Diversity in Repertoire
Repertoire choices are key to me - they play a major part in my role as an 'Artistic Citizen', and deciding what repertoire to present is a significant part of my work as a conductor. My musical tastes have always been very wide-ranging - my playlists and CD collections include anything from CPE Bach to Billy Joel, from Beethoven to The Beatles, from Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong or ABBA to Brahms, Stravinsky, Dvorak and Ravel.
My conducting repertoire reflects these wide interests, and I have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusivity in my programming: from historical performance (e.g. CPE Bach / Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment);
to American composers less well-known in Europe (e.g. Henry Hadley, George Frederick Bristow, Lou Harrison);
to unduly neglected composers (e.g. Dorothy Howell, Ethel Smyth, Emilie Mayer, Lili Boulanger, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, William Grant Still)
to championing contemporary composers (e.g. Gabriela Lena Frank, Pierre Jalbert, Aaron Jay Kernis, Andrea Tarrodi, Hannah Kendall).
BELOW
...you'll find a non-exhaustive and ever-growing list of works by female and black composers that I've conducted in recent seasons.
Examples of my programme curation can be found on the Concerts page of my website - here
Music by Female composers:
Grazyna Bacewicz: Overture
Amy Beach: Piano Concerto
Sally Beamish: City Stanzas (piano/orchestra)
Henriëtte Bosmans: Poeme for Cello/Orchestra
Lili Boulanger: Faust et Helene
Lili Boulanger: D’un Matin du Printemps
Cecil Chaminade: Concertstuck for Piano/Orchestra
Louise Farrenc: Overture no. 1
Louise Farrenc: Overture no. 2
Louise Farrenc: Symphony no. 2
Louise Farrenc: Symphony no. 3
Gabriela Lena Frank: Three Latin American Dances
Gabriela Lena Frank: Concertino Cusqueño
Gabriela Lena Frank: Pachamama Meets an Ode (co-commissioner)
Gabriela Lena Frank: La Llorona (viola/orchestra)
Dorothy Howell: The Rock
Dorothy Howell: Divertissements
Dorothy Howell: Koong Shee
Dorothy Howell: Lamia
Dorothy Howell: Humoresque
Dorothy Howell: Piano Concerto
Hannah Kendall: The Knife of Dawn (chamber opera)
Molly Kien: Pyramid
Chan Hae Lee: Five Pansori Songs
Emilie Mayer: Symphony no. 5
Emilie Mayer: Faust Overture
Jessie Montgomery: Starburst
Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto
Ethel Smyth: Serenade
Ethel Smyth: Overture to ‘The Wreckers’
Ylva Skog: They Call Her Love
Germaine Tailleferre: Harp Concertino
Germaine Tailleferre: Partita
Andrea Tarrodi: Number 9, Number 9 (commissioner)
Andrea Tarrodi: Serenade in 7 colours
Andrea Tarrodi: Lucioles
Andrea Tarrodi: Zephyros
Judith Weir: Forest
Grace Williams: Fantasy on Nursery Rhymes
Ayanna Witter-Johnson: Faiya
Music by Black composers:
Samuel Coleridge Taylor: Petite Suite
Samuel Coleridge Taylor: The Bamboula
Samuel Coleridge Taylor: Othello Overture
Samuel Coleridge Taylor: Novelletten
Samuel Coleridge Taylor: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast
Duke Ellington: Harlem
Duke Ellington: Night Creature
Ulysses Kay: Of New Horizons
Hannah Kendall: The Knife of Dawn
Jessie Montgomery: Starburst
William Grant Still: Symphony no. 1
Ayanna Witter-Johnson: Faiya