marc yeats linked cv biography 2014-15
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Marc Yeats latest biography and CV linked to his website 2014 / 15TRANSCRIPT
This PDF biography and C.V. is hyperlinked to Marc’s Website
Marc Yeats’ music is performed, commissioned and broadcast worldwide. Transduc9on, complex surface rela9onships, asynchronous alignments, contextual, harmonic and temporal ambigui9es, polarised intensi9es and a visceral joy of sound are all primary concerns.
‘how sour sweet music is,When 9me is broke and no propor9on kept!’(William Shakespeare: Richard II, 5.5.42-‐9)
Marc Yeats is a composer and visual ar9st. His intense music has received performances and broadcast around the world including The Edinburgh String Quartet (UK), the Chamber Group of Scotland (UK), Psappha (UK), Richard Casey, Stephen Combes, the London SinfonieXa (UK), the Endymion Ensemble (UK), Lonba (Argen9na), Paragon Ensemble (UK), the ScoZsh Chamber Orchestra (UK), illegal harmony (UK), 175 East (N.Z.), Sarah WaXs, SCAW (UK), Sarah Nicolls, Federico Mondelci, the Commonwealth SinfonieXa (UK), Contempo Ensemble (Italy), Rarescale (UK), The ScoZsh Clarinet Quartet (UK), Symposia (UK), the New York Miniaturists Ensemble (USA), Trio IAMA (Greece), The Interna9onal Concert Brass Soloists (Switzerland), Dirk Amrein (Germany) Expatrio (UK), Chroma (UK), Kokoro (UK), Consor9um5 (UK), Ensemble Amorpha (UK) Chamber Cartel (US), Audi9v Vokal (Germany), the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (UK), the Hallé Orchestra and Chorus (UK) conducted by Sir Mark Elder, Tokyo City Philharmonic (Japan) and Gewandhaus Radio Orchestra (Germany), with broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Scotland as well as US, German, EU, Hawaiian, Japanese and New Zealand radio.
Marc is Composer-‐in-‐Associa0on with:
Thumb Ensemble [Birmingham UK]Manchester Pride [Manchester UK] Chamber Cartel [Atlanta, Georgia US]SATSYMPH [Bristol/Crewkerne UK]
Composer Curator with Sound and Music for 2014/15
LISTEN | Marc’s music
INTERVIEWS | video interviews
CATALOGUE | list of works
A glimpse into 2014 – and beyond . . .
Audi%v Vokal rehearsing ‘oros’ in Dresden, Germany, on the 27th February 2014 at the Deutsche Hygiene-‐Museum.
The year started magnificently with Audi0v Vokal [Dresden, Germany] giving the premiere of their commission oros for 8 voices. The premiere was recorded by Deutschlandfunk Radio for European broadcast this autumn.
This year Marc has become a ‘composer curator’ with Sound and Music. Along with funds from SaM and English Arts Council LoXery he is cura9ng Sonic Coast Live Concert Series in partnership with DIVAcontemporary. The five Dorset-‐based concerts will include four world premieres of Marc’s work including on the 26th July, beyond this [all had been chaos] for viola and percussion with Stephen Upshaw [viola] and Callie Hough [percussion] and later in the season, the moon, upright for wind trio [with Rarescale], his 18 minute second string quartet from manuscripts of moving song with the Zero Theorem and through woods in riot for 2 trumpets, tenor and bass trombones with Meridian Brass.
2014 also sees a number of commission premieres in the US. These will include:
sculptures in bright blue for soprano and alto saxophone with KOEK duo; vulgar gorgon for Clibber Jones Rock Ensemble and invoco for alto saxophone and bassoon with Post-‐Haste Reed Duo
Virtuoso US flau9st, Carlton Vickers recently commissioned an epic, 20+ minute solo work from Marc. streaming will be premiered and recorded by Carlton in the 2014/15 season. Carlton said of the new work: “Today, received “Streaming” for Kingma System quartertone alto flute by Marc Yeats. A massive 20< minute energy field. What a terrifying talent this man has. Effortless. Unreal.”
Again in the US, the spring of 2014 will see the release of the shape distance CD, recorded by the Atlanta based Chamber Cartel where Marc is currently Composer-‐in-‐Associa9on. And in November 2014 Chamber Cartel will give the premiere of a substan9al new Yeats’ commission, ‘and explora9on of bright’ for piano, harp and 2 percussionists at an all Yeats’ concert.
