"Songs of Ecstasy and Insanity"
1st March 2016, 7.30pm, The Octagon, Queen Mary University, London
A concert on heightened mental states, presenting Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs for a Mad King with John Savournin. Soprano Anna Dennis gives the world première of Edward Nesbit's song cycle for ensemble, In the Desert, as well as performing Richard Strauss' Ophelialieder. Also presenting the world première of Piers Tattersall's devotional Three Marian Titles, Philip Venables' new arrangement for the ensemble of his Fight Music, Peter Ablinger's Angela Davis (from Voices and Piano) and a Bryn Harrison work premièred by the ensemble in 2007, (a...(leaf falls on loneliness)
International Workers' Day Promenade
1st May 2015, 7pm, Forest School, London
An immersive travelling concert led by the players, celebrating both International Workers' Day and May Day, curated by Neil Georgeson and Darren Bloom. Exploring many spaces including the chapel, the Great Hall and the modern theatre as well as outdoor promenades and featuring Ash Relics, commissioned by Ossian from Jonathan Cole, and works by Andriessen (Workers' Union), Geoff Hannan (Work/Bonk), Richard Causton (Phoenix), Ablinger, Schnittke, Britten and Cardew, as well as site-specific works from Forest School composers
Composition Workshop and Recording at Wellington
5th March 2015, 2pm, Wellington College, Crowthorne
A composition workshop, working with student composers on their pieces - for the full ensemble or any instrument combination - with advice on writing for the instruments as well as discussing musical ideas and how to prepare scores, and finishing with a recorded performance. of all the new pieces
"The Sound of Discovery" at the Inside Out Festival
25th November 2014, 7pm, Queen Mary University, London
An immersive travelling concert exploring Science and Discovery, curated by Neil Georgeson and Darren Bloom. Led by actors and using a dozen spaces including the domed Octagon and the Art Deco Theatre; with Matt Rogers Shoulder to the Wheel, Crumb Vox Balaenae, Schnittke A Paganini, Ossian commissions from Darren Bloom (Strange Attractors) and Patrick Nunn (Isochronous), commissioned premières for the Magnetic Resonator Piano by Richard Peat and James Young, and works by Rameau (arranged by Paul Max Edlin), Xenakis, Takemitsu and Messiaen
The Magnetic Resonator Piano - a performance and workshop
22nd October 2014, 1pm, St Paul's Way Trust School, London
An afternoon with inventor Andrew McPherson of Queen Mary University, pianist Neil Georgeson and Paul Max Edlin, Head of Music at Queen Mary. The Magnetic Resonator Piano is a hybrid acoustic-electronic instrument augmenting the traditional grand piano. Sound is produced without loudspeakers using electromagnetic actuators to directly manipulate the piano strings, expanding its vocabulary to include infinite sustain, notes that crescendo from silence, harmonics, and new timbres. The instrument is explored in anticipation of the November concert at QMUL
"Itinerant" - a travelling concert
16th June 2014, 7pm, Forest School, London
An immersive travelling concert led by the players and exploring more than a dozen locations, including the chapel, the theatre and the Georgian Great Hall, as well as outdoor settings and some atmospheric liminal spaces, curated by Neil Georgeson and Darren Bloom. With Takemitsu Itinerant, Matt Rogers Shoulder to the Wheel, Stockhausen Dr K Sextett, Xenakis Charisma, Darren Bloom Break, movements from Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time, Philip Glass Music in Contrary Motion, Anna Meredith Flex and bespoke new works by Forest School composers
"FLOCK" at InTRANSIT Festival
21st July 2014, 7pm and 9pm, Louise Blouin Institute, Kensington, London
The culmination of a year of development and creative collaboration between composer Maxim Boon, choreographer Tim Casson and performance designer Helen Scarlett O’Neill of Secret Cinema fame, FLOCK is an evening of new immersive dance in partnership with the Ossian Ensemble - with guests including Zoe Martlew, Aisha Orazbayeva and Clifton Harrison - and LSO Soundhub. Set to new music by Boon including Flock and Kintsukoroi and featuring new choreography by Joe Garbett, Mari Frogner and Tim Casson, and interactive video design by Simon Allen
