Gramophone Magazine spoke to Sally about her approach to writing for two pianos, and the ideas behind her new piece Sonnets ahead of the premiere at New Ross Piano Festival in Ireland.

Featuring 'Four Songs from Hafez' by Sally Beamish

"This is a very fine set of songs and it’s hard to imagine that they could receive better advocacy than that which Roderick Williams and Andrew West provide." - John Quinn

"an exquisite demonstration of the harpist’s art laid out in virtuoso swirls of colour, pearls of elegant nuance and audiophile sound." - Laurence Vittes

"a most nourishing and enterprising release" - Andrew Achenbach

Classical Album of the Week

Featuring 'Pavan' by Sally Beamish

"...much more suggestive of a dream-state, of floating untethered through the cosmos, than of earth-bound consciousness." - Matt Silver

"Beamish’s chamber work has a subtle, spine-tingling magic"

★★★★ 

"meaningful moments worth savouring" - Erica Jeal

✭✭✭✭

"Her tribute is both apt in its bagpipe hints and attractive in its lyrical momentum."  - Norman Lebrecht

CD info...

"Beamish captures [John Damian's] mystery and eccentricity in her kaleidoscopic writing, as does this sensitively astute performance." - Ken Walton

"Both Janine and Martin have a powerful stage presence, and the idea of dance and drama is an important element, as well as the contrasts and similarities between the two solo instruments." - Sally Beamish

Sally spoke to The Violin Channel about her new double concerto Distans for violin and clarinet.

"Composing is my first language, which I use when words fail me." - Sally Beamish

★★★★

"a rigorously honed creative voice. Her music is generous and evocative." - Fiona Maddocks

★★★★

"A work of austere beauty that traces an emotional arc from grief to tentative hope and acceptance" - Tim Ashley

“the alchemy between composer and performer is very important to me”

Sally shares some insights into her influences and inspirations, the pleasure of working on commissioned pieces, and how talking to audiences can help explain the creative processes involved in making music.

Sally is to receive an OBE in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours, for services to music.

"Sally Beamish contributes an extensive instrumental interlude based on ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’, incandescently cinematic in its descriptive power." - Alan Cooper

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

"...distant, ethereal atmospherics of Sally Beamish’s Reed Stanzas, its opening offstage incantation by Scots second violinist Donald Grant imbued with eerie folksiness, like a delicate touchpaper catalysing the airy, agile mysticism that ensued, illuminated by the crystalline lucidness of the full ensemble."

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Ken Walton reviews the Elias String Quartet's Edinburgh International Festival 'Chamber Music Soundscapes' filmed concert, featuring 'Reed Stanzas', for The Scotsman 

"Harmonically bountiful, ever subtle"

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Geoff Brown reviews the Academy of St Martin in the Fields' 60th Anniversary Gala concert, featuring the UK premiere of Hover. 

"It’s inspiring for a composer to write for players she knows well" - Sally Beamish

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Sally talks about her ties to Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the impact the orchestra has had on her life and music ahead of its 60th Anniversary Gala in a new blog for The Arts Desk.

"She knew that the piece should really be a celebration, but when writing the music it came out as an elegy."

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Planet Hugill spoke to Sally about the writing of Hover and her history with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields ahead of their 60th Anniversary Gala concert at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall.

"Incorporating subtle quotes from Bach, Handel, and Mendelssohn respectively, its three short movements sparkled with grace and stylistic variety in this nimble performance."

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Michael J. Moran reviews the ASMF Chamber Ensemble's performance in Pittsfield, MA, featuring Sally's new string octet 'Partita'. 

"Sally Beamish’s A Myndin’ is a beautiful, light-textured, gentle work"

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Tim Homfray reviews Endellion String Quartet's 40th Anniversary concert at London's Wigmore Hall, featuring specially commissioned piece A Myndin'.

"weaves echoes of Scottish folk music into a beautiful study of memory and nostalgia that aspires to timelessness"

★ ★ ★ ★

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Tim Ashley reviews Endellion String Quartet's 40th Anniversary concert at London's Wigmore Hall, featuring specially commissioned piece A Myndin'.

