• Clip from New Work

    My music for Rubbish, Body of Soul – a physical performance piece and an exhibition of photography, performed and displayed as part of an International Festival in Rio de Janiero – is now complete and receive performances in June 2012. A clip of music from the physical performance piece can be heard here http://soundcloud.com/steven-berryman/excerpt-from-new-work-may-2012

  • “The Famous Mr Bach”: Concert talk on Johann Sebastian Bach

    ~ Below is the text, slightly edited, of the concert talk I gave at North London Collegiate School for a Bach Concert on 8 February 2012 ~   ‘Johann Sebastian Bach belongs to a family that seems to have received a love and aptitude for music as a gift of nature to all its members in common’…

  • Are conductors necessary?

    Haydn’s last visit in 1794-95 [to Great Britain] had marked both the climax of London’s public concert life and the beginning of its decline. The founding of the Philharmonic Society in 1813 by a group of professional musicians was a rare flash of light in an otherwise sombre scene. Although it helped to make London…

  • Writing with Logic

    I thought I would find it difficult receiving instantaneous feedback on what I write – via email – but I’m enjoying the process. My current work is music for a physical performance piece “Rubbish Body of Soul” working with Beo da Silva and Mauricio Carneirio. The work, just under thirty minutes long, will be performed…

  • Piano: Inside/Out – Zubin Kanga @ Kings Place, London

    Previously published http://www.icareifyoulisten.com/2012/03/piano-insideout-zubin-kanga-kings-place-london/ I always find it interesting to read discussions on the validity of extended techniques and less conventional methods of sound production; perhaps occasionally – and naively – considered to be ‘gimmicks’, repertoire that exploits a broader pallette of sound production can offer insights not only in the possibilities of writing for particular…

  • Modern Music: Brad Mehldau, Kevin Hays & Patrick Zimmerli (Nonesuch)

    ~ already published at http://www.icareifyoulisten.com/2012/03/modern-music-brad-mehldau-kevin-hays-patrick-zimmerli-nonesuch/ ~ Placing the pianist Brad Mehldau into a particular genre or category seems tricky; being defined as a jazz pianist seems limited for his output and extensive work since the 1990s, including  curation of Jazz series at the Wigmore Hall here in London. The recent release from Nonesuch Records of ‘Modern Music’…

  • Writing for physical theatre

    April is looking like it should be a rather exciting month, and after hearing and seeing so much music over the past couple of months (OAE mostly, but some opera and more recent music) I feel ready to write again. At my PhD viva I mentioned that the next step in my own writing was…

  • Charm is the word of 2012

    Catching up with the latest issue of the Monocle – February edition – and Andrew Tuck’s editorial draws attention to charm as the word for 2012: “Honesty, integrity, simplicity, durability, tactility are words that help all manner of firms thrive but oddly they never seem to make it past the door of a business school.…

  • Posing Questions: Wolfgang Rihm at 60, London Sinfonietta

    ~ first published at I Care if You Listen ~ 2012 sees the 60th birthday of the prolific composer Wolfgang Rihm and the London Sinfonietta curated a concert that included three UK premieres of Rihm works in addition to two works by composers who at some point in their training were taught by Rihm: Rebecca…

  • ‘Minimum Maximum’ – ensemblebash @ Kings Place

    The percussion quartet ensemblebash celebrate their twenty years of musical success with a series of three concerts at Kings Place, London. ‘Minimum Maximum’ – the first concert in the series – programmed significant works from the ensemble’s extensive repertoire from the past two decades that offers ‘rhythmic muscularity and technical dexterity’. The performance opened with…