Robin Haigh
ROBIN HAIGH (b.1993) writes music of “scintillating unpredictability” (Tom Service, BBC Radio 3) that has also been described as “timeless”, “dream-like” (Musical Opinion Magazine), “irreverent”, “provocative” (Chicago Theatre Review), and “remarkably discombobulating” (Seen and Heard International).
His internationally performed work first came to public attention in 2017 when, aged 24, his recorder quintet In Feyre Foreste won a British Composer Award, being described by the judges as “completely refreshing” and “magical”. His chamber orchestra piece Grin, commissioned by the Britten Sinfonia earned him an Ivor Novello Award in 2020, being hailed as a “quirky, playful, bold and original work with a highly distinctive musical language and sound”. In 2021 he was an Ivor Novello nominee and Tippett Medal finalist for his harp solo No One, and winner of the BDRS Competition and Dante Moro Competition.
Past and future collaborators include the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchester im Treppenhaus, Dolomiti Symphonia Orchestra, The Ligeti Quartet, The Hermes Experiment, The Berkeley Ensemble, Nicholas Daniel OBE, Darragh Morgan, Tabea Debus, Thomas Gould and Oliver Wass.
Work(s) for Slide Action:
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for 4 trombones & Sinfonietta.
[Premiered 05/06/2022 Britten Studio, Aldeburgh Festival 2022]
Frequent viewers of British television are likely to be familiar with a certain genre of advertisement: “here’s to the dreamers!”, it might begin, “to the early morning ones and the late sleepers” it may continue. A kind of quasi-poetry essentially listing people by lifestyle and personality traits; “to the big spenders and the deal-finders, the big night out types and the quiet night in types”. The prevalence of this kind of advert, and the variety of banal services and items being advertised through them, is considerable, and led me to begin to reflect on what this might mean to me aesthetically.
These kinds of adverts attempt to inject a sense of grandeur into the mundanity of the 21st century consumer existence - they call out to and praise their potential customers, listing as many vague traits as they can in the hope of giving as many people as possible the feeling of having been identified. I felt this to be somehow tragic - these endless, meaningless lists selling meaningless things, through the medium of an advertisement designed to seem heroic or uplifting.
While writing THE DREAMERS, this sense of tragedy mixed with banality and uplifting heroism was at the forefront of my mind. The work is in five movements, of which the fourth is for the four trombone soloists alone, running directly into the finale. - Robin Haigh
What People Are Saying About Robin:
“scintillating unpredictability”
— Tom Service, BBC Radio 3
“remarkably discombobulating”
— Seen and Heard International