In Europe:
The two pianists in my life; le2, Geert Callaert, right; Pierre-‐Arnaud Dablemont
Marc is working extensively with Belgian pianist Geert Callaert in 2014/15.
To date, Marc has completed two duo commissions, the first for pianist Geert Callaert and double bassist, Mar9n Rossi and cherries all black will be premiered in Brussels in the 2014/15 season and subsequently taken on tour around Belgium.
The second for Geert Callaert and Pieter NuyZen – a pathology of line for bassoon and piano will be premiered in the 2014/15 season in Belgium.
Addi9onally, over the next 18 months a huge collec9on of Marc’s piano music is being recorded with Geert including the ferociously difficult Viciousness of Circles, lenten fires, Oroborous and ‘ENÛMA ELIŠ’. Comprising over an hour of music, this ini9al collec9on of pieces will be the first recording of Marc’s piano music from the 1990s to the present day. Geert will be recording the work in Academiezaal Sint Truiden; a beau9ful concert hall in Belgium. Geert and Marc are also making a documentary video of their work together in August this year. Live performance of the pieces will follow at venues around Europe.
There will be much more piano music recorded in 2014 as Marc will be working with Pierre-‐Arnaud Dablemont, a wonderfully talented pianist based in Brussels. Pierre-‐Arnaud will be recording Marc’s epic series of pieces the magical control of rain [c.48 minutes] for commercial release in the autumn / winter of 2014. ‘the magical control of rain’ is Marc’s most recent solo piano composi9on. A live London premiere is also planned for March 2015.
2014 will also see premieres of corpuscular theory of light for clarinet, soprano saxophone and xylophone, Lines and Distances for solo B flat clarinet [July 2014] and black root for E flat clarinet [also July 2014] in Austria and Germany with Clarinet specialist Markus Wenninger.
We Are Wolfpack will premiere the dog and the wolf for ensemble at a London venue in their 2014/15 season.
And a li@le further into the future . . .
Marc has been exploring a rela9onship with the fabulous Australian Syzygy Ensemble. More to follow on this in 2014/15!
In 2015, cellist Patric Tapio Johnson [who premiered ‘pathos’ for solo cello], along with zero theorem [ensemble] comprising a host of the most talented young contemporary music exponents will give the world premier of logos [concerto for cello and seven instrumentalists] in London [date and venue tbc].
Also in 2015, the Galachter Wind Trio will premiere and be recording Marc’s newly commissioned ‘dark gravity’ for bassoon, oboe, clarinet and percussion [1] for inclusion on their new CD of Bri9sh woodwind trio music.
Under the auspices of their new ini9a9ve, Crea9ve Music Composer Con9nuum (CMCC), the CHICAGO MODERN ORCHESTRA PROJECT has asked composer Marc Yeats for a new composi9on for their 2014-‐15 season. The new commission will see Marc con9nuing his composi9onal research around unsynchronised performance and composi9onal techniques, culmina9ng in a substan9al work for brass ensemble, percussion and strings [with op9onal piano] that will push Marc’s unsynchronised composi9ons into the orchestral sphere for the first 9me. The work will be directed but only to ini9ate sounds and instrumental groupings. All performers will play ‘as soloists’, following their own fully notated parts which shall contain different tempi, bar structures and material, simultaneously performed [asynchornous] across the orchestra without a unifying beat from the director. Each performer will play ‘live and [to a certain extent] free’. Due to the composi9onal nature of the music, each performance will yield slightly different results, interplays, gestural and harmonic references and unique outcomes crea9ng music of great fluidity, unpredictability, beauty, complexity, wild energy and connec9vity. This music cannot be read from a conven9onal score; it renews itself with each performance and can only be ‘revealed’ when played live.
a few Past Highlights:
Recent large music commissions include: SATSYMPH’s ‘on a theme of Hermes’; an original work which fuses contemporary classical ensemble music and contemporary poetry in an en9rely new and innova9ve way having a truly unique method of delivery via smartphone apps. This piece of work was selected by the PRS Founda9on for Music’s New Music Award 2010 as one of 4 innova9ve new music ideas selected na9onally for a £50,000 development prize.
You can see the promo0onal video here. Winning the PRSF for Music public engagement vote [but not the prize]ensured the work was subsequently funded in a partnership comprising Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts, PRS for Music Founda9on, PVA MediaLab and Labculture Ltd., Lighthouse Poole, Arnolfini Bristol, The arts Unit, Poole Borough Council, Bristol Ensemble and MShed Bristol. SATSYMPH has gone from strength to strength and are now among the UK leaders in this field. Marc is a founding partner of SATSYMPH LLP and is currently developing major new projects bringing together contemporary music, contemporary poetry, loca9on, user-‐directed experience, GPS and smartphone technologies.
