David Bruce - Composer

Interview with David Bennett

David Bennett is a popular YouTube music educator and has started a new podcast called 'How do you do', asking creative people how they do what they do. We chatted about my composing career and I found David to be a great interviewer!

Camerata Pacifica premieres new Wind Quintet in March

My new wind quintet Natural Light, inspired by the stained-glass works of Brian Clarke, premieres in California with Camerata Pacifica. The group consists of some of the very best chamber players and it's a thrill to get to write for them (this is my second commission from them). There will however also be one extra performer on stage. I included in the piece an optional part for Thai Button Gong, and for these performances, the composer himself will be performing....

Performances:

Sunday, March 1st, 3 p.m. � Scherr Forum, Thousand Oaks
Tuesday, March 3rd, 7:30 p.m. � The Huntington, San Marino
Thursday, March 5th, 8 p.m. � Colburn School, Los Angeles
Friday, March 6th, 7 p.m. � Music Academy, Santa Barbara

Dring � Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano
Bruce � Natural Light for Wind Quintet World Premiere
Chaminade � Th�me vari�, Op. 89
Dvoř�k/arr. Jolley � Sextet after the Quintet in A Major, Op. 81

S�bastian Jacot, Nicholas Daniel, Jose Franch-Ballester,
Eleni Katz, Ben Goldscheider, Irina Zahharenkova

Here's an interview I did for the premiere with Daniel Chua

Cut the Rug at the BBC Proms

Avi Avital's supergroup Between Worlds is featured in a late night Prom at this year's BBC Proms, featuring a full performance of my Cut The Rug. The concert also features the amazing Rustavi Choir.

US Premieres

Two US premieres in November. Daniel Hope and the New Century Chamber Orchestra give performances of Lully Loops in San Francisco and the surrounding area. Meanwhile over on the East Coast, guitarist Lukasz Kuropaczewski tours my solo guitar piece Hand Together.

Na Thymitho�me

I was deeply honoured to be asked to write a piece to commemorate the Hortiatis Holocaust, a small Greek town near Thessaloniki.
The new work called Na Thymitho�me ("Let us remember") will be performed by Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra and Soprano Chrissa Maliamani, conducted by Leo McFall on October 11th.
The piece uses texts from local poets. More info here

When Spring Wept

In July Asya Fateyeva premieres a new work When Spring Wept written specially for her and the Venice Baroque Orchestra, in two concerts at the Schleswig Holstein Festival. The work is a response to Vivaldi's Spring from The Four Seasons and offers a melancholy take on the season.

Nothing in Oslo

Throughout November there are performances of the fantastic production of Nothing directed by Martin Lyngbo and conducted by David Maiwald
at the spectacular Norwegian Opera in Oslo. I attended the opening night and was blown away by the quality of all involved. I'd heard great things about the
Youth Chorus directed by Edle Stray-Pedersen, and they lived up to the promise. But the soloists and orchestra were also great!

Bridget Kibbey Album release featuring Caja de Musica

Long-time friend and collaborator Bridget Kibbey releases new album featuring Caja de Musica

Lully Loops with Daniel Hope

Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra bring my brand new violin concerto Lully Loops to life this autumn, with performances in Germany throughout September and at the Tonhalle in Zurich on October 3rd. Full Details

Cut the Rug in Germany and Poland

Avi Avital's fantastic new ensemble 'Between Worlds' comes to Germany and Poland this month, with performances in the Berlin Boulez Saal, Warsaw Filharmonia and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. The concerts include Cut The Rug (newly revised for a slightly more conventional ensemble than the original silk road line up, but still highly colourful!) - and something I absolutely can't wait for - a new version of the 3rd movement 'Move The Earth' featuring the incredible Georgian choir 'Rustavi'. It's going to be spectacular. I'll be there for the first two performances, hope to see you there!

Peacock Pavane in London

After pandemic and injury delays, the long overdue world premiere of The Peacock Pavane starring guitarist Milos and the LPO is scheduled for 13th Jan 2023, Get Tickets Here.

There will be a second performance in Eastbourne on the 15th Tickets here.