"The Rite of Spring", "La Mer" and Edwin Roxburgh's "Hommage à Debussy"
30th April 2014, 7.30pm, The Forge, Camden, London
Neil Georgeson and James Young present two great 20th century orchestral works on piano in versions by the composers - Stravinsky's version of "The Rite of Spring" for piano four hands and Debussy's arrangement of "La Mer" - alongside Edwin Roxburgh's fiendish and brilliant "Hommage à Debussy" and Ravel's sensitive arrangement of Debussy's "Prélude à l'aprèsmidi d'un faune"; in association with the Park Lane Group
Composition Workshop and Recording at Wellington
25 February 2014, 2pm, Wellington College, Crowthorne
A composition workshop, working with student composers on their pieces - for the full ensemble or any instrument combination - with advice on writing for the instruments as well as discussing musical ideas and how to prepare scores, and finishing with a recorded performance of all the new pieces
"The Riot" at York Late Music Festival
1-4th June 2013, 7.30pm, St Saviourgate, York; repeated at Forest School, London
Presenting Harvey The Riot, Crumb Vox Balaenae, Steve Crowther Kiszko, Elspeth Brooke Dawnrider, Bach Goldberg Variations (excerpt) and the premières of David Lumsdaine Bagatelles for ensemble and Three Venus Haiku for clarinet and piano by Martin Suckling; plus works by Darren Bloom and Roger Marsh
International Composers' Pyramid
4-9th December 2012, Boulogne-sur-Mer Conservatoire and St. Gregory’s Centre for Music, Canterbury
An Anglo-French collaboration between the Ossian Ensemble, Coup de Vents and Sounds New, culminating in a concert either side of the channel, presenting premières by ten emerging international composers: Dimitris Economou, Stylianos Dimou, Noriko Koide, Ioannis Angelakis, Panayiotas Kokoras, Wei-Chieh Lin, Fabian Santkovsky, Benjamin Oliver, Victor Ibarra and Antonin Servière; conducted by Mark Foster
"Under the twinkling of a fading star, we whisper together..."
16th June 2012, 7pm, LSO St Luke's, London
David Worswick and Neil Georgeson give the première of Darren Bloom's experimental new piece for violin, piano and sampler (combining attackless piano sounds with gamelan instruments), inspired by T. S. Eliot's deeply disturbing poem The Hollow Men; an LSO Soundhub event. Watch
Dinu Bodiciu Collection
13th April 2012, 8pm, Swiss Church, Covent Garden
An eclectic soundscape for the highly-acclaimed fashion designer Dinu Bodiciu (modelled in this shot by Lady Gaga) in collaboration with sensational video artist Jill van Epps, with free improvisation and works by Bach, Schnittke, and Pärt
International Composers' Pyramid
5-11th December 2011, Lille Conservatoire and St. Gregory’s Centre for Music, Canterbury
Two concerts of premières by eleven emerging composers, continuing the collaboration between the Ossian Ensemble, Sounds New and French wind group Coup de Vents; presenting new works by Edmund Finnis, Raffaele Grimaldi, Benjamin Oliver, Miguel Farias, German Alonso, Guiliani Bracci, Victor Ibarra, Hugo Ribeiro, Jae-Moon Lee, Mihyun Woo and Yuko Ohara; conducted by Philippe Nahon
LSO Discovery recital
14th May 2011, 1pm, LSO St Luke's, London
David Worswick and Neil Georgeson give a lunchtime recital of new arrangements of folk-inspired works by Bartok, Copland, Ravel and Piazzolla for violin and piano
International Composers' Pyramid
30th November-5th December 2010, Lille Conservatoire and St. Gregory’s Centre for Music, Canterbury
An Anglo-French collaboration with Coup de Vents and Sounds New, giving a concert on each side of the channel with premières by twelve composers: Elo Masing, Benjamin Oliver, Florent Motsch, Steven Mark Barchan, Hugo Ribeiro, Daniel Saleeb, Mike Solomon, Philip Dawson, Clara Iannotta, Ryan Latimer, Nicolas Tzortzis and Mateu Malondra Flaquer; conducted by Gerry Cornelius
Fellows' Evening at the Royal College of Music
5th July 2010, 7.30pm, Parry Rooms, Royal College of Music, London
