David Hackbridge Johnson
Composer
David Hackbridge
Johnson began composing at the age of 11 and has written works in all
genres. He has had works performed by
the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Gemini, the South Bank Symphony Orchestra, by
pianists Stephen Gutman, Chisato Kusunoki and Nicholas Austin, by the North
German Radio Choir, by the conductors Saulius Sondeckis, Robin Gritton and Mark
Stone and by the Dmitri String Quartet. While living in Switzerland for
a year in 1997, he worked as composer in residence at Aiglon College
and had music performed by the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra with their
conductor Saulius Sondeckis and cellist Mark Drobinsky, a pupil of Rostropovich. He often takes part in performances of his
own work either as a singer or violinist, most notably in his Violin Sonata No.2, a piece written for
himself and pianist Yeu Meng Chan to play.
He has written
many large scale works including 8 symphonies, 8 tone poems, 7 string quartets
and many other choral, vocal and chamber works.
His wide interests are demonstrated in the inspirations that lie behind
some of his music; two recent ballet scores take their scenarios from, the
myths surrounding the Merovingian dynasty and an imaginary day in the life of Uganda’s
largest beetle, respectively. He has
written extensively for the piano including 12 sonatas and many shorter pieces
and piano cycles. His largest piano work
is Tributes; a 75 minute composition
that pays homage to composer as diverse as Faure, Busoni, Alkan, Stevenson and
Paganini. There are also a large number
of song cycles which reflect the composer’s interest in poetry and
language. David has set poems in French,
German, Old Norse, Elamite and Ancient Babylonian as well as English.
In 2001 David
became a short-listed composer for the Society for the Promotion of New
Music. This has led to a number of
important premieres by leading contemporary ensembles. In December 2001 the percussion duo of Chris
Brannick and Richard Benjafield performed Or
Nothing At All as part of the British Music Information Centre’s ‘Cutting
Edge’ season. In December 2002, the orchestral work Two Clerical Episodes was
performed by the South Bank Symphony Orchestra conducted by Torkjell
Hareide. In February 2003 the string
orchestral piece Lament for Himbert
Blanke was chosen by SPNM curator Steve Martland to be performed in Wolverhampton by the Goldberg Ensemble conducted by
Malcolm Layfield. In 2004 Canonic Elegy for Denis ApIvor was performed by the composer on
violin and Richard Black on piano. The
piece was written in memory of the composer Denis ApIvor with whom David became
friends towards the end of Denis’ life. In
2006 Richard Black together with tenor Wills Morgan performed Tauberiana, a virtuoso vocalise inspired
by Richard Tauber.
A number of
piano works by David have been performed by pianist Chisato Kusunoki. These include Album Leaf which she played
in Oxford and London and Five Coloured Parakeet on the Branch of a
Blossoming Apricot Tree which was premiered at the National Physics
Laboratory and heard again at St. James’s, Piccadilly. Both these pieces have been recorded for
Tableaux Records. Ms. Kusunoki recently
gave the premiere of Paraphrase on an
English Carol in the beautiful setting of Bristol Cathedral. Nicholas Austin has also played and recorded
several Hackbridge Johnson piano works including the large scale Nocturne No. 3 and a selection of the Twelve Modal Preludes Op. 227. At a concert for the Edinburgh Society of
Musicians in 2007 several of David’s works were performed including selections
from Four British Folk Songs and Pastorale for clarinet and piano. The performers were Ishbel Kennedy Maltman;
soprano, Salvatore Tomasino; clarinet with Michael Garrett at the piano. Katharine Wake, flute and Michael Garrett,
piano performed David’s Pentatonic Melody
at St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh in May 2007.
Also in May 2007 David was asked to arrange and conduct Christmas carols
for an album featuring some of the world’s finest young opera singers
accompanied by the Camerata of London.
He also composed an original work for the album called Fantasy on Of the Father’s Heart Begotten
for orchestra and this has been reviewed favourably.
He is also
active as a composer and arranger in jazz and popular music. He has worked with the Oxford University Big
Band and the Cambridge University Jazz Society.
