Oxford Song: Emily Hazrati announced as Associate Composer
published Monday 25th November 2024
"Oxford International Song Festival is delighted to announce the appointment of Emily Hazrati as Associate Composer 2024-26. At this year’s Festival, the world premiere of two songs by her, setting a text by Joseph Spence, inspired by Byron's Don Juan, was given by Ella Taylor (soprano) and Jocelyn Freeman (pianist) and in 2025, Emily will create a substantial new song cycle in collaboration with Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh. A large-scale work will follow in October 2026."
“Emily Hazrati said: 'I am honoured and beyond excited to be Oxford Song’s Associate Composer for 2024-26. Storytelling, narrative and the voice lie at the heart of my creative practice - the opportunity to compose two major song cycles over an extended period feels both exhilarating and invaluable at this stage in my career. I am immensely grateful to Oxford Song for their support and can’t wait to get started on my first commission, in collaboration with writer Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh: a new work inspired by stories and characters from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (Book of Kings), the national epic of ancient Persia.'”
Read the full announcement here:
2025 RPS Composers announcement
published Wednesday 23rd October 2024
"Each year, through the RPS Composers programme, we support a cohort of composers with a commission, premiere, and a series of professional development workshops to help them develop the confidence, contacts and skills to fulfil individual career objectives and establish further commissions and opportunities of their own."
"Emily ventured into composition through a love of writing for voice, and of narrative and text, leading her to embrace interdisciplinary art forms including opera. She is particularly fascinated with blending elements of theatre and vocality outside of their usual contexts and enjoys extending the boundaries of what we understand ‘vocal’ and ‘instrumental’ composition to mean."
Read the full announcement here:
An Evening of Don Juan: SongEasel's imaginative programme certainly brings song to South East London in vivid performances from Ella Taylor and Jocelyn Freeman
"Song in South East London, an imaginative programme taking us through Byron's Don Juan in an eclectic but vivid programme bookended by two new songs from Emily Hazrati."
concert review, Planet Hugill
published Saturday 1st June 2024
"Hazrati's music combined a vivid and jagged piano part that hinted at a regular rhythm but did not quite settle, with chatteringly rhythmic vocal line, delivered with relish by Taylor, particularly the dead-pan ending." Schoolboy
"The song began with Taylor almost intoning the text against a wonderful wash of piano chords, then as the song became more dramatic, Taylor moved from song to speech, ending with striking melodrama and then vocalise as they walked off stage, the ending unfinished and up to us the audience to decide."Sans everything (or, Don Juan reflects)
Read the full review here:
Uckfield Concert Brass: Making music with Emily
Uckfield Concert Brass blog
published various dates in 2024
"Uckfield Concert Brass has been picked to work during 2024 with London-based composer, Emily Hazrati, and her mentor, Fraser Trainer. Together, we will create a new piece of music to be premiered later in the year. You can follow the progress of the composition on this blog."
Read the blog entries here:
(photo: Ruth Hayhurst)
BBC Music Magazine review: Young Composers 5
CD review, Kate Wakeling
published Thursday 29th February 2024
"Emily Hazrati demonstrates real imaginative flair. One Thousand Threads is inspired by Hazrati’s Iranian heritage and reimagines ‘a fraying Persian rug’ through sound, while the delicate khãné (meditations on home) is an affecting exploration of possible meanings of home."
"A rewarding introduction to four promising young composers."
Read the full review here:
Celebrate! A conversation with National Youth Choir's Young Composers
National Youth Choir's cohort of Young Composers speak about their album, Gen Z, modern madrigals, the physicality of choirs, and community
Prxludes Feature interview, Patrick Ellis
published Monday 19th February 2024
"I’ve never been in an environment where we’ve had that space as composers; where we can just chat through each other’s music in real-time and make these little tweaks. You also got to see into people’s minds in a way you never would normally."
Read the full feature here:
(photo: Belinda Lawley)
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Six composers appointed to the LSO Panufnik Composers Scheme
published 15th February 2024
"Across twelve months, these composers will experiment with and develop their orchestral writing skills, guided by Colin Matthews, with support from Christian Mason and additional tailored support. They will each develop a three-minute composition, which will be workshopped by the LSO and Principal Guest Conductor, François-Xavier Roth, in a public session at the culmination of the scheme. Two compositions will be chosen to be further developed into five- and ten-minute pieces, to be premiered in an LSO concert at the Barbican."
