Schoolboy Michael Cutting got fed up with practising scales on the piano, especially as his teacher was his mum. So he decided he'd rather invent his own compositions.
"I was 16 and a kind of a rebel. I just wanted to write my own pieces," says the young composer, now 21, who sees his latest work premiered by the impressive Lancashire Sinfonietta tomorrow (Sat, Oct 11) in Preston Minster.
His first commission for the orchestra, Zintka or 'Lost Bird' is based on a tragic story of an Indian woman who sacrificed her life for her baby during a battle in 1890, when hundreds of Lakota men, women and children were massacred by US troops.
"Initially I was writing a piece first, just with some ideas that I liked," says Cutting, who is based at the Royal College of Northern Music in Manchester and who won the Sinfonietta's Young Composer award 2008.
"I was going through various bits of literature and art and I stumbled across her on the internet. The mood tended to suggest the Lost Bird kind of idea, so yes, the work found a theme," he added.
Cutting's next project starts this month in Morecambe – working with musicians and schoolchildren to compose and record music for a beautiful series of silent movies of the town by Mitchell & Kenyon from the 1900s.
But first the Zintka rehearsal, which will be a high-pressure occasion – the orchestra only play it for the first time today before tomorrow's concert, which is repeated on Sunday, October 12, in Morecambe.
Cutting's work sounds a challenging, contemporary note in an attractive Young At Heart programme, which explores music by composers in their roaring 20s, including Britten's Simple Symphony, Mozart's Serenata Notturna, Beethoven's Symphony No.1 and excerpts from Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream.
The Lancashire Sinfonietta is a professional chamber orchestra comprising more than 80 'home-grown musicians', supported by Lancashire County Council – catch them if you can for a real musical surprise.
* Lancashire Sinfonietta, The Minster Church, Preston, Sat, October 11, 7.30pm. Morecambe, The Platform, Sun, October 12, 3pm. Tickets £8.50, £5 conc. Box Office (Preston): 01257 516444. Box Office (Morecambe): 01524 582803>> Vote in our latest web poll
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