Composing Myself

The fifth episode of Composing Myself sees Wise Music CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham convene with French-British composer Josephine Stephenson for an illuminating and insightful meander through the fertile meadowlands of conversation. Topics covered include;

- a formative introduction to the works of Mahler (“powerful music for a tiny child”)

- how you really know when something is finished

- collaborations with Damon Albarn, Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead

- redressing the balance in COVID

As ever, this is a chat full of interesting and thought-provoking insight into the creative process and nuance of the life of a professional composer. Not to be missed!

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Josephine Stephenson is a composer, arranger and performer working across contemporary classical and indie music. 

"A bewitching combination of dissonance and sweet-toned cantabile" (Bachtrack), Josephine's music has been commissioned by insitutions such as the BBC, Radio France, Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, Nonclassical and Spitalfields Music, and broadcast on France Musique and BBC Radio 3. She has written for acclaimed performers including the London Sinfonietta, Aurora Orchestra, s t a r g a z e, Miroirs Étendus, Explore Ensemble, The Hermes Experiment, Tenebrae, the Maîtrise de Radio France, tenor Allan Clayton, gambist Liam Byrne and guitarist Laura Snowden.

Interested in harmony, sonority and dynamic immediacy in her music, she has collaborated with theatre companies La Raffinerie, L'Éventuel Hérisson Bleu and FellSwoop Theatre and filmmakers Julia Hart and Scott Vickers. She also regularly works as an arranger for songwriters and bands, which have included Damon Albarn, Daughter, Lisa Hannigan, Benjamin Biolay, NZCA LINES, James Righton, Ana Silvera, Evergreen and others.

She studied composition with Giles Swayne while an undergraduate at Clare College Cambridge, before completing a Masters in Composition at the Royal College of Music under Kenneth Hesketh, graduating with Distinction. She was a Britten-Pears Young Artist in 2015-16 and a London Sinfonietta 'Writing the Future' composer for 2017-19.

In 2021-23 she is composer in residence at the Opéra Grand Avignon.

https://josephinestephenson.com/

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The big red beachball of conversation is kept resolutely in the air in this fourth episode of Composing Myself, with Wise Music CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham speaking to the effervescent Rod Argent, mastermind of The Zombies and Wise Music composer in his own right. Subjects of import covered in this terrific ramble through the wilds of Bantershire include:

- the 'secret jazz’ element of She’s Not There, and the Dick James offer that led to the timeless classic’s creation

- ruminations on what it felt like hearing Bach (“I just melted… this is what music should be!”) and Elvis for the first time

- the definitive conclusion on why classical music is “completely stimulating and exciting”

- being the next band in after the Beatles finished Sgt Pepper at Abbey Road

…. plus learning to sight read, working with Andrew Lloyd Webber, an explanation on why the Zombies decided on that name, and much more!

Miss this at your peril!

https://www.rodargent.com/

The Zombies' upcoming tour dates:

https://www.rodargent.com/tour

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In this third instalment of Wise Music Group’s special fiftieth anniversary Composing Myself series you can hear Wise Music Group’s CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham chat to Academy Award-winning film composer Rachel Portman.

Spanning her formative influences, a first job via the great David Puttnam, coping with writer’s block, composing for The Cider House Rules and The Little Prince and the differences between writing for film and opera, to her passion for raising awareness of environmental issues and the climate emergency, this fascinating conversation is a riveting must-listen for anyone with an interest in classical music and the myriad nuances and quirks of the creative process. 

Music Excerpts:

• Opening And A Little Girl Called Mimi (from Mimi And The Mountain Dragon OST)
• Flight - Rachel Portman, Angèle Dubeau, La Pietà

https://rachelportman.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/rachelportmancomposer/

https://twitter.com/rpcomposer

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In this second episode of Wise Music, hosts Dave Holley and Gill Graham speak to Wise Music composer Nico Muhly, beaming in from Paris. Freshly cooked and piping hot gourmet dishes on the conversational menu today include a run-through Nico's "fantastic" studio in New York and his trusty mobile rig (includes globally-scattered MIDI keyboard collection!), diligent daily writing discipline ("I'm scared that if I didn't write every day I'd forget how to do it!"), the all-important routine at home in NYC, coping with lockdown and the works that it scuppered, composing for Pachinko, what it's like to live across the street from one of Central London's most notorious nightclubs, and an overview of the best things to eat in the French capital.

Excerpts of Nico's work included in this podcast:

10:20 - Seaside, from Howards End OST

20:24 - Train, from Pachinko - Season 1 OST

24:27 - Shrink II. Sixths

30:30 - The Wedding, from Pachinko - Season 1 OST

35:34 - Hansu Sees Sunja, from Pachinko - Season 1 OST

37:04 - In A Mist, from Howards End OST

Nico Muhly, born in 1981, is an American composer who writes orchestral music, works for the stage, chamber music and sacred music. He’s received commissions from The Metropolitan Opera: Two Boys (2011), and Marnie (2018); Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Tallis Scholars, and King’s College, Cambridge, among others. He is a collaborative partner at the San Francisco Symphony and has been featured at the Barbican and the Philharmonie de Paris as composer, performer, and curator. An avid collaborator, he has worked with choreographers Benjamin Millepied at the Paris Opéra Ballet, Bobbi Jene Smith at the Juilliard School, Justin Peck and Kyle Abraham at New York City Ballet; artists Sufjan Stevens, The National, Teitur, Anohni, James Blake and Paul Simon. His work for film includes scores for for The Reader (2008) and Kill Your Darlings (2013), and the BBC adaptation of Howards End (2017). Recordings of his works have been released by Decca and Nonesuch, and he is part of the artist-run record label Bedroom Community, which released his first two albums, Speaks Volumes (2006) and Mothertongue (2008).

https://nicomuhly.com/

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In this inaugural episode of Composing Myself, hosts Dave Holley and Gill Graham speak to genre-bending Leicestershire husband-and-wife duo and Wise Music writers The Daydream Club. Tune in to hear them discuss the myriad joys of studio life, the difficulty of picking the greatest Björk and Radiohead songs, LIPA life, the intricacies of playlist curation, the hidden mystery of a simple coin toss and Dave’s lovingly-crafted Beatle Premier League. Plus, an introduction to The Daydream Club’s very own Wise Music podcast and a complementary series to Composing Myself, Wise Choice!

Follow The Daydream Club:

https://www.thedaydreamclub.com/

https://www.instagram.com/thedaydreamclub/

https://www.facebook.com/thedaydreamclub

https://twitter.com/thedaydreamclub

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdILfxZS7au-UjKmpWT09dQ

Listen to Adam & Paula's Wise Choice podcast series for Wise Music: https://shows.acast.com/wise-choice

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Composing Myself is an official Wise Music Group Podcast celebrating Wise Music’s 50th anniversary, presented by CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham. Over the course of this series, we will be talking to various Wise composers around the world about their lives in and out of music.

https://www.wisemusic.com/

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