In plain sight

COMPOSER Naomi Pinnock

WORK I am, I am

ARTISTS Sonar Quartet, Juliet Fraser (soprano)

DATE 15 November 2019

PLACE St Paul’s Hall, Huddersfield, UKbit.ly/2kLYy8Z

Naomi Pinnock

Sonar Quartet

PINNOCK PHOTO AMY NEWISS. QUARTET PHOTO PIOTR BIALOGLOWICZ

This year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival will open with I am, I am, a new work for string quartet and soprano by British composer Naomi Pinnock. Rather than confront the listener with bombast and fireworks, Pinnock’s music draws them into its pared-down but intricate web of sounds. ‘Over the past decade,’ she explains, ‘I’ve been trying to strip back my music to its core elements, removing anything that doesn’t need to be there so that all I’m left with is the essence of the material. I’ve always tried to use very clear structures, but having said that the changes that appear in my music are becoming more and more discreet. They might be tiny, but I get completely obsessed with them, and even if the harmony itself doesn’t move, I keep the sounds rotating between the players. The music is never static.’

For the soprano, the composer chose two lines by British poet Rachael Boast. ‘I was thinking a lot about absence and presence, and the idea of being lost,’ says Pinnock. ‘This is something I identified in her collection Sidereal, too, and her words stuck in my head.’ Perhaps unsurprisingly for someone so committed to detail, Pinnock uses just eight of Boast’s words. ‘And two of those are repeated! Part of what I do is hide the voice inside the texture of the strings. Instead of thinking of the group as four string players and a singer, I wanted to find a way to set the words within the sound of the quartet. Writing music is a very organic process for me and I wanted the way the piece sounded to reflect that. I spend a long time kicking around trying to land on something that really resonates with me and then explore it from the inside out.’

COMPETITIONS

2 Simon Zhu

3 Haruma Sato

4 Jessie Montgomery

ZHU PHOTO COURTESTY SCHWÄBISCHER FRÜHLING. MONTGOMERY PHOTO JIYANG CHEN

1 Chinese violinist Ming Liu, 24, has won China’s Harbin International Music Competition. She receives $50,000. Liu studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with Vera Tsu Weiling. Second prize went to Sinying Chan, 22, from Hong Kong, and third prize to Haram Kim, 21, from South Korea.

2 The Zhuhai International Mozart Competition for Young Musicians, co-hosted by China’s Zhuhai International Culture Association and the Mozarteum University, Salzburg, Austria, awarded the first prize in its 17–23 age category to 18-year-old German violinist Simon Zhu, who wins $30,000. In the 13–16 category, the $15,000 first prize went to Japanese 14-year-old Lina Nakano, while Jinan Woo, 12, from South Korea, won the category for violinists aged 12 and under, taking home $7,500.

3 At the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, Germany, Haruma Sato, 21, from Japan, took first prize in the cello section. A student of Jens Peter Maintz at Berlin’s University of the Arts, he receives €10,000. Second and third prizes went to 22-year-old Friedrich Thiele, from Germany, and Chinese 26-year-old Sihao He respectively.

4 American violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery, 38, has been awarded a Sphinx Medal of Excellence by the Sphinx Organization, based in Detroit, MI, US. Montgomery, who receives a $50,000 career grant, holds degrees from the Juilliard School and New York University, and is currently a graduate fellow at Princeton University, NJ, US. Established in 1997, the Sphinx Organization works to promote diversity in classical music.

FORTHCOMING COMPETITIONS & AWARDS

International Georg Philipp Telemann Violin Competition in Poznań, Poland, for violinists born after 31 December 2001. Prizes TBC but 2018 first prize PLN7,500 Deadline 15 December 2019; competition 28–30 March 2020 Webwww.telemann.art.pl

Stulberg International String Competition

in Kalamazoo, MI, US, for string players aged 19 or under on 1 January 2020. First prize $6,000 Deadline 1 February 2020; competition 16 May Webwww.stulberg.org/competition

International Bach Competition 2020

in Leipzig, Germany, for organ, voice and cello/baroque cello. Open to soloists over 16 years old and born after 25 July 1987. First prize €10,000 Deadline 25 February 2020; competition 13–25 July Webwww.bachwettbewerbleipzig.de

APPOINTMENTS

• Four new string players have joined Canada’s Toronto Symphony Orchestra: associate concertmaster Zeyu Victor Li, violinist Yolanda Bruno, principal violist Victor Fournelle-Blain and associate principal violist Rémi Pelletier.

• London’s Philharmonia Orchestra has appointed 31-year-old Benjamin Marquise Gilmore joint concertmaster alongside Zsolt-Tihamér Visontay.

• Stefani Matsuo has been appointed concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, OH, US.

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