#MusicIcon Michel Arrignon, co-founder of the Ensemble Intercontemporain and cherished clarinettist, has passed away at 76. A pioneer of modernism, he brought 20th-century masterpieces to life and was deeply inspired by his work with Pierre Boulez. #ClassicalMusic #Legacy

Since it was my birthday last week, I bought myself a present: a new contrabass clarinet mouthpiece from JD Woodwinds. 3D printed, and 1/3 of the price of other models. Arrived from the US in less than a week. And it plays like a dream. Agility + dynamic control are up 10x.

Sofia Gubaidulina passed away today in Germany, aged 93. RIP.

In color: Dimitri and Irina Shostakovich playing with a little cat.

Three days until the deadline for our Composer's Lab, get your applications in! heatherroche.net/2025/02/25/z...

Spent all day recording Meredith Monk on my glorious contrabass clarinet and I love playing it so much and please can more people book me to do so? Please? I really don’t get to take her out often enough. She’s low and a bit farty and really just delightful.

@royalbirmcons.bsky.social is offering TWO £5000 scholarships open to applicants for our MA Musicology course. This one-year course can be a gateway to PhD studies or simply a chance to explore any area of music in more depth with world-leading experts, all in our state-of-the-art facilities 1/

I wrote a thing after an encounter with one of my adult clarinet students! (I also started a Substack, having already been hooked on the platform for a few months now.)

I'm happy with this video too but this thumbnail is probably my best work ever 🤣

We're putting on this gig on Friday (21st Feb) with Weston Olencki and Laura Cocks (launching their album FATHM), two excellent experimental musicians from the USA who I am sure some of you know. Please come to this gig! Sign up here: www.city.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

We are now accepting applications for the next ZRD Composer's Lab. Three commissions of €1500, no restrictions on age or nationality (although 2/3 must be resident in Germany) kuenstlerhaus-lauenburg.de/composers-la...

Have a call with a tonebase clarinet coachee this afternoon and I'm so excited to get her started. The way the platform helps you track your progress and get feedback every week is cool, I think it's going to be an amazing tool (and hope more people sign up!) coaching.tonebase.co/coaches/heat...

Re-amplifying this job going in digital music cultures in @ucddublin.bsky.social @ucdschoolofmusic.bsky.social Come work with me and many other nice people in arts & humanities. Plenty of opportunity to collaborate in the school & in the college The search is deep & wide www.ucd.ie/adastrafello...

I'm playing a set at the Blue Moon in Cambridge tomorrow with my pal Jack Cooper (Modern Nature), and Jon Collin is headlining and I think it's all going to be rather beautiful joncollin.bandcamp.com/album/the-ot... so come along cambridge folks, lots of floaty guitars (and bass clarinets!)

I'm not the only instrumental studio in this position, but interesting to see how many professional clarinetists are signing up for Darmstadt - I have feeling younger players just don't know about it. Still some spaces in the clarinet studio so please tell your friends, today is last day to apply!

Just been reading about crosstalk as a language learning method - hoo boy that would have been a GREAT idea when I was learning German, I had so many awkward tandem dates…

#NowPlaying Gorgeous melancholic motets by Renaissance composer *Nicolas Gombert, arranged for instruments by contemporary composer James Weeks who also composed the 'media vita' interludes. Beautifully played by the great @apartment-house.bsky.social *a bad man

You can’t measure the worth of writing by views. Most of the finest articles I’ve ever had the joy to commission & edit for tQ are nowhere near our most read. Every publication that has gone slutty for page views has also gone shit - it’s a race to the bttm, that’s the rules.

One of my favourite places in all of London and the idea of it not being there anymore is too awful to really think about

This monthly roundup always inspires some listening in this house, but also really glad he dug our Gombert/Weeks record. daily.bandcamp.com/best-contemp...

Have quite a busy spring of projects coming up, except April. April is this weird black hole where I have *nothing*. The one thing I did have was just cancelled. April, come on, what are you doing to me?

Across four sessions, hcmf// and @hootcreativearts.bsky.social offer a fun opportunity to make music online in a group setting, led by community musician and arts practitioner Rob Crisp. No experience necessary – just an open mind and an internet connection. Learn more: hcmf.co.uk/online-elect...

i don't care who you are- this is going to be an educational experience. mark it on your calendar:

We're welcoming applications for the 2026 RPS Composers programme, for UK-based composers establishing a career. Write for a noted ensemble, venue or festival, alongside professional development workshops and mentoring. Apply by 25 March via royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk/composers/rp...

I'm doing another LIVE Q&A on my YouTube Channel on Thursday, aimed mostly at composers (although clarinetists you're also very welcome as ever!). More info and how to submit a question in advance here: heatherroche.net/2025/02/03/l... Photo by Sam Walton

One week to go until applications are due for the Darmstadt Instrumental Studios! Have you got your application in? internationales-musikinstitut.de/en/ferienkur...

