It’s continuing to be an action packed Autumn!

First bit of news is to announce that I have become an ambassador for the charity Donate4Refugees. I’m very excited to take on this new role and look forward to supporting and learning from this incredible charity over the years to come. They carry out essential work facilitating grassroots charity work across Europe to help the many many people affected by the refugee/migration crisis.

Number two on the list is that Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian has been shortlisted for the 2017 BASCA British Composer Awards in the jazz category for her piece ‘Muted Lines’ which features on my album ‘My Iris’, and was performed at the Emulsion V Festival in Birmingham by the Emulsion Sinfonietta. This was a joint commission from myself and Emulsion with support from the PRS Foundation and the Emulsion Kickstarter backers. Here’s a video from Emulsion V:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2FINkTGMp0

In just over two weeks my latest commission for BBC Radio 3 is due to be premiered by the BBC Concert Orchestra, Ross Stanley (piano) and I at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival. I can now announce that the title of this new work is “Loujean & Lucy” inspired by two women who were brought together through the Homes for Syrians initiative. I look forward to sharing more information about this piece in due course, although I will add that it was during the course of the research for this piece that I met Amber Bauer, who is the founder of Donate4Refugees. The link for the concert on November 12th is here.