Rouse in Manchester with RNCM and BBC Philharmonic

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(June 2011)

American composer Christopher Rouse travels to Manchester for American Raptures on 14 and 15 June, a two-day celebration of his music presented by the RNCM in association with the BBC Philharmonic.

Christopher Rouse's music is celebrated in a two-day feature in Manchester on 14 and 15 June, culminating in a performance of his Symphony No.2 by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Clark Rundell. Rouse is today one of America's most performed symphonic composers, commissioned by the world's leading orchestras, and a much respected composition teacher at The Juilliard School in New York. The programme in Manchester combines Rouse's music with those of other leading US composers, and works by students at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Events on Tuesday 14 June open with a lunchtime concert at the RNCM at 1.15 pm of instrumental music performed by students, including Rouse's Mime for snare drum, Valentine for flute, Ricordanza for cello and Artemis for brass quintet, together with works by student composers. At 6.00 pm Rouse is in conversation with Clark Rundell, preparing for the evening concert at 7.30 pm featuring works performed by the RNCM New Ensemble. Highlights include Rouse's rock-driven Bonham for percussion octet, Rapturedux for cello octet which was commissioned by the RNCM International Cello Festival in 2001, and George Crumb's Eleven Echoes of Autumn. The lunchtime concert at the RNCM on 15 June features the Kreutzer Quartet in Rouse's String Quartet No.2 composed in 1988, and the world premiere of John McCabe's Clarinet Quintet with Linda Merrick joining the quartet.

The finale to the Rouse feature, and to the RNCM's year-long focus on American music, is provided by the BBC Philharmonic's evening concert at 7.30 pm at MediaCityUK in Salford. Rouse's Rome-inspired Compline performed by the RNCM New Ensemble follows the world premiere of a new work by Mary Bellamy, and the second half is devoted to Rouse's Symphony No.2 conducted by Clark Rundell. The second of Rouse's three symphonies (the third was premiered in St Louis in May this year), was written in the 1990s when the composer was searching for light amidst the darkness of loss of family and friends. Set in three movements, the mercurial first movement is refracted into the grief-laden central Adagio, mourning the death of friend and fellow composer Stephen Albert, leading to a tempestuous finale fuelled by anger against human mortality.

Rouse is featured at many of the US's leading festivals this summer including Aspen, Santa Fe, Cabrillo, and Tanglewood. His recent orchestral work Odna Zhizn (A Life) is conducted by Marin Alsop in Cabrillo and Hans Graf in Houston in coming months.

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