John's The Baptism of Adam Smith was the joint winner of the Best Music Creator
at the Making Music Awards 2024 along with a composition by Roderick Williams,
the well-known singer. Altogether four compositions had been short-listed.
The Baptism of Adam Smith was commissioned by the trustees of Kirkcaldy Old
Kirk and Fife Council as part of the philosopher's tercentenary celebrations
and was performed by Kirkcaldy Orchestral Society in the Old Kirk last October.
Thanks to this success there will be a further performance of the piece in
March 2025, again at Kirkcaldy Old Kirk where Adam Smith's baptism took place.
Music for Kirkcaldy Orchestral Society
John has recently written two pieces for the orchestra in which he plays oboe
and cor anglais.
'A Wee Fife Festival Overture' commemorates the 150th season which the orchestra
is celebrating in 2024-25 and is based on three tunes associated with Fife -
The Wee Cooper of Fife, the psalm tune Culross and the ballad Sir Patrick Spens.
The overture was premièred at the orchestra's October concert and will be
repeated at every performance this season.
'Balulalow' is an arrangement of five Scottish lullaby melodies associated
with Christmas - Taladh Chriosda, Baloo Baleerie, Balulalow, Baloo Lammy
and Bunessan. The première will take place at the KOS Christmas concerts
in December 2024. [Please note that these concerts are sold out.]
May 2024
Kirkcaldy Orchestral Society Extra Concert
Two of John’s compositions are being performed at the KOS Extra Concert in May.
‘Persephone Returns’ is a reworking of a big band chart that John wrote for the
National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland in the 90s, but this time it is a feature
for four of the KOS horn players and ‘If you do not come too close’ is a duet for
flute and percussion performed by Craig Steedman and Russell Wilson (the orchestra’s
principal flute and percussionist respectively).
At this concert KOS players will also perform two of the pieces to come out of the
composition project at GMP Glenochil in conjunction with Fife College. The final
visit to the prison took place on 29 April when all seven of the compositions were
performed to an audience of various students there.
The Extra Concert is at 7.30pm on Tuesday 7 May in Kirkcaldy Old Kirk.
Entrance is £5 at the door.
March 2024
New Composition Project
After nearly a decade of composition projects in Fife schools, Kirkcaldy Orchestral Society
has embarked on a new venture with the Learning Centre at HMP Glenochil. Leading on the
orchestra’s side, John is working with the staff of Fife College at the prison to mentor
a group of prisoners who are composing their own pieces. The project will conclude with
performance of seven of the students’ compositions in April.
New Old Kirk Concerto
In 2019 John composed the Concerto di Famiglia for the Randall family who performed it with
the orchestra in October of that year. Some of the inspiration for the piece came from
Bach’s sixth Brandenburg Concerto (both works have two violas and a cello in the solo group)
and John then began to form an idea for a series of concertos for different instrumental groupings.
Since the Old Kirk is now very much the home of Kirkcaldy Orchestral Society, it seemed natural
to for the series to take its name from the place where we meet, rehearse and perform.
The second concerto, Concerto for Orchestra, was completed in 2020, but the première was delayed
until 2022 because of the pandemic. A Big Song and Dance was the third in the series,
a concerto for clarinet and orchestra which was premièred a year ago by the orchestra’s principal
clarinetist Stuart Smith.The fourth concerto is for solo trumpet and is titled Pale Blue Dot after the famous image of our planet. It will be premièred at the Old Kirk on Sunday 24 March with
Margaret Smith, who is the principal trumpet in the orchestra.
A fifth concerto is now in preparation for performance next season.
October 2023
In the summer, John was asked to orchestrate three songs by Eileen Rendell from her
suite of songs "Orlaff the Dragon" for Halloween presentations in the Children's
Classic Concerts series. They were performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
and the RSNO Youth Chorus at packed out concerts in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Stephen Morrison Guitar
Guitarist Stephen Morrison will give a performance of Seven Ages at the National Gallery
of Scotland in Edinburgh. John wrote this piece, a collection of seven vignettes based
on Jacques' soliloquy in As You Like It, in 2015 and it was performed at the Edinburgh
Festival Fringe the following year. The recital also includes music by the great lutenist
John Dowland and is intended to complement the Power of Story display in the new galleries.
The performance is 6.00-6.30pm on Thursday 7 December. It is free, but booking is essential.
A new piece by John will be premièred by Kirkcaldy Orchestral Society on 3 October.
The Baptism of Adam Smith was commissioned by Kirkcaldy Old Kirk Trust and Fife Council
to commemorate the tercentenary in 2023 of Smith's baptism in June 1723. The performance
will take place in Kirkcaldy Old Kirk, the orchestra's home, and the very space where
the baptism took place.
