My Yorkshire Road

I was very pleased to have been commissioned by Chrysalis Arts to compose music inspired by North Yorkshire, my adopted home, and for this I wanted to evoke the sounds and landscape around me, as well as instruments and voices associated with the region. Ripon City Brass Band are based in my local town and, together with the Staithes Fishermen’s Choir on the North Yorkshire Coast, were the founding musicians for the project. I then met Rhiannon Gayle of Rock Up & Sing and her Harrogate based choir joined the project, along with professional musicians Bryony Griffith (fiddle/vocals), Will Hampson (accordion), Lyn Geddes (vocals/guitar), Carl Herring (guitar) & Roberto Ares (drums/percussion). David Lancaster arranged the brass parts, as well as conducting the performances, and I’m greatly indebted to him and to all the musicians for bringing this project to life. I’m immensely grateful too to the Ryedale Festival for staging the premiere and to Ian McMillan poet for his inspirational lyrics once again.

I’ve since rearranged “Tree” for string quartet, first performing it with the Dante String Quartet at their Festival in Cornwall and later with the Pavao String Quartet at the Queen Elizabeth Hall London. It’s one of the pieces on my new album.

TREE

WATER

SAIL