Read the full announcement here:
Young Composers 5: the latest iteration of the National Youth Choir's Young Composers scheme challenge & stimulate
"Vivid use of texture, imaginative subject matter and challenging writing clearly stimulate the young singers who give wonderfully engaged performances"
CD review, Planet Hugill
published Wednesday 14th February 2024
"An exciting and colourful piece, Hazrati assembles multiple layers of different types of sound and overlays with with [sic] melodies and rhythm, with the excitement of the piece clearly being enjoyed by the singers." One Thousand Threads
"Hazrati combines intimate, close harmony with an imaginative use of textures and the suspicion that it is a challenge to sing." khāne (meditations on home)
Read the full review here:
PRS Foundation - Latest Open Fund for Organisations and Open Fund for Music Creators grantees announced
Emily Hazrati: The Open Fund for Music Creators
published Tuesday 23rd January 2024
"Through an incremental, collaborative process of developing and workshopping ideas with performers, Emily and Joseph will create two new songs which mark the beginning and end of Don Juan's life, combining historical references and conventional notation with open scoring and extended vocal writing. They are excited to explore modern audiences' roles as interpreters of Juan's narrative, incorporating elements of participation where audience members can decided whether he was 'cursed or mended'."
Read more here:
Making Music - Adopt A Music Creator pairings 2024
published Monday 15th January 2024
"The Adopt a Music Creator project (originally called Adopt a Composer) began in 2000 and has inspired over 120 diverse musical works. The project aims to help emerging music creators and leisure-time music groups develop artistically, provide them with opportunities, and expose audiences to new music. It celebrates music of all genres and showcases the creative vitality of the UK’s leisure-time music scene."
Read the full announcement here:
Composers announced for WeCompose 2023-24
published Friday 27th October 2023
"We have recruited a fantastic team of composers who will be visiting schools across the country to help develop the composition work of KS3 and KS4 students and support their teachers. Students get to experience working with professional musicians and are supported in developing compositional and collaborative skills, which they will use to create group and individual compositions. Students will then get to see their work being performed by professional musicians in a culmination concert towards the end of their academic year."
Read the full announcement here:
National Youth Choir - Young Composers Blog 2023 #1 Emily Hazrati
5 Best Things about 'Discovering' with National Youth Choir in 2023
published Thursday 13th July 2023
Read the full blog post here:
(photo: Belinda Lawley)
The Arts Desk review | Ligeti Day; Kolesnikov/Tsoy, Aldeburgh Festival review - 14 musicians, 16 premieres and 100 metronomes
published Monday 26th June 2023
"More dazzle came from Emily Hazrati in György's Apprenice [sic], viola initiating a thicket of notes taken up by the other players..."
Read the full review here:
(photo: David Nice, classical music and opera editor of theartsdesk)
Ave Maris Stella by Emily Hazrati – a singer's take on this new commission
Thames Philharmonic Choir blog
published Saturday 27th May 2023
"The theme of water comes across very strongly as I sing. I'm an alto and in Emily's piece, the three lower parts, (bass, tenor and alto) have what feels like surges of triplets underneath the soprano line. It reminds me of waves, the ebb and flow of the sea, or water lapping on a shoreline."
(photo: Ben Tomlin Photography)
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NYCGB Showcase 2023
broadcast from VOCES8 Centre, London
premiered Tuesday 28th February 2023, 6.30pm
"Watch an uplifting evening of new music, created and performed by some of the UK’s leading young singers and composers, and be the first to hear about our plans for the year ahead."
Watch the full showcase here:
TIDE film extract (Aldeburgh Festival 2022)
released Thursday 8th December 2022
Music by Emily Hazrati
Words by Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh
celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme
Watch the full opera here:
Eleanor Burke - director
Will Sharma - music director
Georgia Bishop - Estèr
Katherine McIndoe - Amelia
Erin Rossington - Ina
Akito Goto - cello
Anna Caban - violin
Sophie McLaughlin - flute
Filmmaker: Matt Jolly
PRXLUDES interview | Emily Hazrati
published Monday 13th June 2022
Read the full interview here:
(photo: Zygmund de Somogyi)
Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme Composers 2021-22: Les Six
"A specially-commissioned short film by Jessie Rodger, focusing on the creative processes of the six early-career composers currently supported by the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme. This film was made during the New Music Course for the cohort of early career musicians on the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme 2021-22. It features all six of the composers, their views on writing music and what inspires their own individual process. It will be shown as a rolling installation across the two days of the festival."
Friday 10 September, 2pm - 9pm
Saturday 11 September, 10am - 8pm
watch the full film here:
In conversation with Katherine Dienes-Williams on Drop down, ye Heavens, from above (2021)
performed at Guildford Cathedral for their Advent Carol Service, Sunday 28th November
more information here:
writing raindrops keep dancing... (2021)
a blog on my micro-commission from Guildhall New music society, included as part of their spring 2021 archive. raindrops keep dancing... was written for and premiered by Julien Harman-Evans (voice flute) and Thomas Ang (piano).
read more about raindrops keep dancing... here
A Clare Toccatina (2020)
commissioned by Choir & Organ Magazine as part of their New Music Series 2020, in partnership with Graham Ross and The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge. Premiered by George Gillow (Sir William McKie Organ Scholar) on Sunday 15th November 2020.
Read my interview with Choir & Organ here.
A Clare Toccatina received its second performance at York Minster Cathedral on Thursday 25th March 2021.