PETERGREGSON

The Queens Hall Friday 18 June 2010

A pioneer of contemporary music, Peter Gregson has established himself as one of the UKs most exciting and innovative
musicians. His sound is unmistakable and his musical interpretations are distinguished in their originality and creativity.

An award-winning cellist, Peter was recognised in 2008 with the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award for music and with
membership to the Courvoisier Future 500. During 2010/11 Peter is the Creative-in-Residence for music at The Hospital Club
in London where he curates the year-long concert series, alt_classical.

Recent highlights include performances at the MIT Media Lab, the Twitter head office in San Francisco, 92nd St Y in NYC
and the Future Gallery in London. Recent recordings include his Bowers & Wilkins / Real World commissioned Terminal, and
Factory, recorded for the 10th anniversary of New Media Scotland. The albums feature solo cello works, a multi-tracked
recording of Steve Reichs Cello Counterpoint and Peters own compositions. In 2010 Peters extensive touring schedule sees
him perform at Le Poisson Rouge in New York as well as concerts in London, Boston and Turin amongst others.

Peters innovative approach to the cello has led him to initiate ground-breaking performance projects, revolutionising the
traditional concert experience through the use of new, emerging technologies. In January 2009 he presented the interactive
concert The Words on the Wall. Using software and visualisers especially developed for the occasion, audience members
were invited to tweet, text or e-mail their thoughts and feelings about the music, with the messages being displayed on the
wall behind the performer. Pushing the boundaries of the classical concert and inviting the audience to interact led Peter
to be commissioned to create an album based on code poems for the 10th anniversary of New Media Scotland in July
2009. Peter created 8 miniatures, each 140 seconds in length, to correspond with Twitters 140-character limit. Peter worked
extensively with Tod Machover and Diana Young on the revolutionary Hyperbow project with the MIT Media Lab, resulting
in performances and recordings of six new works. He then went on to work with the Aeolia project with Yann Seznec and
Sarah Kettley - stretch sensors were knitted into a shirt to measure his performance movements and control the output. This
innovative project was presented at the TEI conference, Boston in 2010.

Peter has performed internationally and has collaborated with a remarkable number of contemporary composers, including
Richard Sisson, Howard Goodall, Thomas Hewitt Jones, Philip Sheppard, John Metcalfe, Tod Machover, Milton Mermikides,
Patrick Nunn, Max Richter and Martin Suckling. In 2009 Peter was the cellist on Howard Goodalls Gramophone Award-
winning Enchanted Voices and Enchanted Carols recordings.

Peter plays a 1987 Colin Irving acoustic cello and a custom 5-string Eric Jensen electric cello.

Website www.petergregson.co.uk Twitter @petergregson

ABOUT THIS PROGRAMME This document contains audio files where Peter Gregson talks more about the pieces hes playing in
the concert; just click the speaker symbols in the left column to hear them (this document is best enjoyed using Adobe Acrobat 9)
Gala Water Sally Beamish (8 mins)
Based on a traditional Scottish song, Braw braw lads of Galla Water, which was
published in The Scots Musical Museum Vol II (1788). They were reworked by
Robert Burns, and his version first appears in George Thomsons Select Collection
of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice (1793) - the first verse of which is:

Braw, braw lads of Yarrow braes,

They rove amang the blooming heather;
But Yarrow braes, nor Ettrick shaws
Can match the lads o Galla Water

Galashiels is situated on the banks of Gala Water; the Yarrow and Ettrick are river
valleys in the area.

Gala Water was commissioned by the Galashiels Arts Association and first
performed by Robert Irvine at the Volunteer Hall, Galashiels on January 20th
1995. { Sally Beamish}

Website http://www.sallybeamish.com
Recording Robert Irvine Sally Beamish: Bridging The Day - Works For Cello And
Piano

Tracing the Outline John Metcalfe (12 mins)

Written for electric cello and computer for Matthew Barley, Tracing the Outline is a
suite of six movements exploring the interval of the fourth. I will be performing the
first, third and sixth movements for you tonight.

