Harrison Birtwistle

While we were in residence at the Banff Centre in June, one of our major projects was learning and ultimately performing 9 Settings of Lorine Niedecker - a beautiful piece by Harrison Birtwistle. We had the opportunity to coach the piece with Joel Krosnick, Gilbert Kalish, and Nan Hughes, then performed it at St. George’s in-the-Pines as part of the Banff Centre’s concert series.

I had never sung anything by Sir Birtwistle before and I fell in love with the piece immediately. It is at times hauntingly beautiful, and at others, playful.



One of the great things about working on music by living composers is being able to "get to know them" through video, recording - you name it! Birtwistle is no exception...



When he suggested that it was through magic that his tomatoes had grown we laughed so much! We had said many times that is was through magic alone that were able to learn 9 Settings of Lorine Neidecker :)

Not only was the composer new to me, but I also did not know the work of American poet Lorine Niedecker. Her poetry is beautiful and evocative and you can learn more about her at www.lorineniedecker.org.

We are really looking forward to performing this piece on tour in Florida and we hope you can hear in concert!

-Heather