“Mason is a supreme painter in sound.”
Blog
“Mason is a supreme painter in sound.”
Thursday night saw the world premiere of ‘The Hart’, a new song cycle in five movements written for soprano Sophie Bevan MBE, Ryan Wigglesworth and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra described as ‘exquisite’ [The Telegraph] and ‘beguiling’ [The Times].
LSO Live presents the fourth album in the Panufnik Legacies series, containing world premiere recordings of compositions by some of the most exciting early-career composers of today including Grace-Evangeline Mason’s ‘beneath the silken silence’ recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra under Jack Sheen.
The Black Oak Ensemble continues to push the boundaries of the string trio repertoire with Dance of the Night Sky, their third album on Chicago’s Cedille Records. Dance of the Night Sky features eight contemporary trios including the world-premiere recording of ‘Into the Abyss, I Throw Roses’ by Grace-Evangeline Mason.
For her latest commission from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Grace-Evangeline Mason sets texts by Sara Teasdale, Oscar Wilde and herself, exploring folktale appearances of a hart, or stag, as a mystical messenger deep in the woods. The new orchestral song cycle was written for soprano Sophie Bevan with Ryan Wigglesworth at the helm of the orchestra, presenting the premiere at Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool on 5 June.
Devised by the Bristol Choral Society’s director Hilary Campbell, the choir’s second album with Delphian is a celebration of British choral music including Holst, Britten, Vaughan Williams, and Judith Weir. At its heart is Grace-Evangeline Mason’s A Memory of the Ocean for choir, piano and cello, a Royal Philharmonic Society commission whose first performance the choir gave in 2023.
Recently Grace-Evangeline Mason visited Strathmore Music Center, Maryland, to experience their Sonic Trails: an immersive sound experience where you can traverse Strathmore’s 16-acre campus using a free GPS app downloaded to your phone, hearing different parts of ‘The Imagined Forest’ as you move through each space.
Lyrebird Brass presents five contemporary brass quintets, including Grace-Evangeline Mason’s ‘As Bronze,’ in BOOK OF BRASS, an album shaking up the scene with an assortment of boundary-pushing works by highly lauded and awarded composers, released August 16 on Navona Records.
Saturday night saw the German Premiere of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ at Belvedere Palace, Weimar, directed by Jochen Biganzoli by Studierende Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar under conductor, Márton Terts.
The Apollo Saxophone Quartet have released an album called ‘Continuum’ on 1st May. The new disk features recordings of their most recent commissions, including ‘In the Fragrant Air’ by Grace-Evangeline Mason.
After giving the world premiere of ‘A Memory of the Ocean’ in June 2023, Bristol Choral Society under Hilary Campbell recorded the piece back in October for inclusion on their new disk with Delphian Records.
Harpist Lauren Scott’s new album Sea of Stars is a brilliant showcase of Lauren’s inimitable style and casts Lauren’s own compositions alongside original works by Grace-Evangeline Mason, Rüdiger Opperman and Monika Stadler. Out 19th April on Avie Records.
As part of Choir & Organ Magazine’s New Music series in partnership with the Choir of King’s College London and supported by PRS for Music, the November/December issue is out now and includes a new work by Grace-Evangeline Mason titled ‘O Sapientia'‘ for Advent, which is free to download and sing.
The 6th October saw the Dutch premiere of the collection of pieces ‘A Memory of the Ocean’ by the Dutch Radio Choir Groot Omroepkoor with a solo from soprano Varvara Tishina, pianist Hannes Minnaar, and cellist Anton Spronk under conductor Florian Helgath for AVROTROS Vrijdagconcert at TivoliVrendenburg, Utrecht to standing ovation.
Conductor Mark Wigglesworth brought ‘The Imagined Forest’ down under for its Australian premiere this week with two performances by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in Adelaide Town Hall, South Australia, to positive reviews.
Tuesday night saw the premiere of ABLAZE THE MOON performed by BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under Mark Wigglesworth as part of The BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, London. The piece was commissioned to be a short concert-opener to be followed by a programme of Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto performed by Sir Stephen Hough, and Mahler’s First Symphony.
The new concert-opener, ‘ABLAZE THE MOON’, was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to be premiered at the Royal Albert Hall on 18 July by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Mark Wigglesworth. The new five-minute work draws inspiration from American lyric poet Sara Teasdale. with melodies mirroring the lunar arcs heard in lines from the poem ‘Tonight’
‘A Memory of the Ocean’, a new work for choir, concertante piano and solo ‘cello, was premiered by Bristol Choral Society under Hilary Campbell on 24 June 2023 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams and co-commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society, Vaughan Williams Foundation, and Netherlands’ AVROTROS Friday concert.
On Friday 19th, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under their new music director, Jonathon Heyward gave the US Premiere of 'The Imagined Forest' at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in a programme with Xavier Foley's 'Soul Bass' and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6, followed by two further performances; Saturday 20th, at Strathmore Music Center and Sunday 21st at JMSH, Maryland.