RAYMOND YIU WRITTEN AT SUNSET (2020 Award)
for soprano and clarinets
Performed and recorded on 15th November 2020 at the Great Hall, Blackheath Halls, London
performed by Héloïse Werner and Sacha Rattle, guest clarinettist of The Hermes Experiment
To obtain a copy of any of the commissioned recordings, please contact the Trust at info@michaelcuddigantrust.com
Raymond Yiu is a Hong-Kong born, London-based composer, jazz pianist, conductor and writer on music. He is the winner of a BASCA British Composer Award in 2010, and nominated for the same award in 2004, 2012, 2013 and 2018. Originally trained as an engineer, Yiu was self-taught as a composer until he undertook his DMus under the auspice of Julian Anderson at Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2009. He has worked with ensembles and artists including Lukas Foss, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Singers, Chroma, Ensemble 10/10, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, London Sinfonietta and Lontano.
The Original Chinese Conjuror was commissioned for the 2006 Aldeburgh Almeida Opera, and Maomao Yü was commissioned by LSO for Lang Lang and the Silk String Quartet. His ‘hugely impressive’ (The Guardian) Symphony was commissioned by the BBC, and premiered during Proms 2015 by Andrew Watts, BBCSO and Edward Gardner. First performed at Manchester International Festival 2017, and given its London premiere by Roderick Williams, BBCSO and Sir Andrew Davis in 2018, The World Was Once All Miracle was nominated in the large-scale composition category of 2018 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards.
“The Hermes Experiment ... in all their diverse glory”
The Hermes Experiment is a contemporary quartet made up of harp, clarinet, voice and double bass. They are winners of the Royal Over-Seas League Mixed Ensemble Competition 2019, Tunnell Trust Awards 2017, Nonclassical’s Battle of the Bands 2014, Making Music Selected Artists 2019/20 and Park Lane Group Young Artists 2015/16. Capitalising on their deliberately idiosyncratic combination of instruments, the ensemble regularly commissions new works, as well as creating their own innovative arrangements and venturing into live free improvisation. The ensemble has commissioned over 60 composers at various stages of their careers. They were shortlisted in the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards 2019 in the Young Artists Category and their debut album HERE WE ARE was released in July 2020 on Delphian Records to critical acclaim: “an imaginative disc that mirrors our current musical landscape” – The Observer.
Recent highlights include performances at Wigmore Hall, BBC Radio 3 Open Ear at LSO St Luke’s, Tallinn Music Week, St Petersburg’s Sound Ways Festival, Southbank Centre, Kings Place and Spitalfields Festival. The Hermes Experiment were one of the showcase artists at the Classical:NEXT Conference 2019. In January 2019, they celebrated their fifth birthday with a concert supported by Arts Council England and RVW Trust, and recorded for BBC Radio 3.
The quartet has received funding from Arts Council England, Aldeburgh Music, the RVW Trust, Hinrichsen Foundation, Britten-Pears Foundation, Future of Russia Foundation, Oleg Prokofiev Trust, Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust, PRS for Music Foundation and Help Musicians UK.
thehermesexperiment.com / @TheHExperiment