Category Archives: Alumni

Drs Lingas and Antonopoulos Tour NW and SE of the USA with Cappella Romana

billboard2-300x267 Alexander Lingas led the vocal ensemble Cappella Romana recently performed medieval Byzantine chant to large and enthusiastic audiences in the Southeast and Northwest regions of the USA. Recent City graduate Spyridon Antonopoulos was a soloist in all these performances.

They performed “Good Friday in Jerusalem,” a programme that the ensemble had previously recorded at Stanford Memorial Church and was released on February 10th of this year, immediately reaching #1 on Amazon’s Vocal and Opera charts and opening at #8 on the Billboard Classical charts.

“Good Friday in Jerusalem,” features Medieval Byzantine Chant from the Typikon of the Anastasis (the Church of the Holy Sepulchre), including works by Kosmas the Melodist (8th century), Romanos the Melodist (6th century), Theophanes Protothronos (9th century), and Leo VI the Wise (866–912).

The first performance in the South was in Charlotte, NC on Friday, 13 March at St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church

St Nekarios IMG_0142-L

The next day the group travelled to Atlanta, GA, where on Saturday, 14 March they performed at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral

AtlantaGkCathedral

On Sunday morning the ensemble chanted morning services for over three hours (Matins, a hierarchical Divine Liturgy celebrated by His Eminence Metropolitan Alexios, and an Ordination to the Priesthood) at Annunciation Cathedral.

A few weeks before the ensemble had presented three performances of the same programme on the opposite coast of the USA in Portland, Oregon and Seattle Washington:

James McQuillen of Oregon Artswatch wrote the following about the Portland performances:

“On a strictly sonic level, the concert at Portland’s Trinity Episcopal Cathedral was magnificent … As with last year’s concerts of Finnish Orthodox music, it was especially satisfying to hear the singers perform music they’d already worked to a fine polish for committing to disc. The ten men filled the space with dark resonance, making effortless work of melismatic unison melodies and rock-solid drones, and the pacing was measured but unflagging. … The concert also invited a listener to delve into the expressive potential of this ancient music, a kind of artistic expression that, because the rigors and self-negating ethos of the medieval church are worlds away from the nakedly personal poetry of, say, Schubert, we have little ability to grasp. But it was impossible not to hear the laments of Mary at the foot of the cross and not be moved. … Good Friday in Jerusalem went deep, and it sounded close to the spring from which poured centuries of sacred music.”

Read the full review on Oregon Artswatch

Video from the performance at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon:

Good Friday In Jerusalem in Gramophone Magazine

The latest edition of Gramophone Magazine reviews Good Friday In Jerusalem, a CD directed by Alexander Lingas and featuring recent alumnus Spyridon Antonopoulos:

“It would be difficult to find a group more steeped in serious musicological research than Cappella Romana, and their discs of music of the Byzantine tradition (mainly medieval chant but also modern, related works) have, as a result, a general sense of quiet elegance and authority. Their recording of music for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is no exception, and as such is one that not only stands up as a sound world of unique beauty but as a reference for composers writing into their music an influence that is constantly expanding and changing. … it is hard not feel that the work this group is doing is not only presenting music that has a veneer of inaccessibility in a way that releases its particular beauty but also allowing it to bloom and continue to evolve.” —Caroline Gill, Gramophone

Valentina Monsurro (MA Ethnomusicology alumnus) Reflects on her Recent Internship

Valentina Monsurro completed the MA in Ethnomusicology at City in September 2014. Between November 2014 and March 2015, she worked as an intern at Songlines, the world music magazine Songlines.

We asked her about her work there:

Can you start by telling us about the organisation that you have been working for?
Songlines is a world music magazine based in Brixton, south London. It covers traditional and popular music as well as contemporary and fusion, with a focus on artists and bands from the world music scene.

What did your internship involve?
As an intern with no previous experience in the publishing sector I was given the possibility to choose some areas of interest within the activities involved in the production of the magazine. This included editing, writing, design, page-setting and communications management. I also attended group meetings where I was invited to take notes about ideas and strategies to improve the magazine. This gave me opportunity to follow the creative process that leads to the final draft of the issues. The magazine also has an online blog which is constantly being updated and I was often required to write short reviews and posts about music events and new releases. Other duties involved doing research for the blog updates, archiving CDs, managing databases and managing contacts with artists or their agents.

What did you enjoy most about your internship?
Songlines was a very relaxed and friendly environment to work in. Apart from the practical skills I gained, working as a part of the Songlines team gave me the opportunity to get an insight in the daily work of the editorial staff and gain a better understanding of the world music market. It is an experience I would recommend to recent graduates.