The crunchy intervals are supplied by computer, so as I play the live cello line, the
computer processing adds a note a fourth below in the case of the first and last
movements, if I am playing two notes, it creates wonderful lush four-note chords
which would otherwise be unplayable!

Centre is gentle and song-like and sets the atmosphere for the suite; Fourths
is dance-like and all pizzicato, with the computer not only supplying the note a
fourth lower, but delaying it by half a beat which, when combined with Johns
compositional humour, creates a capricious, exuberant joie de vivre. It closes with
Fade, echoeing the serenity of the opening and brings the suite to a close with a
sigh that vanishes into stillness. { Peter Gregson}

Website www.john-metcalfe.co.uk
Recording John Metcalfe Constant Filter www.amazon.co.uk

3rd Suite in C major for Solo Cello JS Bach (20 mins)

JS Bachs Six Suites for Solo Cello make up the enigmatic jewel in the cellists
repertoire crown; we all aspire to have a deeper understanding of them, but
ultimately have to accept that we probably never will. They were written during his
time as court composer at Cthen around 1720; writing for solo cello (or gamba)
was actually pretty common around the 18th century in Europe, but Bachs
cello suites are thought to be the earliest examples from the German speaking
countries.

The suite was one of the most popular forms of instrumental music in the
eighteenth century, and Bach wrote plenty of them, including the English and
French suites, the keyboard partitas and the violin partitas and suites, too!
With a doff of the cap to the dance world, the suites dont constitute dance music
in a strict sense, but do retain certain strong characteristics from dance, from their
structural outline of the movements, to the rhythm, tempo and meter.

Not included in the standard suite package is the opening Prlude. These
introductory movements set the tone for the suites, but are free of any
predetermined structure or rules from the dance traditions. Originally intended
to be an improvised display of virtuosity, at some point in the late seventeenth
century this morphed into a freely composed introduction, where the performer
has a greater liberty with tempo. As the name suggests, this was an influence that
snuck into the German traditions from France.
The Third Suite is made up of seven movements: Prlude, Allemande, Courante,
Sarabande, Boures 1&2 and Gigue. To my ears, it strikes the balance perfectly
between the lyrical and plaintive writing in the second and fifth suites, the virtuosity
of the fourth and sixth and the harmonic elegance of the first. Written nominally
in C major, it manages to retain an outward cleanliness and simplicity that belies
reality. { Peter Gregson}

Website Wikipedia Biography

VOCAL Max Richter (8 mins)

The German language has the expression, Ohrwurm, (ear-worm - Wikipedia) to
describe a tune that you find running around in your head constantly. VOCAL is
an elaboration of just such a tune that has been accompanying me for some time.

This work is based on a simple piece of harmony which echoes Renaissance

part writing, but subverts the formal rules in various different ways. Much as we
gain new insights when walking around a sculpture in a gallery, so seeing it from
different angles, VOCAL turns the basic material slowly around and in so doing
discovers new paths through it. { Max Richter}

Website www.maxrichter.com
Twitter @maxrichterstudio

Terminal Peter Gregson & Milton Mermikides (2010)

Commissioned by Bowers & Wilkins and Peter Gabriels Real World, the album
was originally released on the Society of Sound label in April 2010, and is now
available through cabinbaggage. All tracks written by Peter Gregson and Milton
Mermikides. Recorded, Mixed and Mastered at Real World Studios October/
November 2009 by Greg Freeman.

Minus
- is an industrial lament. Perhaps an odd choice for the opening of an album,
but for me it is the perfect introduction to these pieces: its elegiac and hopeful, a
mix of electric and acoustic cellos, using regular and extended techniques, digital
processing and analogue delays. Initially inspired by a tiny guitar effect hidden
deep within Peter Gabriels Down to Earth (click here to hear it on Spotify), I hope
it sets up the rest of the album in a satisfyingly expositional manner without giving
away the whole story too soon...

