Dr Liz Lane
Teaching Staff - Music Education
Music
Area of Work
Composition and Music Education
Biography
Liz Lane’s many diverse compositions range from a fanfare based on American Civil War bugle calls premiered in Virginia, USA; a 40th wedding anniversary song cycle commissioned as a surprise gift and an 80 minute work for the London Children’s Ballet. Performers include the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Carducci Quartet, Frank Renton’s Brass Machine, Symphonic Brass of the RAF, David Thornton, San Domenico Virtuoso Program Orchestra (USA) and the Norfolk Chamber Consort (USA); her music has been broadcast on BBC 1 and Radio 3. Recent commissions include A different kind of urban for the Open University Choir and Tide and Time for Foden’s Band, premiered at the RNCM Brass Band Festival, conducted by Michael Fowles.
Liz started composing at an early age and received widespread media coverage as a child composer, including an ITV documentary And I Write Music and a televised premiere of her Sinfonietta for Strings by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She graduated from Cardiff University, subsequently achieving a postgraduate diploma from the Royal College of Music and PhD in Composition from Cardiff University.
Liz started writing for brass band five years ago. She often project manages events, such as commissions from Bristol Cultural Development Partnership including Silver Rose (commemorating World War 1, Robert Hardy narrator, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery) and Innovation 216 (Bristol’s aerospace industry, 275 brass band and choir aged 8-80, St George’s Bristol), collaborating as Composer-in-Residence with Lydbrook Band, and her husband, conductor Ian Holmes.
Liz holds several part-time academic posts and is Composer-in-Association with OpenUp Music, a charity facilitating disabled-led orchestras for young musicians. She is currently working on a large-scale project, Surtaal Symphony, for brass band, RSVP Bhangra Band and soprano voice; and a piece for ottavino, commissioned by harpsichord maker and performer, Colin Booth.
Selected commissions and performances
2018 – Innovation 216: Lydbrook Band, City of Bristol, Lydney and Lydbrook Training Bands, Gurt Lush Choir, Bristol MAN Chorus, Ian Holmes, St George’s, Bristol.
2018 – Brightest Day a Cloud [world premiere]: Corde di Gioia, Denmark.
2018 – Tide and Time [world premiere]: Foden’s Band, Michael Fowles, RNCM Brass Band Festival; National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, Bramwell Tovey, Cheltenham Town Hall and Wells Cathedral.
2017- A different kind of urban: Open University Choir and Brass Ensemble, Bill Strang, Milton Keynes.
2017 – Antiphonary: Frank Renton’s Brass Machine, Frank Renton, Butlin’s, Skegness.
2016 – Innovation 216 [world premiere]: Bristol800 commission for massed brass bands and choirs aged 8-80 to celebrate Bristol’s aerospace history, St George’s, Bristol.
2016 – Dance where the Spirit Enlightens [world premiere]: Bristol800 commission for soloists, brass and Indian bhangra band, to mark Arts Council England’s 70th anniversary, Arnolfini, Bristol.
2016 – Important Matters [world premiere]: UWE Bristol ReVoice Choir, BBC Radio 3 live broadcast.
2016 – Silver Song [world premiere]: South-West Open Youth Orchestra, BBC Radio 3 live broadcast.
2016 –Silver Rose : First performance of South-West Open Youth Orchestra, the UK’s only disabled-led orchestra for young musicians, utilizing groundbreaking real-time music technology alongside brass band and choir, Bristol Cathedral. Featured on BBC The One Show.
2016 – Slate, Sea and Sky [recording]: Jim Hayes (cornet ) and the Co-Op Funeralcare Band. Described by Brass Band World as ‘the highlight of the CD’.
2015 –The Story of St Alban [world premiere]: cantata commissioned and performed by St Alban’s Choral Society and ensemble with combined school choirs, Hertfordshire University.
2015 – Mirage [world premiere]: Norfolk Chamber Consort, Norfolk, Virginia, USA.
2014 –Silver Rose [world premiere]: Bristol2014 commission for brass band to commemorate World War 1 centenary, performed with Robert Hardy CBE at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.
2014 –Call [world premiere]: Old Dominion University brass trio, Virginia, USA.
2013 – Hall of Memory [world premiere]: Commissioned for performance at the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, Ypres, Belgium; also performed at Ghent and Brussels Cathedrals.
2012/2013 –Spirit of Africa [world premiere]: Cheltenham Festival commission performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus at Cheltenham Town Hall. Orchestral version performed at the High Sheriff’s Gala Concert, Bristol Cathedral.
2012 –Old Stones Remember [world premiere]: vocal cantata for children’s voices and ensemble commissioned by Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts.
2012 –Recitative and Aria [world premiere]: Carducci Quartet, Prema Arts Centre, Uley.
2011- Antiphonary [world premiere]: Symphonic Brass of the RAF Central Band, Cardiff.
2010 –Linear Lines [world premiere]: Marlene Ford – horn, lecture recitals, Virginia, USA.
2008 –Somewhere Unknown [world premiere]: Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, Andrew Greenwood, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff.
A different kind of urban[25’]: Open University Choir and Brass Ensemble, Bill Strang, Milton
Keynes.