Other music to be performed includes Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture,
some of Handel's Water Music,
Eric Coates' Sleepy Lagoon, the Overture to HMS Pinafore.
The concert is on Tuesday 3rd October at 7.30pm.
Tickets for the concert are available from Orchestra members, via the website
kirkcaldyorchesralsociety.org or by phoning 07473 752369.
£10 adults, £5 children/students, under 5 free.
KOS Extra Concert and Music in May
In May Kirkcaldy Orchestral Society resumes its regular 'Extra' concerts with the usual mix of
eighteenth century and contemporary music. The programme will include compositions by
Howard Skempton, Frederic Rzewski and Peter Maxwell Davies as well as music by Bach and Vivaldi.
Some pieces by the Kirkcaldy High School composers of the Composition Project 2023 will be
included as will John's solo performance of his 'Leave To Live'.
The concert will also feature the premières of two pieces for two solo bassoons,
'Stars' and 'Evening Prayer' which were written for the orchestra's bassoonists,
Sarah and Hannah.
The concert is at 7.30pm on Tuesday 9 May in Kirkcaldy Old Kirk with admission of £5 at the door.
John is also involved in the Music In May concert, also at the Old Kirk. This is presented by
The Langtoun Singers directed by Ella Wilson and is at 7.30pm on Friday 26 May.
The programme will include some of John's jazz pieces, 'Nepeta Cataria', 'The Silence
of the Clams' and 'The Fleas' Knees'.
A Big Song And Dance (Old Kirk Concerto No.3)
In 2019 John composed the Concerto di Famiglia for the Randall family who performed it
with the orchestra in October of that year. Some of the inspiration for the piece came
from Bach's sixth Brandenburg Concerto (both works have two violas and a cello in the solo
group) and John then began to form an idea for a series of concertos for different
instrumental groupings. Since the Old Kirk is now very much the orchestra's home,
it seemed natural to for the series to take its name from the place where we meet,
rehearse and perform.
The second concerto, Concerto for Orchestra, was completed in 2020, but the première
was delayed until last year because of the pandemic. The third in the series is for solo
clarinet and orchestra, written for the orchestra's principal clarinetist Stuart Smith.
John says about the concerto, "I wanted to write a lyrical and expressive piece
followed by a lively and energetic finale and the clarinet seemed the ideal instrument
for this. I like Stuart's playing very much and he has a very positive take on music
making, so that all fitted together."
To listen to Old Kirk Concerto No.3 for Clarinet and Orchestra click below.
Kirkcaldy Orchestral Society Composition Project 2023
Although the start of the project was slightly delayed by school closures, John started the
project towards the end of January with a visit to the S3 class at Kirkcaldy High School
along with volunteer players from the orchestra. The Principal Teacher of Music,
Rachel Simpson, and the class teacher, Michaela Duckett, were closely involved in the
project during the whole process and were a major factor in its success.
Just seven weeks after the first visit ten young composers completed compositions which were
then premièred at the school on Friday 24 March. For the first time the whole orchestra
was involved in this event and played a selection of items from their Spring concert programme.
The orchestra is hoping to repeat some of the pupils' pieces at the KOS Extra concert in May.
Update February 2023
At the end of 2022 John's We Wish You A Merry Fugue had a second outing at the Kirkcaldy
Orchestral Society's December concerts. The performances also included John's arrangements
of Four Traditional Carols, designed for the audience to sing with.
John gave a second performance of his solo saxophone piece, Leave To Live, at the Fife
Festival of Music in Kirkcaldy. His playing and composition attracted the adjudicator's
comments, "magical opening" and "I really enjoyed your playing". John hopes to give a third
performance of the piece at the KOS Extra concert in May.
At the same occasion of the Adult Instrumental Class and ensemble from KOS performed John's
Scottish Renaissance Dances, a set he wrote as a companion to Peter Maxwell Davies'
Renaissance Scottish Dances. This earned the comments, "wonderful instrumentation"
and "magical, flowing and a real showcase for everyone."
Update March 2022
Concerto for Orchestra (Old Kirk Concerto No.2)
John wrote this piece in late 2019 and intended for performance by Kirkcaldy Orchestral Society
in March 2020. Unfortunately this concert had to be cancelled because of the pandemic,
but it was eventually presented in its entirety on Sunday 20 March at Kirkcaldy Old Kirk.
Loosely inspired by the concertos of Bartòk and Lutosławski the concerto features the instrumental
'families' of instruments in the orchestra. The piece was part of a season connecting with
families in various contexts and draws on the melody of 'A Man's A Man'. The original
intention had been to be a listening activity as part of the composition project with
S3 pupils at St Columba's HS, Dunfermline.
