Lord Puttnam at the OU

Tuesday saw me playing at a reception at the Open University in Milton Keynes, where they were welcoming Lord David Puttnam as Chancellor.

Held in the new Computing Department building, this was my second visit this year as I also played there as part of a conference on computing and music back in the summer. I had a definite sense of déjà vu when I arrived as a large screen was playing a recording of my previous visit on a loop: Unusual, but also apt since my performance involved a variety of looped violin pieces! There were also some fascinating presentations about a variety of music and computer related research which is currently being carried out at the OU. If you’d like to discover more about music research at the OU then have a look at this page.

Ascension

September and October this year seem to have gone by in a rapidly-moving blur, and suddenly here we are in November and I realise that I haven’t written a post for two months!

I have, as you may easily guess, been keeping busy: September saw me coaching on a strings and woodwind course with the excellent Colin Touchin, as well as giving a workshop at Haileybury College, where I worked with some of the students on playing electric violin, and also demonstrated the looping techniques which I use in my solo concerts. This was also the month that my son Chris started at Lincoln University, a rather major change for all of us! He has still found time to design the artwork for my new CD though…

The major event in October was an Ely Sinfonia concert in Ely Cathedral where I conducted, among other works, the Elgar Cello Concerto, played superbly by the renowned Raphael Wallfisch. This was the culmination of my first season as Artistic Director of Ely Sinfonia, and we managed to draw an audience of over 600 for what was an excellent concert.

I also gave a couple of solo recitals in October, including playing for the 2nd Norwich Festival of Live Looping, where I met up with the person who got me into looping in the first place, bass guitarist Steve Lawson. Also on the bill was the excellent Per Boysen, all the way from Sweden, and the Festival organiser, guitarist Andy Butler. At the end of the month I travelled to Glasgow for 4 days with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, playing the huge Messiaen masterpiece “Des Canyons Aux Etoiles”. For those who might be interested the concert we gave of this piece will be broadcast on Radio 3 on the evening of December 12th.

However my main efforts over the last two months have been towards the completion of my new CD “Ascension”. It’s now finally finished and is off to be pressed this week, for release by the end of the month. An ideal Christmas gift, if I say so myself!

This CD has evolved a lot from my original idea of a short CD single with about 15 minutes of music on it. It’s ending up coming in at 55 minutes and, in true Bingham style, has everything from Renaissance dance music on violins, recorders and percussion, to Led Zeppelin on multi-tracked violins! In between there’s some more Bartok Duos, and excellent Telemann Canonic Sonata, a wonderful choral piece by Pablo Casals, which I’ve arranged for strings, an arrangement of a Jeff Beck number with double bass and African drums, and, the title track, my own composition “Ascension”. There are 3 remaining tracks, all recorded live: A light-hearted, jazzy encore from a concert I gave with guitarist Jason Carter in Cambridge a few years ago, and, from the more recent past, two live sections from the very first completely improvised performance I’ve ever given! The details of this concert are in my blog post “Improvizone” and I decided that some of the music would work well as the first and last tracks on the CD….

“Ascension” can be pre-ordered from my shop now, and will be available from the beginning of December.