Author Profile: Sarah Reid

Khushroo Suntook

Khushroo Suntook became the chairman of India’s National Centre for the Performing Arts in 2008. He is also the founder of India’s first professional symphony orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of India, which presents two concert seasons at the NCPA each year. Under Suntook’s leadership, the country’s first fully staged opera production took place at the NCPA in 2008, and in 2010 the SOI toured to Moscow to perform at the 5th World Symphony Orchestra Festival.

Sally Beamish | The Intoxicating Rose Garden

‘To be given this kind of collaborative experience is something that I treasure,’ says composer Sally Beamish, describing her role in The Intoxicating Rose Garden. ‘I love working with other artists, and this is absolutely the ultimate project for that.’ Combining music, song, dance and the animated image, this new collaboration is between Beamish, singer and choreographer Michael Popper, Iranian poet and artist Jila Peacock, artist Laurie Irvine and the Red Note Ensemble.

Kevin Volans | Looping Point

‘I’ve written a couple of pieces for Crash Ensemble before,’ explains Kevin Volans. ‘They have for the most part been quite low-key pieces, and Crash were planning on doing one of them in the Huddersfield Festival. That was a completely low-key piece so I thought it was time I wrote something for them that was a bit more festive, a bit more upbeat.’

Alexis Kirke

Composer Alexis Kirke is a member of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Research based at Plymouth University and composer in residence at the Plymouth Marine Institute. He has been commissioned to write a new work for the opening of the Marine Institute’s new building, which features the most advanced wave tank for research in the UK and will be opened by the Duke of Edinburgh on 30 October. Kirke has written a new piece, SoundWave, which uses the tank’s ability to produce precise waves of different intensities, a team of water drummers who will play the surface of the water with their hands in the tradition of the central African Baka tribe, and synthesised sounds programmed by composer Sam Freeman. Kirke will be involved in the 2013 Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival 22-24 February 2013.

John Harbison | Full Moon in March

Described by its composer as ‘a back-of-the-truck bare bones opera’, John Harbison’s Full Moon in March has a libretto adapted by the composer from WB Yeats’ A Full Moon in March, and tells the story of a queen, a swineherd and the failed courting ritual between them. It receives its EU premiere on 24 October as part of contemporary music group Lontano’s festival of American music (22-27 October) with the Queen played by mezzo-soprano Caryl Hughes, the Swineherd by baritone Jeremy Huws Williams and two attendants played by soprano Charmian Bedford and tenor Edward Lee.

Justin Lee

Justin Lee is the new director of the Cambridge Music Festival, which runs from 9 to 20 November. His first festival has performers including Murray Perahia, Andreas Scholl, The Tallis Scholars, Alison Balsom, Tom Poster and Colin Currie. The 2012 festival is the first of a new annual pattern for the previously triennial festival, which will focus on the three strands of music, education and technology. Lee has a background in orchestra management, having worked for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music, and most recently as chief executive of the Southbank Sinfonia. He studied music at Oxford before postgraduate studies in business at the London School of Economics.

Dobrinka Tabakova | Suite in Old Style

For many undergraduate music students the requirement to analyse and imitate the musical style of Corelli or Bach in weekly composition exercises is a stultifying experience, recalled in later life with distaste. But Dobrinka Tabakova, composer-in-residence at this year’s Oxford Chamber Music Festival, relishes the challenge of breathing new life into ancient compositional forms.

Thomas Søndergård

Conductor Thomas Søndergård conducts his first concert as principal conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales on 12 October at St David’s Hall in Cardiff, in a programme starting with Magnus Lindberg’s Expo and concluding with Sibelius’ fifth symphony. He first conducted the orchestra as a late stand in for Thierry Fischer and embarks on a four-year contract as principal from this season. The former percussionist, who played timpani in the European Union Youth Orchestra and Royal Danish Orchestra, also starts a three-year term as principal guest conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra from 2012-13.

www.bbc.co.uk/orchestras/bbcnow

Kurt Schwertsik | Flute concerto

There’s an ongoing project afoot at Liverpool which will see most principals of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic perform the world premiere of a bespoke concerto.

Peter Millican

Property developer Peter Millican is founder and chief executive of Kings Place, which opened in 2008 and will host the fifth Kings Place Festival on 14-16 September. An entirely private venture, the building has mixed uses as the offices of companies including the Guardian, Network Rail and Veolia Water, the administrative base of the London Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Aurora Orchestra, and as an arts centre - housing an art gallery and three concert spaces seating 420, 300 and 100 people.

All events at the Kings Place Festival are either free or £4.50 online. All the resident orchestras will be represented, with other performers including the Chilingirian and Sacconi quartets, cellists Matthew Sharp and Matthew Barley and pianist Leon McCawley. There are also jazz and comedy performances in a programme of 107 events. Box office (add £2 booking fee) 020 7520 1490.

www.kingsplace.co.uk