A fiery journey with Branford Marsalis through Europe and beyond

★ ★ ★ ★

"wistful and distant as if heard over water, strings enhancing the mystery" - David Cusworth

Laura Volpi talks to Sally about her composing and performing career.

"Crabb and Marwood were worthy collaborators indeed"

Jessica Balik reviews the New Century Chamber Orchestra with soloists Anthony Marwood (violin) and James Crabb (accordion) for SFCV, including a performance of Seavaigers.

"a spellbinding, immersive ballet which creates an utterly convincing undersea world"

Chris Gregg reviews Northern Ballet's The Little Mermaid at Milton Keynes Theatre for Citiblog.

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"The 27 piece Northern Sinfonia orchestra truly does justice to Sally Beamish’s excellent score"

Maggie Constable reviews Northern Ballet's The Little Mermaid at Milton Keynes Theatre for The Reviews Hub.

"The music, specially written for the show by Sally Beamish, was a delight"

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Hannah Richardson reviews Northern Ballet's The Little Mermaid at Milton Keynes Theatre for Buckingham Today.

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"A MASTERPIECE"

Kirsty Morgan gives a shining 5-star review of Northern Ballet's The Little Mermaid on Bachtrack.com

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"The Little Mermaid is a production saturated with talent and grace, from conception to execution."

Katie Stephen gives a 4-star review of Northern Ballet's 'The Little Mermaid' on EdinburghGuide.com

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"Nixon’s choreography – like Beamish’s specially commissioned score – shifts persuasively between the fluidity of the undersea realm and the more grounded energies on land."

Mary Brennan give's Northern Ballet's 'The Little Mermaid' four stars in The Herald.

Sally talks to hocTok about her life, music, method and inspiration.

"Full bodied, cinematic and lush, the music moves along with the ebbs and flows of the sea."

Holly Spanner reviews The Little Mermaid at Leeds Grand Theatre for The Reviews Hub.

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"The original score (...) flits between the primarily light and playful to the romantic and finally to the dramatic, feeling cinematic and engaging"

Paul Szabo reviews The Little Mermaid at Leeds Grand Theatre for The Gay UK.

Painted more shades of grey than a Farrow & Ball catalogue: The Judas Passion reviewed

Alexandra Coghlan reviews The Judas Passion, performed by Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at St John's Smith Square.

To the field of blood: Sally Beamish's The Judas Passion

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"In the 21st century, the secular resonances of this piece can't help but compel."

Benjamin Poore awards four stars to The Judas Passion, performed by Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at St John's Smith Square.

Sally Beamish: Composer, Violist, and Mistress of Multitasking

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Sarah Batschelet interviews Sally at Switzerland's Musikdorf Ernen Festival.

Houston Ballet's 'Tempest' a sophisticated spectacle

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"Bintley's choreography brings the complex elements of William Shakespeare's late-period romance evocatively into focus, without words, on the wings of Sally Beamish's atmospheric score and Rae Smith's riveting designs."

Molly Glentzer reviews Houston Ballet's US premiere of The Tempest.

Composer conjours aural magic for Houston Ballet's 'The Tempest'

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"When Bintley discovered Beamish a few years ago, he knew he'd finally found a composer whose help could deliver all he imagined."

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Molly Glentzer interviews Sally and director David Bintley ahead of the US premiere of The Tempest.

****

"City Stanzas reminds us, with a quiet confidence, of the excitement (and importance) of music as response to the human condition"

Rosie Davies reviews the RSNO's Glasgow performance of Sally's third piano concerto City Stanzas, with soloist Jonathan Biss and conductor Peter Oundjian.

Politics shades Beamish concerto premiered by SPCO

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"a punchy, pugnacious addition to the concerto repertoire and should travel successfully well beyond the Twin Cities"

Terry Blain reviews the world premiere of Sally's Piano Concerto No. 3 City Stanzas, performed by Jonathan Biss and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra under conductor Mischa Santora at Ordway Concert Hall, St Paul, Minnesota.

SPCO finds bliss with Biss, Beamish and Beethoven

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Rob Hubbard reviews the world premiere of Sally's Piano Concerto No. 3 City Stanzas, performed by Jonathan Biss and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra under conductor Mischa Santora at Ordway Concert Hall, St Paul, Minnesota.

