It is now week 8 of the country-wide lockdown to combat coronavirus...About Rory...
Rory is a composer and conductor based in the rainy city of Manchester. Having just finished his Masters in Composition, he is gradually forging a path in the professional world of music.
Growing up within the English choral tradition as a treble at Bath Abbey, Rory’s musicianship was formed by composers like Howells and Byrd. Luckily having been played plenty of Radiohead and Manic Street Preachers on cassettes in his parents’ car as a kid, his taste broadened to encompass more than just the classical sphere. Nowadays, Rory enjoys listening to Renaissance polyphony and contemporary art music alongside R&B and 90's hiphop.
Rory is passionate about encouraging people to engage with contemporary music, opening their ears to new possibilities and sound worlds. He admires the ORA Singers for their commitment to new music and is thoroughly looking forward to working with them.
I’ve recently been returning to pieces that I have not listened to in a while…
Thomas Tallis is definitely one of the most well-known English composers of choral music…
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I’ve spent the last two weeks getting back into the groove of work and learning new repertoire, as well as thinking ahead and planning for new projects…
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I was lucky last week to be part of ORA’s Christmas Gift initiative where they rehearsed and recorded 12 carols by 12 different composers all of different ages and places around the UK…
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It’s almost Christmas time, with the first Sunday of Advent coming up this weekend…
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Contemporary art music over the last 30 years or so has shifted more and more towards a focus on timbre and texture…
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When writing music with words it’s always really important to think about how you set those words, and how they are emphasised…
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ORA just announced their ‘Christmas Gift’ opportunity, open to all composers, in which they will select 12 carols – or winter themed pieces – and record them professionally for the selected composers…
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I’m currently in the process of finishing my first ever piece of choral music that will be accompanied by orchestra…
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It’s a new academic year, and the start of September means the start of school, college, and soon, university…
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In this third and final week on the run up to the competition on Saturday, I am interviewing Ben See…
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This week I will be interviewing the young Finnish composer Joel Järventausta…
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For the next three weeks, in the lead up to the ORA Singers Composition Competition Final on the 27th July…
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If you follow the ORA Singers’ concerts and commissions, you may be familiar with the term ‘reflection’ with regards to composition…
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Even though I am a composer, most of my day-to-day work is spent in the capacity of conductor…
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Last Saturday I had the pleasure of leading a workshop day for the selected finalists of the ORA Young Composers Competition.
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Seeing as it is the ORA Young Composers’ Composition Workshop next week, I thought I’d write some of my thoughts about the best way to approach a composition workshop as a composer.
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Last week was Holy Week, the most important week in the Christian calendar…
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In this post-modern world it’s easy to feel uncertain of where to start with tonality - and consequently harmony (the former informing the latter)…
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