Festival Director Tamara Kohler introduces the Festival of Contemporary Music for All, a biennial event bringing together music makers of all...
The festival is coming near you on 2-4 March 2018. Don't miss out!
The 2018 Contemporary Music for All Festival is coming near you on 2-4 March. Sign up to take part.
Some Making Music member groups participated in the first Contemporary Music for All (CoMA) festival in 2016, playing in or attending workshops, rehearsals and performances.The festival is open to all and is a fantastic opportunity to delve into contemporary music.
The 2018 festival is taking in many more cities, includes opportunities for singers as well as players and is warmly inviting all leisure-time musicians to join 'come and play' opportunities, workshops, rehearsals and performances.
A low-risk, tried and tested option for exploring new music?
CoMA publishes affordable Open Scores and Part Songs by well-known contemporary composers which are easily usable by groups comprising all kinds of instruments, voices and abilities. These works underpin many of the workshops and performances in the festival, but are of course available all year round.
To download, buy or hear some Open Scores, visit the CoMA music catalogue.
CoMA Festival 2018
Activities for the 2018 festival are being added all the time to the calendar - below are some of the events that have been confirmed so far. If you can't see anything near you, keep checking the CoMA Festival website for updates and more information.
North
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The Sage, Gateshead: for voices - work with leading composer Sir James MacMillan, explore experimental vocal music, be the first to sing newly-commissioned works. For instruments - perform works from the CoMA Open Score collection with members of Royal Northern Sinfonia, perform experimental classic Rock Piece by Pauline Oliveros, premiere a new work by James Weeks. For electronic artists and the digitally curious - create an electronic music score for a short film in sessions led by composer and sound artist Mariam Rezaei. For composers - hear your music workshopped by members of Royal Northern Sinfonia.
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Huddersfield: The Edges Ensemble and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival are teaming up to organise a contribution to the festival.
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Manchester: voices and instrumentalists take part in the northern premiere of composer/aid worker Nigel Osborne’s 'I am Swimming', a major work specially commissioned for the festival on refugees and migration, as part of a programme of contemporary music and music making based at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM).
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Leeds College of Music: Musicians of all abilities can take part in Stephen Montague’s 'Dark Sun', a moving threnody to the victims of the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
Midlands
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Join with musicians of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG), People’s Orchestra and Via Nova Choir to give the world premiere on Saturday 3 March of Nigel Osborne’s 'I am Swimming', a major work specially commissioned for the festival.
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Michael Finnissy and local amateur composers give modern interpretations of musical material sourced from Handel’s Messiah and Stainer’s 'Crucifixion', creating works for performance by members of the IXION Ensemble and local community choir Cantamus at the churches of Holy Trinity in West Runton and St Margaret in Thorpe Market.
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Leicester University is the venue for workshops experimenting with words and music, based on a collaboration between CoMA East Midlands and Nottingham's DIY Poets collective. Open to allcomers, the weekend also offers the opportunity to play works from CoMA’s wide-ranging Open Score collection.
London
- Shoreditch: a programme of workshops, rehearsals and performances, starting on the evening of Friday 2 March with a rehearsal of festival commission 'I am Swimming' a major work specially commissioned for the festival on refugees and migration, preceded by a talk and discussion with its composer Nigel Osborne. Over the course of the weekend you can experience sonic modifications of your own instrumental, vocal and found sound sources, join in with experimental partsongs, improvise with the Brunel Fusion Orchestra and hear the London Sinfonietta+CoMA Festival Ensemble in a concert featuring works by many of the UK’s leading composers.
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Grade 8/8+ musicians in London amateur orchestras to be part of a London Sinfonietta/CoMA Festival Ensemble conducted by Marc DooleyRehearsal schedule: Thu at 7pm on 8th, 15th and 22nd Feb at St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch; from 2–5pm on Sat 24th Feb and 7pm Thu 1st Mar at The Warehouse; and 2.30pm Sat 3rd Mar at Shoreditch Town Hall for an evening performance at the same venue.
South and South West
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Chichester is the centre for a weekend of musical participation and listening with the university’s New Music Chi, the festival’s resident professional group, the Riot Ensemble, and members of local CoMA ensembles, joined by British percussionist Joby Burgess in a concert featuring a three-metre aluminium harp, typewriter, loop pedals, video projection and electronic fusion. Join them to perform Louis Andriessen’s 'Workers Union', the UK premiere of Drew Baker’s Nox and Nigel Osborne’s new work 'I am Swimming', a major work specially commissioned for the festival on refugees and migration.
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Bristol University is the venue for a day of rehearsing and performing Nigel Osborne’s 'I am Swimming', using music and other creative arts to support children who are victims of conflict, work recently honoured with the British Composer Award for Inspiration.
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Torrington, Devon: Share Music provides opportunities for those with disabilities to join with other amateur musicians in a mixed allcomers’ company directed by leading composers and dancers to create original, exciting music theatre. Workshops start on Wednesday 28 February culminating in a festival-opening event at the Plough Theatre on Friday 2 March.
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South Devon: concerts by Torbay Symphony Orchestra at the Teignmouth Classical Music Festival and in Totnes with a concert that includes Stephen Montague’s contemporary classic, 'Dark Sun'. Young musicians attending SAMM, the Saturday Music Centre, will have the opportunity to work on some of CoMA’s Open Score repertoire leading to an end of term concert later in the month
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Truro: a programme that features concerts by the Truro Youth String Orchestra and by Kevos, Cornwall’s professional contemporary music ensemble, modern choral and organ works in Sunday afternoon’s service in Truro Cathedral and workshops with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Participate’ programme and with Kevos on conducting contemporary music.
Wales
- Cardiff University: Friday 2 March focuses on the vocal with sessions on contemporary part-songs and other repertoire for amateur and mixed-ability choirs, an evening concert by Cardiff University’s Contemporary Music Group based on contemporary Welsh vocal repertoire and featuring pieces prepared that day by participants. Saturday focuses on the instrumental with the celebrated Fidelio Trio leading workshops on music from CoMA’s Open Score collection followed by an evening concert by the Fidelio Trio of contemporary chamber music, again with contributions from the day’s participants.
Scotland
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Edinburgh: led by the Hebrides Ensemble, this weekend long event Is based on rehearsals of CoMA’s newly commissioned Partsongs, experimental works that can be enjoyed by adventurous non-singers as well as experienced singers, and for instrumentalists a number of newly commissioned CoMA Open Score works. Instrumentalists and voices will be joining forces to perform the Scottish premiere of Nigel Osborne’s 'I am Swimming' a major work specially commissioned for the festival on refugees and migration, attended by the composer.
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Orkney: the newly established Orkney New Music Ensemble is developing a programme of new music activities that will include works created by local composers.
Ireland
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Belfast: the Crescent Arts Centre is the venue for workshops and concerts led by members of the Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble, offering a range of opportunities for young, amateur and professional performers. A key objective of the weekend is to establish a CoMA contemporary music ensemble that will continue to meet on a regular basis in Belfast.
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Limerick: the local CoMA ensemble will be extending a welcome to all newcomers interested in contemporary music, offering an opportunity to take part in original works by some of Ireland’s most exciting living composers.
Continential Europe
- Belgium: the Matrix New Music Centre in Leuven is linking up with Netherlands’ CoMA ensembles based in Maastricht and in Eindhoven to present a programme of allcomers music making activities.
- Germany: KNM Campus, the amateur ensemble of Berlin’s leading contemporary ensemble, Kammerensemble Neue Musik, joins forces with the Embassy Choir to rehearse and perform new works by UK and German composers.
