ALASDAIR Spratt THREE Lockdown Songs (2021 Award)

for soprano and violin

Performed and recorded on 27th May 2021 at the Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

performed by Katherine Broderick and Jan Schmolck

To obtain a copy of any of the commissioned recordings, please contact the Trust at info@michaelcuddigantrust.com

In the words of Alasdair Spratt, composer

It has been said that titles can act as windows into pieces. If this is true, ‘Three Lockdown Songs’ as a title is merely a simple frame, because the poetry that shapes the music, and the paintings that inspired both the poetry and the music are their own stories, and contain their own very personal outlooks and perspectives.

Ideas around perception and connectivity have always been important to me, and particularly so during the last year. One of the lines from the poetry which strikes me most is ‘The world shrinks to a window-pane’, because nothing has been truer of late, whether one thinks of an actual window or needing to relate to the outside world through a screen. I feel that there is something apt about the relative isolation in which painter, poet and composer/s have gone about their work, looking outwards to form connections from unique lockdown perspectives. 

As restrictions begin to ease, it is wonderful to be able to come together again as human beings, in real space, and to work with the performers and the gallery to bring the different elements together. Aside from lockdown, we all go through times of personal isolation and difficulty in one way or another, requiring personal reflection. Wider reflection is now needed in order to make sense of the situation in which the world finds itself, to consider deeply the interconnected fragility of all things, and to appreciate community in its fullest sense.

Alasdair Spratt was born in Glasgow in 1981. He was a chorister at the Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, before attending St. Mary's Music School, Edinburgh. He won an Entrance Award to study composition at the Royal Northern College of Music, and graduated with the Principal's Prize. Alasdair won the Philharmonia Prize for composition in 2004, and was the recipient of a Dewar Arts Award in 2007, completing his PhD the following year.

Alasdair’s music has been performed and broadcast widely, by such as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Goldberg Ensemble, the Hebrides Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta, the National Youth String Orchestra of Scotland, Psappha, and the Scottish Ensemble. He is an educationalist and examiner, and has published a number of pieces for education and early learning. 

Al enjoys travelling, and despite a fear of flying, is a qualified pilot.

Katherine Broderick soprano, is currently in the ensemble at the Badisches Staatstheater. She wins praise for her expressive range and versatility across repertoire that spans intimate lieder recitals to orchestral songs and leading Wagner roles. In 2007, she won the Kathleen Ferrier Award, and the Gold Medal at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she studied before attending the National Opera Studio. She is in great demand at international opera houses, concert halls and recital stages, as well as enjoying a busy recording schedule.

Her opera roles include Brunnhilde - Siegfried; Ortlinde, Helmwige and Woglinde - Die Walküre; Donna Anna - Don Giovanni; Adriana Lecouvreur (title role); Vitelia - Clemenza di Tito; Tatyana - Eugene Onegin; Giorgetta - Il Tabarro; Gräfin - Capriccio; Marschallin - Der Rosenkavallier; Lady Billows - Albert Herring; Miss Jessel - The Turn of the Screw and Mrs Coyle - Owen Wingrave. Roles in concert include Elsa (Lohengrin), Alceste and Ariadne, with companies such as English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North and Opéra National de Montpellier, Leipzig Opera and The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

In recital, Katherine collaborates with pianists including Malcolm Martineau, Graham Johnson, Julius Drake, Simon Lepper, Eugene Asti, Joseph Middleton and James Bailleau at venues such as Wigmore Hall and St John's Smith Square and Oxford Lieder Festival. She broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3 and appears frequently with The Myrthen Ensemble.

katherinebroderick.com