Forging ahead: London New Wind Festival

The festival has its roots in the New Wind Symphony Orchestra, which eventually transformed into the festival – what prompted this transformation?

The transformation came out of practical considerations. Any concert given by New Wind Symphony Orchestra was a huge undertaking because of the forces involve, and with the grant support we were getting it was unsustainable, so we decided to relaunch as a festival.

The change from ensemble to festival is quite a leap, but it wasn’t really a big problem – people know what we do. London New Wind Symphony Orchestra performed new (or rare) wind symphonic works, and the festival followed the same ideals (concerts of new or rarely performed music) for a smaller ensemble.

The festival is currently in a period of growth, with improvisation concerts complementing its main classical contemporary core. Why was improvisation chosen as the next step for the festival?

I chose to add improvisation to the festival for several reasons. I have had a long-held interest in improvised music dating back to my college days and have had the good fortune to work in ensembles directed by composers like Cornelius Cardew and Earl Brown as a student. More recently, I have played for eight years with the London Improvised Orchestra.

I see improvised music as part of our heritage. As a result of my viewpoint, it seems a natural progression to include graphic, instruction and the occasional free improvisation scores in London New Wind Festival concerts when the occasion is fitting.

(Image courtesy of London New Wind Festival)

The festival’s main objective has been to encourage and promote new works written for wind groups – how does this goal influence the planning process for each festival?

The first thing we do each year is decide what forces are available to us. The core group is a wind quintet with the addition of trombone to provide a brass sound that could meet the winds. We also added a pianist and conductor, and we provide a chamber orchestra each year. The goal of promoting new works for winds is the dominant factor in the planning of the festival, so as many pieces as possible are either brand new and awaiting performance or have been specially written for us.

The festival’s main focus is music that has been written in the last few years (with most music having been written after the year 2000), what is the process for choosing the programme of each festival?

The process of selecting pieces is very time consuming. We tend to get approached by composers who know about our work anyway and each year we put out annual call for pieces. We tell the composers what our forces are and what we do and do not want. On average we receive 200 submissions. In addition to these submissions, we can supplement programmes with our knowledge of core repertoire if needed. The standard of submissions varies, but quite a few composers have approached us for performances before they then went on to become well-known. You quickly learn to spot a composer’s work which is technically assured and has something to say. It is also interesting to see what is coming out of different countries the musical style of submissions vary between, for example, the USA (tonal and technically assured) and Italy (contemporary, detailed, light). Scores which are of interest are put to one side to see where they might fit into future programmes.

(Image courtesy of London New Wind Festival)

The first London New Wind Festival took place in 1998 with a series of three concerts, while the 2024 season has revealed two main core concerts so far. How does the programming team balance this compact core of concerts with the broad range of modern repertoire available to explore?

Currently the ‘festival’ is concentrated in the winter months but of course we do give concerts at other times in the year. Our feeling is that the ‘standard contemporary repertoire’ can be done by other groups, so our job is to support composers whose work does not fit within this category and who need our support.

The festival presents many UK premieres, one such premiere being composer Chris Kaufman’s Ocean Nocturne, part of his Hudson Valley Music. Why are cross-border collaborations like this one across the Atlantic are so important for festivals of all sizes?

The festival has been collaborating with composers from abroad for a long time now, and  we have contacts in Germany, Italy and the USA in particular. Our call for pieces results in submissions from all over the world, and we now live in a world so international that it would be hard not to do cross-border collaborations.

(Image courtesy of London New Wind Festival)

What plans do you have for the future of London New Wind Festival? 

Although the festival is small, the workload is very heavy indeed, so we are on the lookout for more administrative back-up should anybody wish to approach us. Future plans include an interest in collaborating with some string players as we now have a lot of good pieces for mixed ensemble deserving performance. Money permitting, it would be good to do more contemporary chamber orchestra concerts or contemporary concerts for larger wind forces, but nothing is set in stone. We tend to be inspired by important centenaries/landmarks which then influence what we decide to do.