​Recent News

• Recording 2023: Eric is delighted to announce that a recording of his own song-cycles as performed by himself and tenor James Gilchrist will be released by the Somm Recordings label on 17 March 2023. Further details will be made available shortly.
• The Inaugural British Music Festival in Taiwan: Eric was thrilled to interview three of British music's leading figures as part of this pioneering festival: Mark Bebbington, Rodney Friend, and Robert-Matthew Walker. Initially broadcast in Taiwan, these interviews are now available on YouTube here.
• Elgar Festival 2022: Baritone Marcus Farnsworth performed with Eric in Worcester as part of the 2022 Elgar Festival. The programme included Eric's own compositions alongside works by John Ireland, Edward Elgar, and the world premiere of John Joubert's last composition, The Right Human Face. Further details may be found here.
• Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal: 'Songs of the Uncanny', a recent co-authored article by Eric and the poet Gregory Leadbetter on their collaborative work, may be found here.
• Oxford Lieder Festival: Eric performed in this year's Oxford Lieder Festival with the distinguished tenor James Gilchrist in a recital featuring the premiere of Eric's After the Voices: Six Poems of W.S. Merwin and a newly commissioned song-setting of poetry by Alice Oswald (Oxford's Professor of Poetry). Further details may be found here.
• Oxford Premiere: Eric was honoured to be give the Oxford premiere of Frederic Rzewski's De Profundis, a setting of Oscar Wilde's text for speaking-pianist, on 8 March 2022 at 8pm at Magdalen College which was the college of both Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas. The concert was reviewed by Seen and Heard International here.
• Editorship: Eric is delighted to have been made the new editor of the Arthur Bliss Society Journal.
• Review: A Winter 2021 review from Seen and Heard International applauded Eric's ability as a pianist to 'convey the music's melancholy rapture...with aplomb', while describing Eric's own compositions as both 'powerful...and dramatic.'
• Orchestral Commission: Kenneth Woods and the English Symphony Orchestra have commissioned Eric to compose a new orchestral work to be premiered in the 2022-2023 season.
• Online Premiere: A video-recording is now available on YouTube of Eric's song-cycle The Fetch, a setting of five poems by Gregory Leadbetter (Professor of Poetry at Birmingham City University). The recording features Eric alongside soprano April Fredrick.
• Article: The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire has published a short article here on Eric's recent collaboration with Birmingham City University's Professor of Poetry, Gregory Leadbetter.
• Musical Opinion's January issue has declared Eric's latest song-cycle "a masterpiece...an intensely dramatic set of songs [which] demands much from both soprano and pianist which, one is pleased to report, the music received in moving and powerful fashion.'​​​​​

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