Pippa Murphy

I’ve been working on a new piece for 3 flutes and Bass Clarinet commissioned by the Scottish Flute Trio with funds from the Scottish Arts Council. There will be 4 performances.

This commission will be premiered at the Arches, Glasgow on June 17^th 2010, followed by performances at Catstrand (June 18th), Traverse, (June 19^th) and Byre Theatre St Andrews (June 22^nd)

See http://www.scottishflutetrio.com for more details

This month I will be rehearsing and performing with Scottish Opera for this year’s Five:15

I’m working on a new commission for Saxophone and live electronics to be performed at the dBale electronic music festival on April 21-23 2010. This years theme is ‘Frau Musica Electronica’ and I will be curating and performing a concert of my own work including ‘Voix du Sable’, ‘Pathfinder’ ‘Caspian Retreat’, ‘Postcard from Paris’ and a New work. Other featured composers include: Annette Vande Gorne, Françoise Barrière, Le Femmes Savantes.

See www.esbasel.ch and  http://www.garedunord.ch/ for more details.

I was asked to be guest editor of Sound and Music’s ‘The Sampler. Have a read of this if you’re looking for gigs over the next couple of weeks:

The Sampler

My latest piece ‘High Tide, A Winter Afternoon’ for 2 Flutes, Clarinet/Bass Clarinet and Cello was performed at Aberdeen Art Gallery in the SOUND Festival by Richard Craig, Roberto Fabbriciani, Tadej Kenig and Rohan de Saram. This performance showcased new works written by Pippa Murphy, Oliver Searle, Gareth Williams and Paul Tierney each inspired by a different work of art. My choice of painting was Joan Eardley’s painting ‘High Tide, A Winter Afternoon’.

‘We were led upstairs to sit in front of High Tide, A Winter Afternoon by Joan Eardley and to hear Pippa Murphy’s music of the same title. There is darkness too in this stormy seashore scene at Catterline which Joan Eardley has painted but it is also clearly a seascape which she loves and this too was reflected in Pippa Murphy’s music full of atmospheric sounds of waves and wind and on Roberto Fabbriciani’s flute, the sudden shriek of seagulls. Stirring somewhere within however and rising to the surface, I sensed the rhythms and sounds of Scottish dance music and for a moment, bagpipe drones. This was the piece that came nearest to some sort of synaesthetic fusion with the painting contrasting with the other composers’ more cerebral reactions.’ Alan Cooper, The Herald, 15th November 2009

Read the full review here:

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Pathfinder is a radiophonic composition exploring and investigating the musical community within its rural and isolated communities in and around Aberdeen. Based on a series of interviews with a number of professional, semi-professional and amateur individuals, Pathfinder raises awareness of the difficulties and pressures musicians face in developing and maintaining their creative skills locally and the ways in which our citizens are engaged culturally.

Commissioned by Aberdeenshire Council, in partnership with the University of Aberdeen’s Music Department, Pathfinder is a creative consultation pilot project in support of The Cultural Pathfinder Project for Aberdeen City and Shire. Pathfinder project was commissioned by Aberdeenshire Council, and will run in the Lang Byre Gallery at Woodend Barn from the 28th October until the 22nd November at sound – a festival of new music in North East Scotland.

Find out more at the festival website

I’ve composed the music for a new play by Morna Pearson which will be broadcast tonight on Radio 3.

An outspoken and uncompromising new play by an award-winning young Scots writer that explores the relationship of Rachel, 15, and her cousin, 17 – a relationship based on desire for escape from their empty lives in rural Aberdeenshire. Rachel’s life is transformed, root and branch, when she swallows an apple pip and discovers a new way of living.

Visit the BBC page