He has made arrangements and appeared as a violinist with the folk-rock
group Grand Drive. He regularly performs as a session
musician. Future projects include further
recordings of piano music and songs
cycles. An album of David’s jazz piano performances
will be issued in spring 2008.
Performer
David began
work as a violinist in theatre orchestras before becoming a jazz pianist and
drummer. He formed the group
‘Constellation’ which featured his own compositions and arrangements. He has appeared as a drummer and violinist in jazz festivals at Montreux, Culle, Glion, Cheltenham,
Ealing and Ross-on-Wye and has several jazz recordings to his credit including
the album Did You See with Peter
Elias, bass and Luigi La Marca, drums. He
has also worked as arranger, violinist and percussionist with the
Latin-American group ‘Caņa
Dulce’ appearing at the Montreux Jazz Festival on several occasions. With Marcus Wright and Paul Rogers, he formed
the improvising trio ‘Evorcity’. Their
performances have been greeted with much excitement and two albums of
experimental music have been issued. For
many years he was a member of ‘Jazz Circus’ together with Barry Fantoni and Dan
Quinton. This group has played all over
the UK
providing a unique blend of jazz, poetry and performance art. The group has also broadcast for BBC Radio 2. He has also worked with the pianist and
composer Barry Booth. Recently David has
concentrated on solo jazz piano and has been acclaimed for contributing to a
revival of the ‘stride’ style of playing.
His album Prisoner of Love
features tunes from the 1920’s and 30’s in stride style. He has recently been working in performance
and on recordings with the pianist and composer Paul Williams; David’s violin
features on many of Paul’s compositions for radio and television. As well as playing in most of the major
jazz venues such as the 100 Club and the
606 Club, David has held many residencies over the years including the Café
Royale, Smollensky’s in the Strand and the
Chelsea Arts Club. Currently he can be
heard playing violin or piano at the Naked Turtle in East Sheen. He has also recently reappeared at the
Chelsea Arts Club.
As a classical violinist
he has devised, together with the pianist, Yeu Meng Chan, an on going series of
concerts featuring neglected British violin sonatas. As a result many works have been revived
including those by ApIvor, Michael Berkeley,
Holbrooke and Knussen. Works written especially for the duo include
those by Gordon Lawson and Mark Henegar. Their concerts also feature many neglected
songs by lesser known figures such as Havergal Brian, Bantock and Petrassi. In addition David has sung many songs from the
great Lieder tradition as well as many English songs.
Recently David
has performed a number of works by Ronald Stevenson including Recitative and Air for violin and piano
and the song cycles Songs from Factories and Fields and Four Songs of Christian Morgenstern. David also revived Stevenson’s Violin Sonata in a private performance
with Michael Jones on piano and in the presence of the composer. The performance was the first in over 50
years. David was recently involved in
the preparation of a vocal score for Stevenson’s epic choral orchestral work Ben Dorain. This work received its premiere in January
2008 in Glasgow. Michael Garrett is another composer with whom
David has worked closely. Performances
of Garrett include the song Searching for
Spring and Poeme Arabesque No. 1
for violin and piano; a piece dedicated to David. He performed both works with pianist Eunee
Lee at the Edinburgh Society of Musicians in 2007. Michael Garrett also dedicated his Violin Sonata No. 4 to David and they
performed it together at a private concert.
David has also conducted several ensemble works by Garrett including What’s in the Air for 3 sopranos and
chamber orchestra, Promenade en forme de
paean for chamber ensemble and Refrain
de Danse Orientale for chamber
orchestra and voices.
David
Hackbridge Johnson was born in Carshalton,
England. He studied violin with Louis Rutland, piano
with Martin Wilson, singing with Fabian Smith and conducting with George Hurst
before taking up a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in order to
study singing with Arthur Reckless. He
also attended masterclasses with singer John Carol Case and conducting classes
with Colin Metters and Norman del Mar. He
later continued singing studies with Mark Wildman at the Royal Academy of
Music. He holds degrees from the Royal Academy
of Music, Trinity College of Music and University of Surrey,
Roehampton. At Roehampton his professors
included Peter O’Hagan, Caroline Potter and Michael Burnett. David is also an active educator teaching
violin, piano, singing and composition.