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US Premiere of Colin Matthews's The Pied Piper of Hamelin with the Seattle Symphony

Jun. 04, 2015

US Premiere of Colin Matthews's <em>The Pied Piper of Hamelin</em> with the Seattle Symphony

The timeless story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin comes to life on June 6 when the Seattle Symphony presents the US premiere of Colin Matthews’s new musical setting.

Scored for two narrators, children’s chorus and full orchestra, Matthews’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin was co-commissioned by the London Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and features texts based on author Michael Morpurgo’s retelling of this well-known tale. Matthews’s work received its world premiere on February 8 in London with Vladimir Jurowski leading the London Philharmonic and with Murpurgo as narrator. The Seattle Symphony’s US premiere performance features the Northwest Boychoir conducted by Stilian Kirov.

After the London Philharmonic’s world premiere, Erica Jeal of The Guardian wrote:

Colin Matthews and novelist Michael Morpurgo’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a vivid retelling…It’s a story tailored for two narrators with raucous and dreamy children’s choruses…Matthews’s new score does not talk down to the youngest in its audience…[The composer] draws from a rich pattern book for his music of infestation and enchantment, pomp and squalor. There are glistening shards of Bartók and Janácek, wry nods to Wagner and a cleverly reframed homage to Debussy’s story of a more adult seduction, Syrinx…

For more concert details, visit seattlesymphony.org.

Visit fabermusic.com for more information on Colin Matthews.

Colin Matthews
The Pied Piper of Hamelin (2015)
Text (Eng) by Michael Morpurgo
for 2 narrators, children's chorus and orchestra
2(2.pic).afl.2(2.ca ad lib.).2.bcl.2-4.3.3.1-timp.3perc-pno(cel ad lib.)-hp-str
ca.42’

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