Contact Information (popup)
Welcome
to the website of Scottish conductor Mark Heron. Here you will find
concert information, biographies, reviews, photos and contact
information. As well as being a promotional tool for me, I hope you will
find that the site is a useful resource that contains some useful and
interesting information of general interest to conductors and other
musicians. Most of this is accessed through the
Teaching page.
News & Views
Cincinnati
For the next week or so I'll be in Cincinnati with the RNCM
Wind Orchestra performing at the WASBE conference. You can follow the
conference at www.wasbe.com where
there will be daily updates and reviews, including a tour blog from
yours truly. Our programme is entirely of British music written (with
the exception of a short Vaughan Williams starter for ten) since 1979.
In chronological order of composition: Edward Gregson, Adam Gorb, Edwin
Roxburgh, David Horne, Michael Oliva, Gary Carpenter. We'll also give a
repertoire concert which includes pieces by current and former RNCM
composition students Duncan Ward, Emily Howard and Gavin Higgins.
Recent
Reviews
"The Nottingham Philharmonic has long been one of the
country's finest amateur orchestras but since the appointment of rising
Scottish conductor, Mark Heron, they consistently deliver performances
on a par with the region's professional outfits."
"Gustav Mahler said that nature was all around him, and all he had to do was compose it. Never have I heard his musical impressions of nature reproduced so eloquently than in a memorable performance of Mahler's First Symphony under Mark Heron's incisive guidance."
CD Review: Stephen McNeff: Image in Stone
"This CD, then, is recommended to
anyone interested in uncommon wind band music—in fact, to anyone
attracted by deeply felt, slightly quirky, highly individual
contemporary music. As one would expect given the provenance, the
youthful wind ensemble—mostly players 18 to19 years old—performs
beautifully."
Full review from Fanfare magazine
here.
James
MacMillan
Happy 50th birthday to one our greatest living composers. It
was a pleasure to work with Jimmy during our recent RNCM Festival
devoted to his music.
The Festival involved the BBC Philharmonic and various RNCM orchestras and ensembles and many of the chamber music and ensemble pieces featured were given repeat performances at the Wigmore Hall the following week.
More information about
James
MacMillan.
Royal
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
I was delighted to make my first appearance with the RLPO in December,
and equally delighted to be invited back so quickly - this time to
conduct a family concert presented by Alasdair Malloy.
Details
here
Canford Summer School of Music
Canford is one of the great English summer music
traditions and offers a wealth of courses where professionals, students
and amateurs mingle in the beautiful setting of Sherborne School in
Dorset.
The dates for the 2009 conducting course which I run with Tim
Reynish is 2nd to 9th
August. Details are now available on the
school's
website or feel free to email me to ask about the course which last
year attracted 26 students from all over the world.
Stephen McNeff Recording
Stephen McNeff is Composer in the
House with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and a noted composer
of opera and theatre music. His opera Tarka the Otter, for mixed
cast of professionals and non-professionals, won the
2007 British Composer Award in the
stage works category. I recently recorded his major wind orchestra
pieces with the RNCM Wind Orchestra and the disc has now been released on the Campion label.
Visit Tim Reynish's
site for a review of the disc. The recording will be available on
ITunes soon, or the CD can be ordered from the RNCM: email
Ian
Duckworth.
Site best viewed at
1024 x 768 in IE Explorer 7. All external links open a new window. If
you get a 'blocked content' message, just click 'allow content' - it's
just a few graphic things - no viruses! If you don't, the site won't
operate properly all pages.
© Mark Heron. Last updated quite recently.