News

The premiere of Edward Gregson’s test piece The World Rejoicing, commissioned by five countries for their National Brass Band competitions, has been postponed for a year because of the ongoing uncertain situation with the Covic-19 pandemic.  The premiere will now take place in Birmingham (at The British Open) in September 2021, followed by the various … Continued

Edward Gregson will be interviewed by Sean Rafferty on BBC Radio 3’s live drive-time programme, In Tune, on Wednesday 16 September at approximately 17.15. The programme is streamed live on the BBC Radio 3 website and will be available as ‘audio on demand’ for 30 days after the broadcast

Edward Gregson’s new Naxos CD recording, Complete Music for Solo Piano is being released today and features celebrated pianist Murray McLachlan (making his debut on the Naxos label).  The recording was made at The Stoller Hall in Manchester in January 2020. Murray McLachlan says of Edward Gregson’s piano music that ‘he knows the importance of … Continued

A recording of the premiere performance of Edward Gregson’s The Salamander and the Moonraker (story and text by Susan Gregson), given on 1 July 2018 at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, is now available to view.  The composer was honoured to receive an Ivors Academy Composer Award for this work in 2019. The premiere was given by … Continued

Listen to a discussion between Mark Good, editor of British Bandsman, and Edward Gregson as he chats about what he calls ‘the obsession with contesting’ and how it’s time to rebalance our thinking in order to ensure that bands can rightly be taken seriously in the wider musical world. The podcast is now live and  … Continued

BBC Radio 3 is to broadcast two concerts featuring works by Edward Gregson performed by the BBC Philharmonic and conducted by Ben Gernon. On Monday 29 June you can hear a performance of the Euphonium Concerto with soloist David Childs, and on Tuesday 30 June the premiere performance of A Vision in a Dream (concerto … Continued

  The premiere of Edward Gregson’s ‘A Vision in a Dream – Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra’ was performed by soloist Jennifer Galloway, accompanied by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Ben Gernon, at Leeds Town Hall on Saturday 8 February.

Edward Gregson has composed ‘Notes Between Friends’, commissioned by the BBC for Radio 4’s PM programme, a piece he says has both European and British dimensions. In 1973, Gregson wrote a brass piece named ‘Fanfare for Europe’ when the UK joined the EU’s forerunner the European Economic Community.  He says this new work, written to … Continued

Photo: Mark Allan Edward Gregson has won the award in the category of original composition for ‘Amateur or Young Performers’ at The Ivors Composer Awards 2019, for The Salamander and the Moonraker – An Adventure Story in Music, which received its premiere in July 2018 at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, performed by the Hallé … Continued

The recently released Chandos CD The Symphonic Euphonium II, which features a performance by David Childs of Gregson’s Euphonium Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Ben Gernon, has received the award of Solo CD of the Year by Brass Band World magazine. David studied at the Royal Northern College of Music when Edward Gregson … Continued

Read more about the preparations to mark Edward Gregson’s 75th birthday year in this article published by his publisher, Novello. Edward Gregson 75 in 2020

RNCM Brass Band Festival: 24-26 January 2020 The 2020 RNCM Brass Band Festival will feature several works by Edward Gregson (see below), marking the start of his 75th birthday year.  Some of the best bands and finest brass soloists in the world will perform at this popular annual event in Manchester, and the programme will … Continued

Edward Gregson’s enchanting work, The Salamander and the Moonraker (An Adventure Story in Music), has been nominated for The Ivors Composer Awards 2019 (formerly British Composer Award) in the ‘Amateur or Young Performers’ category. The story tells of the adventures of some children caught up in the magical realms beyond Earth who are transported into … Continued

The world premiere of Edward Gregson’s new work, ‘A Vision in a Dream – Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra’, a BBC commission, is to take place on Saturday 8 February 2020 in Leeds Town Hall and marks the composer’s 75th birthday later in the year. It will be performed the BBC Philharmonic with Principal Oboe, … Continued

Edward Gregson made a recent appearance as the Keynote Speaker at the first annual conference of Brass Bands England, the representative body for brass bands in England, and partly funded by Arts Council England. Gregson has been an important advocate for brass bands throughout his career, and of course is widely regarded as one of … Continued

A new CD of the music of Edward Gregson is to be recorded in June at the Henry Wood Hall in London, on the Chandos Records label. Entitled Music for Symphonic Brass and Percussion, it will feature two large-scale works: Symphony in two movements and Music of the Angels, together with various fanfares written over … Continued

Groundbreaking European consortium commission announced Edward Gregson will celebrate his 75th birthday in July 2020, and in a unique collaboration between five European partner countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the UK) the composer has been commissioned to write a new work for their National brass band competitions in 2020/2021 – a fitting tribute … Continued

Edward Gregson‘s Saxophone Concerto is to be given its Swiss premiere by the young and highly-acclaimed British saxophonist Jess Gillam. She joins the Argovia Philharmonic and their chief conductor Douglas Bostock in three concerts beginning on 23 September  at the Kultur & Kongresshaus, Aarau and the Trafo-Halle, Baden. The concerto will form part of an all-English program … Continued

The Hallé Orchestra and Children’s Choir will perform the world premiere of The Salamander and the Moonraker (An Adventure Story in Music) on Sunday 1 July at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Finding the correct balance between the forces in this large-scale piece is just one of the challenges relished by its composer, Edward Gregson. You … Continued