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The Times (Sarah Unwin Jones)

The Sunday Times (Paul Driver)

 

Martin Suckling was born in Glasgow in 1981. He has been commissioned by ensembles such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, London Sinfonietta, Britten Sinfonia, Hebrides Ensemble, Royal Shakespeare Company, Aronowitz Ensemble and Grimethorpe Colliery Band. Notable conductors of his works include Ilan Volkov, Francois-Xavier Roth, Robin Ticciati, Nicholas Collon and Pierre Andre Valade. His music has also featured in many festivals including: Cheltenham, Ultraschall, Chacombe, Deal, ISCM World Music Days 2007 (Hong Kong), and Oxford Lieder. 

 

2011 has been an important year for Martin, and has seen several major premieres, including storm, rose, tiger, writtenfor the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Robin Ticciati, and performed by them at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh in October. In the same year, the critically acclaimed Candlebird, a substantial new work for voice and ensemble on texts by Don Paterson, received its premiere with the London Sinfonietta on 29^th May in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. Finally, 12^th December 2011 sees the premiere of a new violin concerto, de sol y grana, commissioned by London Music Masters for Agata Szymczewska and the London Contemporary Orchestra.

 

After spending his teenage years performing both in the National Youth Orchestra and in ceilidh bands around Scotland, Martin studied music at Clare College Cambridge and King’s College London. He was Paul Mellon Fellow at Yale University from 2003-5 and subsequently undertook doctoral research at the Royal Academy of Music. His teachers include George Benjamin, Robin Holloway, Paul Patterson, Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman, and Simon Bainbridge. Martin has benefited from residencies at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Aldeburgh, Aspen, and IRCAM, and has won numerous awards including the 2008 Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize. He lives in Manchester and is currently Stipendiary Lecturer in Music at Somerville College, Oxford; in January 2012 he will take up the position of Lecturer in Composition at the University of York.

Works now available through Faber Music Ltd. include:

de sol y grana (2011) for solo violin and 14 players (15 mins)

storm, rose, tiger (2011) for chamber orchestra (14 mins)

Candlebird (2011) for baritone and eighteen players (26 mins)

To See the Dark Between (2010) for piano and strings (10 mins)

Lieder ohne Worte (2010) for piano (10 mins)

Three Venus Haiku (2009) for piano and vln (5 mins)

The Moon, The Moon! (2007) for orchestra (7 mins)

 

"Martin Suckling's luxuriously imaginative song cycle Candlebird”

 

"an exhilarating, gleaming little masterpiece from Martin Suckling, The Moon, The Moon!, whose dazzling orchestration was a breathtaking wonder"

 

“engrossing, haunting and self-assured… The Glasgow-born composer has been earmarked as an emerging talent; this latest work [storm, rose, tiger], written for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, confirms the distinctness of his voice. It couples fierce intellect with the musical sensibility of a fine violinist, and offers a generous hand to listeners by keeping earthy hooks at the core of its clever tricks”

 

"…Each song [in Candlebird] is immediately characterised with a new musical idea; the writing is tangibly evocative. The third song, Motive, centres around a storm conjured in buffeting knocks on the instruments; in the title song, sliding, indistinct string melodies sound like a Brahms sextet melting in extreme heat."