Page 21 - BYC Xmas Concert Program 2021

MIA MAKAROFF (FINLAND)
The wonderful Finnish composer Mia Makaroff has already arranged
a piece for the choir following a fantastic
4-week composition course she led with our young people online during lockdown. ‘Glow’ is such a lovely piece and we can’t wait to perform it in the 2021-22 season. Mia has also agreed to write another piece for BYC at some point in the future which is just amazing! Mia Makaroff has gained international recognition for her work that includes teaching music to school children and young people, composing, creating and conducting different music projects. Song-writing projects for young people are a speciality of hers: altogether
six school musicals have been written and performed by her pupils. Finnish folklore and poetry are great sources of inspiration in her composing work. Many well-known song groups and choirs have brought Mia Makaroff’s music to a wider audience, such as Rajaton, The King’s Singers, Amarcord and others.
She has been teaching in mastercourses about composing for children’s choirs, in Neerpelt Belgium 2008, Aosta Italy 2010
and St Petersburg Russia 2014-2019. She has also worked as a juror and a lecturer in choir competitions and festivals including the Interkultur World Choral Games in Cincinnati 2012 and Pretoria in 2018.
OLA GJEILO (NORWAY/USA)
Finally, we have had very positive talks with the Norweigan composer, Ola Gjeilo, and he has agreed
to write a piece for BYC. Ola Gjeilo is one of
the most frequently performed composers
in the choral world. An accomplished pianist, improvisations over his own published choral pieces have become a trademark of his collaborations. Although Norwegian by birth, it is perhaps Ola’s adopted country of America that has influenced the composer’s distinctive soundworld the most. Ola grew up in a musically eclectic home listening to classical, jazz, pop and folk, a broad background he later incorporated into his classical composition studies at The Juilliard School, the Royal College of Music in London, and currently as a New York City-based freelance composer. Ola is an exclusive Decca Classics artist, and his Decca albums include Ola Gjeilo and Winter Songs, also featuring Tenebrae, Voces8 and the Choir of Royal Holloway, and the solo piano album Night. The recordings are available
on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and all major platforms. In 2015, the Choir of King’s College Cambridge performed Ola’s Serenity (O Magnum Mysterium) at the annual BBC- televised Christmas Eve service. He is currently composer-in-residence with DCINY.
Christmas Concert 2021
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