A concert thanking NHS staff and volunteers while supporting Horatio's Garden, an outstanding healthcare charity.

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Smith Square Hall, 2nd May, 7.30pm

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Featuring the Woburn Piano Trio (Emily Davis (violin), Karen Stephenson (cello), Sophia Rahman (piano)) playing music by Beethoven and Mendelssohn and the UK premiere of Michael's piece for piano and cello, Tales From The Fifteenth Floor, recalling his time in intensive care.

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Read more about the event here.

Harpist Sioned Williams will be playing Michael's piece for solo harp, The Drowning of Capel Celyn, at a recital at Salvi Music Showroom on 17th November, 2024, at 3pm.

The piece was written to mark the 50th anniversary of the flooding of Capel Celyn in 2015, the campaign against which Sioned's grandfather Huw T Edwards was involved with.

Sioned will also be playing the piece at recitals in Istanbul in January and at The Liberal Club in London in April.

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To commemorate the 70th anniversary of Dylan Thomas' death, Michael's song cycle Dylan was performed in Swansea, from the very house where Dylan Thomas was born, and in New York, the city where he died on 9th November 1953.

The Swansea concert was live-streamed, and the two New York concerts (from Rutgers Presbyterian Church and St John's In The Village) were also recorded.

Michael has done a number of interviews with media in recent weeks, including the Strad and the BBC. 

The Strad interview is here; the BBC piece is here. 

Michael also appeared on Radio 3 recently, with an extract from Tales From The 15th Floor being played on In Tune on Monday 2nd October (at 1hr15minutes in the link here).

Michael recently conducted an interview with Classical Music, discussing resilience and the impact of his illness on his music and his process.

Subscribers to the magazine can read it here.

Michael will be in conversation with journalist and author Leah Broad (Quartet: How Four Women Changed The Musical World) at Blackwells Bookshop in Oxford at 3pm on Sunday 1st October. This will be a fascinating opportunity to hear Michael discuss his work and his compositional process, as well as the effect his sight loss has had on both.

You can get tickets (free) and find out more information about the event here.

The 7-CD box set of Michael's Recorded Works will be released on 5th October. The box set contains all the CDs released over the course of Michael's career, from his early release Journeymen to 2021's The Angry Garden/Silvered Night. The box set also contains two previously unreleased CDs, Reflections and When The Light Shines. The box set can be pre-ordered here.

Contracts have been signed with venues for the performances of Dylan in New York City, at Rutgers presbyterian Church on 11th November and St Johns In The Village on 12th November. Tickets are now available for the performances, as well as the performance in Swansea on 4th November, and can be purchased here.

Michael will be in conversation with journalist and author Leah Broad (Quartet: How Four Women Changed The Musical World) at Blackwells Bookshop in Oxford at the beginning of October (date and time tbc). This will be a fascinating opportunity to hear Michael discuss his work and his compositional process, as well as the effect his sight loss has had on both.

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the death of Dylan Thomas (and as part of Michael's 75th birthday celebrations) there will be three performances of the song cycle Dylan in November, one in Swansea on 4th November, and two in New York, at Rutgers Presbyterian Church on 11th November and St John's In The Village on Sunday 12th November. The piece will be performed by Gareth Brynmor John (baritone) and Royal harpist Alis Huws.

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Initial publicity work for the October releases of Michael's latest CD, When The Light Shines, and a box set of his recorded works, has generated a write-up in Michael's local paper, the Salisbury Journal (read here).

When The Light Shines contains three recently recorded pieces - Tales From The 15th Floor (cello, piano); The Balancing of Opposites (flute, piano); and Variations on Papaver Rhoeas (piano). It is one of two CDs (as well as the box set of recorded works) slated for release in the second half of 2023, and available for pre-order here.

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Michael's piece for cello and piano Tales From The 15th Floor was recorded during a session at the Henry Wood Hall on 22nd January by Karen Stephenson (cello) and Sophia Rahman (piano). The session was very successful (see here for a short clip of the recording). The piece will now be edited by Classic Sound, who also engineered the session, and will be made available later this year. 

A recording session has been set up for 22nd January 2023 at the Henry Wood Hall, featuring Sophia Rahman (piano) and Karen Stephenson (cello). Karen and Sophia will be recording Tales From the 15th Floor, Michael's piece that documents his stay in intensive care in the 1970s, for inclusion on a new CD to be produced in 2023.

We have been working hard designing Michael's latest CD. Now entitled Reflections and featuring three pieces, Illusive Years (Piano Trio No.1), Faulstone Hollow (violin and piano), and And Then The Mist Rose (Piano Trio No.2), all recorded by the Aquinas Piano Trio. The CD will be released in 2023, as well as featuring in a box set of all Michael's recorded works, to be released in the same year.

The final edit of Michael's latest recording is due to be completed this week. Michael's two piano trios and a piece for violin and piano, Faulstone Hollow, were recorded by the Aquinas Piano Trio back in October 2020 and the pandemic-delayed process of getting the recordings ready for release is now nearly completed. 

