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MICHAEL RAFFERTY, MUSIC DIRECTOR OF MUSIC THEATRE WALES,RECEIVES CREATIVE WALES AWARD |
Michael Rafferty, Music Director and co-founder of Music Theatre Wales, has been awarded a prestigious Creative Wales Award by the Arts Council of Wales.The Award will enable him to take time out to research latest developments in the European new music scene, expand his concert repertoire and hone his conducting technique. He is one of eighteen practitioners working across the arts who received awards totalling £330,000. The Awards were announced at a reception held at the Riverfront Arts Centre, Newport. on Tuesday, November 16 attended by Wales’s Minister for Heritage, Alun Ffred Jones, who commented: “It is important to the growth of the Creative Industries in Wales that investment is made in individual artists, as this support enables them to take time out to create new, experimental and innovative work that enriches art forms and artistic practice”. Michael Rafferty co-founded Music Theatre Wales with opera director Michael McCarthy in 1988 and the company, which specialises in contemporary chamber opera, has since become a leader in its field, touring in Wales, throughout the UK and Europe. Over the last two decades, Michael Rafferty has conducted the Music Theatre Wales Ensemble in over twenty operas presented by the company, including classics of the repertoire by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Philip Glass and one of the leading voices of European new music, Philippe Boesmans. Rafferty has also conducted the World Premieres of new operas by Michael Berkeley, Huw Watkins, Lynne Plowman and Nigel Osborne. In 2013 he will conduct the World Premiere of a new opera by Philip Glass, written expressly for Music Theatre Wales to celebrate the company’s 25th anniversary. Michael Rafferty’s Creative Wales project will involve a period of research and observation of new music, performance and programming as well as a reassessment and refinement of his own conducting technique. Focusing on European concert music he will expand his experience beyond his normal expertise in contemporary chamber opera – researching composers and observing rehearsals of the latest music by the finest ensembles and conductors across Europe. He will investigate how to present contemporary works in the best, most accessible way possible through imaginative programming and presentation – taking successful models as the starting point. As a result of this research, he will begin preparing new works to expand his repertoire, with the guidance of internationally established conductors in the field. Michael Rafferty – biography After a short career as a research physicist, Michael Rafferty switched his allegiances to music - first as a violinist and later as conductor. He is co-founder, Conductor and Joint Artistic Director of Music Theatre Wales. He has also conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse, Norway’s BIT 20 Ensemble, musikFabrik of Cologne, The Composers’ Ensemble and PM Music Ensemble. Altogether, he has conducted the works of more than 80 living composers. Many of his performances have been broadcast and he has made several CDs - most recently, Michael Berkeley’s opera For You (Signum). At the end of the month he will record the Philip Glass opera, In the Penal Colony for the composer’s own label, Orange Mountain Music. |
| web site: www.musictheatrewales.org.uk |
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Wednesday, November 17, 2010 |
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