 Chris Towner, 16 November 2005, Civic Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon
Open the Curtains, by the young award winning Spanish composer Oscar Colomina I Bosch, is based around the musical letters of his surname, BSCH.
The work was commissioned for the orchestra following the composer's involvement with its Music of our Time project when he was one of five Guildhall School students who mentored A level students as they were writing their music portfolios. In Open the Curtains e explores the opposite roles of expression - the dark, slow opening of the piece contrasting with its chromatic, crystalline end.
The piece was received with enthusiasm and was a worthy beginning to the orchestra's 10th anniversary season.
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Oscar Colomina i Bosch
Oscar studied composition with Malcolm Singer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he graduated with first class honours and gained a Masters in Composition with distinction. Since September 2006, Oscar has been a research student at the Royal Academy of Music under the supervision of Simon Bainbridge.
He was a finalist of the Barclays - St. Paul's Cathedral Competition Prize, and winner of the competition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Royal Festival Hall's organ, as well as of the Musicians Company Dr. Alfred Prindl Memorial Prize and the Guildhall School/Orchestra of the Swan Composition Prize.
Oscar has been commissioned by, among others, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra of the Swan, the Valencian Music Institute, Trio Rebec, Sounds Underground Ensemble and Kontakte Percussión.
His music has been premiered at the Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Sir Adrian Boult Hall, Yale University's Sprague Hall and the Palau de la Música de Valencia; it has also featured in festivals including the City of London Festival, Manchester QuartetFest, the European Congress of Conservatoires and the Encuentro Internacional de Compositores 2006 in Mallorca. Last August he was invited to be resident composer with the Joven Orquesta Internacional Ciudad de Oviedo. More recently, his orchestral piece Le Vitrail Englouti was premiered by the Royal Academy Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Cohen in a project mentored by Yan-Pascal Tortelier.
Oscar and has been supported by a number of scholarships awarded by the Valencian Music Institute, the Spanish Ministry of Culture and the AHRC. He currently teaches composition at the Yehudi Menuhin School.
www.oscarcolomina.com
Commissions and Performances
Open the Curtains - 2005
14 November 2005: Civic Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon (world premiere)
15 November 2005: Pittvile Pump Room, Cheltenham
Open the Curtains
Performed in Stratford-upon-Avon and Cheltenham
This piece is a journey and a dialog between two opposite poles of expression: the dark, slow opening of the piece with its saturated chromaticism, and its translucent, luminous end.
The opening is based around the musical letters of my surname (BSCH) in homage to the first composer of tonight's program, Shostakovich, who also uses his name as a base for the material of his piece (DSCH); while the light, immaterial ending comes from a song a wrote this summer. This also links my piece with Schubert (by using material from a previously written song as he does in the Death and the Maiden).
Hence, the piece happens, as it were, between the two poles more than in them. The title comes from a verse of the song which I believe conveys the whole purpose of the piece.
Oscar Colomina I Bosch
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