New Production of Firework Maker's Daughter

I'm delighted there's a new production of The Firework Maker's Daughter coming to the UK this month, with performances at the stunning Minack Theatre in Cornwall and at Prideaux Place in Padstow.

I'm heading down for rehearsals in a couple of days, and so far my only sighting, of Hamlet the counter-tenor singing elephant looks very encouragingly hilarious!

My old friends at Tete a Tete have teamed up with Kevos and Minack to put this on, so happy to give the opera a new lease of life. Tickets and more info here

Hands Together

I've just finished a new piece for solo guitar - my first. It's called Hands Together and was written for and commissioned by leading Polish guitarist Lukasz Kuropaczewski.

Performances will happen throughout Europe this coming season. Check my calendar page for more details as they come in.

Bells in Wells

Here's a link to details of my latest piece 'Bells' commissioned by Wells Cathedral. It's an anthem written for the Cathedral choir and organ, a setting of 17th century poet, Thomas Traherne

Peacocks in London

UPDATE: Sadly this concert was postponed due to injury. Stay tuned for rescheduled performance!

My new piece The Peacock Pavane was supposed to have had its premiere on Feb 14th in the Festival Hall. The LPO commissioned the piece for guitarist Milos and orchestra. Events took a different turn of course, but I'm delighted that they are premiering the piece after all for broadcast online later in March. I'll post the link here and on my social media.

The piece is a kind of response to the past year, it's a tender 'waiting' kind of piece, capturing some of those feelings we've all felt over the past year as we wait for the moment we can happily reunite with our friends and family.

Nothing (Intet) in Copenhagen

Due to lockdown and general Corona restrictions I'm desperately sad not to be able to attend the premiere of the new production of my opera Nothing in Copenhagen's Royal Danish Opera. There is some talk of a stream which I will post details of on my twitter feed, so follow me there! https://www.twitter.com/davidbruce

The production shots look amazing:

The Art of the Mandolin

Avi Avital's new album 'The Art of the Mandolin' features my three movement work 'Death is a Friend of Ours' written for the amazing combination of mandolin, guitar, harp, harpsichord and theorbo. As the comments and reviews have so far have never failed to mention - 'despite its title', it's a rather joyful and uplifting work. The piece really evokes a joy of living and for me you can only truly sense this joy if you are aware of how short-lived it is. Death isn't something we should be scared of or hide from, it's simply a part of life.

Listen to the album on your favourite service here

You can also watch the vlog I made in Hamburg of the premiere of this piece

New Fanfarron video

As part of my recent video collaboration with Jeremy Blake from Red Means Recording I was lucky enough to get a performance of my short concert opener Fanfarron by Orchestra of the Swan, conducted by Jason Lai. Please enjoy.

The Lick Quartet performed by Dover Quartet

My new string quartet The Lick Quartet was co-commissioned by Dallas Chamber Music Society and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. It received one of the best premieres of a new piece I've ever received, thanks to the astoundingly brilliant Dover Quartet. Happily their performance at the Concertgebouw was recorded, here it is on my YouTube channel, with score included:

New Release of Chamber Works on Signum

After several years work, I'm delighted to announce that my first portrait recording featuring some of my chamber works is released on Signum on August 30th. The three pieces on this release represent a highly personal musical and spiritual responses to nature. The title work, The North Wind was a Woman treats various aspects of nature as human characters, as if they were manifestations of human emotions. So the North Wind for example, is a jilted lover who 'rattles your windows, bangs at your doors'.

The recording features several of my favourite artists - rock-star mandonlinist Avi Avital and the amazing Dover Quartet feature on Cymbeline; my dear friends at Camerata Pacifica recorded the piece they commissioned, The Consolation of Rain; and rising star Nora Fischer features along with a bespoke gathering of some of New York's best chamber musicians on The North Wind was a Woman. The recording was produced by Grammy-winning producer Erica Brenner and was engineered by Jack Renner and Michael Bishop. It was Telarc founder Jack Renner's last recording before he sadly passed away earlier this year.

Click here for a preview