Party Piece
On March 7th, the wonderful Cuatro Puntos group with Alexander Kollias (clarinet) will give the first public performance of ‘Party Piece’ which was written for a birthday party back in 2004. Five minutes of Klezmer-slanted music for clarinet and two violas ends wildly! The concert called ‘Klezmer Dreams’ is in the USA at Glastonbury Connecticut.
Fauxsong
On Tuesday 10th March at the Chapel Royal, Brighton 1.00 pm will be the first performance of a new short piece for violin, ‘cello and guitar ‘Fauxsong’ played by Paul Gregory (guitar), Manon Derome (violin) and Anthony Pleeth (‘cello).
For These
The Manchester choir Altèri commissioned a setting of the WWI war poet Edward Thomas’s ‘For these’ from me. [“For these I ask not, but, neither too late/ Nor yet too early, for what men call content,/ And also that something may be sent/ To be contented with, I ask of Fate.”]. I counterpointed the poem with parts of the Te Deum. It was Altèri’s first commission and on March 10th they are including it in their 25th anniversary concert at St James’ church in Gatley.
https://alterichamberchoir.com/
Breather
My Clarinet Sonata, which was described by Musical Opinion as “compact and gloriously melodic … a fine contribution to the genre” was played at the Horsham Music Circle on Saturday 15th February 7.30 pm and then at the lunchtime concert on Tuesday 18th February, 1.10 pm at the lovely Chapel Royal, Brighton all by the same artists (Steve Dummer and Yoko Ono) as on the Simplicius CD.
Chapel Royal, Brighton, 164 North St, Brighton BN1 1EA
Not so Simple
This new CD released on January 3rd, includes much of the music I’ve written for clarinet. Two large-scale pieces are with string orchestra, others are with chamber groups. The CD title comes from a highly dramatic piece for clarinet and strings prompted by the 17th-century novel ‘Simplicius Simplicissimus’. Also included is a setting of the whole of Edward Lear’s ‘The Dong with a Luminous Nose’.
‘Performances are uniformly excellent and the recording quality is exemplary.
Highly recommended’ – Musical Opinion
See Reviews
See more details
Available to order on Amazon here
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.