Neil Fisher and Richard Morrison talk to the young stars at this year’s classical music bonanza in a recent The Times cover story ahead of this year’s BBC Proms, including Grace-Evangeline Mason.

Grace is very happy that her string quartet 'Midnight Spires' (2019), which was originally commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Cheltenham Music Festival premiered by the Castalian Quartet, has been shortlisted to represent Britain at the ISCM World New Music Days Festival in Shanghai and Nanning in September represented by Sound and Music UK.

Grace is very pleased that her large chamber ensemble work ‘Upon Weightless Wings’, which was originally commissioned by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for their new music group Ensemble 10:10, has been selected as a finalist in LA-based conductor-less Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra’s annual call.

Following months of closure as a result of the pandemic, the CBSO Centre hosted a brand-new series of chamber music concerts for socially distanced audiences starting with the first concert titled ‘Octets of the 20s’,’ which took place on Friday 16 October under CBSO associated conductor Michael Seal with music by Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Varèse and a brand-new commission by Grace-Evangeline Mason celebrating the centenary year of the orchestra.

Due to the present crisis, the Dutch National Opera’s planned season opening of Mefistofele could no longer go ahead. Instead, with a concept created by Lisenka Heijboer Castañon and Manoj Kamps, they created the alternative production ‘Faust [Working Title]’, which explored the abundance of voices that are present in the world by involving new and recomposed material by a team of composers and arrangers, including Grace-Evangeline Mason’s reimagined aria ‘L’altra notte in fondo al mare’. The sold-out production had performances throughout September to critical acclaim, and has been recorded for online viewing, which will be available on October 4th.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s new 2020/21 programme has just been announced, which is the final season with Vasily Petrenko at the helm as Chief Conductor, including a few exciting performances of Grace’s newly commissioned works such as the rescheduled premiere of ‘Mahler’s Letters’, ‘In Her Own Valley’ and a performance of ‘The Imagined Forest.’

Grace was featured on BBC Radio Oxford's BBC Music Introducing In Oxford podcast this week presented by Dave Gilyeat with her piece 'Into The Abyss, I Throw Roses' for string trio, which has now been performed by trios across the UK, the US and Canada. You can listen to the podcast on Spotify, BBC Sounds or online

Grace recently did an interview that is featured on The Cross-Eyed Pianist, the UK top-10 classical music blog, detailing her life, thoughts and composition process. It can be read online here

The premiere of Grace’s work ‘To Breathe Now’ was set to be performed by the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra later this month alongside Bruch Violin Concerto with Maxim Vengerov at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. Unfortunately, due to the current circumstances, this performance has now been postponed until a safer time. Until then, Grace spoke to the Oxford Philharmonic to introduce the work and her creative process.

This week Grace has been recognised as ‘Artist of the Week’ on the Berlin-based music blog, Music Is Her Passion. ‘With only 25 years of age, the younger British composer already created works for some of the most prominent players in the classical music scene…’

Grace is the guest on Jess Gillam's BBC Radio 3 show ‘This Classical Life’ this Saturday, which will be broadcast at 12:30pm. Gillam hosts the music show for people who like classical and other stuff too with music, eclectic playlists, and chat with a new guest every week. This week they share and chat about some of their favourite music including Bach, Hans Abrahamsen, The Beatles, Clément Janequin, Mica Levi and Kaija Saariaho.

Mason is really pleased to have been named in The Times today as the 'face to watch' for classical music in their 2020 Calendar of Arts; a selection of top picks by their critics for the best upcoming film, theatre, art and music to look out for across the year.

Mason’s arrangement of ‘I Saw Three Ships’ for mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston will be released as her first ever Christmas Single on Rubicon Classics Record Label on 29th November! Recorded with pianist Alisdair Hogarth, all proceeds will go to the children of Liverpool via Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Company and Alder Hey Children’s Charity.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra launched their 2019/20 season featuring a wealth of concerts including two new commissions by Grace-Evangeline Mason. Her new work ‘Mahler’s Letters’ for their chorus will be premiered under Ellie Slorach alongside Petrenko’s Mahler VII in June 2020, and a new staged work with a libretto by Lila Palmer inspired by the life and work of Hannah Lightbody that features all three Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choirs – Melody Makers, Children's Choir and Youth Choir - in July 2020.

Jennifer Johnston, recently announced as the RLPO’s upcoming Artist in Residence, is to release her debut solo disc ‘A Love Letter to Liverpool’ on Rubicon Classics. Mason is pleased to have arranged the traditional song ‘I Saw Three Ships’ for the album, which was recorded by Johnston and pianist Alisdair Hogarth. The disc will be available on Spotify, Apple Music and Presto Classical on the 27th September 2019.

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra recently announced their next season celebrating 100 years of the CBSO including an unprecedented series of new commissions from Thea Musgrave, Thomas Adès, former Composer in Association Julian Anderson, Jörg Widmann, Grace-Evangeline Mason, Gary Carpenter and Unsuk Chin. Mason is really pleased to have been commissioned to write a work for the CBSO’s Centre Stage Concert Series to be premiered in May 2020.

Grace-Evangeline Mason recently wrote an article for the Royal Philharmonic Society revealing her composition process, painting and poetry. She invites you to peer into the globe of her sound-world. She paints. Writes words. Improvises at the piano. Over time, her music emerges from the sights and sounds she receives. Read her story here.

As part of the Southbank Centre’s SoundState Festival in January, the Eblana String Trio premiered Mason’s new work Into The Abyss, I Throw Roses, which was inspired by words from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Posthumous Fragments. The work was commissioned by the Park Lane Group and was described as a ‘beautiful and muscular piece’ in the recent four-star Guardian Review.

Grace is pleased to have been featured on this BBC Bitesize page for Key Stage 1&2 school children (aged 4-11), which was written and compiled by VividEchoUK based on a short interview conducted back in August. A fantastic resource to inspire the next generation exploring a diverse range of exciting careers through the study of both STEM and creative subjects.