This May, we’re delighted to welcome Heather Roche as our hcmf// Artist of the Month. One of contemporary music’s leading clarinetists and performers, Roche has made frequent appearances at recent years of hcmf//, visiting the festival with ensembles such as Mimitabu and in collaboration with accordionist Eva Zöllner. 

 

Pairing her investigative approach to interpreting compositions with an encyclopedic knowledge of extended techniques, Roche continues to make findings about her instrument, paving the way for new players experimenting with woodwinds. She shares her findings exhaustively on her blog and champions new music discoveries as reviews editor of Tempo.

 

Throughout May, we’ll be promoting Roche’s work, and providing her a space to share news on upcoming performances and projects. You’ll be able to find all of our features on her work from her Fielding Talent page.

 

On Saturday 8 May, Roche performed as part of Tectonics Glasgow 2021, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s annual festival of experimental music, which this year will be made available online. Alongside the orchestra, she’ll be performing new concerto Natura Naturans, a new work by Scott McLaughlin.

 


Roche’s involvement in this piece has been long-term; she’s been consulting on the material for the last year and a half. Part of a larger project from McLaughlin, his work explores ‘different strategies for composing music where the instrument leads the player, ultimately allowing the instrument to define how the music unfolds in performance’.

 

You can listen to Roche’s performance on Saturday 8 May at 10pm via BBC Radio 3 or BBC Sounds.

 

Photo (C) Sam Walton