Yet Another Orpheus
On November 4th the Stane Street Sinfonietta played my ‘Another Orpheus’ for string orchestra in Horsham where the poet Shelley was born. The concert is part of a series devoted to the 200th anniversary of Shelley’s death. The title comes his drama ‘Hellas’ which was written in 1821 to raise awareness of the Greek War of Independence (during which Byron famously perished). From it I took the line ‘Another Orpheus sings again and loves and weeps and dies’.
(Also thinking of Orpheus, my ‘Looking Back‘ for violin and piano is being recorded this year by Siân Philipps.)
Dong in Motion
Tête à Tête Opera made an excellent video of the first performance of ‘The Dong with a Luminous Nose‘ which can be seen here with Steve Dummer, Aidan Smith and Eline Pérès in full flight!
Three Têtes better than one?
On September 11th ‘The Dong with a Luminous Nose’ got its first staged outing as a performance piece with Eline Peres as mime/dancer, Steve Dummer (clarinet) and Aidan Smith (voice) at the Cockpit Theatre, London as part the Tête à Tête Opera festival.
(Photo Claire Shovelton @claireshov)
Two’s Company
On 2nd September viola duo Peter Mallinson and Matthias Wiesner gave an astonishingly wide-ranging concert – from Shostakovich to Frank Bridge and including my own ‘At Two’ which they commissioned and recorded on their Meridian Records CD ‘A Tale of Two Violas’.
https://www.meridian-records.co.uk/acatalog/CDE84652.html
Nose on the Tête
On Sunday 11 September my setting of Edward Lear’s ’The Dong with a Luminous Nose’ will get its first performance as part of the Tête À Tête Opera 2022 festival. ‘The Dong’ was recorded by Aidan Smith and Steve Dummer on my ‘Simplicius’ CD but in this performance they are joined by the exciting mime/dancer Eline Pérès to bring Lear’s bizarre tale to life.
https://www.tete-a-tete.org.uk/event/the-dong-with-a-luminous-nose
More details about the piece 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.