"one of the finest, and undiluted, celebrations of contemporary music it has been my delight to revel in over the last 30 years"

Michael Tumelty gives a glowing 5-star review to the BBC SSO's Scottish Inspirations concert at Glasgow City Halls with conductor Thomas Dausgaard, featuring Sally's Piano Concerto No 2: Cauldron of the Speckled Seas with pianist Martin Roscoe.

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Meghan Feeks interviews Birmingham Royal Bellet artistic director David Bintley for The Huffington Post.

“I rarely make a full-length ballet without a new score. Quite often I have an idea and it connects with a composer.”

Katy Wheeler speaks to Birmingham Royal Ballet director David Bintley about new ballet The Tempest, with score by Sally Beamish.

Proms Chamber Music 7: Armida Quartett, Lise Berthaud, David Saudubray

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It is strongly programmatic music with a personal connection to the late Peter Maxwell Davies"

Antony Hodgson reviews the final Proms Chamber Music concert of 2016, including the world premiere of Sally's Merula Perpetua.

Pickacoy Centre, Kirkwall - St Magnus International Festival 2016

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Carol Main gives 4 stars to the BBC SO's performance at St Magnus International Festival under conductor Alexander Vedernikov - including Sally Beamish's 'A Cage of Doves'.

Tenor James Gilchrist talks bringing English Romantic poets to Wigmore Hall

Gilchrist discusses his collaboration with Sally on new work West Wind - premiering at London's Wigmore Hall on 23rd June 2016.

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford Upon Avon

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"A fabulous evening, well deserving of the standing ovation given it by the audience of the packed Holy Trinity Church" - Sylvia Morris

A Q&A with Sally Beamish ahead of the premiere of A Shakepeare Masque as part of the #Shakepeare400 celebrations.

Perth Concert Hall 07/03/16

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"Sally Beamish has produced a colossal, creative masterpiece"

Michael Tumelty gives the Hebrides Ensemble's live-streamed performance at Perth Concert Hall 5 stars!

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"a magical rethink that unashamedly shrinks Debussy’s grand evocations down to a more intimate scale, but loses nothing of La Mer’s power and detail"

David Kettle gives a preview into the upcoming Hebrides Ensemble 'Impressions of th Sea' tour, and looks at Sally's piano trio arrangement of Debussy's La Mer

Royal Festival Hall, London

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"Atmospheric and scored with great originality, Chaconne and Titterington’s playing of it were hugely impressive"

Peter Reed reviews organist David Titterington's concert at the Royal Festival Hall, featuring the world premiere of Chaconne by Sally Beamish

*****

"Sally Beamish has the Gaelic art of keening down to a fine art"

Paul Riley gives the new CD, featuring RSNO, NYOS and soloists Branford Marsalis, Håkan Hardenberger and James Crabb under conductor Martyn Brabbins, five stars in the December issue of BBC Music Magazine.

RSNO/NYOS/Brabbins

BIS Records

"The works on this new disc are outstanding as are the performances"

Bruce Reader reviews the new CD of orchestral works, featuring RSNO, NYOS and soloists Branford Marsalis, James Crabb and Håkan Hardenberger under conductor Martyn Brabbins.

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"she is a figurehead in the nation’s cultural life"

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Michael Tumelty discusses Sally's career and new CD 'The Singing', which celebrates her work, in The Herald. 

"Each, potently conducted by Martyn Brabbins, lingers in the air after it is heard"

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Richard Fairman reviews the new CD of orchestral works, featuring RSNO, NYOS and soloists Branford Marsalis, James Crabb and Håkan Hardenberger under conductor Martyn Brabbins. 
 

****

"Atmospheric, keenly felt and expertly played by all"

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Fiona Maddocks reviews the new orchestral CD, featuring RSNO and NYOS, with soloists Branford Marsalis, James Crabb and Håkan Hardenberger under conductor Martyn Brabbins. 

Classical Music Magazine's Katy Wright looks at Sally's collaboration with artist Graham Fagen for this year's Venice Biennale.