:: Recordings ::
The Dowland Project's third album 'Romaria' was released in January and has had terrific press. It's not easy to get the band together as its members live in different countries, but there will be appearances in the Cheltenham Festival (UK) and the MITO settembre musica in Milan.
John's recording of the Play of Daniel (with the Dufay Collective) has been mastered and will be released by Harmonia Mundi USA later this year.
The Sound and the Fury's second CD of music by Gombert is now out on ORF, and is one of the Records of the Year at www.medieval.org. Plans are in place to record more Franco-Flemish music in 2008, including masses by Obrecht. The group performed Gombert's Missa Pulchra at the Vienna Konzerthaus in the Resonanzen Wien series in January, which nicely coincided with John's invitation to the University of Vienna's Historische Aufführungspraxis conference, at which he presented his paper on Schubert entitled 'Historically Informed Hyper-reality'. The group has just recorded Ockeghem's Missa Caput and Missa Quinti Toni and two revelatory masses by Faugues in the monastery of Mauerbach outside Vienna. The line-up on this occasion included David Erler, Klaus Wenk and Colin Mason, as well as Richard Wistreich and Thomas Bauer. More recordings are planned for Bressanone in July and Vienna in October.
Ambrose Field's Being Dufay will be mixed by ECM later this year and is now available as a live event with John singing and Ambrose Field re-mixing from his laptop. There are plans to develop this as an audio-visual presentation
There are plans to record Gavin Bryars' Opera North/RSC commission Nothing Like the Sun in York later in the year. John premiered new Laude and revised versions of the Bryars Irish Madrigals at St George’s Bristol in May.
:: Concerts ::
John gave a new programme of Dowland and Campion lute songs with Ariel Abramovich in Zaragoza in April. He also performed the role of Inteletto in Cavalieri’s Anima e Corpo with L’Arpeggiata in Spain. Red Byrd has given concerts in the Newcastle Early Music Festival and the Loch Sheil Festival, with new programmes featuring Robin Jeffery, Suzanna Pell and Jacob Heringman.
:: Tampere International Vocal Festival ::
John has done his last stint as chair of the Ensemble Singing Jury so that he can concentrate on being artistic advisor to the 2009 festival. Anders Jalkeus (of the Real Group) will take over the chair and Bob Chilcott will replace him on the jury. Plans are well advanced for lots of theatrical and high-tech vocal events.
:: University of York ::
John conducted the inaugural concert of The 24, a new chamber choir dedicated to new and (fairly) recent music. The first concert included Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden and music by Mahler and Gavin Bryars. The choir will be directed by William Brooks in the Autumn for an evening of Charles Ives and will collaborate with the Gavin Bryars Ensemble in the Spring for a performance of his Cadman Requiem. John's undergraduate teaching project next term is 'Authenticities: early music and the blues', and his Vocal Studies MA will feature the vocal trio Juice as visiting ensemble. He is stepping down as chair of the University Concerts Committee but will continue to chair the Performance Supervisors Committee.