Liz Dilnot Johnson
Liz Dilnot Johnson (b.1964) is an award-winning British composer based in the Malvern Hills, Herefordshire ‘a major composer deserving wide recognition’ (Divine Art). Her music encompasses an immense range from the smallest miniatures to expansive, large-scale, ambitious and multifaceted works. Liz was selected as one of Sound and Music’s first ‘New Voices’ in 2018 which has led to her directing a ground-breaking multidisciplinary project Scintilla weaving music, poetry, dance and live electronics, working with internationally renowned choreographer/ dancer Dane Hurst.
Several of Johnson’s works engage with wider issues of wellbeing: Scintilla explores issues of isolation and mental health, and Voyage – a series of solos for early instruments – focuses on female body image after major surgery, inspired by the artwork Triptych – a scarred series by Dora Williams. Johnson has herself recently overcome serious illness leading to isolation. Having now regained her health she is passionate about creating work that allows people to engage with the most difficult issues.
When A Child Is A Witness – Requiem for Refugees – juxtaposes music for amateur choir and children’s choir with virtuosic meditations and transcriptions of traditional Arabic music for the viola soloist. ‘I can’t remember the last time I actually dripped tears during a concert. And then she brought us back to a place of hope by the end of the piece so we were emotionally safe to head back into the real world.’ (Liz Garnett) http://www.helpingyouharmonise.com/colwall Other choral works include Johnson’s Gentle Flame Cantata setting texts by Greta Thunberg, Kurt Masur and David Hart, featured on Classic FM online https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/greta-thunberg-climate-change-speeches-set-music/ . Choir Ex Cathedra has commissioned a new dawn chorus piece from Liz for the Summer By Candlelight series, setting the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem The Windhover.
Johnson’s debut double album Intricate Web (2017) was met with wide critical acclaim: ‘The Cello Suite is stunning… The music explores a vast canvas… To me, this suite is Johnson’s masterpiece (so far). It is not too much to say that it takes its place beside Bach, Britten and Ligeti.’(Musicweb-International). Johnson’s close working relationship with the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, who recorded the album, has given rise to two impressive large-scale works: the clarinet quintet Sea-change, featuring twenty-five different instruments, including string quartet with Swannee whistles and egg shakers and five different sized clarinets from Contrabass to E flat, and Sky-burial for female voice and string quartet. ‘The music is in turn rugged, anguished, languid, and resigned, producing a haunting scenario that will not quickly be forgotten’ (Fanfare), sung by vocalist extraordinaire Loré Lixenberg.
Johnson started her career as a Primary School teacher and it was not until her mid-30s that she began studying composing for the first time. Taught by Philip Cashian she went on to gain her PhD at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2006. She lectures at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and is currently overseeing a new creative collaboration between student musicians and composers with choreographers and dancers at the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Showing 1–20 of 74 results
-
A Little Lockdown Lyric
for piano
£4.19 – £4.99 View -
A Quiet Moment at Dusk
for solo piano
£4.19 – £4.99 View -
A Wild Midwinter Carol
a secular carol for trebles with chimes and bells
£4.99 – £5.99 View -
A Wild Midwinter Carol (SSA version)
a secular carol for SSA with chimes/harp and bells
£4.99 – £5.99 View -
A Wild Midwinter Carol (SSAATTBB version)
for 8-part choir with bells
£4.99 – £5.99 View -
Accipe Coronam
for SSA choir
£6.59 – £6.99 View -
Agnus Dei
from Missa Brevis for SSAATTBB choir
£6.59 – £9.59 View -
Agnus Dei (version for saxophone ensemble)
for saxophone ensemble
£6.59 – £44.99 View -
Almost…
for saxophone octet
£7.99 – £13.99 View -
Arevedost
for piano
£6.59 – £9.59 View -
Ave Maris Stella
for SATB choir
£6.59 – £6.99 View -
Before the Ending of the Day
for SATB choir with organ
£4.99 – £5.99 View -
Bird Carol
for trebles and piano
£4.99 – £5.99 View -
Birthday Bash
for solo trombone
£6.59 – £6.99 View -
Blake Reimagined
for two choirs (SATB) with optional organ
£4.19 – £4.99 View -
Cello Suite
Reflections, Dances and Fantasias
a flexible suite for unaccompanied cello
£6.99 – £9.99 View -
de l’herbe qui s’éveille
for 11 string players
£7.99 – £19.99 View -
Diptera
for diatonic harp
£6.99 – £9.99 View -
Elephant Woman
for solo voice (soprano, mezzo-soprano or contralto)
£4.99 – £5.99 View -
Aria
for clarinet solo
£4.99 – £5.99 View
Showing 1–20 of 74 results