And sturzstrom, a large choral work commissioned by Coastal Voices for the 2012 Olympics as part of an umbrella project that explored the Jurassic Coast with newly commissioned composi9ons linking music and earth sciences through the voice. Performances included the premiere, 300 feet underground in Beer Quarry Caves, Devon (picture above); Lighthouse Poole and the opening ceremony of the Olympic sailing events in Weymouth and Portland, Dorset in July 2012.
‘It certainly sounds different: the volley of shrieks and bellows have a feral quality to them and create genuine excitement. At the same 9me, crescendos can disappear into whispers just as quickly’. Tim Jonze On Shuffle … Experimental music | The Guardian | 30th June 2012
My Blood is as Red as Yours for orchestra and chorus (SATB)– soprano and baritone soloists – (2 bassoons, 2 trumpets, 4 horns, harp, 9mpani, strings (vla, vc,db) was commissioned by the Hallé Orchestra to celebrate World Aids Day 2008. Text by Leslie Kay.
Premiered by The Hallé Orchestra and Hallé Youth Choir, with Roderick Williams and Rebecca Botone as soloists. Conducted by Sir Mark Elder, at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester 1st December 2008. The concert was the ini9a9ve of Les PraX who managed the event.
Listen to My Blood is as Red as Yours
Marc’s current composi0onal research:
Asynchronous composi9on: The context for this research is based in work exploring the transducted, semio9c and hermeneu9cal rela9onships between Marc Yeats’ work as a composer and visual ar9st. His con9nued research explores live performa9ve events involving spontaneous, reac9ve and contextual responses by ar9st to his composi9onal prac9ce; the effec9veness of transduc9on across these media in a live performa9ve environment and how the semio9cs in his music nota9on that result in sound produc9on [music] can relate to mark-‐making in his visual art-‐work as experienced and expressed through this singular process; in short, bringing the inten9on and outcome of his music and visual art closer together.
Most of Marc’s recent commissions, especially from the US are for asynchronous pieces, a number of which are to be recorded for CD in the coming months. oros, a commission from Audi9v Vokal for 8 voices is a most recently recorded example of his asynchronous composi9on. Marc has wriXen a number of blogs about this research and its outcomes so far. They can be found here
The Shape DistanceThe Shape Distance -‐ did it work?
“I admire your work…you have a unique giz and you create magic with your ability to relay complex concepts with ease and simplicity to performers. It’s a talent missing from most composers; I use you as a model in talks I conduct because it is such an important element for aspiring composers…and let’s also make a key point…your music is profoundly innova9ve. I’ll always be a fan.” Bill Smith | Composer / Teacher [US]| 25th April 2014 Facebook open post
Detail of ‘the shape distance [map 12]
Marc and the BBC
Marc has a frui|ul rela9onship with the BBC. His first broadcast was on BBC Radio Scotland when his flute quartet was premiered by Alison Mitchell and the Edinburgh String Quartet in the mid 1990s. Marc’s very first orchestral work, I See Blue, selected by the Manchester Composers’ Pla|orm run by the BBC Philharmonic was premiered in Studio 7, Oxford Road Studios in Manchester in 1995. Martyn Brabbins conducted the first performance which was broadcast to much acclaim on BBC Radio 3. A strong rela9onship with the BBC Philharmonic followed with pieces being conducted by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies in his role as composer / conductor in associa9on. Max organised a commission for Marc with the St. Magnus Fes9val and the ScoZsh Chamber Orchestra in 1997. The commission was also 9ed into an extensive schools educa9on program that Marc designed and implemented. Marc was invited to talk about his commission and educa9on work on the Orkney Islands on In Tune, live from the fes9val.
