Music on Thursdays
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Thursday 24th October 2024
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Alastair Penman
saxophone
Jonathan Pease
piano
Programme
Andy Scott (b1966)
Three Letter Word
Erik Satie (Eric Alfred Leslie Satie, 1866-1925)
arr Alastair Penman
from Gymnopédies (1888)
No 1 Lent et douleureux (D major/minor)
Amy Quate (b1953, US)
Light of Sothis (1982)
I Grace
II Passion
III Faith
Paul Mitchell-Davidson (b1946)
Rage Against the Dying of the Light
(recurring line in a poem by Dylan Marlais Thomas, 1914-1953)
Achille Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
arr Penman
Beau Soir L84 (1890-91)
Alastair Penman
Homeward (2023)
Jules Auguste Demersseman (1833-1866)
arr Frederick Hemke (Fred LeRoy Hemke Jr, 1935-2019)
Introduction et Variations sur le 'Carnaval de Venise' Op7
Introduction - Theme - Six Variations
Concert duration approx: 45+ minutes
Please donate to help fund these concerts at: cafdonate.cafonline.org/14455
Alastair Penman
Saxophonist – Clarinettist – Composer – Educator
Hailed as a “pioneering instrumentalist and writer” and praised for his “surpassingly beautiful music” and “undoubtedly brilliant mind”, British saxophonist Alastair Penman is a dynamic and versatile performer and composer, presenting contemporary music in new and exciting ways.
Having earned masters’ degrees in both Information and Computer Engineering (University of Cambridge) and Saxophone Performance (Royal Northern College of Music), Alastair has a strong interest in the fusion of live saxophone performance with electronic effects, backings, and enhancements to create often previously undiscovered sound-worlds.
Although classically trained, Alastair enjoys exploring many musical worlds. Such influences can be heard in his compositions and performances, which often transcend genre definition.
As a soloist, Alastair has performed at venues including St Martin-in-the-Fields, St John’s Smith Square, Milton Court and Trinity College Chapel. He has been a guest recitalist at the RNCM and Canterbury Christ Church University Saxophone Days, and at European and World Saxophone Congresses, presenting material from his debut album, Electric Dawn (Sospiro Records), which also received airplay on BBC Radio 3.
Alastair’s latest album, Do You Hear Me? (Sospiro Records), highlighting the climate emergency, has been described by critics as “groundbreaking”, “a superb mix of sounds” and “damn good music”.
In an ensemble setting Alastair leads the award-winning Borealis Saxophone Quartet, with whom he has given numerous live performances on BBC Radio 3, and he also plays baritone saxophone with the Kaleidoscope Saxophone Quartet. Alastair has performed with the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Contemporary Orchestra and Royal Ballet Sinfonia and has appeared with jazz groups at Montreux and London Jazz Festivals as well as at jazz clubs across Europe.
As a composer, Alastair has been commissioned by organisations including Park Lane Group, RVW Trust, and City Music Foundation, and his compositions can be heard on commercially available recordings. Alastair’s works have been performed extensively in the UK, and have also received performances in Europe, North and South America, Africa and Australasia. Over a dozen of Alastair’s compositions are published by Saxtet Publications, and many more are self-published. A number of Alastair’s compositions appear on the ABRSM and Trinity Saxophone Syllabuses.
As an educator, Alastair has been a Professor of Saxophone at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama since 2020 (previously Visiting Professor of Saxophone and Electronics, 2018-20) and has taught classes at the Royal Northern College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama as well as internationally at UCLA and Cal State Fullerton (USA). Alastair is a regular tutor for Benslow Music, has been a guest tutor for the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain and has taught students for University of Cambridge and University of Liverpool.
Alastair acted as editor, notation specialist, and model for John Harle’s seminal book The Saxophone (Faber). Alastair runs a YouTube Channel, Saxophone Resources, which contains educational resources and receives over 40,000 views each month (and has exceeded 3.5 million total views).
Alastair is a City Music Foundation Artist, Park Lane Group Artist, BBC Introducing Artist, Live Music Now Artist, a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, and has won awards from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, RNCM and St Catharine’s College.
Alastair is a Henri Selmer Paris and Vandoren UK Performing Artist.
https://www.alastairpenman.co.uk/
Hailed as a “pioneering instrumentalist and writer” and praised for his “surpassingly beautiful music” and “undoubtedly brilliant mind”, British saxophonist Alastair Penman is a dynamic and versatile performer and composer, presenting contemporary music in new and exciting ways.
Having earned masters’ degrees in both Information and Computer Engineering (University of Cambridge) and Saxophone Performance (Royal Northern College of Music), Alastair has a strong interest in the fusion of live saxophone performance with electronic effects, backings, and enhancements to create often previously undiscovered sound-worlds.
