music we'd like to hear

Our first concert features new work by rising star of microtonal guitar song Maddie Ashman, alongside work by Chiyoko Szlavnics performed by Maddie with Mira Benjamin & Amalia Young. Also featured is a new piano trio from British composer & painter Chris Newman. We revive a classic work by Laurence Crane, written for radio in 1996, but tonight given its UK premiere by singer Melanie Pappenheim, for whom it was written. We also revisit pieces from our very first concert in 2005, with a fiery work for prepared solo violin by Thomas Stiegler performed by Angharad Davies, and piano music of imagined timeless antiquity by Markus Trunk.

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Our second concert features soprano Juliet Fraser performing a grand and atmospheric work by Newton Armstrong, with text by American marine biologist Rachel Carson. We pair this with the interior music of one of Cassandra Miller's Tracery pieces, co-composed with Juliet. We also feature a work for singing cellist by Danish composer Niels Rønsholdt played by Kirke Gross, a classic tape work of speech and vocal sound by Lily Greenham, and a moment of serenity from Leo Chadburn. The evening begins with a tribute to our friend Tom Johnson, a hugely supportive presence for us over the last 20 years.

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Our third concert features two premieres from American legend John McGuire – an exquisite recent string sextet and a crystalline piano solo. We present the UK premiere of a delicate late work from Alvin Lucier, realised by bassoonist Dafne Vicente Sandoval. We also feature sculptural miniatures from American visionary Laura Steenberge, inspired by Emily Dickinson's envelope poems.