Heather Roche

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Heather Roche is a clarinetist.

Biography

Heather Roche is best known as an interpreter of contemporary classical music. Her work encompasses performance and research into extended techniques, particularly multiphonics.

Roche was born in Victoria, BC, Canada. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Victoria, where she was a student of the clarinetist Patricia Kostek. From 2005 to 2006 she was a student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she studied with Joy Farrall and Laurent Ben Slimane.

From 2007 to 2011, Roche was a student at the University of Huddersfield, where she finished her PhD thesis, “Dialogue and Collaboration in the Creation of New Works for Clarinet” under the supervision of Dr. Philip Thomas and Dr. Edie Dobson. [1] During this time, she regularly performed in a duo with the British pianist, Kate Ledger. [2]

She was a founding member of the Cologne-based ensemble hand werk, and played with them from 2010 to 2017. She is currently a member of the London-based ensemble, Apartment House. She appears on multiple releases by the group on the Sheffield label, Another Timbre. [3] Roche performed with the group in a performance of Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King at the Wigmore Hall, with soloist Elaine Mitchener. In March 2023, Roche appeared alongside Mitchener again at MaerzMusik in Berlin as a guest of the ensemble Manufaktur für aktuelle Musik and alongside the Van Huynh dance company. [4]

Since 2016, Roche has been the co-editor (with Christopher Fox) of the Cambridge University Press journal, TEMPO. [5]

Since 2017, Roche has performed with the German accordionist Eva Zöllner as the Zöllner-Roche Duo. In 2018, the duo performed Chalkboard by Christian Marclay as part of an exhibition of the artist's work at MACBA, Barcelona. [6] Roche subsequently performed at Marclay's festival in London, ASSEMBLY with John Lely and Mira Benjamin. [7] In 2019, the duo traveled to Mexico and in 2022 they toured in Colombia. In 2022–2023, the Zöllner-Roche Duo hosted their first Composer's Lab in Germany, selecting four composers for new commissions and the works were premiered in Montabaur as part of the Lauschvisite Concert Series. [8]

The Zöllner-Roche Duo have also appeared as a trio with cellist Colin Alexander. They premiered a new work by British composer Hollie Harding, Theories of Forgetting, at LSO St. Luke's in 2023. [9] They also perform as a trio with vocalist Peter Falconer in Olly Sellwood’s Microsong Cycle, premiered at Iklektik in London in 2023. [10]

She performed with the Gothenburg-based ensemble mimitabu from 2016 to 2020, and is associated with Swedish composers Johan Svensson and Lina Jarnegaard, who subsequently wrote pieces for the Zöllner-Roche Duo, as well as Norwegian composer Martin Rane Bauck, who wrote kopenhagener stille for Roche in 2014 and Okeanos in 2023 for Roche and two other members of mimitabu, Jonas Olsson and My Hellgren. [11] A recording of kopenhagener stille appears on Bauck's 2019 release on LAWO. [12]

She plays the bass clarinet on No Fixed Point in Space, the 2023 release from Modern Nature, [13] and was seen playing with the band at Murmurations Festival 2023 in Newport, Essex, and at Kings Place, London, in December 2022. [14] She is a regular collaborator of Modern Nature frontman Jack Cooper, appearing on his 2023 release, Arrival, alongside Anton Lukoszevieze and Alexander Hawkins. [15]

She plays the bass clarinet on the Emmy-winning score for The Reason I Jump, composed by Nainita Desai. [16]

Composer collaborations

Roche is a long-term collaborator of the Irish composer Scott McLaughlin. She was a consultant in his research project, The Garden of Forking Paths, which subverted the standard model of instrumental performance, looking instead at what sounds an instrument was likely to produce through experimentation. [17] McLaughlin wrote his clarinet concerto, Natura Naturans, for Roche, which was premiered at the Tectonics Festival in Glasgow in 2021 by the BBCSSO and Roche, with Ilan Volkov conducting. [18] He also wrote Fringing for her, which was premiered at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2022. [19]

Her collaboration with composer Pierre Alexandre Tremblay has thus far produced two new works: La rupture inéluctable for bass clarinet and electronics and asinglewordisnotenough4 for clarinet, accordion and electronics (written for the Zöllner-Roche Duo). La rupture inéluctable was released by empreintes digitales in 2013. [20] The German premiere of asinglewordisnotenough4 took place at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music in 2021. [21]

Martin Iddon has written two solo works for Roche: Ptelea, for solo bass clarinet, and Sapindales, for clarinet(s) and tape. Both were released by the another timbre label in 2022 [22] and an earlier version of Ptelea appears on Roche's first solo release in 2011. [23] Muses, for voice and clarinet (with Juliet Fraser) also appears on the another timbre release.

Christopher Fox wrote these other birds for Roche in 2022. [24] The piece combines music by Fox with poetry by Kate Wakeling, and the clarinetist plays and recites throughout. She also released a CD of his existing music for clarinets on the Métier label in 2018. [25]

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References

  1. ↑ Roche, Heather (September 8, 2011). "Dialogue and Collaboration in the Creation of New Works for Clarinet" – via eprints.hud.ac.uk.
  2. ↑ "Heather Roche Interview - CompositionToday.Com". www.compositiontoday.com.
  3. ↑ "Apartment House". www.anothertimbre.com.
  4. ↑ "Elaine Mitchener: On Being Human as Praxis – Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD". www.berliner-kuenstlerprogramm.de.
  5. ↑ "Book reviews". Cambridge Core.
  6. ↑ "Activity - Chalkboard | MACBA Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona". www.macba.cat. May 6, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Lawrence Lek | Mira Benjamin, John Lely & Heather Roche". Somerset House. September 9, 2019.
  8. ↑ "#22: Zöllner Roche Duo – Lauschvisite". January 31, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Theories of Forgetting: Hollie Harding | Barbican". www.barbican.org.uk. January 14, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Escape from Ekphrasis". April 26, 2023.
  11. ↑ "Mimitabu @ Konsertserien Periferien | Opera til folket". operatilfolket.no.
  12. ↑ BV, New Arts International. "Martin Rane Bauck: Through a network of illuminated streets by Ensemble neoN". Challenge Records International.
  13. ↑ "Modern Nature". www.bellaunion.com.
  14. ↑ "Modern Nature + Fiona Brice • Contemporary • Kings Place". Kings Place.
  15. ↑ "Arrival, by Jack Cooper". Jack Cooper.
  16. ↑ "Floating Into Focus (From The Reason I Jump Soundtrack)" – via www.youtube.com.
  17. ↑ "The Garden of Forking Paths". forkingpaths.leeds.ac.uk.
  18. ↑ "BBC - BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Tectonics Festival, Scott McLaughlin and Heather Roche - 'Natura Naturans'". BBC.
  19. ↑ Smith, Robin. "hcmf// shorts 1 (SOLD OUT)".
  20. ↑ "La marée, by Pierre Alexandre Tremblay". empreintes DIGITALes.
  21. ↑ Aguzzi, Andrea (August 6, 2021). "CROSS-FADING: Zöllner Roche Duo & Carlo Siega | DARMSTADT SUMMER COURSE 2021".
  22. ↑ "Sapindales, by Martin Iddon". Another Timbre.
  23. ↑ "πτελέα | Ptelea". University of Huddersfield.
  24. ↑ "works". September 24, 2012.
  25. ↑ "Headlong: Music for Clarinet by Christopher Fox | Divine Art Recordings".
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