Kevin Malone

Kevin Malone

Described by The Independent as “witty, with a rare ability to communicate quite complicated processes with clarity”, the work of Anglo-American composer Kevin Malone spans genres and media beyond conventional labeling. His music has a clear attractive surface brimming with sophisticated character, expressivity and design.  Equally at home with electronics, multimedia and installations to harpsichords, choirs and orchestras, he embraces postmodernist and hybrid approaches, often exploring social concerns and global events.

Malone’s concert music – e.g. Opus opera, Count Me In, The Radio Song, Three Ancient Nightclubs – often embraces theatricality. A Clockwork Operetta, a cabaret commissioned by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, sets the discarded pop lyrics from Burgess’ unused film script of A Clockwork Orange. Unsung Herstories attacks women’s social and political inequalities by having the solo pianist restrained as she attempts to play outspoken passages.

Manchester Opera Project commissioned the Mark Twain-inspired opera Mysterious 44. Featuring the specially recorded voice of Richard Dawkins, the 120-minute opera was premiered at the Royal Northern College of Music in January 2016, followed by the American premiere produced by Hartford Opera Theatre USA.

Malone has composed seven works about the events of 9/11. Two “urban” orchestral concertos include World Trade Center concerto Eighteen Minutes with two double bass soloists, which NAXOS chose for its Top 20 Recommended tracks for September 2016 out of 2 million tracks, and Vox humana, vox populi with bassoon or tenor saxophone soloist. The choral piece Gently Tread was conducted by Malone in Shanksville, PA at the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93 for the televised fifth anniversary memorial ceremony of the events of Sept 11, 2001.  Requiem77 is for cello or saxophone with air traffic controller tapes, while Tacet al fine is for flute, cello and piano. The “rural” orchestral tone poems Angels and Fireflies with flute solo and E pluribus unum with cello solo capture the melancholy and intimacy of small communities dealing with tragedy.

Malone composed music for the feature films To Kill a Killer and Lockout (distributed by Warner Bros), and Manchester International Festival’s 2007 film The Assembly for which he also created the 5.1 sound design. He also devises sound installations for art galleries, museums and cathedrals.

Across the globe, 25 of the championing orchestras, ensembles and soloists include Psappha, Ricochet, Riot Ensemble, Jane’s Minstrels, PRISM Quartet, Ebonit Quartet, Quatuor Danel, Apollo Saxophone Quartet, Ensemble Archi, Dnipropetrovsk Symphony Orchestra, Radio State Orchestra Ukraine, Kiev Chamber Orchestra, Winston-Salem Symphony, Long Island Symphony, Manchester Sinfonia, Fidelio Trio, Joanne MacGregor, Kronos’ Hank Dutt, Alison Wells, Jane Manning, Richard Casey, Roger Heaton, Beth Levin, Adam Swayne and John Turner.

Television and radio broadcasts, interviews and performances in Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Australia, including the ISCM, garner enthusiastic comments from the press. Malone strongly believes in social music-making and community outreach as a means of keeping humanity at the centre of art, and art at the centre of society. He attended Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, Paris Conservatoire as a Fulbright Fellow, and the Universities of Michigan and London.  His most influential composition teachers were Leslie Bassett, William Bolcom and Morton Feldman. Malone is Director and Reader of Composition at the University of Manchester.

FOUR SOLO COMPOSER CDs:

ASC Classics CD138, Métier MSV 28543 and MSVCD 92106, Prima facie PFCD015

11 COMPILATION CDs:

ASC Classics CSCD02, CSCD38 and CSCD11, Campion CD2049 and CD2071, Centaur CRC 2426, Coviello protest music for piano (Mar 2018), Divine Art DDA 25138, Forsyth FCD001/2, Harwood CD1999, Metier saxophone quartets (Jan 2018)

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Showing 1–20 of 36 results