Laura Stevens

Some great news received this week that a work of mine will be premiered at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown (South Africa) in July this year by a fantastic soprano and marimba player. Magdalene Minnaar (Soprano) has starred in many South African productions, as well as playing Christine in the touring production of "Phantom of the Opera". Magda de Vries (Marimba) has a CV that reads like a percussionist's elevated heartbeat, arguably one of the most esteemed marimbists in South Africa, if not to an international scale as well.
The piece forms part of a kaleidoscopic musical/theatre production entitled "Rituals", produced by Biblioteek productions and features works by the inimitable Hugh Masekela, Priaulx Rainier and Peter Klatzow among other notable names. What an honour to be featured alongside them!

I am also busying myself with a commission from SAMRO (South African Music Rights Organisation) for an orchestral piece to be promoted and performed by several notable South African orchestras (The Cape Town Philharmonic and Kwa-Zulu Natal Philharmonic among them). This forms part of their Young Composer Development programme for 2013/14.

This is all being done remotely from my second home here in old London town, the workings of which I am thoroughly enjoying! So great to back here after a year back in SA post-graduation.

I recently wrote a short installation/library track to accompany an exhibition of photography by my very talented mother (whose work can be viewed here ). She wanted something celtic and stirring that evoked size and scale as well as a sense of 'connectedness', in keeping with the macroscopic vs microscopic themes of her exhibit. The piece takes the name of her exhibition "Relativity". I had great fun and it received an overwhelmingly positive and complimentary response from gallery visitors.

Have an ear- peek here:




I also have had great fun working, again, with Swiss director Christina Ruloff on her latest indie film entitled "Variations on Charlotte's afternoon".
The finished product is sounding and looking great and we had a killer dubbing session at the amazing Pinewood studios.
Hopefully some festivals in store for this piece.
Scored for string quartet, a snippet of the tragic theme can be heard below.







Much love to all you out there in the clouds, and more news to follow shortly! Keep warm and dry to all in the UK.
Also, I must express my profound sorrows at the recent passing of Maestro Claudio Abbado and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Two great artists taken from us too soon.