Paring Back, Listening In: The Creative Journey Behind Wintering

Event details

ALL WELCOME

Ahead of the performance of her piece Wintering, commissioned by Manchester Collective and performed by them in the York Concerts Series, the day after this seminar, Samantha Fernando will discuss the creative process behind the piece and how her music has evolved in recent years, with particular reference to her works for voice and opera.

Resonance and harmonic colour play a vital role in Samantha Fernando’s music. This preoccupation yields pieces with an intensely colourful and often meditative quality.  Other art-forms are a constant source of inspiration which have prompted collaborations with writers, directors, choreographers and performers.

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About the speaker

Samantha Fernando

Samantha (b.1984) studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music and the University of Oxford, and is now an Honorary Research Fellow in Composition at Royal Holloway, University of London. She has worked with numerous ensembles, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, BCMG, Riot Ensemble, The BBC Singers, LOD Muziektheater (Ghent), Silbersee Vocal Ensemble (Amsterdam), The Crossing (USA) and The London Sinfonietta. Her music has been performed at festivals here and abroad, including Aldeburgh Music, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Sounds New, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, York Late Music and The Oxford Lieder Festival. Her music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and released on labels NMC and Coviello Classics. In 2013, she was awarded an RPS Composition Prize and was commissioned to write a new work for the Philharmonia Orchestra as part of the Music of Today series. In 2021, Samantha was a finalist for the Arts Foundation Futures Awards. 2021 also saw the opening of Current, Rising, a hyper-reality opera, directed by Netia Jones, designed by Jo Scotcher and produced by the Royal Opera House and Figment Productions. Her first chamber opera, glass human, is a collaboration with multi-disciplinary artist Melanie Wilson. It premiered at Glyndebourne and toured venues across the UK in Autumn 2022 as part of the festival tour, directed by Lucy Bailey. In 2023, Balconies for solo (multi-tracked) violin, was commissioned by Olivia de Prato for her new album Panorama (New Focus Recordings, April 2023). Also in 2023, Sound Inhabitants for large ensemble was commissioned and premiered by the London Sinfonietta.