Careers with a Music Degree Evening

On Tuesday November 18th the Music Department, together with the City University Careers Service, hosted a music careers evening with visiting speakers from different areas of employment, including a number of our own City music alumni.

The evening started with Laura Chiplin who graduated from City in 2009 and is now a Centre Manager at the Barbican Centre. Laura talked about the kinds of experiences and skills she built up whilst an undergraduate student that prepared her for the workplace, including managing a band and taking every opportunity to get involved in organising events. She also talked about her day to day duties in her job as well as informing students about the various internships currently offered by the Barbican.

Following this, Dr Jim Harrison from the Latymer School talked about careers in school music teaching: from the practicalities of gaining initial experience and applying for teaching courses, through to information on day to day life as a secondary school music teacher. He was accompanied by Connaugh Clarke (graduated City BMus 2012) who is currently studying for a PGCE at the Institute of Education and is undertaking teaching practice at Latymer School. Connaugh talked about his experience of the PGCE course and teaching practice so far.

The next speaker was Grace Watts from the British Association of Music Therapy who introduced the broad area of Music Therapy as well as giving information on which institutions offer Music Therapy training, and the kind of work involved in being a Music Therapist.

Sophie Ransby – another City graduate who is in charge of the gamelan education programme at the South Bank Centre – then spoke about how she had become involved in gamelan education and the kinds of skills and experiences that had been useful in gaining her current position.

The final speaker was Luke Shrewsbury, who graduated from City in 2009 after which he took an MA in Sound Design at the National Film and Television School. Luke now works as a sound designer. He talked about his transition from university to workplace and the kinds of projects that he now works on.

The evening rounded off with a general Q&A session, chaired by Alexander Lingas.

The event was attended by about 40 people including undergraduate, MA and research students.

Joe Perkins (MA Composition) Reflects on his Summer Internship

Joe Perkins (pictured, right) graduated from the BMus programme in July 2014 and has spent this summer completing an internship with award-winning production company Brains and Hunch before he commences the MA in Composition at City this September. We asked him about his experience of the internship:

‘My recent internship with Tom Haines and Chris Branch at ‘Brains and Hunch – Music for Moving Image’ has been an invaluable experience. My understanding of work in a professional studio, such as recording techniques, equipment maintenance, administration, and collaborative work, have all been greatly improved. My other responsibilities involved working with various different theatre companies, such as Filter Theatre and Shunt Events. I have also been assistant sound engineer for a production called ‘The Circus’, which was performed at Edinburgh Fringe this year. This introduced me to new software such as Qlab and Soundflower. In addition, I have been offered further work with Shunt Theatre as a regular performer with my Gypsy Jazz ensemble, ‘Nouveau Gadjo’. My mentors Tom and Chris have helped me greatly with my understanding of composing for moving image, various recording and mixing techniques, an understanding of analog synthesizers/sequencers, Max MSP, Pro Tools and instrument building. I would highly recommend the internship experience!’

Alumnus Interview: Luke Shrewsbury

When did you graduate from City and what have you been doing since?

I graduated from City in 2009. I had really enjoyed a huge range of specialisms at City but I had particularly enjoyed Ethnomusicology and Electroacoustic Composition. I’d done a lot of work in ethnomusicology on the social role of music in different ethnic communities living in London and had discovered a passion for talking to musicians and recording sounds/instruments, as well as experiencing other areas of new cultures (mostly food!). Alongside this I was very dedicated to Electroacoustic composition and the manipulation of sounds using new technologies. I became interested in recording, field recording and music recording. The department really ignited this crossover between ethnomusicology and music technology and after I graduated I began using my recording skills to do little jobs in film and documentary. As my passion grew I was briefly involved at Resonance FM and then for a short while I worked at a community radio station in my hometown of Sheffield as well as doing some jobs for BBC radio. I worked on various low-budget short films and sometimes some mid-budget ones throughout this time. I was developing a love for telling stories in sound. This involved music, field recordings and voices and it was a natural progression to pursue this at a more professional level into the world of film and TV where having not only a musical ear, but an ear for a good story and how to tell it is crucial. And naturally, I had been interested in cinema, television and drama for many years. provides a great space to combine a technical interest in technology with the desire to create something more abstract that has emotional content.

I gather you’ve just finished a course at the National Film and Television School. Can you tell us about the course and what you enjoyed most/got the most out of?

The National Film and Television School is a place that nurtured my creative passion and taught me update technical to enter the world of film sound. Its an old institution and the MA course I did there was incredibly exciting and taught me everything about proffessional sound that I know. The School operates as a replica film studio with films being produced, shot and post-produced year round. I worked on various fiction, animation and documentary projects over two years using industry-standard facilities and with visiting tutors who work in film and television.