The ensemble give the premières of three new commissions to mark the 245th anniversary of the publication of The Works of Ossian, an epic tale of endless battles and unhappy loves "translated" from ancient Gaelic sources by James MacPherson. Admirers included Napoloen, Goethe, Herder and Thomas Jefferson - as well as Franz Schubert, who set nine songs on Ossian texts. In this project, three composers - Daniel Saleeb, David Rafferty and Mark David Boden - respond, in very different ways, to Schubert's Ossian songs, recomposed for ensemble and soprano
Gala Performance of "Eight Songs for a Mad King" at Kew Palace
21st June 2010, 7pm, George III's residence at Kew Palace
The iconic Maxwell Davies music-theatre work with baritone Kelvin Thomas in a very special performance, unconducted, in George III's historic home at Kew Palace
"The Number 7 - Creation and Apocalypse" at Sounds New Festival
15th May 2010, 7.30pm, Sounds New festival, Canterbury; repeated 17th May 2010, Forest School, London
An epic performance depicting the creation and destruction of the world(!) curated by Neil Georgeson, with soprano Anna Dennis, including the Maxwell Davies works Antechrist, Seven Brightnesses and Missa l'homme arme, Harvey Quantumplation, Bent Sørensen Deserted Churchyards and works by Bryn Harrison, Anne Boyd and Messiaen as well as a newly commisioned music-theatre work Eve, by Darren Bloom with libretto by Neil Georgeson, and a new commission from Patrick Nunn, Isochronous, for piano and percussion using sounds from space recorded by NASA
"Pierrot Lunaire" at the Linbury Studio Theatre
8th February 2010, 7.30pm, Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Presenting Schoenberg's seminal Pierrot Lunaire with soprano Lorna Windsor, conducted by Dominic Grier, complemented by recent ensemble works from American composer Daniel Thomas Davis: Time, my cruel and beautiful mistress and Book of Songs and Visions
"Eight Songs for a Mad King", and two new commissions
24th November 2009, 7.30pm, Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, Royal College of Music; filmed for BBC Four
The monumental Eight Songs for a Mad King (unconducted, with baritone Kelvin Thomas), in consultation with Peter Maxwell Davies, and filmed at Max's request for the BBC Four documentary to mark his 75th birthday, "Max - A Musical Portrait of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies". Also presenting two brand-new commissions: Jonathan Cole Ash Relics and Darren Bloom Strange Attractors; as well as Jennifer Higdon Zaka and Bryn Harrison Rise
George Crumb 80th Anniversary Concert
7th November 2009, 7.30pm, York Late Music Festival
A special concert to mark the 80th anniversary of the birth of the great American composer George Crumb, presenting Makrokosmos, Vox Balaenae and Dream Sequence (Images II) alongside Steve Crowther Kiszko, Charlie Piper The Two-Headed Nightingale and a première by Edward Caine - Tout les matins du monde for bass clarinet and percussion
Camberwell Composers' Collective; Carnival of the Animals
8th July 2009, 7.30pm, Parry Rooms, Royal College of Music, London
A collaboration with the Camberwell Composers' Collective, presenting Emily Hall Love Songs, Charlie Piper Sthee, Chris Mayo Sturzstrom, and a staged version of Carnival of the Animals with newly commissioned 'animals' from Philip O'Meara, Solfa Carlile, Christopher Chong, Huw Belling, and Darren Bloom and a new story-driven narrative by Neil Georgeson, acted and sung by baritone George Humphreys
Fellows' Evening at the Royal College of Music
6th July 2009, 7.30pm, Parry Room, Royal College of Music, London
Ossian present three commissioned premières for ensemble marking three composers' anniversaries. Huw Belling marks Henry Purcell's 350th anniverary with a piece which he, rather extraordinarily, composed on Purcell's grave in Westminster Abbey, entitled Destruction's our delight, referencing the Witches' Dance from Dido and Aeneas. Tom Peterson marks Joseph Haydn's 200th deathday with London saltarello on one note and Charlotte Harding marks Peter Maxwell Davies' 75th birthday with Stronsay Sky
World Premiere in the Shetland Islands
21st June 2009, 7.30pm, Town Hall, Shetland Islands
Neil Georgeson and David Worswick present a violin-piano recital at the Johnsmas Foy Festival, featuring the premiere of Simmermill, a large-scale commission by Neil Georgeson melding international modernism with Shetlandic folk culture and extended piano and violin techniques. Also presenting Schnittke Quasi una Sonata and Beethoven Sonata no 8, as well as works by Bach, Brahms and Pärt