Max also conducted I see Blue (this performance was also broadcast on BBC Radio 3) as well as the UK premiere of PAGAN II which was similarly broadcast on a ‘Hear and Now’ program in 1998. You can hear Max talking about Marc’s work in a BBC interview for the program. Click HERE to listen to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies in conversaSon about Marc Yeats’ PAGAN II for orchestra before he conducted the work with the BBC Philharmonic. Listen to the full recording of PAGAN II.
in 1999, Marc’s largest orchestral work to date was commissioned by the BBC Philharmonic to open Piano 2000 in Manchester with Kathryn StoX as soloist. The work received widespread acclaim in na9onal reviews and the performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 twice. Listen to The Round and Square Art of Memory Marc was also a guest on BBC Radio Manchester where he was interviewed at length about his life, work and the forthcoming commission for the BBC PHilharmonic. Also in 2000 Marc’s ‘a wai9ng ghost in the blue sky’, performed by Psappha was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 from that year’s St. Magnus Fes9val. You can hear the recording here.
More recently Marc was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to write a solo harpsichord piece for New Genera9on Ar9st Mahan Esfahani. ‘rhema’ received its world premiere on the 29 October 2010 at the Clothworkers' Centenary Concert Hall at the University of Leeds. This premiere was subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Mahan Esfahani went on to perform 'rhema' at the Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall on the 22nd. August 2011 as part of the Manchester Pride Chamber Music Concert Series, produced by Les PraX. Listen to rhema
Marc and Manchester Pride -‐ composer-‐in-‐associa0on:
“I’m so thrilled to be composer-‐in-‐associa9on with Manchester Pride. This will be the seventh year I have held the posi9on. In fact, I believe I’m s9ll the only composer-‐in-‐associa9on with a pride fes9val in the UK and as far as I’m aware in the world. So it truly is a rare a beau9ful thing and one we should all be very proud of; we’re making a liXle bit of history each year!” Read the full ar0cle here.
Commissioned by Manchester Pride Chamber Concert Series. Premiere recording of ERIS for flute and viola, performed by Kevin Gowland (flute) and David Aspin (viola). Concert series produced by Les PraQ. The premiere took place at the Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall in Manchester University on the 23rd. August 2011.
Marc’s musical development:
Born in 1962, an only child, brought up in London, aXended a Roman Catholic school, had trauma9c treatment at the hands of his father, losing his mother to cancer in 1977, when he were just 15, by which 9me he’d already commenced serious pain9ng sold through private galleries, moved to Devon with his vola9le father, ran a sweet shop, experienced bankruptcy, yet all the while yearning to crea9vely express himself.
Instead of the expecta9ons of his teachers for a highly gized student to embark on a professional career in the arts, paleontology or veterinary medicine, profound setbacks and circumstances blighted his academic advance: instead he mopped hospital floors but went on to qualify as a registered nurse for people with learning disabili9es. Azer marrying at 21 to his wife in Devon, they both moved from Southampton to the opposite end of the UK, the Isle of Skye to give free reign to his crea9ve vitality and verve.
His transla9on to abstract pain9ng and acquisi9on of technical skills for a serious musical composer, while earning a living as a part-‐9me ambulance driver, teaching the disabled and helping raise a family as a gay man, has, in just over a decade, realised more than 100 pieces, gaining credit and approba9on from contemporaries, without benefit of scholas9c opportuni9es at a college, university or conservatoire. The more remarkable for having been praised by some of the world’s most respected and innova9ve composers, musicians and commentators – tes9fied by performances and prizes awarded to him by revered na9onal and interna9onal ins9tu9ons and orchestras/ensembles including those in London, Edinburgh, Manchester, New York City, Leipzig, Tokyo, together with various ensembles in Britain, Canada, Holland, Italy, New Zealand, broadcasts in the UK, Germany & Italy.
The genesis of his work stems from two major influences on the composer. Yeats’ own ini9al musical experiences delineate nostalgia for the English Pastoral School (exemplified by Bax, Vaughan Williams and Moeran) cas9ng an acute emo9onal impression and a diametric opposite; matched by his passion for and fascina9on with avant-‐garde expressionism and experimentalism awakened from the 1960s and ’70s. Being also an acclaimed landscape painter Marc Yeats’ work with colour, form and texture inform his ideas on musical construc9on and content. As his illustra9ve ap9tude intensified he observed: ‘I moved decisively from representa9onal to abstract art. With a rising technical repertoire, so too grew my convic9on of crea9ng an individual composi9onal language by exploring these modes in a musical context. In I am Nature, both threads are transformed through my “painterly ear” to assimilate
and evoke a very personal, natural and unselfconscious outpouring of sound. On first hearing, the music may seem arbitrary, improvisa9onal or even chao9c. This is not the case. Consciously the music doesn’t operate within the logic of number series, mo9fic development, Fibonacci-‐based propor9ons, func9onal harmony, magic squares, tone rows or any of the customary gamete of composi9onal techniques. Another ra9onale is opera9ve; a personal logic rooted in “self experience” of the techniques and processes of abstract pain9ng. Keith Evans (introducSon to an interview from April 2007)
“I loved music, especially classical music ever since I was a young teenage boy. My journey through music was a very frustra9ng one. I knew I had to write music – I believed that I could write music but was frustrated by my total lack of knowledge about how music worked, what instruments could do and how one wrote music down. Yet, I would hear this strange stuff – my own music -‐ bubbling away in my head whilst feeling uXerly frustrated about not being able to capture it or do anything with it in any way. For several years I despaired, not knowing what to do to bring this torment to an end.
