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ABC News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Composer Eric Whitacre
"May I be a guard for those without one, a guide for all who journey on the road, may I become a boat, a raft or bridge, for all who wish to cross the water." Eric Whitacre, the man dubbed "The king of choral music," loves poetry and is fond of quoting these words from an ancient Buddhist prayer. "In my music, what I imagine people are expecting, and are hoping for, is a combination of these dense, ecstatic, clusters of moments that send chills down your back, a spiritual experience, which listeners are hoping to be transformed through. "I take that to heart. It's a responsibility, and I want to help them. 'May I be a boat for those who cross the water' — that's what I hope to do with my music — but it can paralyse you creatively." The still youthful, self-described Grammy Award-winning American composer, conductor and speaker, who defies the stereotypes of the choral director, is one of the most recognisable names in choral music. His emotive, ecstatic sound, with its trademark arresting dissonances, has won hearts all over the world, and became a YouTube sensation for the first time in 2009 (years before the pandemic turned many of us on to choral singing) when his series of pioneering Virtual Choirs brought together more than 100,000 singers from over 145 countries. But now, at 55, after several decades of roller-coaster success, he's feeling the weight and expectation of his fame. "The kids, they remind you, how fresh the world is and how new it is." Signed to Decca in 2010 for his first album Light and Gold, which won him the Grammy, Eric left his base in Los Angeles to live the UK for six years until 2016, immersing himself in the English choral tradition whilst undertaking a residency at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. "For me the English choral tradition going all the way back, is really some of the most beautiful music ever written." These days he lives in Antwerp with his wife, the Belgian soprano Laurence Servaes. He's the father of a 4 year-old and a 19 year-old, and almost wistfully recalls his own baby steps as a musician and composer. "The kids, they remind you, how fresh the world is and how new it is. I found myself, when I began. I didn't read music. I started singing in choir at 18 and wrote my first piece at 21. "Every day then was electric, brand new. And there was a sense of playfulness about it. I was only making to make a thing. There was nothing else. Now it's career. Each piece comes with a commission and a level of expectation." "From that day on I was the world's biggest choir geek." Born in 1970, in a small town in the Nevada desert, Eric recalls he had "an insatiable curiosity" as a child. Then as a teenager he became obsessed with making music with computers: "I wanted to be the fifth member of Depeche Mode," the 1980s British electronic music group. He was a big fan of Wendy Carlos too, and became the proud owner of one of the very first EMU drumulators and an Ensoniq ESQ-1 thanks to the proceeds from a McDonald's commercial he made when he was 14. "My life was really transformed by those instruments (and that commercial both in terms of music and in terms of girls). Especially because I think I learned basic counterpoint and formal structure from sequencing songs I wrote on the ESQ-1." But apart from noodling on his grandmother's piano and playing in a techno-pop band, Eric, had no idea of where he was heading, so he joined a choir. The director David Weiller had heard him improvising in his unsuccessful audition for a music scholarship to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and invited him to come along to a choir rehearsal of Mozart's Requiem. "I've never been transformed the way I was then. I was standing in the middle of counterpoint and sophistication and elegance that I didn't even know existed. From that day on, I was the world's biggest choir geek." Composer and conductor Eric Whitacre. ( Supplied: Eric Whitacre. ) David Weiller, Eric's "most important mentor," not only got him singing but encouraged him to conduct and compose. He wrote his piece Go Lovely Rose for Weiller as a gift. Later he asked Eric to become assistant conductor on West Side Story. "It changed my life." Go Lovely Rose is one of the first pieces with Eric's instantly recognizable musical style, which he suspects evolved from that time. Particularly the ways he uses harmonic suspensions; moments where two or three-note clusters sound, then move apart and resolve. "I went to a concert in Phoenix, part of the national conference of the American Choral Directors Association. There was music by Pärt, Tavener, Bernstein… that completely blew my mind. Another influence was an album called Hearing Solar Winds by David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir. All these came together and combined with all the film music I knew from the 1980s." Eric has since worked with the legendary Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer. At the age of 25, he moved to New York to undertake his masters at Juilliard. After a disastrous period of "tough love" with his first composition supervisor David Diamond, whose policy with mavericks like Eric was "to crush and rebuild," he found someone much more sympathetic: John Corigliano. "From John I learnt how to structure what I was