Chromosphere: Symphonic Colours of the Woodwind Orchestra. KEIRON ANDERSON (b. 1955) : Alice in Wonderland (2016) - i. Alice and Her Sister, ii. The White Rabbit, iii. The Chase, iv. Falling and Shrinking, v. Cheshire Cat, vi. Exploring Wonderland, vii. A Tea Party, viii. The Queen, ix. The Mock Turtle, x. The Lobster Quadrille, xi. The Trial, xii. Return to the Garden. JUDITH BINGHAM (b. 1952) : Mozart’s Pets (2021) - i. Miss Bimperl, Fox Terrier, ii. A London Cat, iii. Dawn Chorus in a Viennese Bird-seller’s Shop, iv. Grasshopper, v. A Canary Sings by Mozart’s Death Bed. CHARLOTTE HARDING (b. 1989) : Bright Lights (woodwind orchestra version 2023). i. Luminous, ii. Energetic, colourful. KAMRAN INCE (b. 1960) : Domes (woodwind orchestra version 2022). CHRISTOPHER HUSSEYi (b. 1974) : Child of the Wandering Sea (2018) - i. Sunlight, ii. Twilight, iii. Midnight. Czech Philharmonic Wind Ensemble, Conductor - Shea Lolin.

Description: Conductor Shea Lolin and composer/producer Christopher Hussey have returned to Prague to record with the Czech Philharmonic Wind Ensemble, carefully curating an album of premiere recordings spotlighting the woodwind orchestra, capturing its kaleidoscopic colours and symphonic potential in order to deepen and broaden appreciation of the medium’s power. A large chamber ensemble of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons and saxophones in various sizes, the woodwind orchestra has a highly adaptable and magical tonal palette—it can be, in turn, boldly vibrant and delicately beautiful, thrillingly powerful and hauntingly tender, earnestly solemn and joyously comical. The recorded repertoire reflects a spectrum of musical styles that exist in 21st-century concert music, ranging from the familiar and instantly singable to the more avant-garde, but always possessing an accessible and inviting musical narrative. Chromosphere is a landmark album, comprising exciting new and re-imagined pieces by leading composers in the genre and demonstrating the unique soundworld of the woodwind orchestra. Shea Lolin is a dynamic and versatile freelance musician living in London. His principal studies were in clarinet performance, composition and conducting at the Colchester Institute, and he has since developed an inimitable portfolio career as a conductor, performer and teacher. Keiron Anderson was born in Aberdeen and studied trumpet and keyboard at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where he started both a light orchestra and big band. His career has multiple strands: musical director, composer, performer and teacher. Keiron currently directs Yorkshire Wind Orchestra, Nottingham Symphonic Winds and Phoenix Concert Band. He is a prolific composer, producing unique and exciting new music across an eclectic mix of styles. Many of these works are written specifically for the groups he directs or as commissions for other ensembles. keironanderson.co.uk Before its completion for the Nottingham Symphonic Winds, the woodwind orchestra version of Alice in Wonderland was created for an educational event run by Shea Lolin in February 2016 at the Leeds College of Music. The work is episodic in nature, although designed to be performed in one movement. Central to the piece is Alice’s theme which has a stirring Romanticism. This is quickly ushered away into exciting rhythmic passages depicting the White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter’s tea party. These become increasingly complex with rowdy juxtapositions, countermelodies and hemiolas. The ever-shifting lines are expertly married together with Keiron’s masterful harmonic invention, creating a sparkling and playful piece to open the album. Judith Bingham entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1970 to study composition and singing, winning the Principal’s Prize in 1971. After graduating, she continued her studies with Hans Keller and composed her first commission for the Finchley Children’s Music Group. Named as BBC Young Composer of the Year in 1977, a plethora of awards, appointments and performances soon followed: Salt in the Blood, premiered at the Proms in 1995; the Barlow Prize for A Capella (2004); British Composers Awards for Christmas Truce (2004), Missa Brevis (2004), My Heart Strangely Warm’d (2006) and Fantasia (2008); Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music (2005); Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music (2007); an oboe concerto The Angel of Mons (2014). Judith’s contribution to music was recognised with an Order of the British Empire in 2020. edition-peters.com Mozart’s Pets is a sequence of five vignettes, taking the listener on a whimsical journey through a curious menagerie as we encounter the animals who shared their world with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The piece concludes with a plaintive deathbed recitation voiced by his pet canary. Historical records validate Mozart’s fondness for pets and extant diaries refer to the presence of dogs, horses and birds in his childhood and adult households, but it is one particular starling that stole his heart. Bought in 1784, the starling became a companion to Mozart and up until its death three years later was never far from his side. It was, however, the celebrity starling’s successor, a canary, which held the ear of the dying Mozart. According to records, it was removed