David Sawer, commissioned by Onyx Brass
About the commission
Celebrating the group’s 21st birthday, the acclaimed Onyx Brass presents an exciting commission for brass quintet by composer David Sawer in over twenty informal and free outdoor performances across Britain’s historic bandstands, outdoor festivals and public spaces. The project will bring contemporary music out of the concert hall and on to the village green.
“I am thrilled to have been selected for New Music Biennial, and very excited indeed to be asked to write a new work for Onyx Brass, to be performed in bandstands up and down the country; the idea of composing a piece that would draw the public’s attention to these unique, surviving monuments in free, open and public spaces immediately appealed.” David Sawer
“We are thrilled to get this chance to work with David and to bring new British music to people all over the UK from all walks of life, on bandstands and village greens around the UK. Our 20 years work in brass chamber music have been leading up to this scale of project, so what a wonderful way to celebrate our 21st birthday!” Onyx Brass
More about the composer
David Sawer studied music at the University of York and received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award in 1993.
His first large-scale orchestral piece, ‘Byrnan Wood’, was premiered at the BBC Proms and recorded for NMC by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Andrew Davis. The Trumpet Concerto received its first performance from the same orchestra, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales gave the world premiere of ‘The Greatest Happiness Principle’ at St David’s Hall, Cardiff. ‘Tiroirs’, commissioned for the London Sinfonietta, has been performed throughout Europe and the US.
His full-length opera ‘From Morning to Midnight’ was premiered by English National Opera and was followed by the operetta ‘Skin Deep’, for Opera North, Bregenz Festival and Royal Danish Opera. More recent works have included a Piano Concerto for Rolf Hind, ‘Rebus’ for musikFabrik and ‘Flesh and Blood’ for BBC Symphony Orchestra.
The NMC label in 2007 released a CD of four orchestral works recorded by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, conducted by Martyn Brabbins and Susanna Mälkki.
