WHERE TO BEGIN?

Every artist, whether painter, poet, writer, choreographer or composer, needs an idea, or at least the germ of one, as a starting point. But where does one find these ideas? Can engaging with the output of visual artists, film directors, choreographers and other ‘creatives’ draw us, as composers, beyond our known and potentially comfortable habits or confines and towards new challenges and solutions? What happens when we look for inspiration across art forms?

Creative expression comes in many forms, and yet even seemingly disparate modalities share more common ground than one might think. The terms used to describe attributes in the creation of both music and visual art, for example, are often identical: composition, line, colour, layer, texture, balance, form, accent, etc. And so one modality may find germination in another.

This season, the LPO Young Composers programme has encouraged its participants to probe possibly untried approaches beyond their more familiar, music-based areas of activity in order to find the spark of inspiration. We’ve investigated the creative potential that can be found in exploring the methods and motivations of artists working in areas of cultural endeavour other than music. Together we’ve sought out possible points of intersection and discovered domains that might be shared, with a view to leaning on, and learning from, these different but related pathways, techniques and creative spirits.

Ask five astute young composers for their responses and, happily and of course not surprisingly, you get five very different answers. This evening’s new works take their lead from a multitude of influences, ranging from the 18th-century etchings of Piranesi to experimental animation, via circus arts, architecture and environmental installation. These are ‘pictures at an exhibition’ with a difference … enjoy!