writing. He taught me to take a giant piece of paper and draw the entire architecture of the piece from beginning to end, before I'd written a note, and the idea has served me well ever since." "I feel like a kid again." Eric is a frequent and very welcome visitor to Australia to conduct our choirs and run workshops, and I found him delightfully open, thoughtful and optimistic in our interview. In June he conducted the Australian premiere of one of his recent successes, Eternity in an Hour, with Vox, the young-adult ensemble of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, the joint commissioners with the BBC Proms which premiered Eternity last year, and Flemish Radio Choir. Inspired by the words of William Blake, it's scored for a blend of voices, string quartet, piano and "an ethereal blanket of electronics." It was the first time Eric had conducted and performed live synths on-stage since his teens. "I feel like a kid again." "I'm hoping that I can continue this, performing live with electronics, singers, and instrumentalists; maybe ramping it up, making it more theatrical with lighting, and in big beautiful spaces like cathedrals and warehouses." "The current political climate is compelling me even further, to just make beautiful things a bigger truth." Living as an expat in Belgium, "Proper Europe" as he describes it, has given Eric a very different perspective on his birthplace and "Trump's America." "Americans live to work, but working to live is the European way and is woven into every fabric of life. It took me many months to move to a slower pace, and see deep wisdom, it's changed my way of living." His music has changed too. "There is this freedom in the USA that you can express yourself boldly and loudly and wear your heart on your sleeve. However, my impression of the art I've experienced here, is that it's been intellectualised into an oblivion. It's lost the ability to connect, human being to human being. There's no sense of it being a communal experience that changes things or transforms us. "But I think I'm writing a little less American, more subtle. More refined writing as I've learnt the rhythm of Europe. For me, art must be a balance of intellectual rigour and emotional depth." Earlier this year his violin concerto The Pacific Has No Memory, inspired by the Los Angeles-area wildfires in January this year, was premiered at Carnegie Hall by Anne Akiko Meyers and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, with a further performance this month from co-commissioners, the Colorado Music Festival. "It's an odd thing. Often people are talking to an 'idea of me.' I'm humbled by that. I'm the first born child and a people pleaser, but I also feel compelled to grow." In a world smitten by wars and an exponential growth in human anxiety, Eric says he'll continue to gravitate towards things that are beautiful. "Even if it's tough, grief, it's always with an eye towards beauty. The current political climate is compelling me even further, to just make beautiful things a bigger truth. It's the only thing I can do. I feel powerless otherwise. It's my contribution to the conversation."
The Herald Scotland
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
When a teenage Lulu became the toast of Swinging London
Eventually, she and the band – rhythm guitarist James Dewar, lead guitarist Ross Nelson, drummer Dave Mullen, bassist Tommy Tierney and singer Alec Bell – drove down to London to audition for record companies. The first label, Columbia/EMI, declined, but the next one, Decca, offered them a record contract on the strength of two songs: Shout, a raucous number written by the Isley Brothers (Lulu had been blown away when she heard Alex Harvey singing it), and Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa, a Bacharach and David hit for Gene Pitney. After the band had recorded Shout, Marie's manager, Marian Massey, hit upon 'Lulu' as a new name for the 14-year-old, and Lulu and the Luvvers as the band's new name. The single was released by Decca in April 1964, by which time Lulu's name was everywhere. Fabulous magazine interviewed her, together with Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw and Cathy McGowan (host of TV's Ready, Steady, Go!), for a piece about pop's new female stars. Maureen Cleave interviewed her for the London Evening Standard; "When I sing I tingle all over and I can see the people's faces lighting up', Lulu told her. 'I'm so thrilled at it all; life's so thrilling." Shout spent 13 weeks on the charts, peaking at number seven. John Lennon, guesting with Paul McCartney on Ready Steady Go!, discussed the latest singles and declared that his favourite was Shout!, 'by a girl called Lulu'. That same year, after a gig in Glasgow in June 1964, Lulu invited The High Numbers – The Who, as they would shortly become – back to her old family home. She met the Rolling Stones, too. