Higgins shortlisted for RPS Award

Rambert and Gavin Higgin’s collaborative work Dark Arteries has been shortlisted for the RPS Music Award for Large-Scale Composition.

Dark Arteries, which premiered at Sadler’s Wells in May 2015, is inspired by the miner’s strike which took place 31 years ago. A collaboration between Rambert Artistic Director Mark Baldwin and composer Gavin Higgins, Dark Arteries explores ideas of industry conflict and unity. This emotion-filled work about community and change has been performed across the UK with leading brass bands such as The Tredegar Town Band, Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band, Whitburn Band and The Fairey Band.

Gavin Higgins comes from a lone lineage of brass band musicians dating back to 1895 and receiving his initial musical training in the family brass band. He has worked closely with some of the country’s leading orchestras and his recent commission, Velocity, opened the 2014 BBC Last Night of the Proms. Mark Baldwin and Gavin Higgins previously collaborated on 2012’s What Wild Ecstasy.

For over 200 years the Royal Philharmonic Society has been at the heart of music: supporting and working creatively with talented young performers and composers, championing excellence, and encouraging audiences to listen to, and talk about, great music.

Photo: Gavin Higgins

For more stories like this subscribe to Brass Band World here