When I was 16 I began the long journey of teaching myself how to read and write music. It took many years. As soon as I understood something, my imagina9on quickly moved on, demanding new techniques to be mastered. My musical imagina9on was constantly running ahead of my ability to keep up with it. Again, this was totally frustra9ng. Eventually, when I was 34, I had a number of breakthroughs in wri9ng my music down that resulted in my sending some of my rather illiterate scores off to various people. One of these was Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and the Hoy Summer School that he ran on Orkney back then. Max saw my poten9al, took me under his wing and created some wonderful opportuni9es for me. I learnt much. I also realised that coming from a background where I had no musical or instrumental training, whilst not the best career start, turned out in many ways to inform a large part of the process that developed my musical voice and imagina9on into what it is today. As Max always used to tell me, “you are your own man”. Marc Yeats (interview with ‘composiSon today’ 2010).
Marc’s visual art:
Marc has been pain9ng and selling professionally since the age of 15, many years before beginning composi9on in his early thir9es. Across the decades his work has undergone tremendous transforma9on from the ultra-‐realis9c landscapes he painted up to his mid 20s to the abstracted forms he now explores. He has work in several public gallery collec9ons around the ScoZsh Isles but has sold mainly to private collectors.
It was during the upheaval of transi9oning from representa9onal pain9ng to the abstract that his compulsion to compose became an obsession, leading to Marc ‘exploding’ into the music world at 32 years old driven by his new-‐found visual expression and freedom of colour and form.
As Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has remarked, “you can hear the brush strokes in his scores”.
To view Marc’s pain9ngs and drawings, please visit the GALLERY
Marc and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies CBE CH
Marc met Max at the Hoy Summer School in 1994 when he was selected as one of ten composers interna9onally to aXend the course. Before this 9me Marc had no contact with other composers or professional musicians. The course proved to be a revela9on and the start of Marc’s career as a composer.
Azer the course Max told Marc that he wanted to support and promote his work. Subsequently Max organised Marc’s first commission with the ScoZsh Chamber Orchestra for the St. Magnus Fes9val in 1997 which Max conducted. Max went on to conduct a number of Marc’s other orchestral works including PAGAN II and I See Blue with the BBC Philharmonic and Gerwaundhaus Radio Orchestra in Leipzig, Germany. Marc also developed a rela9onship with the St. Magnus Fes9val.
Marc became close friends with Max across the years and spent many weeks with him on Hoy and laXerly Sandy on the Orkney Isles. Across these years a deeply personal correspondence developed where both composers wrote to each other about music, art and life.
A number of commentators have defined Marc’s rela9onship to Max as that of a protege. Although Max never engaged in any form of formal teaching with Marc or inclined him to take up any of his composi9onal methods or aesthe9cs, Max was and con9nues to be a huge supporter of Marc’s work. They con9nue to share developments and ideas in their composi9onal prac9ce with Max taking a great interest in Marc’s work with mobile technologies and asynchronous structural approaches in composi9on and visual art work.
Max always remarked he was intrigued by two par9cular aspects of Marc’s development; how he had learned so much and could compose as he did without any formal training or support in composi9on or instrumental tui9on, and that Marc was an accomplished painter, again without any training.
“Mr. Yeats has a surprising and I think unique ar9s9c vision. When I first encountered his work I was very aware of a lack of professional training in musical composi9on and realised, next, that here were developments in the architecture and soundscape of his musical world which were quite unlike anything previously encountered. I presumed this was a direct result of his being forced by an extraordinary crea9ve imagina9on and energy to find ways of circumnaviga9ng these lacunae in prac9cal musical experience . . . . . . by studying and learning very fast, to a degree of hot intensity I never encountered.” Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
“Marc Yeats’ musical voice is quite unlike anything else; the music is challenging to both performers and audiences, and very communica9ve. He produces extraordinary composi9ons that not only look and sound good, but demonstrate a very high level of academic learning, while being breathtakingly original.” Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
Click HERE to listen to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies in conversaSon about Marc Yeats’ PAGAN II for orchestra before he conducted the work with the BBC Philharmonic.
