JAMES WEEKS, Composer & Conductor

‘Weeks, for my money, is one of the most inventive young composers and conductors out there: founder and director of the brilliant young vocal group EXAUDI, his own music is a vivid mix of the unpredictable and experimental, but there's always real refinement in his work, whether instrumental or vocal.’ - Tom Service, The Guardian

photo by Peter Dawes Born in Blackburn in 1978, James Weeks read Music at Queens’ College, Cambridge, where he was Organ Scholar, before completing a PhD in Composition at Southampton University, studying with Michael Finnissy.

James’ activities as a conductor are focused on contemporary repertoire, though he also specialises in early vocal music. In 2002 he founded the contemporary specialists EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble with the soprano Juliet Fraser. With them he maintains a busy international concert schedule, collaborating regularly with the world’s leading composers, new music soloists and ensembles, and has released four acclaimed CDs on NMC, of Finnissy, Fox, Lutyens and Skempton. He was appointed Musical Director of the New London Chamber Choir in November 2007 in succession to James Wood, and he is also Musical Director of the Orlando Chamber Choir (London), focusing on Renaissance and baroque vocal repertoire. In great demand as a guest conductor, he has worked with Endymion, IXION, I Fagiolini, BBC Singers, New Music Players and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, with whom he recorded Howard Skempton’s Chamber Concerto for NMC. He is also much in demand as a choral animateur and tutor, and has led courses for Lacock and Dartington International Summer School (Monteverdi Vespers 2006, Schütz Dresden Vespers 2008). In July 2008 he spent a week as Artistic Director of Palladium Musicum, Venice, working with young professionals on Venetian Baroque repertoire.

His music is regularly heard across Europe, has been broadcast on German and Dutch radio and BBC Radio 3, and is promoted by the BMIC’s New Voices scheme. Recent works have been completed for Alison Balsom, EXAUDI, Uroboros Ensemble, Anton Lukoszevieze, Chris Redgate, Finchley Children’s Music Group and The Hola, and he has been heard at festivals and halls including Purcell Room, The Cutting Edge, Bridgewater Hall, City of London Festival, Spitalfields Festival, King’s Place, Vale of Glamorgan Festival, Soundwaves Brighton, Gaudeamus and Mafra (Portugal). In February 2007 his music was the subject of a portrait concert by Kürbis Ensemble (London), in which his largest work, the instrumental trilogy Schilderkonst, was given its première.

Since 2005 the main focus of his recent music has been on solo and small-ensemble works exploring the most elemental or primary musical materials and processes, either left bare or built up into polyphonic structures of considerable density. Recent major works include Stacking, Weaving, Building, Joining (for any number of players, 2006), the Harmonies of South London series (for various ensembles, 2008-), Burnham Air (for oboe d’amore, 2008), Hototogisu (for children’s choir, 2007) and Mala punica (for eight solo voices, 2008-9). Current commissions include works for Endymion, EXAUDI and Scratch the Surface ensembles.

James is also active as an organ recitalist, pianist and writer on contemporary music, and broadcasts regularly on early and new music for BBC Radio 3. In December 2006 he gave the first-ever BMIC Cutting Edge organ recital in St John’s, Smith Square, a programme of Fox, Finnissy and Feldman; also in 2006 he co-founded the ensemble Kürbis with the composer Claudia Molitor, dedicated to the performance of contemporary and experimental chamber music. The ensemble has performed in London (BMIC’s The Cutting Edge), Cambridge (Kettle’s Yard), and at Soundwaves Brighton, the latter a programme of Skempton, Cardew and Feldman, recorded for BBC Radio 3. He teaches composition at Eton College and lives in South London.

CATALOGUE OF WORKS

Solo Instrument

Venetian Gondola Song (2001)

solo piano with optional humming (1 or 2 voices)

3’

Two Perscriptions (2002-4)

solo piano

I: Gloomy Clouds (Liszt: Trübe Wolken), 6’

II: Ring (Skempton: Ring in the Valiant) 7’30’’

f.p. Philip Howard, Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton, February 2004

Siciliano (2003)

solo piano

3’

Capricho (2003)

solo violin

8’

f.p. Sophie Appleton, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, June 2003

Duinland (2004)

(Schilderkonst III)

solo piano

22’

Chamber Music

Vadama (2000-1)

percussion duo

9’

Egyptischer Marsch (nach Johann Strauss) (2000-1)

vn, vc, pf, 1perc

5’

f.p. New Music Players, Brighton Festival, May 2001

Vertical Diptych (2001)

string quartet

10’

f.p. Zephyr Quartet, Gaudeamus International Music Week, Sept 2002, Amsterdam

Creu Marro (2001)

gtr, db, hpschd, 1perc
6’

Time Stands Still (2001-2)

pno, vn

50’

f.p. Philip Howard (piano), Sophie Appleton (violin), Southampton, Oct 2002

Distant Intimacy (2002)

fl, bcl, vn, vc, pno

19’

Glimpse (2002/3)
fl, cl in Bb (or ob), vc, pno
4’
f.p. Ad Lib ensemble, Rocklands Church, Norfolk, September 2003

Nothing to see, nothing to hide (2003)

vc, 1perc, pno

10’

Saenredam (2003-4)

(Schilderkonst I)

2afl, 2cl in A, ob d’am, gtr, vib, ch org

16’

Low Country (2004)

(Schilderkonst II)

string quartet

20’

(see also solo piano: Duinland, for Schilderkonst III)

Vocal and Choral Music

Upon the Bleeding Crucifix a Song (2000)

SSATB soli

7’

f.p. IMAGO Vokalensemble, Munich, July 2000

Auferstehung (Easter Dialogue after Schütz) (2002)

SSAATTBB soli, organ

6’

f.p. EXAUDI, London, February 2002

Amor de lonh (2002)

Two transcriptions of Jaufre Rudel de Blaye

sop, hpschd

14’

f.p. Juliet Fraser and James Weeks, Winchester, June 2002

Ave Maris Stella (2003/4)

upper or mixed voices, 2 soprano soloists, organ

5’

f.p. Choir of Thetford Grammar School, Basilica di S. Marco, Venice, July 2003

Selbstbildnis als Laute (2003)

SATB soli

4’

f.p. EXAUDI, National Portrait Gallery, London, October 2003

Spanish Ladies (2004)
Sea-shanty arrangement
Unison voices, 2cl in Bb, pno, susp cym
6’
f.p. Eton College Music Society, Eton, January 2004

Sint lumbi (2004)

SATB choir, S or T solo

4’

f.p. Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge / Geoffrey Webber, June 2004

Stella Matutina (2004)
SSAATTBB soli
6-7'
f.p. EXAUDI, Winchester College Chapel, 16 September 2004.