Ossian vs c3 @ Kettle's Yard
7th June 2009, 7.30pm, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge
The culmination of a collaboration between Ossian and the Camberwell Composers' Collective, a concert in the unique setting of Kettle's Yard, presenting premières of new pieces composed for the ensemble. Featuring Charlie Piper Sthee and Siren Song, Christopher Mayo from any brazen throat and Sturzstrom (in a new version for sextet), Mark Bowden Stealing Poison, Emily Hall Love Songs and Anna Meredith Beltane
Jonathan Harvey 70th Birthday Concert
17th May 2009, 7.30pm, The Master's Lodge, St John's College, Cambridge
Invited by Jonathan Harvey himself, the Ossian Ensemble gives the celebratory 70th birthday concert for one of this country's greatest living composers, featuring several of Harvey's chamber works, including Nataraja, Vers, Run Before Lightning and The Riot
Mira Calix collaboration at Aldeburgh
8th May 2009, 7.30pm, Britten Studio, Hoffmann Building, Snape Maltings
The Ossian Ensemble in collaboration with cult sound artist Mira Calix, in a performance to mark the opening of the Britten Studio, a new 340-seat venue at Snape Maltings
Concert and Composition Workshop at Royal Holloway
18th March 2009, 3pm and 6pm, Royal Holloway, University of London, Surrey
The ensemble give a composition workshop on MMus student compositions, with Mark Bowden, followed by a concert programme including all the new pieces, alongside Grisey Talea and Stockhausen Dr K Sextett
Grisey "Talea" and "The All-New Carnival of the Animals"
17th March 2009, 7.30pm, Forest School, London
A staged Carnival of the Animals with a new spoken dramatic narrative by Neil Georgeson and new 'animals' by Laurie Tompkins (Lab Rats), Eoin Roe (Virtual Pets), Maya Kashif (Serpent of Eden), Michael Yoganayagam (The Dodo) and Darren Bloom (Funeral March). Also presenting Grisey Talea and Matt Rogers Shoulder to the Wheel
Parry Rooms Promenade
13th March 2009, 7.30pm, Parry Rooms, Royal College of Music, London
A travelling concert with staged spectacle, curated by Neil Georgeson, where the audience and performers move between all three Parry Rooms, and a piano is gradually de-tuned and pushed mid-piece from room to room, with the première of azza februar, a new commission by Nimrod Katzir, Grisey Talea, Crumb Vox Balaenae, Andrew Ford Female Nude (staged) and works by Stockhausen, Matt Rogers and Bernhard Gander
Ossian@NONCLASSICAL
7th January 2009, 8pm, NONCLASSICAL at the Macbeth
The ensemble present the world premiere of Isometric Wonderland, a commission from Matt Rogers, as well as Matt Rogers Shoulder to the Wheel, Andriessen Worker's Union, Xenakis Charisma, Knussen Masks, Bernhard Gander Welcome, Darren Bloom Pull and Duo, Tansy Davies Grindshow (unplugged) and Anna Meredith Flex
Ossians Assemble at RCM
26th September 2008, 7.30pm, Parry Rooms, Royal College of Music, London
Our first concert as Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellows at the RCM, featuring Webern's masterful ensemble arrangement of Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony, Christopher Austin Ossian Songs after Schubert: Ossians Lied and Lorma, with soprano Anna Dennis, as well as Lindberg Quintetto dell'estate, Harvey Quantumplation, Tansy Davies Grindshow (unplugged), Bryn Harrison and Jonathan Cole; also presenting a new promenade version of Riviniana made for the ensemble by Larry Goves
"Quartet for the End of Time" at York Late Music Festival
14th June 2008, 1.05pm, NCEM, St Margaret's, York
A lunchtime concert of Messiaen's monumental masterpiece
Eight Songs for a Mad King, Schoenberg/Webern, New works
18th February 2008, 7.30pm, Forest School, London
Presenting premières: Laurie Tompkins Oryctolagus Cuniculus, Maya Kashif Scherzo for the Kalderash, Henry Drummond Fugue and Darren Bloom Break, alongside Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony no 1 in the stunning ensemble arrangement by Webern, as well as Maxwell Davies' iconoclastic music-theatre piece, Eight Songs for a Mad King, unconducted, with baritone George Humphreys.
