Composers
Garth Knox
Garth Knox (1956) is at the forefront of the new music scene in several different fields, both as a player and as a composer. Drawing on his vast experience as viola player of the Arditti Quartet (1990 – 1998) and the Ensemble InterContemporain, (1983 - 1990), two of the best-known international contemporary music groups in the world, and his close collaboration with most of the leading composers of today, he has become a unique composer-performer of music of many different styles, ranging from minimalist understatement to the cutting edge of new techniques and new technologies.
More recently thanks to his interest in the viola d’amore and the medieval fiddle, his repertoire has opened up to the music of the past (medieval, baroque) which he persuasively brings into the present. His Irish roots enable him to dialogue with traditional music without complexes. A natural improviser, and an intuitive composer, his music often has elements of innovative instrumental theatre.
Garth Knox’s solo and ensemble pieces have been played all over Europe, USA and Japan. He has received commissions from the Kronos Quartet (USA), the Festival d’Automne in Paris, Proquartet (France), Concorde Ensemble (Ireland), Lucillin Ensemble (Luxembourg), Tokyo International Viola Competition (Japan), Camarata Variabile (Switzerland), and Radio France.
Kathleen Tagg
Kathleen Tagg is a New York-based pianist, composer, producer who has performed on four continents, including venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the 92nd St Y. With David Krakauer, she co-composed and produced the film score for Minyan by Eric Steel (Berlin Biennale 2020) and the immersive multimedia concert experience with video designer Jesse Gilbert, The Ties that Bind Us, for Berlin’s Boulez Saal.
Commissions include a song cycle, This Be Her Verse, (words: Lila Palmer, recorded for Alpha Classics) heard at the Lucerne Festival, Festival D'Aix-en-Provence; Kölner Philharmonie; Melbourne Opera House; Wigmore Hall, and Please Dream: In his Words for the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival. The Fretless Clarinet: Concerto for Klezmer Clarinet and Orchestra, co-composed with Krakauer, premiered with the Santa Rosa Symphony/Francesco Lecce-Chong, with European premiere at the Paris Philharmonie with Orchestre de Chambre Nouvelle Aquitaine/Jean-Francois Heisser, as well as with Sinfonia Varsovia and Orchestra National de Bretagne.
Other works include Keepers of the Flame, an evening-length theatrical music event for Poland’s Borderlands Foundation, and the co-creation of Good Vibes Explosion, profiled for NPR and RFI, and heard at venues including Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet, Jazz A Vienne, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and major festival stages. Her musical, Erika’s Wall, with Sophie Jaff, received a developmental production by The Music Theater Company, Chicago. She was a 2014-2015 Dramatist Guild fellow, 2017 Con Ed Exploring the Metropolis Composer in Residence, and is a fellow of the American Lyric Theatre (ALT).
www.kathleentagg.com
Michael Jon Smith
Smith (1941-2009) was born and brought up in Newcastle on Tyne, studied at Leeds University with Herbert Howells, and at the Royal College, then worked as a violin player in the Scottish National Orchestra before taking up the viola and eventually becoming section leader in the North Holland Philharmonic as well as a prolific composer and arranger.
He said that for him the viola was possibly the most bisexual of all string instruments and he wrote extensively for it, as well as arranging well-known pieces for viola sextet and even octet (including ‘The Teddy Bears’ Picnic’!)
Smith lived in the Netherlands from 1976, although he always maintained close links with the UK. Scotland and the Lake District were the chief inspiration in his compositions, which are neo Romantic, with a strong melodic and rhythmic thrust. His setting of Wordsworth’s ‘Prelude’ was performed last year by the Voices of Hope in Newcastle under conductor Mark Edwards.
In his lifetime Smith performed his compositions regularly with colleagues. After his death at the age of 67 in 2009, a Trust was set up to promote his work at concerts in the north of England, as well as in the Netherlands.
There exists a CD with works for flute and piano as well as viola, and it is available on Apple iTunes, Spotify, Amazon mp3, Google Music Store, Deezer, 24/7, 8tracks, Akazo, Anghami, Awa, IHeartRadio & Youtube music .
Relevant websites are www.mjsmith.eu and www.michaeljonsmith.org.
HIs sister lives locally and can be contacted on hedworth@hotmail.com
Noah Max
British-Austrian composer Noah Max’s output spans opera, orchestral and chamber music. His works have been performed at the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room in London, as well as Vienna’s Musikverein, Altalena Festival in Budapest, Uilenburgersjoel Synagogue in Amsterdam and the Paderewski Academy in Poland. His string trio Sojourn won the 2021 Clements Prize and was performed by members of the Piatti Quartet at Conway Hall.
As Composer-in-Residence at Thaxted Festival from 2023 – 2024, Max saw his String Quartet No.2 premiered by the Tippett Quartet in July 2023. The festival subsequently commissioned Symphony No.1, which premiered with London Mozart Players in June 2024, followed by the Echo Ensemble performing Max’s Phantasy Quintet later that month. Other highlights of the 2023/24 season included Max’s song cycle Rapture, based on the 2005 poetry collection by Carol Ann Duffy, which premiered at Wild Arts’ Summer Opera Festival, in partnership with the Essex Book Festival. Max also conducted his new Cello Concerto AXIOM with Robert Max and Echo Ensemble as part of Proms at St. Jude’s. For his upcoming projects, Max is collaborating with artists such as Ian Bostridge, Jeremy Huw Williams, Alexandra Balog and Imogen Whitehead.
Max spent five years bringing his debut opera A Child In Striped Pyjamas to the stage by special arrangement with Miramax, culminating in a sold-out premiere production at London’s Cockpit Theatre in January 2023. The opera was lauded by critics as “emotionally ambitious and vocally eloquent” (The Telegraph) and “marvellously scored… A remarkable achievement for a young composer” (The Arts Desk). Max was interviewed about the opera by The Sunday Times and BBCRadio 4’s Today programme, with excerpts from the piece also broadcast on RTÉ Radio. The opera was revived at Brundibár Arts Festival in January 2024 for Holocaust Memorial Day.
Max’s debut album Songs of Loneliness was released on Toccata Classics in 2022. His String Quartets No.1 – 4 with the Tippet Quartet will be released in late 2024, featuring narration from Sir Michael Morpurgo.
With a creative life that embraces music, painting, poetry and cinema, Max enjoys illuminating the relationships between different mediums. As a conductor, he has assisted Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo at the BBC Proms and conducted Endymion at Wigmore Hall. Max’s artworks have been displayed at the National Portrait Gallery. His columns have been printed in The Irish Times, The Strad and The Jewish Chronicle; he has contributed to BBC Music Magazine and has been interviewed for Classical Music, Opera Today and BBC Radio 3’s In Tune.