Although classically trained, Alastair enjoys exploring many musical worlds. Such influences can be heard in his compositions and performances, which often transcend genre definition.
As a soloist, Alastair has performed at venues including St Martin-in-the-Fields, St John’s Smith Square, Milton Court and Trinity College Chapel. He has been a guest recitalist at the RNCM and Canterbury Christ Church University Saxophone Days, and at European and World Saxophone Congresses, presenting material from his debut album, Electric Dawn (Sospiro Records), which also received airplay on BBC Radio 3.
Alastair’s latest album, Do You Hear Me? (Sospiro Records), highlighting the climate emergency, has been described by critics as “groundbreaking”, “a superb mix of sounds” and “damn good music”.
In an ensemble setting Alastair leads the award-winning Borealis Saxophone Quartet, with whom he has given numerous live performances on BBC Radio 3, and he also plays baritone saxophone with the Kaleidoscope Saxophone Quartet. Alastair has performed with the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Contemporary Orchestra and Royal Ballet Sinfonia and has appeared with jazz groups at Montreux and London Jazz Festivals as well as at jazz clubs across Europe.
As a composer, Alastair has been commissioned by organisations including Park Lane Group, RVW Trust, and City Music Foundation, and his compositions can be heard on commercially available recordings. Alastair’s works have been performed extensively in the UK, and have also received performances in Europe, North and South America, Africa and Australasia. Over a dozen of Alastair’s compositions are published by Saxtet Publications, and many more are self-published. A number of Alastair’s compositions appear on the ABRSM and Trinity Saxophone Syllabuses.
As an educator, Alastair has been a Professor of Saxophone at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama since 2020 (previously Visiting Professor of Saxophone and Electronics, 2018-20) and has taught classes at the Royal Northern College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama as well as internationally at UCLA and Cal State Fullerton (USA). Alastair is a regular tutor for Benslow Music, has been a guest tutor for the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain and has taught students for University of Cambridge and University of Liverpool.
Alastair acted as editor, notation specialist, and model for John Harle’s seminal book The Saxophone (Faber). Alastair runs a YouTube Channel, Saxophone Resources, which contains educational resources and receives over 40,000 views each month (and has exceeded 3.5 million total views).
Alastair is a City Music Foundation Artist, Park Lane Group Artist, BBC Introducing Artist, Live Music Now Artist, a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, and has won awards from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, RNCM and St Catharine’s College.
Alastair is a Henri Selmer Paris and Vandoren UK Performing Artist.
https://www.alastairpenman.co.uk/
Julian Chan
Jonathan Pease
Pianist – Composer – Musical Director
Jonathan Pease graduated with an MA in Music from Cambridge University in 2010 before undertaking further study as a pianist with Graham Fitch. As an accompanist and repetiteur, he has worked with groups including the Royal Opera House, Garsington Opera, Glyndebourne Youth Opera, Spitalfields Music, Opera Holland Park, Chelsea Opera Group and the Orpheus Sinfonia.
Jonathan has duo partnerships with Alastair Penman (saxophone) and Nicola Hands (oboe) and has performed recitals at venues including St James Piccadilly, St Martin in the Fields, and Winchester, Bury and Peterborough Cathedrals.
Jonathan has musically directed from the piano La Traviata for Devon Opera; and Puccini's Suor Angelica and operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan for Opera Anywhere.
Fiercely committed to music-making in his native East London, he conducts the East London Evensong Choir and Aldersbrook Community Choir.
Jonathan is a prolific composer and librettist, with a particular interest in opera and church music. His first full-length opera, These Things Happen, enjoyed eight performances at the Courtyard Theatre, Hoxton, in 2012.
His second, Concrete Music, premièred at Poplar Union in 2020. A children’s opera, St Luke’s Shipwreck, commissioned for the 150th anniversary of an East London Primary School, was first performed in front of the Bishop of Stepney and the Mayor of Tower Hamlets in 2019; while a commissioned chamber opera, Marginalised Groups, was completed during the 2020 lockdown.
Jonathan has just completed a new work for choir and wind orchestra about the 1888 Bow Matchgirls' Strike, commissioned by the East London Music Group and due to receive its first performance in July.
He has been a finalist in the ENO Mini Operas competition and the Opera UpClose Flourish! competition.
http://www.jonathanpease.co.uk
Jonathan Pease graduated with an MA in Music from Cambridge University in 2010 before undertaking further study as a pianist with Graham Fitch. As an accompanist and repetiteur, he has worked with groups including the Royal Opera House, Garsington Opera, Glyndebourne Youth Opera, Spitalfields Music, Opera Holland Park, Chelsea Opera Group and the Orpheus Sinfonia.
