Artistic directors Roger Marsh, Anna Myatt and John Stringer

Latest:

Black Hair at the University of Aveiro  Portugal  (March 29 - April 2 2003)
At the end of March 2003 the ensemble travels to Aveiro for a three day residency as part of the Aveiro festival of contemporary music.  They will workshop pieces by Portugese composers - students and staff of the University of Aveiro - and give a concert of music by Lisa Reim, Matthew McGaughey, John Stringer, Roger Marsh, Damien Harron, Gearges Aperghis and Iannis Xenakis.

Late Music Festival,  York
Black Hair return to the Late Music Festival on March 20 2003, with a programme of chamber music by Takemitsu and SPNM shortlisted pieces by Kerry Andrew, Clive Wilkinson and Joanna Lee.

York Spring Festival of New Music (May 8-10 2003)
In May the ensemble are once again running workshops on pieces submitted by student composers from across the UK.
They will also give a lunchtime concert on May 10 of pieces by Lisa Reim, Matthew McGaughey, John Stringer and Roger Marsh.

Black Hair's final residency at Dartington College of Arts in May 2002 included a concert with four world premieres, by Damien Harron, Matthew McGauhey, Lisa Reim and Andrew Hamilton.  Roger Marsh also dusted off his performance of 'Dum - a vocal percussive fantasy', which he last performed seven years ago, and the ensemble played Jo Kondo's quartet 'Gardenis' for clarinet, cello, piano and percussion.

At the York 'Spring Festival of New Music' in May, the group conducted workshops on four pieces submitted by young composers studying in the North.  In a lunchtime concert Barrie Webb, John Stringer, Anna Myatt, Emma Welton and Catherine Laws presented solo, duo and trio pieces  including a new work for solo oboe 'Signals' by John Stringer.

Next for Black Hair are a concert in the York Late Music Festival in March 2003, featuring music by Takemitsu and works from the SPNM shortlist.  In May they will appear again in the York Spring Festival, giving workshops and presenting a full evening concert.  Other appearances are planned in Portugal and Arizona during 2003.
 

Black Hair takes its name from the Japanese ghost story by the 19th century writer Lafcadio Hearn, upon which Roger Marsh based his song of the same name.  The ensemble was formed in 1995 to promote new music and to perform some of the radical classics of modern music(Webern, Varese, Stravinsky, Berio etc).  Based  in York its players are all musicians who have studied in the region, many of them at the University of York.   Since September 1995 Black Hair have been 'Yorkshire Arts Musicians in Residence', which means they are able to offer subsidised concerts of contemporary music within the region.  The ensemble appears regularly at the York Late Music Festival, and has toured to Waterford, Birmingham, Scarborough, Hull, Newcastle, Stockton, Alsager,  and Dartington . In November 1999 they were ensemble in residence at the Waterford Festival, Ireland. In May 2002 they completed a third  three day residency at Dartington College of Arts.
 
 

Personnel

Anna Myatt:voice       John Stringer: oboe/conductor    Sharon Lyons: clarinet
Barrie Webb: trombone     Damien Harron: percussion     Catherine Laws: piano
Emma Welton: violin   Matthew McGaughey: viola     Charlotte Bishop: cello    Juan Pablo Correa: guitar
Roger Marsh: conductor
 
 
 

Contact:

Roger Marsh       rmm6@york.ac.uk      or        John Stringer  jcs7@york.ac.uk

or write to:  Black Hair   The New Rectory    Everingham   York YO42 4JA