Scores of all the pieces on the recording are available from the shop tab above.

Michael was interviewed yesterday (1st November) by Peter White for the BBC's In Touch, the weekly magazine programme that focusses on issues surrounding visual impairment.

The programme will be broadcast at 8.40pm tonight (2nd November) and will be available to listen at any time after that through BBC Sounds.

The Angry Garden is now available as a deluxe, limited edition LP. 180gsm, gatefold sleeve, with a signed insert.

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The LP has been pressed at Deepgrooves Vinyl Pressing Plant, 'the greenest vinyl pressing plant on the planet', and is released to coincide with COP26.

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You can order your copy here.

The score of Prophecies, a new seven minute work for SATB choir with piano/organ accompaniment, based on the fourth movement of The Angry Garden, is now available here. The piece is designed to be accessible to choirs of all abilities, and to promote performance of the work, the score, parts, and guide piano versions of all the parts, are all available for download. The score is also available free with every purchase of The Angry Garden/Silvered Night.

The score of Michael's harp piece, The Stars Have Withdrawn Their Shining, commissioned by Sioned Williams and premiered in 2001, is now available in a new edition by Creighton's Collection, available at www.creightonscollection.co.uk

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With the music industry decimated by Covid-19 it is a pleasure to have positive news. At the time of writing, plans are in place for the recording of two piano trios of Michael's by the formidable Aquinas Piano Trio. Subject to the continual disruption the recording will be made in late October 2020. The trios have a long separation in terms of writing, the first was premiered at the Purcell Room in 1997, the second has been especially written for this recording. A short piece for violin and piano, Faulstone Hollow, will also be recorded.

Michael's latest CD, The Angry Garden/Silvered Night is to be released on 4th June 2021. The CD features the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of London Choir, Hilary Davan Wetton (conductor), and Mark Bebbington (piano). You can pre-order a copy here. The Angry Garden will be released in a deluxe vinyl edition in September.

Michael is delighted to have just received news of an award from the Arts Council of England as part of their Developing Your Creative Practice programme. The award is associated with music marketing and the digital age, and will help enormously in appreciating and understanding more modern methods of promotion and income streams, especially now that the effect of streaming is at last being recognised as a major problem for many musicians and creators.

The Aquinas Piano Trio and Michael had two excellent recording days in Sherborne this week when they recorded two piano trios of his, and a work for violin and piano, Faulstone Hollow. Michael said 'In some ways this was extremely difficult to make work due to Covid, with so many different parties might having to pull out, even the day before due to either illness or restrictions. But we kept in contact right up to the last minute and managed to make it happen. The result was two days of exceptional playing and dedication by Ruth, Katherine and Martin, and indeed the recording by Mark, the engineer.

Amid the chaos of covid-19 preparations are being made for the release of The Angry Garden and Silvered Night. The editing phase is now complete with just the mastering to be done - 'how fortunate to have got that recording day in place in 2019 before Covid changed and affected so many things'.

Details:

THE ANGRY GARDEN - choir, soli, orchestra

SILVERED NIGHT - piano and orchestra

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (pictured)

City of London Choir

Hilary Davan Wetton

Pianist Mark Bebbington

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Recorded at Henry Wood Hall, London. Edits are complete and CD release is expected in 2021.

The London Welsh Centre today features the CD of Dylan for baritone and harp, performed and recorded by Roderick Williams and Sioned Williams. This was premiered at the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea and was followed by a performance at the Wigmore Hall two days later.

Click here for London Welsh Centre coverage and film of some of the song cycle.

The first edit of two works recorded in September 2019 by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and City of London Choir are scheduled for early Spring. This will run alongside the firming up of release plans which will be announced over the coming months.

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Silvered Night - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Mark Bebbington (piano)

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The Angry Garden - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and City of London Choir

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Both works were conducted by Hilary Davan Wetton.

A new recording of the flute and piano work The Balancing of Opposites is now available for purchase. Featuring flautist Philippa Davies and pianist Megumi Fujita.

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Click here for more information and to purchase. The score is also available.

The score of a new piano work, Variations on Papaver Rhoeas, is now available for purchase. A recording of the work made in 2018 by Megumi Fujita is also available.

We are delighted to be working with Stephanie Corley, Marta Fontanals-Simmons, Ed Lyon and William Berger in the recording of The Angry Garden on September 21st 2019.

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Picture credits:

Stephanie Corley: used by permission of Hazard Chase

Marta Fontanals-Simmons: Victoria Cadisch

Ed Lyon: Gerard Collett

William Berger: used by permission of William Berger

International concert pianist Mark Bebbington has been confirmed as the soloist for a recording of Michael's new work Silvered Night which is to be recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and City of London Choir this September 21st.

See Mark's website here - www.markbebbington.co.uk

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Image used by permission from Catherine Gosney

September's recording of The Angry Garden and Silvered Night will feature Hilary Davan Wetton as conductor. Hilary has led a distinguished career as a choral conductor and we are looking forward to his involvement with this project.