In 2004 Max dedicated his SCO string orchestra commission, ‘Fall of the Leafe’ “to the Skye composer and painter Marc Yeats”
What others have said about Marc’s work:
“Yeats’ instrumental roles are demanding, pushing every player to extremes of agility. The intensi9es of expression are not empty extravagances, however, but the comment of an expressionist drama that exudes the passion and life-‐energy of their creator.”
“ Yeats is in some ways a unique crea9ve spirit in out firmament, for an age of specialised niche ac9vity he refuses to restrict his ebullient crea9vity to a single art form. It is also worth poin9ng out that for all his diverse ar9s9c prac9ce, there is nothing of the dileXante about Yeats: what impresses those of us who have been exposed to his output in sound and image is the individuality, the bounding personality that shouts, rather than speaks, from his canvasses and scores”. Piers Helliwell
“Refreshingly unfeXered in concept – it’s something of a tour de force” Lynne Walker, The Independent on The Round and Square Art of Memory
“He uses his orchestra resourcefully; fresh and intriguing colours, but he uses his musical 9me even more resourcefully, never allowing the ear to lose track of the changing and evolving ideas.” The Scotsman on The Round and Square Art of Memory
“Yeats has a strikingly individual feel for the texture of an orchestra, yet it’s never in all-‐purpose avant-‐garde alienated tones. But this is the second fabulous piece I’ve heard from this emerging composer, and if there’s more where that came from we have a major new Bri9sh talent on our hands.” David Fanning, The Telegraph on The Round and Square Art of Memory
“That Yeats has something to say in the wild shrieking music is beyond ques9on. He hurls himself at the sound with an admirably pure and savage impressionism.” The Scotsman on The Anatomy of Air
“… he unleashes every shade on the paleXe, and con9nually pushes instruments, textures and dynamics to extremes. “The Herald on The Anatomy of Air”
“The orchestral work ‘I See Blue’, is startlingly original in its structure and orchestra9on, using brass and bass drum to unexpected and powerful effect, with dazzling combina9ons of string and wind colour.” Sally Beamish
“Marc Yeats is one of the most exci9ng composers I have encountered in recent years. His ability to use maximum with all 9mbres of the instrument, whilst never sacrificing the very heart of the music, gives the musician many challenges which are exhilara9ng to discover.” Kathryn Stof
“The sheer noise of the percussion sec9on through which Kathryn StoX somehow managed to make the piano audible set a new decibel level for this hall. Yet one felt an original crea9ve mind at work, not just a bruiser but a maverick with some kind of purpose.” Michael Kennedy on The Round and Square Art of Memory
VOX review: Sarah WaXs, Park Lane Group Young Ar9st Concerts, Purcell Room, South Bank Centre, London: VOX was premiered by and wriXen for Sarah (WaXs), with the inten9on of depic9ng as many voices as the instrument is capable of. In Sarah’s hands the instrument spat, grumbled, screamed and sang throughout. Making use of the al9ssimo range of the instrument at every turn, this has to be one of the most demanding yet effec9ve works in the repertoire, both musically and technically.” Sarah James, Clarinet and Saxophone Magazine
Yeats is largely self-‐taught, though he has received support and encouragement from Maxwell Davies azer aXending his composi9on summer school on Hoy some years ago. He is also a painter, and the possibility that the audio and visual aspects of his crea9ve imagina9on are linked in some way should not be ruled out. Yeats is an experimental composer in his own highly individual manner, and this is reflected in almost all his recent scores. ‘a wai0ng ghost in the blue sky’ was the most ‘advanced’ music on offer at this year’s Fes9val, yet the confidence with which Yeats deployed his material ensured a warm recep9on. John Warnsby – FesSval Review: St Magnus FesSval – 16 – 21 June 2000
Part of the Coastal Voices Project in Dorset and east Devon, sturzstrom has no famous par9cipants. It’s a vocal work I stumbled across while reading the blog 5against4.com and is one that expresses – in the words of the composer, Marc Yeats – “the forma9on and geology of the Jurassic coast concentra9ng on the phenomena of landslips, mudslides and coastal erosion”. I’m sure we can all agree it’s been a while since we heard one of those. The piece was made using nothing but vocals from community choirs and pebbles for percussion but it was no simple affair. Geologists were offered crea9ve input, while – not wan9ng to limit the music to conven9onal nota9on – Yeats created a variety of signs and symbols for the vocalists to learn and interpret (looking at the score feels more like a maths exam than a piece of music). It certainly sounds different: the volley of shrieks and bellows have a feral quality to them and create genuine excitement. At the same 9me, crescendos can disappear into whispers just as quickly. Tim Jonze On Shuffle … Experimental music | The Guardian | 30th June 2012
Marc conducWng ‘sturzstrom’ in the icci360˚ Arena, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Weymouth and Portland, July 2012
“Marc Yeats’ music is perhaps the only music I know of personally that is truly making sense of the 5th empirical quality of sound – spa9ality.
