News                           version Française

Updated 10th December 2012

Steptoe in Indiana

As part of his Fall tour of the East Coast of the US, Roger Steptoe was invited to the University of Notre-Dame in Indiana where he worked with the vocal department on a project based on his recent cycle of Five Shakespeare Songs for tenor and piano.

Also with Mark Beudert, Notre-Dame's Director of Opera and professor of singing, Steptoe performed the cycle at the Leighton Concert Hall, DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, at Notre Dame on Sunday October 28th at 2pm.

Steptoe in Manhattan

The Fall tour started in New York City with the US premier of the Five Shakespeare Songs sung by American tenor, Nils Neubert, with the composer as pianist. The venue was the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, one of Manhattan's Historic Sites. This American Landmark Festival (ALF) concert also featured American soprano, Jennifer Glière singing the Ariettes Oubliées of Debussy, the Three Ophelia Songs of Richard Strauss, and Nils Neubert singing Ivor Gurney's Five Elizabethan Songs.

Steptoe in Geneva Upstate New York

With the young baritone, Thomas Lehmann, and soprano, Natasha Drake, Roger Steptoe as pianist presented a last-minute replacement ALF recital featuring songs and piano music by Gerald Finzi, Britten and Debussy. Hurricane Sandy had prevented the intended repeat of the Manhattan concert.

Oboe Quartet Recording Release

The new Berlin-based CD label, Costa Classics is to record Steptoe’s Oboe Quartet in 2013.

Nigel Shore, oboist and director, says : The Berlin Oboe Quartet is delighted to work on a long-awaited project to record four major oboe quartets by British composers namely Richard Rodney Bennett, Benjamin Britten Colin Matthews and Roger Steptoe.

New from Editions BIM

To come out before the end of the year is the Ballade for horn and chamber orchestra (reduction for horn and piano), Three Dances for solo horn (dedicated to Bruno Schneider) and the Motet for Stephen – The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.

The Ballade is scored for 2 oboes, 2 horns, percussion, timps and strings and lasts around 12 minutes.

New works for 2013/2014

Spring Music for two pianos and percussion – Connexion Duo (Xavier Bluhm Soubira and Sylvain Calmon) – premiere April 2014.

Summer Music for brass ensemble – Paris Opera Brass Ensemble (director : Marc Geujon) – premiere October 2013.

Brass Quartet (2 trumpets, horn and bass trombone) – New York Chamber Brass – premiere October 2013.

Work for trumpet and piano – Graham Ashton and the composer – premiere June 2013.

Ballade for violin and orchestra.

Some new/old news

The New York Fanfares for brass quintet were played again in the US. The Oklahoma City University Faculty Brass Quintet included the work in their October 10th concert at the Petree Recital Hall, Margaret E. Petree College of Performing Arts. Included on the programme were quintets by Thom Ritter George and Thorvald Hansen.

Steptoe's work was first performed by New York Chamber Brass (director, Graham Ashton) at Purchase College, New York State University, on May 2nd 2011.

New Clarinet Quintet for David Campbell, the Sacconi Quartet (UK) and the Quatuor Girard (France)

For the 2012 Aberystwyth MusicFest in Wales Roger Steptoe composed his second Clarinet Quintet. It is an 'homage' to Claude Debussy in his 150th anniversary year.

British clarinettist and director of this well-known international music festival and summer school, David Campbell, was the clarinettist along with the Sacconi Quartet, acknowledged to be one of the finest UK string quartets of the younger generation. The quartet is Quartet in Association at the Royal College of Music and Quartet in Residence at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre.

David Campbell gave the French premiere of the work in the 2012 Festival de Musique Classique d'Uzerche with the acclaimed Quatuor Girard. The concert was supported by the Fondation d'Entreprise Banque Populaire.

Steptoe's first Clarinet Quintet dates from the early 1980's and was premiered by David Campbell and the Coull Quartet in the Aston Centre for the Performing Arts, UK, in February 1981. The London premiere took place in the Wigmore Hall in July 1982 by the Bochmann Quartet and David Campbell. The subsequent commercial recording was nominated for a Gramophone award under the category of chamber music. It is published by Stainer & Bell Ltd, London.

''I think this a splendid work; perhaps the best for the medium since the Bliss Quintet.''

Malcolm MacDonald, Gramophone, December 1982.

The new quintet is currently being published by Editions BIM and will be recorded by David Campbell for a new CD in 2013. The London premiere is planned for April 2013.

Festival de Musique Classique d'Uzerche

In 2011 Roger Steptoe was nominated Artistic Director of this exceptional chamber and vocal music festival in the French Limousin. The festival, held every August, has achieved an enviable reputation for excellence through imaginative programming and artists of exceptional quality. The 2013 festival marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Francis Poulenc. In 1936 he composed the Trois Litanies à la Vierge Noir in Uzerche following the death of his friend and colleague, Pierre Octave Ferroud earlier that year.

Festival de Musique Classique d'Uzerche 2013

Les chemins de l'amour
Francis Poulenc in Uzerche in 1936
15th to 19th August.

 

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All of Roger Steptoe's recent music (2003 onwards) is published exclusively by the Swiss publishing house, Editions BIM. All enquiries to order@editions-bim.com

All other works of Roger Steptoe continue to be published by the UK publishing house, Stainer & Bell, London, UK. All enquiries to Caroline Holloway. caroline@stainer.co.uk

For more information and to buy copies of the works mentioned on this website you are respectfully asked to contact the publishers concerned. Please see the works list for full details.