The Portsmouth Philharmonic Orchestra, is going to premiere a piece at its next concert in Fareham later this month.
Composed by one of the orchestra’s members Nathan R. Whitney – a Barbadian musician who is presently studying at the University of Portsmouth – the piece is entitled ‘Voyager’ and will open the concert on Saturday June 27 (7pm) at the Stubbington Community Centre.
Promoted by Montserrat Events, the concert has the theme of ‘A Journey Beyond Imagination’ and will also feature local soprano Jennifer Parker-Lummis.
As well as Nathan’s opener, there will be music by Rimsky-Korsakov and Dvorak and music from the movies including Titanic and Disney’s Fantasia. Tickets, priced £15 for adults are on sale here.
Nathan, who was brought up in Barbados but also has British citzenship through his London-born mother, explained the rationale behind his composition.
“I have a fascination with pirates – Pirates of the Caribbean of course – but the theme of pirates is a strong influence for a lot of the music, I write.
“Voyager is this story I created about this pirate called Roger. It is the opening of his pirate journey. The main idea [of Voyager] is sort of a call to action for Roger, and you can hear different musical narrative language throughout the piece,” he said.
And working with a full orchestra, in which he himself plays the timpani, brings the music to life for Nathan.
“When I write music, I'm just listening to the playback from the computer. When you hear it from musicians. It sounds much better. It also shows you things you might have done in your writing process, which you can directly work from. Overall, it's a really good experience to hear how everything comes together,” he added.
PPO | TV has conducted a feature interview with Nathan, which tells more of his life in the Caribbean, how he came to England and his musical influences, which can be watched below.