Jonathan Dove In Damascus (2016 AWARD*)

*co-commission with Sacconi Quartet

for tenor and string quartet

12 July 2016, Aldeburgh Church,

performed by Mark Padmore, Sacconi Quartet

Even though Jonathan Dove is best known as a vocal or choral composer, with operas and works for children forming the backbone of his output, his chamber music reveals similar predilections for narrative, drama, atmosphere and a sense of the personal. His new commission from the Sacconi Quartet, In Damascus, was inspired by the violinist Hannah Dawson’s suggestion for a work that should reflect aspects of the conflict in Syria; not because music can offer any political solution, but simply as an expression of empathy, sorrow, even outrage at those terrible events. Featuring a performance by tenor Mark Padmore, the text is taken from prose-poems by Ali Safar that draw on his first- hand experiences in Syria, eloquently translated by Anne-Marie McManus. The Sacconi’s present this new work alongside his string quartet work, Out of Time, and his Piano Quintet, performed with pianist Charles Owen.

Jonathan Dove's music has filled opera houses with delighted audiences of all ages on five continents.  Born in 1959, Dove studied composition at Cambridge and, after graduation, worked as a freelance accompanist, repetiteur, and arranger. His breakthrough opera, Flight, was commissioned in 1998 and he has gone on to create 20 operatic works alongside a large and varied choral and song output.  www.jonathandove.com