New music has always been at the heart of Lewis Merthyr
Lewis Merthyr Brass Band’s musical director Craig Roberts has been writing about the band since its inception. Here, he details the band’s tremendous work in the commissioning, performance and recording of new musical works
LEWIS Merthyr has a long history of performing and commissioning new music, and the band has held a close association with a number of prominent composers.
Particularly noticeable among these were the band’s partnerships with the renowned Welsh composer Mervyn Burtch and the highly respected John Golland.
Lewis Merthyr worked closely with both composers over a number of years and gave the premiere performances and broadcasts of Burtch’s Pinocchio in 1982 and Paean, in 1983, and of Golland’s Sounds, also 1983, in broadcasts for the BBC.
The band has also recently made available the only known recording of Golland’s A Gloucester Psalm from a performance of the work at Gloucester Cathedral.
This is now available to listen to, together with numerous other works, free of charge, on the band’s website and YouTube channel.
In further work with the BBC, Lewis Merthyr gave the premiere broadcasts of both Goff Richards’ Oceans in 1984 and Peter Graham’s Dimensions in 1982, both of which are very popular works with brass bands internationally.
The latter work Dimensions was also recorded by the band on their Centennial Brass album.
Other works that Lewis Merthyr have premiered include BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra violinist Charles Barnes’ Prelude & Dance in 1980, Stephen Hampton’s Lacrymosa in 1985 and Overlord, the latter of which was premiered at the re-opening of the Lewis Merthyr Colliery as Rhondda Heritage Park in 1988.
Most of the above works were commissioned and premiered during the tenure of longstanding former Lewis Merthyr musical director, the respected conductor and former Principal Tuba of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Nigel Seaman.
Following on from this impressive period the band has now renewed their interest in new music under current musical director Craig Roberts.
In April 2018, Lewis Merthyr gave the premiere performance of Helen Woods’ Man Engine Anthem and Dr Christopher Woods’ Aberfan.
This latter work was originally written for the famed Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the premiere performance of the piece by the orchestra at the 2016 Welsh Proms was broadcast on Classic FM from St David’s Hall.
The transcription for brass was then commissioned for Lewis Merthyr to perform at the 2018 Welsh Proms and, so popular was the response to the work, that the piece was recorded on the band’s most recent album Brass & Voices.
Both the premiere performance at the Welsh Proms and this recording were conducted by the renowned Welsh orchestral conductor Owain Arwel Hughes.
Through the latter half of 2020, thanks to the support of the Arts Council of Wales, Lewis Merthyr has been exploring a further new project entitled New Directions.
This project will see the band work with a selection of leading composers and performers from across Wales and wider, to explore and create new musical works for brass band during lockdown.
Featured composers include the Welsh movie soundtrack and contemporary music composer Andrew Powell plus newly released works by Mervyn Burtch, Grace Williams and from Christopher Painter and Oriana Publications.
Additional collaborators include violinist and composer Steve Bingham,
former royal harpist Claire Jones, composer and percussionist Chris Marshall, world percussionist Joji Hirota and former programme leader at the University of Salford Dr Mick Wilson.
It will be exciting to see what this latest project and future new music projects generate from Lewis
Merthyr Band.
More information on the New Directions project can be found on the band’s website at: www.lewismerthyrband.com/new-directions.
Looking on this site will also bring you up-to-date with all the plans due to the change of activities regarding pandemic restrictions.