I mean it. Amongst everything else, e.g. Black Root or A Theg of Cold Moisture manage most amazingly to work (as the subject of this work, not the object) the space around the performance from which they ring out. Differently as in e.g. Xenakis, You don’t displace the performers, as in spacing them apart from each other but not changing the projec9on dimensions fundamentally, You not only manage to realise (again, as the agents of said ac9vity, not object) the spa9al aXributes of sound, by the very par9cular handling of dynamics, but also literally within the 9mbres themselves (the laXer would hold true even when all notes would be played in iden9cal dynamics, without any emphasis or else; I know, I tried it)! To be able to shape the spa9ality inherent in 9mbres, and to do so in a solo piece (!), is unique.” Markus Wenninger | Clarinejst and musician [Germany] | 12th November 2013 Facebook Thread
“Today, received “Streaming” for Kingma System quartertone alto flute by Marc Yeats. A massive 20< minute energy field. What a terrifying talent this man has. Effortless. Unreal. Carlton Vickers | Specialist Contemporary Flute Virtuoso [US] | 25th April 2014 Facebook open post
Awards, Prizes, Commissions and Bursaries (selected)
1994 Hoy Summer School, SCO, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies – aIendance bursary1994 ScoJsh Arts Council Summer School and Travel Bursary.1995 ScoJsh Arts Council Composer Bursary.1995 ScoJsh Arts Council. AIendance fees for the AssociaOon of BriOsh Orchestras Conference.1996 ScoJsh Arts Council Composer Bursary.1997 ScoJsh Arts Council Composer Bursary.1997 Commission – St Magnus FesOval – 25 minute orchestral piece for the SCO1997 Hope ScoI Trust Composer Bursary (for 3 years).1997 ScoJsh Arts Council Commission for visual art ‘Resound’ project.1997 Prize winner – Next Millennium InternaOonal Composers Award, Japan.1999 The Arts Trust of Scotland – travel expenses for Italian performance.1999 Commission – BBC – 32 minute orchestral work for the BBC Philharmonic and Kathryn StoI1999 Commission – The London SinfonieIa – ensemble piece2001 Commission – Kathryn StoI – solo work for saxophone2001 Five Islands Project – Colour Songs: The NaOonal LoIery Access and ParOcipaOon Scheme.2001 Commission – Sarah WaIs – solo work2002 Commission – Hebridean Music Workshops SAC loIery funds – 40 minute ensemble work2002 Commission – Hebridean Music Workshops – SAC loIery funds – 5 watercolour painOngs2002 Commission – ensemble piece – 175 East, New Zealand2003 Commission – Lonba, ArgenOna – ensemble piece2004 Commission – An Tuireann – SOllness in movement – 60” ensemble piece2004 HI~Arts – ArOst’s creaOve bursary2005 Commission – Henri Bok – solo work2005 Commission – RoIerdam Conservatorium – orchestral work2005 First prize – internaOonal composing compeOOon, WBCC, RoIerdam, Holland2006 GO EVENTS – grant towards development of website music download faciliOes2006 Hope ScoI Trust – Funding towards the producOon costs of the new CD opera – Haar2007 Commission – ScoJsh Clarinet Quartet – work for 4 bass clarinets and percussion2007 Commission – Symposia – work for 4 instrumentalists and digital sound-‐track2007 Commission – SCAW – new work for bass clarinet, piano and electronic sound-‐track2007 Commission – Trio IAMA – new work for flute, cello and piano2007 ScoJsh Arts Council – Professional Development Grant – developing new dance music.2007 – 2009. An extensive list of commissions specifically referenced in Yeats’ music biography.2008 Hallé Orchestra with My Blood is as Red as Yours for World Aids Day2009 Arts Council England – Grants for the Arts – collaboraOve locomoOve GPS music/word fusion.2009 Kokoro – commission, ‘shadow and the moon’ for sextet.2009 BBC commission. rhema for harpsichord circa 10mins. In total.2010 Announced as Composer-‐in-‐AssociaOon with Manchester Pride