Music at St Martin's - Ossian Songs after Schubert
22nd October 2007, 1.05pm, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square
A lunchtime concert of recompositions of Schubert Lieder on texts by the apocryphal 9th century bard Ossian - an ancient Celtic saga of war and death, heroism and love - scored for full ensemble by Christopher Austin and Daniel Thomas Davis; with soprano Suzanne Parkes. Also presenting Crumb Vox Balaenae, Berio O King, Darren Bloom Chaconne, and Piazzolla/Pierre Andre Valde Tango Etudes
Carnival of the Animals tour, with animateur Dominic Harlan
24th June 2007, 3pm, Glenilla Arts Foundation; 30th June, 3pm, Holloway Music Festival;
8th July, 4pm, Childwickbury Arts Fair, St Albans, Hertfordshire
A collaboration between Ossian and animateur Dominic Harlan, presenting a riotously entertaining trip through Saint-Saëns' Carnival, featuring several surprising additions and new improvised segments
Miss Donnithorne's Maggot; première of Schubert Ossian songs
23rd June 2007, 7.30pm, Duke's Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London
A theatrical event presenting the music-theatre piece Miss Donnithorne's Maggot, with soprano Jane Manning, in consultation with Maxwell Davies, alongside the staged opera première of Ossian Songs - recompositions of Schubert Ossian songs commissioned from Christopher Austin, Daniel Thomas Davis, Darren Bloom and Maxim Boon, telling a tragic tale of Celtic legend, directed by Neil Georgeson; with soprano Jane Manning, soprano Ana Schwedhelm, and baritone George Humphreys. Completing the programme is the stunning Schoenberg/Webern Chamber Symphony no 1
York Late Music Festival: New works
June 2nd 2007, 7.30pm, NCEM, St. Margaretʼs Church, York
Presenting Sherlaw Johnson Quintet, Darren Bloom Sleeper, a new Maxim Boon Piano Trio and a première from Edward Caine, as well as works by Ligeti, Varèse and Piazzolla
"20th Century Classics"
11th May 2007, 7.30pm, Duke's Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London
Presenting iconic ensemble works Boulez Dérive 1, Bartok Contrasts and Berio O King; and solo virtuoso works Stravinsky Three movements from Petrushka, Schnittke A Paganini, Varèse Density 21.5, Maxwell Davies The Seven Brightnesses, Britten Sacher Theme and Ligeti Cello Sonata
Yale composers' collaboration - Ligeti Chamber Concerto
24th April 2007, 7.30pm, Duke's Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London
A performance of Ligeti's astonishing Chamber Concerto provides the starting point in a concert of works for the same forces by Yale students Matthew Barnson, Ted Hearne and Yoshiaki Onishi as well as Royal Academy of Music students Martin Suckling, Richard Harrold and Oscar Colomina i Bosch, conducted by Simon Bainbridge
'Soundings' Festival
18th-19th April 2007, Austrian Cultural Forum, Knightsbridge
Concerts and workshops of new works by Marcel Reuter, Bryn Harrison, Bernhard Gander, Gerald Resch, Joanna Wozny, Dobrinka Tabakova, Ed Bennett and Geoff Hannan; with mezzo-soprano Lore Lixenberg, soprano Johanna von der Deken, tenor Andy Morton and baritone Clemens Kölbl
Pierrot Lunaire
22nd March 2007, Seven Oaks School
A concert and workshop of Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire, conducted by Dominic Grier
"The All-New Carnival of the Animals"
13th February 2007, 7.30pm, Duke's Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London
A new staged version of Carnival of the Animals with newly commissioned 'animals' by Darren Bloom, Tom Lane, Aaron Holloway-Nahum, Bruno Gabirro and James Murray and a new dramatic narrative written by Neil Georgeson and acted and sung by baritone George Humphreys; also featuring Crumb Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale) and Kagel Westen, conducted by Christopher Austin
Eight Songs for a Mad King; Quartet for the End of Time; Pierrot
11th October 2006, 7.30pm, Duke's Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London
The ensemble present Eight Songs for a Mad King, in consultation with Peter Maxwell Davies, with baritone George Humphreys. Also featuring Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time and a staged performance of Thea Musgrave Pierrot. The ensemble's first concert as New Music Fellows at the Royal Academy of Music
