In Conversation with Julian Philips & Hollie Harding
In Conversation with composers Julian Philips & Hollie Harding
Leading new-music vocal ensemble EXAUDI returns to Guildhall for its much-anticipated annual festival of new works for voices, EXPOSURE on Monday 19 May.
This year's edition is strongly Guildhall-focused, with major premieres from composition professors Julian Philips and Hollie Harding and by current PhD student Elisabet Dijkstra, as well as shorter works by Rishin Singh and by Christopher Fox in his 70th birthday year, and a suite of new pieces by Masters students.
All are invited to come along to Milton Court Concert Hall to experience this exciting evening of new music – admission is free, no tickets required.
Ahead of the concert we caught up with Professor Julian Philips, Head of Composition, and Dr Hollie Harding, Associate Head of Composition (both pictured above) to find out more about the collaboration, their pieces and inspiration.
Could you tell us a bit about this annual collaboration?
Guildhall School's Composition department has a long-standing and deep collaborative relationship with EXAUDI and composer conductor James Weeks. James is a former Associate Head of Composition here at Guildhall, and he brings EXAUDI into Guildhall several times a year for workshops and concerts, enabling both our final-year undergraduate and Masters composers to write for them. Their visits are always dynamic and creatively provocative and it generates a real buzz around the department.
James is also keen to support out wonderful community of staff composers, and over the years EXAUDI has premiered many new works by Guildhall Professors such as Laurence Crane and Paul Newland.
This year both Hollie Harding (Associate Head of Composition) and I have written new works – Hollie's beautiful new piece Keepsakes explores the fascinating connections we all have to personal objects; my piece, The Poet's Favourite Places explores the poet John Clare's strong sense of connection to specific East Anglian places, using both his own poetic texts, but also field recordings I collected.
Why is it special to work with EXAUDI?
EXAUDI are extraordinary, and amongst composers and the wider world of contemporary music, they have a unique status, universally admired for their powerful performances, the amazing breadth of their repertoire across both renaissance and contemporary music, and the warmth and generosity of their collaborative approach. It's a complete privilege to work with performers of this quality and commitment, whether you're a Guildhall student composer or on the staff.
Could you each tell us a bit about the pieces you've written which will be premiered in the concert?
Hollie:
Keepsakes
While preparing to move house, I sorted through my possessions and discovered my ‘memory box’ — a collection of seemingly ordinary items, made magical by their associated feelings and memories. This inspired me to invite members of EXAUDI to share their own Keepsakes and the memories tied to them with me. I used their responses to create this set of vignettes, with each movement based on one of their meaningful objects.
The project draws on artist Joe Brainard’s memoir ‘I Remember’ (1975) which mixes the mundane and profound through a stream of consciousness list of moments and tangents prefixed with the phrase ‘I remember’. Asking the performers to reflect on a single Keepsake offered a focused way to echo Brainard’s approach and sentiment.
Julian:
The Poet’s Favourite Places forms part of an ongoing creative response to the life and work of poet John Clare (1793-1864), following on from Melodys of Earth and Sky (2022) for violin and clarinet, which was released by NMC Recordings in 2021. Here the concern is for four of Clare’s ‘favourite places’, explored through musical settings of associated Clare texts. These settings are then placed in dialogue with field recordings of these favourite places as they are now, recordings which I collected during February 2024.
Inevitably, The Poet’s Favourite Places mines familiar Clare themes: immersion in nature, sentimental attachment to a particular tree or bush, reminiscences of childhood experience, bitterness towards that great trifle, ‘man’. But it also hopes to explore the uncanny timeslip between how these favourite Clare places might have been experienced in the 1820s and how they are now, in a period of climate degradation and global warming.
What can audiences expect from the evening / the performances?
This is a big night for Guildhall's Composition department, showcasing new works by both staff and student composers. As well as our own premieres, there are a series of new works by our current cohort of MMus composers, as well as Muein by doctoral composer, Elisabet Dijkstra which adds a solo viola to EXAUDI's ensemble of voices. The programme also includes the premiere of Incantations by composer Christopher Fox, a wonderful composer who has enjoyed a long association with EXAUDI.
What else is coming up at Guildhall that you are excited about?
We have a busy term of Composition department events – Voiceworks on 22 May showcasing six new works for voice and instruments, and then on 22 June, the Plus-Minus Ensemble presents a programme of new ensemble works by postgraduate composers.
The climax of the year comes as part of the Guildhall's Making it Festival 2025, when three new chamber operas created by this year's MA Opera Makers are premiered – Alexander and the Tree by Sorena Sabah (composer) and Jess McNulty (writer), Strings of Rebellion by Mary Offer (composer) and Adi Denner (writer) and Gef! by Sam Meredith (composer) and Sophia Trewick (writer). Opera Makers runs from 27 June – 2 July, with a post-show discussion on opening night.
What makes studying Composition at Guildhall special?
Guildhall is such a special place – a really sparky, dynamic and diverse environment for a composer to grow and develop. I think this is true for us staff as much as it is for students. We have such an active and lively group of staff composers, all engaged with composition in uniquely different ways. And this is reflected amongst our community of student composers, both undergraduate and postgraduate. We work hard to encourage as open a creative culture as possible, with a strong ethos of supporting composers to write the music they really want to write.
Exaudi: Exposure2025 takes place at 7.30pm on Monday 19 May in Milton Court Concert Hall. Admission is free, no tickets required. Find out more and view the full programme on our events pages.
EXAUDI is grateful to acknowledge funding from the Cockayne Foundation towards this concert.
EXAUDI: EXPOSURE2025 Monday 19 May, 7.30pm in Milton Court Concert Hall
Free admission