
“Robinson’s score (for Frank Borzage’s ‘Seventh Heaven’) was a superbly crafted montage of leitmotifs: for the lovely heroine, string chords in the style of the ‘Moonlight’ interlude from Peter Grimes: for the power of fate, ominous bluesy music; and for war, cello chords and spiteful noises from the nether regions of the tenor sax. Robinson has the art of doing these things with perfect continuity.”
Nicholas Williams ‘The Independent’
Hi there, me and my friends were at the ‘Der Golem’ screening in Sheffield last week. We absolutely loved it and was wondering if there’s any way where we could listen to the score you played? Cheers Ben Mathews
Paul Robinson is a composer who has written in most contemporary genres, including Ballet, Orchestral, Film and Contemporary Chamber Music. His performing ensemble HarmonieBand have performed many of his scores to silent films in major Art Centres and Cinemas in the UK and Europe.
He has received several prizes for composition including a joint winner prize for the Tong Hasegawa Piano Duo competition, the Special Prize for the Luxembourg Sinfonietta International Composers Competition, a joint prize in the first Hilliard Ensemble Composers competition the Pierro Pezze Prize in the International composers competition 'Citta di Udine'
He has received numerous commissions from professional performing ensembles, including the Northern Sinfonia, Scottish Ballet, the Hilliard Ensemble and the London Schools Symphony Orchestra. His most recent commission is for a work for piano quartet, harp (Ensemble 360) and chorus (The Hepton Singers) premiered at Square Chapel Halifax in 2018 to celebrate the opening of the new refurbished Arts Centre. He teaches at the Royal College of Music, and Goldsmith’s College
Dai Pritchard is active as a clarinettist and saxophonist in both the jazz and classical worlds of music. He was an original member of Django Bates’ big band Loose Tubes and also plays with the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, the Quadraphonic Saxophone Quartet and Stephen Warbeck’s “The Kippers”. He works regularly in various productions for the Globe Theatre Company.
Connie Pharoah
Connie is in her third year of studies at the Royal College of Music. Her tutors are Andriy Viytovich, Bryony Gibson-Cornish and Gabrielle Lester. She performs as principal violist in many of the Royal College Orchestras and recently won the Viola Prize there. She has taken part in many public masterclasses, notably with Lawrence Power, Maxim Rysanov, Antonello Farulli, Jennifer Stumm and Jerzy Kosmala. In March, Connie gave a successful recital to raise money for Sarcoma UK in which she raised £1400 and has plans to take the event further with a collaborative concert series.
Geeta Nazareth
Violist/violinist Geeta Nazareth is currently obtaining her BMus in viola at the Royal College of Music in London, where she is a RCM Foundation Scholar and Soirée d’Or Scholar. Previously, she has studied in her home country of Germany, as well as at the Konservatorium für Musik in Vienna, Austria. Her career grew further when she moved to New York City at the age of 15 to study at the Manhattan School of Music. After the culmination of her studies there, she became a founding member of the Salomé Chamber Ensemble, with which she performed with for 2 years. She then was a founding member of the Highline Chamber Ensemble, with which she still performs regularly today. Other performances during this period included multiple concerts with Music For Life International at Carnegie Hall and the World Youth Alliance Chamber Orchestra.
Since her arrival in London, she has made a debut solo performance at Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre, as well as her debut at Wigmore Hall with the Arcus Quartet. In addition to her modern viola/violin playing, she is also a founding member of the the baroque group Liturina Ensemble. She also has played as a pit musician on the West End.
Presently, Geeta performs regularly as a member of the Arcus Quartet, with an upcoming performance at Royal Albert Hall's Elgar Room, before they launch on their second UK Tour.
Paul Robinson’s vivid music used recurring melodic themes as a navigational aid to Cocteau’s twisty play.
To start: an ironic brittle triumphalism, as an artist works on a portrait of a woman. Then the painting’s mouth suddenly appears on his hand, and a statue of a woman comes to life. The artist splashes through a mirror to land in the ‘Hall of Theatrical Follies’ and the band swerve cheerfully from demented French coffee house dance music, via a folksy snake - charming arabesque, to a grieving tango.
Robinson’s musical imagination also encompasses echoes of minimalism, with a rapid tenor piano riff underpinning wailing saxophones and more abstract, atonal effects, for the appearance of an angel. The film’s ending, with the statues ambivalence towards immortality, was matched by a wide open suspended chord, over which a glockenspiel line slowly faded from the ear, as a dream fades upon waking.” Stephen Poole The Independent'