement – after a super productive meeting about the ballet.

www.tomhodge.com

Tom Hodge’s album ‘Two By Four’ is available now. Tom will be touring with Piano Interrupted in July and August. Further information and sample soundclips here

Tom Hodge was born in England in 1975 and grew up in Melbourne, Australia before returning to London.

He has been scoring music to picture for just over ten years and his credits include 3 feature films, a handful of TV themes and over 200 commercials for practically every major worldwide brand including Audi, Nike, Smirnoff, Pantene & Max Factor, as well as Sumito Sakakibara’s BAFTA-nominated short animation ‘Kamiya’s Correspondence’

As part of an extremely diverse portfolio. Tom has contributed music to a number of theatre pieces in the UK and his music has also featured in a Carolina Herrera fashion show in New York and at the Thüringen Ballet in Germany.

Other credits include the classical remix of Daft Punk’s Aerodynamic (still the only remix ever to be sanctioned by Daft Punk for synchronisation) released in the UK and Australia on Ministry of Sound, Paganini Rocks with Rob da Bank, Tom Middleton and Au Revoir Simone on Sunday Best and We Anchor In Hope, a remix for post-rockers Codes In The Clouds on Erased Tapes.

“One of the few voices on the scene capable of not just mimicking the serene beauty of classical music, but of matching its compositional intricacy to boot.” Tobias Fischer, Tokafi