Paul Max Edlin - Composer

A film of some recent short piano pieces and their inspirations... https://youtu.be/Jwjg_iilBhs

In just under three weeks the London Chamber Orchestra perform a new performing version of 'Simple Gifts', originally composed in 2016 for the LCO's Music Junction programme. This event at St John's Smith Square is part of the LCO's centenary celebrations.

On 21 November, the London Chamber Orchestra and Christopher Warren Green give the first performance of a specially revised version of ‘Simple Gifts’ at St John’s Smith Square... https://www.facebook.com/events/983469608 672391/?ti=icl

Having just returned from China and enjoyed the energy, beauty and wit of Chinese classical music, not least the Beijing Opera, I realise how much my own music is steeped in these sonorities. 'Two Gentlemen from Japan' is intentionally 'oriental' and uses a mix of the overture to The Mikado and my own personal sentiments regarding the Far East. But there is little doubt that as I enjoyed the Beijing Opera, I knew where much of my music came from... https://soundcloud.com/paulmaxedlin/two-g entlemen-from-japan

A recent recording of ‘...and the body of transformations’ with Rolf Hind at the extraordinary magnetic resonator piano created by Andrew McPherson of QMUL’s Centre for Digital Music... https://soundcloud.com/…/and-the-body-o f-transformations201…

A 5 star review for the premiere of 'Frida', which took place a week ago today... https://stagetalkmagazine.com/?p=20473

The Oxford Times has published a substantial article on Frida, which receives its world premiere next week at Oxford Festival of the Arts

The world premiere of 'Frida' is now just under a fortnight away. The remarkable mezzo-soprano Katie Bray sings Frida, and she is joined by the East London Music Group directed by Matthew Hardy. This is the first known work that sets Frida Kahlo's own words - all taken from her exceptional and highly poetic diaries.

The wonderful Katie Bray is representing England in Cardiff Singer of the World. I am so proud that Katie is to sing ‘Frida’ in its world premiere on 3rd July at Oxford Festival of the Arts.

Composed in 2011/2012, 'Frida Sketches' was a literal sketch for the larger work 'Frida', which sets Frida Kahlo's own words. Here is a film of Frida Sketches, performed here by the Arditti Quartet... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI09P0Xv8 pc&t=6s

An aural glimpse of ‘Frida’ can be heard in these ‘sketches’, here performed by the great Arditti Quartet... https://soundcloud.com/paulmaxedlin/frida -sketches

Huge thanks and congratulations to Lisa Nelsen for the stunning and elegant performances of such complex pieces. Composers are very fortunate to have their work brought to life with such panache.

World premiere announcement: Paul Max Edlin has set Frida Kahlo’s own diary to music, by kind permission of the Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust. The hour long work is a cross between an operatic monologue and a vast song cycle that charts the artist’s extraordinary life through her own words. ‘Frida’ is to receive its world premiere in July by East London Music Group at Oxford Festival of the Arts. Full details via this link:... http://www.artsfestivaloxford.org/…/mus …/frida-world-premier
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This coming Tuesday (23 April) sees the premiere of ‘C’, given by the exceptional Canadian flutist Lisa Nelsen. The work was written for Lisa, and is called ‘C’ because among the plethora of notes, not one C exists, and the note C is, of course, the fundamental of the common flute.

The exceptional Canadian flautist, Lisa Nelsen, gives the premiere of 'C' on Tuesday 23 April in a lunchtime concert at Borough New Music - St George the Martyr, London SE1 1JA. For full details and more information about Borough New Music, please check out http://www.boroughnewmusic.co.uk/

Borodubur – Temple of the Secret Aspect is an early work, composed in 1987. Scored for a vast orchestra (5.4.4.4 – 5.6.3.1 – 2hp, celeste, 5 perc, – 16.16.14.12.10) it was to be the largest orchestra to be squeezed on to the Royal College of Music's stage (extra platforms had to be made).
It is based on the architectural design and narrative carvings of the immense Javanese monument, Borobudur, which sits at the heart of the Kedu Plain in central Java. The music takes us on ...a literal tour of the monument, exploring its meaning as explained by the narrative bas reliefs that adorn its galleries, and eventually experiencing the building's symbolic representation of Nirvana.
This recording is of the premiere, given by the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra conducted by Elgar Howarth
https://soundcloud.com/…/borobudur-temp le-of-the-secret-asp…
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A short film of 'A Chain of Wonders', written in 2010 and performed here by Cantus Ansambl. The images in this film are by artists Jan Toorop, Arnold Böcklin, Fernand Khnopff, George Frederic Watts and Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis.
The piece takes the listener on an imaginary tour of special and exotic places, usually in nocturnal settings. The very opening borrows from an earlier piece of mine called The Sphinx at Night, itself inspired from an evocative watercolour of... the famous Egyptian sphinx under a canopy of stars by Edwardian artist Walter Tyndale. Thereafter, we venture into a set of places that exist only in the mind’s eye. There are certainly places that generate excitement, menace and fear, there are places of gentle solitude, places that allude to grandeur and others of turmoil and finally a place that is surely hot and close in atmosphere and climate, welcoming and comforting, and a place where one would be happy to stay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUfVR2h1t Ys
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