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote a song for her, called Surprise Surprise. It was released as a single early the following year, with a prolific session musician named Jimmy Page on guitar. Things were beginning to pick up speed. As Lulu recalls in her book I Don't Want to Fight, 'there were radio and TV appearances, magazine interviews, photo shoots and concerts … We appeared on TV shows like Thank Your Lucky Stars, Juke Box Jury and Ready, Steady, Go!, as well as performing on local radio and TV shows in England, Ireland and Wales'. The hit record saw the band increasing its fee for gigs from £30 to £100. And in a posh Knightsbridge restaurant, Bobby Darin, the American singer and actor, made her blush when he told her that she had been 'fabulous' on Ready, Steady, Go! The money began rolling in and Lulu's schedule had barely any gaps for rest and relaxation. She moved into a flat in St John's Wood owned by Marian's parents. And she certainly picked the right time to find herself in London. Even ahead of its coronation in April 1966 as 'The Swinging City', courtesy of Time magazine, it was a vibrant, adventurous place. Lulu and Rod Stewart at Glastonbury (Image: Yui Mok) "London was the centre of the world', Lulu writes in her book. 'Whether it was music, fashion, art, film, photography or design, the rest of the world was taking its lead from London. The streets were full of bright colours, short skirts, jackets without lapels, tight trousers, psychedelic swirls, platform shoes, Cuban-heeled boots and big hair. Pop music and rock'n'roll dominated the airwaves'. This is certainly a line echoed by Graham Nash in his memoir, Wild Tales. Describing the London of 1965, when he was still with the Hollies, he writes: "A full-scale cultural revolution was in progress, with youth and music dominating the scene, top to bottom. The boutiques on Carnaby Street catered to our lifestyle. Mary Quant was introducing miniskirts and Biba was around and Cecil Gee.... Darling and The Knack spoke to us from the screen, cynical and sexy and angry, and Radio Caroline was broadcasting off the coast". Read more: Lulu and her band were still in demand but their chart performance was sagging, causing her to worry that they might just be one-hit wonders. Two singles, Can't Hear You No More and Here Comes the Night (with Page again on guitar) made little impact, though Van Morrison's Them would have a number two hit with the latter song. It wasn't until Leave a Little Love reached number eight in June 1965 that Lulu felt that she had finally arrived. That September she gave a candid interview to Rave magazine, during which she admitted that she felt older than when she first came to London, and that the friends she used to know "suddenly seem worlds away from me. When we meet I am at a strange disadvantage". "My career is important to me," she added. "The first thing I think of when I wake up is, 'What is on today?' It may be TV or radio, or a live show somewhere. Whichever, I decide what to wear and whether to get my hair set. Sometimes my hairdresser, Vidal Sassoon, thinks I'm mad getting it re-set, because it looks O.K. But I feel awful if my hair isn't just right. I suppose when you are the instrument of your business you get self-centred in some ways. Anyhow, once I've sifted through the day, I relax, and things run smoothly enough." However, as Scots music historian Brian Hogg has noted, moves had long been afoot to prise Lulu from her 'backing' musicians, the Luvvers. TV slots for the singer alone, added Hogg, "already outnumbered those for the group as a whole. Although useful live, they were deemed superfluous in the studio where subsequent appearances were strictly limited'. This was illustrated by the line-up of musicians on Lulu's 1965 debut album, Something to Shout About; the Luvvers appeared on just three tracks, one of which was Shout. 'Lulu, with the Luvvers on some tracks, and a positively glittering showcase for her voice…', began an approving review in Record Mirror that October. The album's 16 tracks combined to show Lulu's sheer versatility as a vocalist beyond her gutsy performance on Shout. Try to Understand, Not in This Whole World, Tell Me Like It Is, and Holland-Dozier-Holland's Can I Get a Witness, previously a hit for Marvin Gaye, were among the highlights. As a calling card for a young woman in her teens, still relatively new to the recording business, it was pretty good. 'One of the most versatile voices on the scene', Record Mirror's review continued. 'Big bash for 'You Touch Me Baby', but the mood switches all the way. Main thing is the clarity of the punchiness Lulu injects all the way. A variety of backings, choral and instrumental, behind her. 'Can I Get a Witness' gets a brisk new reading. 'Shout' is in, of course, and Lulu's new single, 'Tell Me Like It Is'. 'Chocolate Ice' is a gas …. 'Leave A Little Love' is another stand-out. But then the overall standard is very high'. As Lulu notes in her book, the album had been successful, 'but session musicians had been used on some of the latest recordings. Although nothing had been said, I knew the boys were unhappy'. And there was also the undeniable fact that media attention had alighted on her, not on the boys in the band. Read more On the Record: James Dewar was first to leave the Luvvers, in 1965 – he went on to play with Stone the Crows and with the brilliant guitarist, Robin Trower. The other band members soon followed, retreating to Glasgow. 'I tried to hold us all together', Lulu recalls, 'but Decca had wanted this all along and did nothing to help me'. Her profile continued to rise. Magazine and newspaper writers sought her out. There was a groundbreaking package tour of Poland with the Hollies, and there were gigs in support of the Beach Boys in 1966. 'Lulu proved conclusively to me that she should be allowed to close the first half by virtue of the fact she is so beautifully professional', Keith Altham wrote in the NME after a Beach Boys/Lulu concert at the Finsbury Park Astoria in London. 