Steven Mackey tours UK with Psappha ensemble

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(November 2002)

This month Steven Mackey joins the UK-based ensemble Psappha, conducted by Nicholas Kok, on a touring programme of his own music, including concerts at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of the London Jazz Festival (23 November) and at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (29 November). Full tour details are at www.cmntours.org.uk. Repertoire for the tour includes the improvisatory Deal, with Mackey as electric guitar soloist joined by jazz-and-beyond drummer Joey Baron, his ingenious Micro-Concerto for percussive toys and chamber ensemble, and Physical Property which Mackey has toured extensively with the Kronos Quartet.

Deal was originally composed for Joey Baron and Bill Frisell, and was premiered in 1995 by members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Mackey built into the work Frisell's outstanding skills in the area of improvisation, allowing much freedom in how the soloist responds to the fixed material played by the ensemble. Since its premiere Mackey has assumed the role of electric guitar soloist and has performed the work a dozen times on both sides of the Atlantic. The musical nature of Deal and its title are explained by the composer as follows: "Life deals you all of these unpredictable things, and then you have to deal with them yourself, as they come."

Recent works by Mackey include an organ concerto, Pedal Tones, premiered last February by John Walker and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. Steven Mackey has in recent years extended his much-admired oeuvre for string quartet with Ars Moriendi for the Borromeo Quartet and Gaggle and Flock for the combined octet forces of the Borromeo and Brentano Quartets. His monodrama Ravenshead has now received 24 performances around the USA by Rinde Eckert and the Dresher Ensemble, but awaits its premiere in other territories.

Tour dates for Mackey and Psappha

22 November 8 pm
Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham
www.nottingham.ac.uk/artscentre

23 November 2.30 pm
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Presented by SBC as part of the London Jazz Festival
in association with Radio 3
www.rfh.org.uk

28 November 7.30 pm
University Great Hall, Lancaster
www.lancs.ac.uk/depts/concerts

29 November 7.30 pm
Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield
www.hcmf.co.uk

30 November 7.30 pm
Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester
www.rncm.ac.uk

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