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The Purcell School: Parallel composition

The Purcell School is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a festival of new works. MT’s Phil Croydon catches up with the composition department to learn of some intriguing experiments.
 The Purcell School rehearsing pieces SCRAWL and simultaneoUS
The Purcell School rehearsing pieces SCRAWL and simultaneoUS - Courtesy of The Purcell School

When I first heard ‘Purcell Composers@60’, the name of a mini-festival running between September 2022 and December 2023 at The Purcell School, my mind turned to sexagenarians and the celebrated family of composers responsible for ‘Hear my prayer, O Lord’, The Indian Queen and other baroque masterpieces for stage, court or church. Sadly, neither Henry nor Daniel Purcell (the most notable of this family) made it to 60; but the school that bears their name has, and it intends celebrating the work of all composers past and present, at all stages of life. Had these Purcells lived longer, I suspect they would have approved of the collaboration and genre-busting of this composition fest.

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