I had access to very good technology, and very good teaching. It’s very intense – more like a job in post-production facility than a degree course. It also allowed me to become more creative with my field recording, interacting with film makers, mixing and editing sounds. Building on all the things from my undergraduate degree at City University and allowing me to develop myself creatively and technically.

Where are you working now? Can you tell us what your work involves and what you enjoy the most.

I’m currently working on several projects. I’m employed as an assistant sound editor by a production company making a children’s animation series due for broadcast this year on CBeebies. I edit dialogue for them in an office in Camden.

I’m also working on two short films, one is a comedy produced by some friends of mine who hope to get a pilot commissioned for television and the other is a short drama with no dialogue – so I’m having a lot of fun creating atmospheres and recording foleys and Sound FX. Because there’s no dialogue I can be very precise about how a scene sounds because I can replace everything very easily without the need to do expensive voice re-recording.

The other area of work that has opened up is sound design for Video Games. Its a huge industry and its ever-expanding. there are hundreds of indie games out there and they all need creative sound designers to help them out. I’m currently working in development with a small team who have been commissioned by the Wellcome Trust to produce an education science app.

Projects large and small keep getting thrown my way and thats what I enjoy about the job most. I get to meet a huge range of people from a range of disciplines and backgrounds and help them realise their projects using sound and music.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years time? What would your ideal job be?

Right now, as long as the work keeps coming, I’m in an ideal place. I’d like to work on larger feature films and also develop my sound ideas as installations. I love recording and editing sounds so I hope to be doing that in 5 years time.

Book Publication by Centre for Music Studies PhD Graduate Dr Laura Seddon

Dr Laura Seddon, who completed her PhD in the Centre for Music Studies in 2011 under the supervision of Professor Rhian Samuel, has published a monograph based on her doctoral thesis with Ashgate Press.

Entitled British Women Composers and Instrumental Chamber Music in the Early Twentieth Century, Dr Seddon’s book is available to order from www.ashgate.com at the following link: www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409439455. All online orders receive a discount.

The flier for the book may be downloaded here. The publishers’ details are as follows:

This is the first full-length study of British women’s instrumental chamber music in the early twentieth century. Laura Seddon argues that the Cobbett competitions, instigated by Walter Willson Cobbett in 1905, and the formation of the Society of Women Musicians in 1911 contributed to the explosion of instrumental music written by women in this period and highlighted women’s place in British musical society in the years leading up to and during the First World War. Seddon investigates the relationship between Cobbett, the Society of Women Musicians and women composers themselves.

The book’s six case studies – of Adela Maddison (1866–1929), Ethel Smyth (1858–1944), Morfydd Owen (1891–1918), Ethel Barns (1880–1948), Alice Verne-Bredt (1868–1958) and Susan Spain-Dunk (1880–1962) – offer valuable insight into the women’s musical education and compositional careers. Seddon’s discussion of their chamber works for differing instrumental combinations includes an exploration of formal procedures, an issue much discussed by contemporary sources.

Genevieve Arkle, Siân Dicker and Letitia Keys will give concert in Charroux, France with Ian Pace on July 20th

On July 20th, 2013 in Charroux, western France, at Château de Rochemeaux (through the kind generosity of veteran pianist Jorg Demus in providing the venue), three singers from City will give a concert of solo arias, duets, trios together with pianist and Lecturer in Music at City Ian Pace. The concert will feature music of Mozart, Rossini, Mendelssohn, Wagner-Liszt, Wagner-Busoni, Glinka-Balakirev, Chaikovsky, Léhar, Britten and Sullivan.

For further information, please see the following link:

http://poitoucharentes.angloinfo.com/whatson/featured/26189/arias-duets-and-songs-by-mozart-rossini-britten-and-other-composers-plus-transcriptions-from-wagner

Ed Pick to take up position at Wells Cathedral School

A recent graduate of the DMA degree, Edward Pick, has secured a position as a full-time accompanist at Wells Cathedral School, Somerset, starting this September.

Ed’s DMA research was on ‘‘Tonality in Schoenberg’s Music with Particular Reference to the Piano Concerto’. His studies were supervised by Professor Rhian Samuel at City and Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Ed is very much looking forward to taking up his position at Wells and working in such an exciting musical environment.

Clare Hammond to perform at the City of London Festival

A recent graduate from the Doctorate of Musical Arts, pianist Clare Hammond, is to perform at the City of London Festival in June 2013 as part of their Young Artists’ Series. She will give the world premiere of Hortus Musicae, a cycle of five pieces specially written for her by the composer Robert Saxton. This will be combined with pieces for left hand by Saxton and Bach-Brahms, and little known miniatures by Hamilton Harty and Jean Sibelius. More information available at www.colf.org and www.clarehammond.com.