RICHARD LEIGH
Composer / performer / teacher
I am a composer, performer and teacher inspired by world/folk, contemporary classical and sacred traditions.
The discovery of the book - The Hidden Words by Bahá’u’lláh - opened a door to creating a body of vocal music that focus's on the unity of the worlds sacred traditions. He is drawn to working with texts that have a transcendent quality.
RIVERS explores the oneness of all religion, weaving a tapestry of poetry & text from 8 faith traditions. Funded by Arts Council England, it was created in collaboration with NMPAT, local faith & inter-faith groups & the film maker Lou Armitt. It was performed by the award winning Northants County Youth Choir with an ensemble of strings, piano, harp, ancestral gongs & percussion at St John Smiths Square, London, in the very place that Bahá’u’lláh's son 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke in 1911. They were joined for the piece - FLOW - by an international online virtual choir of singers.
(watch FLOW and RIVERS below)
RIVERS
Funded by the Arts Council England, Rivers is an hour long piece with moving image, that sets scripture from 8 world religions, performed by a live and online virtual choir.
The core of the text for the piece is formed from the iconic “I Am…” statements made by each of the faiths great Teachers such as Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad etc. alongside poems from George Townsend and Frederick Tennyson which develop the analogy of the rivers representing the many sacred traditions of the world.
Each tradition is placed chronologically and the ‘I Am…’ musical motifs of the faiths accumulate and inter-weave with the former motifs, creating increasingly elaborate choral tapestries as the work progresses.
ALBUMS
GLORY BE - Finality Jack - (Wildgoose Records) - Richard (violin) with Becky Price (accordion) & Tim Perkins (bazouki / violin)
MYRIADS – 9 settings of The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, SATB choir & ensemble, Persian/Arabic chant, Tibetan bowls, (Klarton)
BREATHE – compilation of vocal and instrumental (Klarton) various artists
MYSTIC BIRD – “…a meditative & mystical blend of sounds from East & West…Mina chants a selection of poems, prayers & invocations in their original Persian/Arabic taken from the Baha’i Writings…” Richard on violin/piano/kantele/medieval fiddle (Klarton)
SEED – Featuring the exquisite voices of Rachel Major, Emma Lewendon and Fleur Missaghian as well as Richard on voice & various instruments. 12 new settings of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh, ''Abdu'l-Bahá, The Bab & Madame Rabbani.
RIVERS - A multi-faith sacred choral piece, bringing together a live youth choir & a virtual choir (watch FLOW and RIVERS below)
DAYSTAR - written to celebrate the bi-centenaries of the births of Bahá’u’lláh (1817) and The Báb (1819).
Album - due out summer 2020 featuring the singer Judit Felszechy and violinist David Le Page.
EXPERIENCE
Earliest works include a string quartet, cello sonata, song cycle, piano concerto, 2 chamber operas, ballet and music for the bands – Finality Jack, Mapaluna and Kai.
Work for the Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust (NMPAT) over 2 decades includes the directing of Zingaresque (the county youth world/folk ensemble), teaching composition, violin, guitar, voice/body percussion and in hospital & outreach.
Through many years experience of working with people, young to old, he has developed an approach, which like the folk tradition, is grounded in community, whether it be in the context of choirs, ensembles, inter-faith, hospice, education, dance, theatre or working with professional musicians.
Richard studied composition with Andrew Downes, John Mayer, John Joubert at the Birmingham Conservatoire, his MA in composition with Michael Clarke at Huddersfield University., and masterclass sessions with Robert Simpson and Lasse Thoresen.
He has written a significant amount of educational music such as a children's opera The Awakening Dream, a children's cantata The Tibetan Book of the Frog, Hurdy-Gurdy written for over 300 young string players of all levels, and the Native American inspired The Guaymi Dawn Song written for hospital and outreach students.
REVIEWS
‘...breathtaking, extraordinary & mesmeric, we were all stunned at the end’ Sarah & Oliver Percival about Rivers
‘... a very gifted composer with some magical visions…’
Lasse Thoresen (composer & Oslo Conservatoire professor) about Myriads
“…breathtaking…spine-tingling effects where notes collide & then resolve…sounds with melodic & harmonic structures that never fail to thrill…This is a work which deserves to be savoured again and again, which well could become a benchmark for composers setting Baha’i writings to music and promises many good things to come from an original British composer.” Rob Weinberg (Classic FM) about Myriads
“…spacious, ethereal landscapes with sparse instrumentations – clusters of notes are left hanging and ringing, conjuring the immensity of space and resonating with the mysterious eternal world of the soul” Rob Weinberg – Classic FM about Myriads
‘The range of colours drawn from the small scoring is almost unbelievable, the variations vary from wild and raucous to almost still. Dense harmonies are avoided throughout so that the piece has an aspect of remote antiquity to it but is entirely absorbing…’ International Double Reed Magazine – about Kante-laride – commissioned for Pipers 3
“Many of the tracks on Richard’s new CD, Seed, echo folk riffs, while some have a more classical feel, but without using classical formalities. ‘My Healing’ and ‘The Remover of Difficulties’ both magically weave Iranian chanting into the predominantly Western mode of the music. Overall, a reflective spirituality radiates from these settings of Bahá’i sacred texts.” Barney Leith
"The mellow, melodic nature of this music may fool the listener into not really paying attention to it but just letting it flow into the ears. But, unlike a great deal of contemporary instrumental music, each tune here stands up well to concentrated listening, opening up more and more upon each repeat. This is actually remarkably complicated music, almost experimental in its mixing of styles and various melodies. Would that each musical experiment was as nice on the ears as this one….” about Finality Jack - Brendan Foreman