Jonathan has duo partnerships with Alastair Penman (saxophone) and Nicola Hands (oboe) and has performed recitals at venues including St James Piccadilly, St Martin in the Fields, and Winchester, Bury and Peterborough Cathedrals.
Jonathan has musically directed from the piano La Traviata for Devon Opera; and Puccini's Suor Angelica and operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan for Opera Anywhere.
Fiercely committed to music-making in his native East London, he conducts the East London Evensong Choir and Aldersbrook Community Choir.
Jonathan is a prolific composer and librettist, with a particular interest in opera and church music. His first full-length opera, These Things Happen, enjoyed eight performances at the Courtyard Theatre, Hoxton, in 2012.
His second, Concrete Music, premièred at Poplar Union in 2020. A children’s opera, St Luke’s Shipwreck, commissioned for the 150th anniversary of an East London Primary School, was first performed in front of the Bishop of Stepney and the Mayor of Tower Hamlets in 2019; while a commissioned chamber opera, Marginalised Groups, was completed during the 2020 lockdown.
Jonathan has just completed a new work for choir and wind orchestra about the 1888 Bow Matchgirls' Strike, commissioned by the East London Music Group and due to receive its first performance in July.
He has been a finalist in the ENO Mini Operas competition and the Opera UpClose Flourish! competition.
http://www.jonathanpease.co.uk
Recordings of the works in today's concert
Andy Scott (b1966) (8’00)
Three Letter Word
dedicated to the music and memory of Swedish composer and pianist Esbjorn Svensson, tragically killed in a diving accident on 14 June 2008, aged just 44
The saxophone player here is Wonki Lee, with pianist Julie Gosswiller, in a faculty recital at Montana State University:
Three Letter Word
dedicated to the music and memory of Swedish composer and pianist Esbjorn Svensson, tragically killed in a diving accident on 14 June 2008, aged just 44
The saxophone player here is Wonki Lee, with pianist Julie Gosswiller, in a faculty recital at Montana State University:
Erik Satie (Eric Alfred Leslie Satie, 1866-1925)
arr Alastair Penman (3'10)
from Gymnopédies (1888)
No 1 Lent et douleureux (D major/minor)
Alastair Penman and Jonathan Pease perform Gymnopédie No 1 by Erik Satie in the Great Hall at St Barts, London, during the coronavirus lockdown in March 2021:
Amy Quate (b1953, US) (8'30)
Light of Sothis (1982)
I Grace • II Passion • III Faith
Another saxophonist, Duke Sullivan comments on this work: Light of Sothis is a programmatic work representing the star Sothis (now called Sirius), the brightest star of the heavens, and signifies the star aspect of the great goddess Isis. While the work is in three movements, its transitions are seamless and build symmetry across the thematic material, while its hauntingly beautiful melody builds up until its peak in the third movement.
From the Andorra Sax Fest 2021 Youth Competition we hear the fine tone of Mafalda Maia, from Porto, Portugal (regrettably, the pianist is not credited):
Paul Mitchell-Davidson (b1946) (6'20)
Rage Against the Dying of the Light
(recurring line in a poem by Dylan Marlais Thomas, 1914-1953)
Rage Against the Dying of the Light by Paul Mitchell-Davidson - World Premiere Performance by Alastair Penman (soprano saxophone) and Jonathan Pease (piano) at St Nicholas Church, Stevenage on 16/3/2024 in recital for Weston Music Society:
Achille Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
arr Penman (2'45)
Beau Soir L84 (1890-91)
Alastair's original arrangement is for alto saxophone and piano, but here he is playing it on the clarinet. The original is to be found on his album Quietude:
Alastair Penman (5'45)
Homeward (2023)
Also taken from the album Quietude, YouTube only posted this recording on 26th September 2024. The performers are Alastair and Jonathan:
Jules Auguste Demersseman (1833-1866)
arr Frederick Hemke (Fred LeRoy Hemke Jr, 1935-2019) (3'25)
Introduction et Variations sur le 'Carneval de Venise' Op7
Introduction - Theme - Six Variations
The performers here are Sheldon Johnson and Erica Sipes, at Radford University, Virginia. Dr Johnson is a member of the faculty at Radford, having held several similar posts elsewhere. He has performed in many countries around the world.
Previous concert
17 October 2024 - Tier3 Trio, violin, cello, piano - click here
Next concert
31 October 2024 - Meera Maharaj, flute & Marcus Cumberbatch-King, steelpan click here