Flight Path
This is a zippy little number for electric cello and live sampler - I promise that every
sound you hear is made by a cello... Keep your eyes on my feet!
Inspired by a picture by Aaron Koblin visualising the US air traffic control grid, it
shows the most incredible mesh of complication, yet through its rigidity, beautiful
structures are evident.

Orb
Orb is a lullaby of sorts. It starts out simply enough, but then a second voice
enters, throwing a spanner in the works for the simple melody. I had in mind a
constantly revolving glass ball with light shining through it - as the second voice
enters, it turns into a conversation that struggles to resolve, as neither gives in to
the other.

Spin
Spin is a solo electric cello piece. By playing a very simple repeating rhythm into
a delay unit, which is sent to another delay unit, which is then run through a tape
machine, you end up with a lush, live, multi-layered piece that injects insistent
rhythms and harmonies into the album.

I vividly remember recording this track. It was recorded on November 5th as

fireworks were shooting through the London sky. Listening back we realized that
we had subconsciously added the firework sounds into the recording; they were
so much a part of what we were hearing that we had imitated it without noticing!
 Dark; Light
This track was conceptualized and composed on a flight back into London from
New York. It was 4am, and I was awake and aware of this eery, ethereal haze
appearing out of my window in the distance. It was the sun rising. It reminded me
of a dying light bulb - technically fulfilling its purpose, but in every other sense of
the word it was utterly useless. This is what it sounded like to my minds ear.

Cello Counterpoint Steve Reich (2003) (11 mins)

Cello Counterpoint is scored for eight cellos and can be played by a soloist with
the other parts pre-recorded or by a Cello Octet. It is in three movements, fast,
slow, fast.

The first and last movements are both based on a similar four chord cycle
that moves ambiguously back and forth between C minor and Eb major. This
harmonic cycle is treated extremely freely however, particularly in the third
movement. As a matter of fact, what strikes me most about these movements
is that they are generally the freest in structure of any I have ever written. The
second, slow movement, is a canon in Eb minor involving, near the end of the
movement, seven separate voices.

Cello Counterpoint is one of the most difficult pieces I have ever written, calling
for extremely tight, fast moving rhythmic relationships, not commonly found in the
cello literature.

The piece is a little more than 11 minutes in duration and was co-commissioned
by the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the Royal
Conservatory in The Hague and Leiden University, for cellist Maya Beiser.
{ Steve Reich}

Website www.stevereich.com

Plus...
Inspired by Coldplays Lost+ remix with Jay-Z (Click to hear it on Spotify), I wanted
to create a piece that was inspired by Cello Counterpoint but had a cathartic end
to the album and subsequent live show. This track is that meditative coda, using
a big 16 cello orchestration (double that of Cello Counterpoint), but mixing electric
and acoustic, close and distanced reverbs; really putting it in its own space.
CREDITS
Live Sound Milton Mermikides
House Sound Dave Keay
Visuals Milton Mermikides, Edd Hannay
Poster and Programme Design Andy Catlin
Photography York Tillyer, Susie Ahlburg, Tom Oldham

THANKS These concerts are complex affairs to put on and involve a worrying number of people I would like to thank Adrian Harris and
his team at The Queens Hall for their support in producing tonights concert, especially Andy Catlin for his tireless enthusing and expertise
across all departments!
To Amanda Jones at Real World Records and Susanna Grant at Bowers & Wilkins for commissioning Terminal in the first place and Greg
Freeman for engineering and mixing it so wonderfully, to Sophie at Apogee Electronics for providing the audio equipment for my live shows,
to The Hospital Club London for supporting my creative projects during 2010/11, to Pamela at Made-By, to David McGinnis at Mute Song,
to Bill Thompson, Mark Prescott, Paulo Pisano and Kit Hawkins for advice and support, Kat and Victoria at Wildkat for keeping things
running, to Mike Coulter for the digital advice and the coffee, to AMG for the lifts and poached eggs and especially tonight to Edd Hannay
for being Projector Inspector and ironing out my computer problems as and when they arise.
Tonight was, however, made possible by the never ending skill and patience of Milton Mermikides, who produced the live electronics and visuals.