'The Path to Heaven' (2018), opera for seven voices and fifteen instruments (90’)
'The Path to Heaven: a Descent' (2020) for symphonic wind ensemble (15’)
- Submitting institution
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Royal Northern College of Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 22A
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2020
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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1 - Composition
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- ‘The Path to Heaven’ (2018), an opera on the subject of the Holocaust, is my fourth collaboration with librettist Ben Kaye. Distinct from our previous collaborations, this is a composer-driven project and the libretto and music emerges from my ethnographic documentary research drawing on key texts by, and my interviews with, Holocaust survivors Zdenka Fantlova (‘The Tin Ring’ (2012)), Anita Lasker-Wallisch (‘Inherit the Truth’ (1996)) and Arek Hersh’s (‘A Detail of History’ (2001)). These interviews directly informed the musical and narrative decision to present this dark past within a celebration of the triumph of the human spirit over unthinkable odds.
This work extends composition and educational research in practical and socially informed opera (including Kaye’s and my 2012 opera ‘Anya 17’, which highlighted and addressed issues of contemporary sex trafficking). The piece is aesthetically accessible and written for HE student vocalists with an ensemble of students playing alongside professionals. The 15-piece wind, brass, and percussion ensemble writing builds on years of research and creative practice in wind ensemble composition, and the piece connects into an international educational network of practice in this area (reflected in the performances to date). This has been extended through a 15-minute concert work for full symphonic wind ensemble ‘The Path to Heaven: a Descent’ premiered at the RNCM in 2020.
‘The Path to Heaven’ was premièred at the Howard Assembly Rooms in Leeds and the Royal Northern College of Music in 2018 with RNCM students and professional ensemble Psappha, with subsequent USA productions at the Wichita State Opera Theater, University of Wichita, Kansas (2019) and Texas A and M University in collaboration with the Dallas new Holocaust museum (2020). Future productions are planned for the World Music Conference in Kerkrade, Holland and the World Association of Symphonic Bands and ensembles in Prague in July 2022.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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