'His music whispers, whirrs, rustles, creaks, and shines with a
gentle light, often elegiacal. It is not music of long line, full-throated song,
bright hard clarity, physical exuberance. Its characteristic movement is shy,
blinking in the sun, attuned better to half lights.'
Robin Holloway
A much commissioned and frequently performed composer, a highly creative
teacher and an original programmer, John Woolrich is an important figure in
British musical life. His output covers all genres and has been championed
by, amongst others, the Britten Sinfonia – with whom he is currently Associate
Composer – the BBC, Nicholas Daniel, Joanna MacGregor and Steven Isserlis. His
successful collaborations with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group have led to
his appointment in the 2002/3 season as their Artistic Associate. His 50th
birthday was recently celebrated with concerts by the Schubert Ensemble and OSJ
(Orchestra of St John's).
A number of preoccupations thread through his varied output: the art of
creative transcription (Ulysses Awakes, for instance, is a
recomposition of a Monteverdi aria, and The Theatre Represents a Garden:
Night – a work for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment – is based on
fragments of Mozart), a fascination with machinery and mechanical processes
(heard in many pieces including The Ghost in the Machine and The
Barber’s Timepiece), a love of song and a passionate interest in
literature.
Woolrich has a practical approach to music making: he has found a group, the
Composers Ensemble, and a festival, the Hoxton New Music Days. In 1994 he
was appointed the first Composer in Association to the Orchestra of St John’s, a
post he held until 2000. He has also formed ties with the Philharmonia
Orchestra, who gave a Music of Today concert devoted entirely to his works in
1999, and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Woolrich has built up a
considerable reputation overseas: for instance, Ulysses Awakes has had
over 140 performances in seventeen countries worldwide, including Egypt, Romania
and the Lebanon, and received nine performances in Australia during the
Australian Chamber Orchestra’s 2001 tour.
Throughout the 1990s, Woolrich had a string of prestigious orchestral
commissions which resulted in some of his most outstanding works: his concertos
for viola, oboe and cello. NMC recently released a CD of the Viola and
Oboe Concertos which attracted particular attention and was acclaimed as the
BBC’s ‘Record of the Week’. Other orchestral pieces written during this
period include The Ghost in the Machine, premiered in Japan with Andrew
Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Si Va Facendo Notte which the
Barbican Centre commissioned to celebrate the Mozart European Journey
Project. In 2001, Woolrich undertook a music theatre commission from
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group which resulted in Bitter Fruit, a
masque for mime actors and large ensemble. BCMG and the Trestle Theatre
Company gave the premiere with Thomas Adès, who then handed over to Pierre-André
Valade for an eight date English tour.
Recent pieces include a suite from Bitter Fruit for the London
Sinfonietta and Thomas Adès, and more works for the Britten Sinfonia, including
Double Mercury for the 2003 BBC Proms. Arcangelo,
a work based on Corelli, was premiered by The Academy of Ancient Music, who
commissioned the work, at Symphony Hall, Birmingham in March 2003.
Woolrich was born in 1954 in Cirencester and now lives in Kent.
If you need help or have a question for Customer Service,