My new composition residency for trans girls with inti figgis-vizueta and Andrew Yee happening this summer is still accepting applications through this weekend. The deadline was 1/31 and we got a nice healthy # of applications but giving folks a couple more days to apply. www.sarah-hennies.com/gliss

We appeal to those in power at Cardiff University to cherish and protect the School of Music. Matching the pride that Wales famously possesses for its musicians, the School takes such care training its students, and the UK music profession embraces all they have to offer.

flutists, oboists, trumptists, cellists, we are looking forward to working with you in Darmstadt summer courses, for the premiere of my piece, The divine thawing of the core. (52'), and Ustvolskaya's amazing 2nd symphony. see link to Program notes internationales-musikinstitut.de/en/ferienkur...

Spent an hour on Zoom with Donald from Chicago and Jesse from Columbus, talking about clarinet articulation for tonebase - moved on to general clarinet nerdery and what a perfect way to start the weekend.

Recorded some bass clarinet parts for some absolutely gorgeous songs today. My chops are a wreck after three hours of mostly long tones and delicate multiphonics but omg so so beautiful.

Early Wandelweiser: Wandelweiser on Bandcamp. It just started with the first recordings from the 1990s. A treasure to discover. editionwandelweiserrecords.bandcamp.com?fbclid=IwY2x...

Sixteen years since my first major gig in new music: playing at an award ceremony for Louis Andriessen with Kate Ledger. Louis teased me about the coffee I'd spilled on my score and I was no doubt incredibly nervous, but he was very kind and we'd worked so hard on this very old piece of his.

University of Liverpool is open for UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships, a potentially transformational scheme for early career researchers who can be the next leaders within their discipline. www.ukri.org/opportunity/... has a database of successful fellowships including Music, plus see UoL site.

Been worried for quite some time that I've got coeliac disease (it runs in the family) but I'd cut out gluten during the pando and you have to have it in the system to be tested. Eight weeks ago I reintroduced (and successfully!) and took the test, and I'm clear! Huge relief.

Pleased to see that our Gombert/@jamesweeks.bsky.social record is out today on another timbre - this was quite a new direction for the label and its house band and the sessions were so memorable/wonderful (especially with James as our captain) anothertimbre.bandcamp.com/album/g-o-m-...

I'm the lead clarinet coach for this this - coaching.tonebase.co/clarinet - and I must say, as long as you're reasonably able with the technology (recording and uploading videos) it's quite a cool system that emphasises reflection and progress in your playing. Come improve your playing with me :)

anthony braxton is sick of your shit

oh what the hell? the Prince Charles is at risk because of potential dickhead developers? truly they can fuck all the way off you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

Getting ready for a livestream tonight for tonebase with their clarinetists, we're going to be doing embouchure awareness-building exercises. While my relationship with tb has changed a lot, I still love doing these classes. Good for me and them to have an hour of focused attention on fundamentals.

There is really nothing I enjoy more in the world than teaching and workshopping with student composers. I just get such a buzz from it and I feel so darned useful. If that could be my job every week I'd be so happy (and so tired, I learned so much music this week 😅).

Ah, the glamour of life as a touring musician.

Project at the RAM this week where I coached students in writing and performance of their own Fluxus scores: they were INCREDIBLE. I loved every minute and the concert was utterly extraordinary. Future hope of tomorrow, this lot. So inspiring.

Very proud of Sam Walton, whose beautiful photos are hanging at one of our favourite pubs, The Lord Herbert, for the next three months, chronicling the route from Bostall Heath to Plumstead Common and its rich history ♥️

Exciting to see some applications start to come in for the workshop on writing for clarinet that Hans Thomalla and I are running at Darmstadt next summer. Come write for my incredible clarinet studio ✨

If you are a PhD music student or similar with experience of contemporary music and looking for the opportunity to write about music for a wonderful journal, I'm looking for a couple of reviewers for the next issue of TEMPO!

Registration for Darmstadt has now opened: get in there new music friends, it does tend to fill up pretty fast and it's going to be so good. (And I'm teaching!) I found the 2008 course *transformative* as a student so I can't recommend going enough (also: it's overwhelming, prepare for that!).

Clarinet students of all types - I'm going to be leading a few workshops at this fabulous clarinet festival over a long weekend in May in Germany. Other teachers include Nicholas Baldeyrou, Kilian Herold, Shirley Brill, etc. It's going to be ace! Come join us! www.bdb-online.de/clarimondo/

I feel like in the gap between when I left The Other Place and when I joined up here I forgot how to do this kind of short form posting. Or: because I have so few posts each one feels more infused with meaning? Either way, finding it difficult to actually post things. Much hesitation.

Been getting back into shape over the last week or so in order to be ready for the arrival of six new clarinet solo pieces arriving tomorrow, which I'll be workshopping with students at the RNCM two weeks today. Fun! (Also: quite a lot of work!)