2010 1 of 5 shortlisted composers with PRSF NMA (Turner Prize for music) with SATSYMPH2011 Commissioned work for ConsorOum5 recorder quintet for 2011 – ‘the bone eaOng snot flower’2011 New work ‘crowded rooms’ for 14 instrumentalists for Leeds University in March 20112011 New commissioned work for silent film with Ensemble Amorpha (amorpha_shorts) for 20112011 Commissioned work ‘Eris’ for flute and viola Manchester Pride Music FesOval 20112011 Commissioned work for massed choirs ‘sturzstrom’ for 2012 Cultural Olympiad (Coastal Voices)2011 Commissioned work SATSYMPH – on a theme of Hermés 2012 Commissioned work ‘the magical control of rain’ for piano (Mark Spalding)2012 Commissioned work ‘the need-‐fire’ string quartet for the Hillman Quartet and Corsham FesOvals2012 Commissioned work ‘black-‐bile’ for ensemble – for Thumb Ensemble2012 Commissioned work ‘sanergia’ for MusicOrba Duo (piano four hands)2012 Commissioned work ‘pathos’ (solo cello) for Antara Project2012 Commissioned work ‘strange and arOficial echo’ for solo quartertone alto flute for Carla Rees2012 Commissioned work ‘quarter-‐sounds’ study in bass clarinet mulOphonics for Sarah WaIs2012 Commissioned work ‘from manuscripts of moving song’ string quartet for the Bergersen Quartet2013 Commissioned work ‘the shape distance’ mixed ensemble – Chamber Cartel US2013 Commissioned work ‘through woods in riot’ brass quartet – Meridian Brass2013 Commissioned work ‘corpuscular theory of light’ trio – Markus Wenninger2013 Commissioned work ‘and cherries all black’ double bass and piano – Geert Callaert2013 Commissioned work ‘lenten fires’ piano – Geert Callaert2013 Commissioned work ‘the dog and the wolf’ mixed ensemble – We Are Wolfpack2013 Commissioned work ‘invoco’ duo – Post-‐Haste Reed Duo US2013 Commissioned work ‘black root’ E flat clarinet – Markus Wenninger2013 Commissioned work ‘a thes of cold moisture’ flute – Manchester Pride Classical Concert Series2013 Commissioned work ‘hyran’ viola – Stephen Upshaw2013 Commissioned work ‘oros’ for 8 voices – AudiOv Vokal Dresden2014 Commissioned work ‘vulgar gorgon’ rock ensemble – Clibber Jones Ensemble US2014 Commissioned work ‘sculptures in bright blue’ soprano and alto saxophone – KOEK Duo US2014 Commissioned work ‘a pathology of line’ bassoon and piano – Geert Callaert2014 Commissioned work ‘streaming’ alto flute – Carlton Vickers US2014 Commissioned work ‘an exploraOon of bright’ piano, harp and 2 percussion – Chamber Cartel US
Membership and Affilia0ons
1993 – 1996 Member of the Skye and Lochalsh Arts Council.1995 – Member of the Performing Right Society.1995 – Member of Mechanical Copyright ProtecOon Society.1996 – Nominated to full membership of the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain.1996 – 2005 Board member for An Tuireann Arts Centre.1997 – ArOsOc Director for Skye and Lochalsh New Music FesOval.1998 – 2000 Vice Chairman for An Tuireann Arts Centre.1998 – 2003 Member of the BriOsh Academy of Composers and Songwriters.2000 – 2005 Chairman of the Board of Directors, An Tuireann Arts Centre.2006 – 2007 Board member – HI~Arts2007 – Advisor to the Board of An Tuireann Arts Centre2009 – Board member of PVA MediaLab, Bridport, Dorset2009 – 2012 Chair of PVA MediaLab, Bridport, Dorset 2011 – Chair of Reach Dorset – therapuOc arts acOviOes for people with mental health issues. 2012 – Chair DIVAcontemporary [arOst-‐led organisaOon commiIed to creaOvity/experimentaOon in the arts] 2014 -‐ Composer Curator with Sound and Music