JONATHAN LITTLE

- FANFARE MAGAZINE CRITICS’ CHOICE 2008 (USA)
- MBF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AWARD WINNER 2009 (UK)

YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/Musicalia65

The music of ASCAP award-winning composer JONATHAN LITTLE is characterised by its beauty, intensity and richness of material.

After initial studies at the University of Melbourne, where he won the Wright Prize in Instrumental Music and Lady Turner Exhibition for overall excellence, he completed the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Monash University by research into the development of "exotic" orchestration in 19^th- and 20^th-century music.

As a member of the Australian Youth Orchestra from 1986 to 1988, he participated in the orchestra's Bicentennial European Tour, and while still an undergraduate student, Jonathan performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and also played for the annual New Music workshops of the Australian Opera Company.

Jonathan moved to the UK in the mid 1990’s, and was appointed Lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University on their innovative Music Industry Management course (the first such degree course in Europe) – where he specialised in the workings of the British and international recording industry, and taught songwriting analysis.

From 2004 to 2007 the US-headquartered French contemporary music label ERM (Editions de la Rue Margot) became the first record company to release a selection of his compositions within their prestigious “Masterworks” series – a multi-volume CD set showcasing international contemporary composers. On ERM, his works are performed by the Czech and Kiev Philharmonic Orchestras, with vocal soloists of the Sofia Opera (Vols. 3, 5, 8, 10 & 11). Other important musical premieres include Jonathan’s Kyrie for double choir and soloists (on Dilute Recordings), first given by the Thomas Tallis Society/Philip Simms at Waltham Abbey, Essex, and St. Alfege, Greenwich, at the historic Tallis 500^th Anniversary Concerts in 2005. Kyrie was memorably performed at the Easter Tenebrae Concert at Wells Cathedral in 2007 conducted by Nigel Perrin, and in the same year poignantly featured in Thierry Donard’s French DVD release, "Nuit de la Glisse" (Uppercut Entertainment).

In America, Jonathan has been the recipient of 4 successive ASCAPlus Awards for Concert Music and 5 Masterworks Recording Prizes. Recordings have been supported by the Kenneth Leighton Trust (UK) and the Foundation for New Music (USA), and in 2009 Jonathan became an inaugural recipient of an MBF Professional Development Award – a major new award instituted by the UK music business’s own charity, the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund. During 2009-11, further important recordings will be released, and studies of some of his prize-winning compositions will be published in the major American reference series, Masterworks of the New Era: Music of the 20th and 21st Century.

Jonathan is also a member of the Society of Authors, and continues to write and edit works on a variety of music-related topics, ranging from historical works discussing instrumentation and orchestration, to more topical writings on popular music performance and the future of the music and entertainment industries. In 2001, he co-founded Music Business Journal, and was for five years its joint Managing Editor. In a seminal series of articles commissioned for American Outlook magazine, published by the Hudson Institute (2001-02) – a US scholarly think-tank which helps shape government policy – Jonathan assessed the state of contemporary songwriting, the phenomenon of the “celestial jukebox”, and the implications of the rise of digital cinema. Jonathan was Series Editor of the Academy of Contemporary Music’s definitive 36-volume guide, The Academy Popular Music Tuition Series (2003-05), and, at the request of the British Academy, he contributed to Heart & Soul: Revealing the Craft of Songwriting, published to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of the Ivor Novello Awards. He was appointed first Consultant Editor to A&C Black’s flagship volume of musical reference, the Musicians’ and Songwriters’ Yearbook – taking it through its inaugural 2007 and 2008 editions – and is presently writing the Theory and Practice of Songwriting for Robert Hale.

Jonathan appears in the UK Music Publishers’ Association Register of Expert Musicologists, and is a member of the Fellowship of Australian Composers, British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, and of ASCAP and The Recording Academy in America.

From 2001-2006, Jonathan was Principal of the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, England – Europe’s largest specialist academy for students of contemporary music, and the first education institution to win the Queen’s Award for Enterprise (Innovation category). He also helped establish the first contemporary music degree course in Italy (in Bologna), and has worked as Curriculum Consultant to the Brighton Institute of Modern Music, and as Visiting Lecturer in Media Music Composition at the University of Surrey. Currently, Jonathan is Senior Lecturer and Director of Commercial Music at the University of Chichester.

In 2008 Dilute Recordings (UK) released on CD a selection of compositions published by Wirripang, entitled “TERPSICHORE AND OTHER WORKS”. This disc includes: Kyrie, Sacred Prelude, Fanfare, Terpsichore, Duo Sonata and That Time of Year. Cambridge University Press’s Tempo magazine hailed it as a “ground-breaking tour de force”, while in America, Fanfare Magazine admired its “music of tremendous power”. The disc was subsequently selected to join Fanfare’s elite “Want List 2008” as one of the year’s most striking new worldwide releases.

For further information, and for scores and recordings, Jonathan may be contacted via his publishers.

WORLDWIDE CRITICAL OPINION:

“a major new, original and quite brilliant classical voice” – Lynn René Bayley, citation in “The Want List 2008”, Fanfare Magazine (Nov-Dec 2008, USA)

*** A FANFARE MAGAZINE RECOMMENDED RECORDING FOR 2008 ***

“This is music that brings to mind so much else but at the same time isn't quite like anything you've heard before. … [a] whirling kaleidoscope of sounds. … An extraordinary range of sensations. ... This is certainly novel stuff and I suspect time will prove it to be a good deal more than that.” – Simon Thomas, Music OMH (November 2008, UK)

- “Little’s music sounds like no one else’s. Not anyone’s. ... to put it into words degrades the astonishing range of colors and moods he creates. … Trust me, once you’re about halfway through the title work, you won’t be able to take it off. … Mr. Little is quite a talent indeed.” – Lynn René Bayley, in Fanfare Magazine (May-June 2008, USA)

- “innovative music … incandescent … a positively dynamic musical palette … moving the listener irrevocably onward to a brightly illuminated plain of poetic splendour, rhythm and ecstasy” – John Wheatley, in Tempo (Cambridge University Press, January 2008, UK)

- “immense creativity and innovation while remaining accessible to new listeners” – ASCAP Playback Magazine (Summer, 2006) (New York, USA)

- “innovative and accessible to both musicians and audiences” – Keith Lowde, former Deputy Managing Director and Company Secretary, Music-Copyright Protection Society [MCPS] (London, UK)

- “talent and ability … a gifted writer … wonderful vocal work” – Paul Harvey, Operations Manager, ERMMedia [Records Division] (Norfolk, Virginia, USA)

- “writes exceedingly well” – Professor Dolores Hsu, Dept. of Music, University of California at Santa Barbara (California, USA)

- “touching music … a unique voice” – Maestro Robert Ian Winstin, Executive Director of the Foundation for New Music (Virginia, USA)

Artists who have performed or recorded the works of Jonathan Little include: Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra, Soloists of the Sofia Opera, mezzo-soprano Veronica McHale (Chicago), Bath Camerata, Tallis Chamber Choir, Joyful Company of Singers.

Jonathan Little's Performing Rights are assigned to ASCAP (for clearance see: www.ascap.com - "ACE Title Search" - "Search the Database" - Writers / Find "Jonathan Little")

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