'Five numbers from her were not enough — 'Blowing In The Wind', 'Wonderful Feeling' and 'Leave A Little Love' which Spencer Davis — who joined me to see the second house — was still raving about half an hour after the show, were her best numbers!' Lulu had also bought a car, and a townhouse in St John's Wood. At seventeen, she was 'hanging with the coolest, hippest crowd. Cynthia Lennon, Maureen Starkey and Pattie Boyd were my girlfriends'. In 1966 she had a role in a Sidney Poitier film, To Sir With Love, and the title song, sung by her, became a huge hit in the States in 1967, selling two million copies and sitting atop the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks. Her sudden fame in the US led to an appearance on the top-rated Ed Sullivan Show. Media attention in Lulu was proving to be relentless. In November 1968 Disc and Music Echo caught up with her at her plush St John's Wood home, and the journalist was most taken with it all - the four-poster brass bed from Heal's, the pined kitchen, the huge pine chest housing a gigantic collection of albums, the small room that combined Lulu's office, [[TV]] room and general "flop out" space. "My house is my little refuge', Lulu told her. 'Whenever I get a moment I fly straight down to London and collapse inside its four walls!' * Lulu's latest book, If Only You Knew, is published on September 25. Dates for her series of 'intimate conversations with songs and stories' can be found on her website, lulu
North Wales Live
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- North Wales Live
A giant 150ft mural of Pavarotti has appeared on a North Wales hillside
The widow of the great Luciano Pavarotti has given her seal of approval to a massive 150ft mural of her late husband. The chalk profile was created in just 24 hours on a hillside in North Wales. The artwork was create to celebrate Pavarotti's first appearance 70 years ago at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, Denbighshire. To mark the anniversary, his widow Nicoletta Mantovani was a guest of honour at this year's festival. She attended the mural's unveiling alongside members of the Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir – the choir that first hosted Luciano and his father Fernando in 1955. She arrived in the town on board a vintage steam train from Corwen where the choir serenaded her with a Welsh song special to her late husband. Nicoletta said she shed a tear when she heard the world-famous choir perform. The 45-metre by 30-metre artwork is visible from the Eisteddfod Pavilion below and from Castell Dinas Brân above – a ruined medieval castle built by the Welsh Princes. It's hosted by Wern Isaf campsite on Donkey Hill overlooking the Eisteddfod grounds. Nicoletta was given a clear view of the stunning chalk sculpture, which depicts the Maestro in full voice. It was designed in partnership with record label Decca. She said it was 'really great', adding: 'It is good that it is there for people to see someone who was so closely connected to the festival.' David Hennigan, Eisteddfod board director, said the mural has become an instant tourism attraction in the town. 'The reaction from eisteddfod concertgoers has been overwhelming,' he said. 'People have been standing in the car park to view the sculture and the comments have been amazing. 'We thought it would be well received but the response has been even better than we expected. It's been a very worthwhile project.' Nicoletta, who was married to the singing legend until his death in 2007, journeyed from Italy to celebrate three major milestones at this week's International Eisteddfod. Pavarotti was just 19 and a trainee teacher when he came to the Llangollen in 1955 with his father, Fernando, as part of Chorus Rossini from their home city of Modena. He returned as a global star in 1995 to perform a sell-out concert. This year would have been his 90th birthday. Today (Saturday, July 12) she will be on the famous Pavilion stage to help present the Pavarotti Trophy, named in honour of her late husband, to the winners of the Choir of the World Competition. In another coup for the festival, on Sunday evening Nicoletta will hand over the coveted Pendine Trophy to the winner of the International Voice of the Future competition. She will sharing the presentation with sponsors Mario and Gill Kreft and another megastar of the opera world, Sir Bryn Terfel. Songs performed by Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir as Nicoletta arrived in Denbighshire included We'll Keep a Welcome in the Hillside, which Pavarotti loved. At Llangollen train station she was also entertained by Italian and Bulgarian groups competing at the festival, both in colourful national costumes. She said: 'My arrival was incredible. It was exactly the way Luciano told me how the people of Wales are so warm and friendly. And to hear the Fron Choir perform – especially the welcome song that was a favourite of his – I cried. 'Travelling on the train was also very special, seeing the countryside and when we arrived at Llangollen station, I enjoyed the choir and the dancers who greeted us. I knew one of the songs and mimed along to it. 'At the Eisteddfod it was fantastic to meet the volunteers. It is really important and so precious for people from all different countries to come together in the name of culture and music.'
