hcmf// 2022 was an incredible experience, restoring the full 10-day festival format and welcoming musicians, composers, delegates and of course our wonderful concert-goers, new or returning, from near and from far into the fold, here in Huddersfield.
The 45th edition of the festival featured dozens of concerts, packed with World and UK Premieres, commissions, installations and exhibitions, talks, film screenings, live scores, workshops, tours, recorded radio broadcasts, site-specific works, international partnerships and collaborations, and all the interpersonal moments that make hcmf// a core part of our ever-growing contemporary music community. This year we hosted the Oram Awards for the first time and produced another day of hcmf// shorts, delivering free concerts in venues throughout the town as part of our ongoing efforts to break down barriers in sound.
We have selected some highlights and memorable moments from this year’s festival in the gallery below. Revisit your hcmf// 2022 experiences through the photography below, and head to our Instagram to relive it all through our festival Story.
Our deepest and most heartfelt thanks to all our supporters and audiences joining us, and our very best wishes for the holiday season. We’ll see you in 2023!
Chornobyldorf opened this year’s festival to rave reviews, receiving its UK Premiere in the Bates Mill Blending Shed. (Brian Slater)
Zubin Kanga performs a new work from the equally idiosyncratic Laura Bowler as part of our free-to-attend hcmf// shorts programme. (Brian Slater)
Lithuanian violinist Lora Kmieliauskaitė commands the floor for Dominykas Digimas’ anxiety-inspired A/V production This Order Goes Wrong. (Simon Marshall)
Peter Knight, Artistic Director of the Australian Art Orchestra, raises his trumpet flanked by Daniel Wilfred (voice/clapsticks), Mandhira de Saram (violin) and Helen Svoboda (double bass/voice). (Brian Slater)
Our 2022 Composer in Residence Lisa Streich on stage with Ensemble intercontemporain following the UK Premieres of her works OFELIA and HIMMEL. (Brian Slater)
François López-Ferrer conducts the internationally renowned ensemble of new music soloists, Ensemble intercontemporain, as they perform at hcmf// for the first time under Artistic Director Graham McKenzie’s tenure. (Brian Slater)
Percussionist Eugene Ughetti performs Australian compositions inside Polar Force – Array, Speak Percussion’s inflatable dome installation erected in Huddersfield Town Hall, built to embody a remote Antarctic research station. (Brian Slater)
2021 Oram Award-winner Maria Sappho leads a workshop on composing and improvising beyond the human, combining mycelial and neural network knowledge with an assortment of unorthodox instruments. (Brian Slater)
The World Premiere of Julia Holter’s live score of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc takes place in Huddersfield Town Hall, with Holter providing keyboards and voice. (Brian Slater)
Julia Holter: The Passion of Joan of Arc features Corey Fogel (percussion), Tashi Wada (bagpipes/synths), Sarah Belle Reid (trumpet) and The Chorus of Opera North alongside the composer. (Brian Slater)
In a memorable St Paul’s Hall solo performance involving three encores, Pat Thomas manipulates the inner workings of a grand piano. (Brian Slater)
Freedom to Move, the Sofia Jernberg-led artistic residency for trained vocalists, culminated in a performance as part of our hcmf// shorts day, featuring participants Alice Brookes, Ben Spatz, Supriya Nagarajan, Kirsty Feguson Lewis and Stephanie Lampera. (Brian Slater)
In their fourth performance across the festival, Riot Ensemble perform works by hcmf// Composer in Residence Lisa Streich, featuring her signature piano and cello motorisations. (Simon Marshall)
Sweden’s Ann Rosén turns live graphite drawing into music through electronics, accompanied by visual projections in the Bates Mill Photographic Studio. (Brian Slater)
A little one pays rapt attention during Music at Play: FloooOOOooot!, an interactive session led by flautist Kathryn Williams as part of our Learning and Participation programme. (Brian Slater)
Thorbjørn Reuter Christiansen delivers 180 Hammer blows against war monkeys (Henning Christiansen, 1988) out in public to open our hcmf// shorts day. (Brian Slater)
Composer Claudia Molitor pictured with her installation Listen To My World in Huddersfield Art Gallery, telling environmental and social stories through field recordings and found instrumentation. (Brian Slater)
2022 Pulitzer Prize for Music-winner Raven Chacon is interviewed by BBC Radio 3’s Robert Worby as part of our Talks programme. (Brian Slater)
The Oram Awards were hosted at hcmf// for the first time this year, with attending winners pictured on stage following the ceremony: Ella Kay, Kelly Jayne Jones, Lia Mazzari, Rani Jambak, Amy Cutler and Lula.xyz. Winners FRKTL/Sarah Badr and Amble Skuse were unable to attend but celebrated too. (Brian Slater)
hcmf// Musician in Residence and 2022 International Oram Award-winner Rani Jambak performs at the Oram Awards with a mini version of the Kincia Aia, an instrument of her own making. (Brian Slater)
Composer and guitarist Barry O’Halpin plays with Crash Ensemble in St Paul’s Hall, performing his 2021 work Wingform in full. (Simon Marshall)
Alan Davie: Painting, Music, Film featured newly presented archival studio footage of abstract painter and multi-instrumentalist Alan Davie accompanied by live improvisations from Steve Beresford (piano), David Toop (bone conduction/resonators/tapes/flutes/paper/percussion), Mark Wastell (gongs/floor percussion) and Phil Durrant (electronics/amplified objects). (Simon Marshall)
Marco Blaauw plays trumpet alongside Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz’s Moving Picture (946-3), Kyoto Version (2019-20), generating an immersive and hypnotic experience through shifts in tones and colours. (John Bonner)