Enjoy a fascinating evening of words and music.

We’re delighted to welcome American composer Jack Van Zandt as he launches his new book celebrating the life and work of composer Alexander Goehr. A long-time friend, former pupil and assistant of Goehr’s, Composing a Life: Teachers, Mentors & Models, published by Manchester based Carcanet Press, is the first comprehensive account of Goehr’s life and creative foundations.

Hear selections of music by both Goehr and Van Zandt alongside short readings from the book and a special filmed message from Goehr himself.

Having composed over one hundred major works, Alexander ‘Sandy’ Goehr is one of the world’s most performed composers and a renowned music educator. He attended the Royal Manchester College of Music (one of the RNCM’s predecessors) and formed the Manchester School with Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle, pianist John Ogdon, and conductor Elgar Howarth. He also studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Olivier Messiaen. Goehr’s mentors, detailed in the book, include his father Walter Goehr – a pupil of Schoenberg, composer and conductor –Michael Tippett, Richard Hall, Pierre Boulez, Hanns Eisler, Milton Babbitt, and Bach scholar Ulrich Siegele.

Programme:
Alexander Goehr Vision of the Soldier Er (String Quartet No 5)
Jack Van Zandt Strange Loops for String Quartet (world première)
Alexander Goehr Onedering (String Quartet No 6) (world première) *

* presented here with the kind permission of the Swaledale Festival

Villiers Quartet:
Katie Stillman, Tamaki Higashi violin
Carmen Flores viola
Leo Melvin cello

Followed by audience Q&A.

Autographed copies of Composing a Life: Teachers, Mentors & Models, published by Carcanet Press, will be available for purchase.