The Guardian
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Schubert: Piano Sonata in A major, D959; Moments Musicaux album review – grandeur and grace from Steven Osborne
Steven Osborne's third album of Schubert for Hyperion is the first to include one of the piano sonatas, and he has opted for the second of the three sonatas that Schubert composed in the summer of 1828, just months before his death. Superficially at least, the Sonata in A major, D959, is the most extrovert and high spirited of that final triptych, even though, in its slow movement especially, tragedy breaks through the surface. Osborne's performance conveys an impressive sense of both the expansive scale of the four-movement work and its lyrical ebullience. He gives the opening gesture (which will return in the final moments to devastating effect) all the grandeur it needs, perfectly balanced against the delicacy of the figuration that follows, and as the performance unfolds, every detail is just as perfectly calibrated. The six Moments Musicaux, D780, are equally well thought out, although Osborne does not seem quite as commanding and definitive in these miniatures as he does in the expanses of the sonata, in which his performance is one to set alongside the finest on record, from Rudolf Serkin (on Sony Classical) and Radu Lupu (Decca). This article includes content hosted on We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as the provider may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Listen on Apple Music (above) or Spotify
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Oasis official merchandise in Cardiff - full list, prices and where to find it
The list of Oasis merchandise available in Cardiff ahead of the start of the band's reunion tour has been revealed. In just a few hours, Oasis will take to the stage inside Principality Stadium to perform their first concert in more than 15 years. The two shows in Cardiff (on July 4 and 5) are the first in Oasis' Live '25 UK and Ireland tour, which will also incorporate dates in Edinburgh, Manchester and London. For those fans hoping to get their hands on some official merchandise from the Oasis tour, the list of items available (and prices) has been revealed: Adidas track jacket - £90 Adidas football shirt - £85 'What's the Story' blue tone hoodie - £70 Adidas Live '25 t-shirt - £55 Decca navy gold logo long sleeve - £50 Adidas 3 stripes t-shirt scarlet royal - £45 Collage photo Live '25 world tour T-shirt - £40 Wonderwall Live '25 world tour T-shirt - £40 Live '25 world tour T-shirt - £40 Cardiff 4 July event T-shirt - £40 Paper cut out photo T-shirt - £40 Cardiff 4 July poster - £40 Decca logo reversible bucket hat - £35 Live '25 logo reversible bucket hat - £35 Live '25 football scarf - £25 Half Faces Live '25 world tour poster - £20 Live '25 four-pin badges set - £15 Live '25 tour lanyard - £15 Live '25 mac ball - £10 Live '25 tour programme - £20 Logo Live '25 tote bag - £20 Live '25 repeat fabric green keyring - £10 Here are the items you could get from the merchandise stand: Adidas track jacket - £90 Adidas football shirt - £85 What's the Story blue tone hoodie - £70 Adidas Live '25 t-shirt - £55 Decca navy gold logo long sleeve - £50 Adidas 3 stripes t-shirt scarlet royal - £45 Collage… — Oasis Mania (@OasisMania) July 2, 2025 You can find this merchandise at the stand outside Principality Stadium or at the Official Oasis Live '25 Fan Store in St David's Dewi Sant Shopping Centre (CF10 2EF). You can also find some of the items online via the Oasis website. If you are heading along to either of the Oasis shows in Cardiff, you may be wondering what time to get there, to allow yourself enough time to browse the official merchandise stand before heading in for the gig. Here is a rundown of the times for both Friday and Saturday (July 4 and 5) Oasis shows: 5pm - Doors open 6pm - Cast 7pm - Richard Ashcroft 8.15pm - Oasis 10.30pm - Curfew #oasislive25 — Oasis (@oasis) June 30, 2025 Fans trying to find last-minute tickets to see Oasis in Cardiff are in luck with resale tickets available via Twickets and Ticketmaster (at the time of writing). There is "low availability" on both sites, with prices starting from £382.49 (Twickets prices). RECOMMENDED READING: All you need to know about Oasis at Cardiff's Principality Stadium this week Cardiff road closures in place this week for Oasis gigs at Principality Stadium How much Liam and Noel Gallagher are set to earn from the Oasis Live 25 UK tour There's free lasagna for Oasis fans this summer - here's how to claim yours Oasis has warned fans that Twickets and Ticketmaster are the "ONLY" sites where tickets to their shows can be sold and bought legally. Posting on X (formerly Twitter), the band said: "Spare tickets? @Twickets are the official ticket resale partner for Oasis Live '25 "Wanting to buy? Be aware of fraudulent sellers on social media… Tickets can ONLY be resold legally, at face value, through Twickets or Ticketmaster."
