Comings and Goings in 2022
COMING
June 4 ‘Romantique’ (flute, viola and harp) Trilogy Trio, York Late Music, York
September 11 ‘The Dong with a Luminous Nose’ (performance version) Steve Dummer, clarinet , Aidan Smith, baritone with mime artist, Tête à Tête Opera, Cockpit Theatre, London
September 17 ‘Veiled Lightning’ (organ) David Stevens, All Saints, Hove
October 20 ‘Lost in Translation’ (piano) Michiko Shimanuki, All Saints, Hove
October 28 ‘Fuzon’ (string quartet) Piatti Quartet, Nicholas Yonge Society, Lewes
November 4 ‘Another Orpheus’ (string orchestra) Stane Street Sinfonietta, Horsham
November 19 ‘Adding Up’ (flute, clarinet and piano) Leto Ensemble, St Luke’s Brighton
GONE!
January 15 2022 ‘Another Orpheus’ (String orchestra) Musicians of All Saints, St Mary, Kemptown
January 28 ’Period Pieces’ (piano) Yoko Ono, Chapel Royal, Brighton
March 5th ‘The Unknown Bird’ and ‘Strange Bridge’ (baritone, flute, viola and harp, and piano) John Lofthouse, Aurora Trio, Steep, Hampshire
May 5th ‘Romantique’ (flute, viola and harp) Aurora Trio, Lauderdale House, Highgate
Jumblies
“Their heads are green, and their hands are blue …”
Looking for a mime or dancer to create – for a London performance this September – the role of the Jumbly Girl in a 15-minute staged version of Edward Lear’s tragic love story ‘The Dong with a Luminous Nose’ using my setting for voice and solo clarinet. Could be right for a mime or dancer!
The Unknown Bird
On March 5th there was a performance of my song cycle ‘The Unknown Bird’ to words by Edward Thomas. This was the first of many settings I have made of his poetry and is for voice with flute, viola and harp. The performance was with baritone John Lofthouse and the Aurora trio and held at the church in Steep (Hampshire) where Thomas lived before he went off to France in 1917 and the War that killed him. The concert also included the premiere of ‘Strange Bridge’ a cycle setting three other Edward Thomas poems with piano.
Period Pieces
The world premiere of my ‘Period Pieces’ – four short pieces (Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue) – was on 25th January at the Chapel Royal, Brighton played by Yoko Ono who says ‘I can’t help feeling personal with this, especially the beautiful Sarabande’. She also played Haydn’s Sonata in E flat, Hob. XVI/49 and Debussy’s Images Book 1.Another Orpheus
On January 15th MAS string orchestra will be performing my ‘Another Orpheus’. The title comes from Shelley’s ‘Hellas’, written to raise money for the Greek War of Independence (during which Byron famously perished!). From the poem I took the line ‘Another Orpheus sings again, and loves and weeps and dies’.Tickets are available from www.trybooking.co.uk/BJSI
John Hawkins studied composition with Malcolm Williamson and Elisabeth Lutyens. He has written a wide range of chamber, vocal, choral and orchestral pieces, which have been performed worldwide.