from his deathbed as its song proved too distressing. Whatever the truth of such biographical by-roads, Judith’s playful take on Mozart’s ‘friends’ is elegant and charming and with her inclusion of an improvised coda in Dawn Chorus and instrumental key clicking in Grasshopper, the composition asserts its modernity within more formal musical ideas. Charlotte Harding studied composition and saxophone at the Royal College of Music with Mark Anthony Turnage CBE and Martin Robertson respectively, winning numerous awards including the Cobbett and Hurleston Prize for Composition. Her works include Convo and Them, both of which won awards at The Ivors Composer Awards. Drawing on an eclectic mix of classical and cross-genre influences, her diverse career has seen her work performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Kings Place and Cadogan Hall as well several music festivals including Womad, Simple Things, Three Choirs and Hidden Notes. Such is her diversity, Charlotte’s music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 6 and Soho Radio. Charlotte is currently signed with Faber Alt. charlotteharding.org.uk Bright Lights conveys the excitement and apprehension felt when moving to a new city for the first time. Many composers, both in the classical and jazz genres, have been affected by such an experience, resulting in a new infusion of influences and ideas into their music. The first movement admires the stillness and beauty of the bright lights from a distance. Calm, but sonorous, luminous textures are created for the melodic lines to weave between. The second movement then suddenly takes you into the driving energy of the city. Rhythmic stabs and pulsing basslines are punctuated by the saxophones and lower winds as the vibrant and colourful lines of the flutes and clarinets drive the piece forward. Of American–Turkish parentage, Kamran Ince had his early musical training in Ankara and Izmir before returning to America, where he studied at Oberlin and at the Eastman School of Music. His prizes include the Prix de Rome and the Lili Boulanger Prize. His compositions, chiefly instrumental and generally neo-Romantic, include orchestral and chamber music. Kamran is Professor of Composition at the University of Memphis and at Istanbul Technical University. The energy and rawness of Turkish and Balkan music, the spirituality of Byzantine and Ottoman music, the tradition of European art music and the extravert and popular qualities of the American psyche are the basis of Kamran Ince’s soundworld. kamranince.com Commissioned by the California Symphony Orchestra in 1993, Domes was written by Kamran as a cityscape memory, depicting a rooftop view of Rome where he lived for one year. The view of the skyline in the Eternal City is contrasted with the city of Constantine, with its equally impressive Byzantine structures. The vivid musical description captures not just the sounds of these buildings, but also the silence, which adds much drama and atmosphere. Domes explores contrasts between music and silence, consonance and dissonance, with ever-descending, searching musical lines. Christopher Hussey studied composition at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and at the University of Cambridge. His career combines work in music publishing, leading large-scale community workshops and performance projects, and as a commissioned composer/arranger. Christopher’s original music includes orchestral concert pieces, choral music, jazz scores, music for theatre and media, and features works for children and amateur musicians. His choral work Dreamtide was shortlisted by BASCA in the British Composer Awards. As an orchestrator and arranger, Christopher’s work includes musical theatre scores, orchestral scores for television and many concert arrangements. His credits include over 500 sheet music publications, and he has authored over 150 educational titles. Recent concert commissions include the folk opera Beware the Mackerel Sky and Songs from the Temple, a set of songs for SATB choir and organ, commissioned by Ronald Corp OBE and the Highgate Choral Society, and subsequently performed at the Southern Cathedrals Festival (2023) by the combined choirs of Chichester, Salisbury and Winchester Cathedrals. christopherhussey.co.uk Child of the Wandering Sea is a highly descriptive tone poem in three sections inspired by the marine life found at increasingly deep oceanic zones. musical themes are a development of an earlier piece for bass clarinet and piano, Mystic Stardance. In this reimagining for woodwind orchestra, all instruments are given thematic material, woven into one shimmering and intricate soundworld. Sunlight, with its glistening textures, repeated figurations and soaring melodic lines, depicts the busyness of the zone inhabited by 90% of the ocean’s life—from colourful corals to large marine mammals. The momentum is increased for Twilight, in which sprightly figures and solos are underpinned with a more urgent pull from the ensemble, becoming more rhythmic and eventually, forceful, leading to the piece’s climax. The final section, Midnight, is very slow and reflective with a musical account of the deepest part of the ocean where no light exists. The mood is solitary with moving solos to bring us to the conclusion of the work, but not before one final outburst, marked ‘groaning and severe’.