Modern Muses

Terry Riley and David Harrington from Kronos Quartet discuss their many collaborations

Michael Nyman and contralto Hilary Summers discuss a 20-year musical collaboration

Krzysztof Penderecki & violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter discuss a 30-year musical friendship

Oliver Knussen & Claire Booth discuss their collaboration on 'Requiem: Songs for Sue'

Composer Julia Wolfe & guitarist Mark Stewart discuss their Bang On A Can collaborations

Steve Reich and percussionist Russell Hartenberger discuss Reich’s masterpiece 'Drumming'

Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho and Finnish soprano Anu Komsi discuss their work together

Composer Nico Muhly and countertenor Iestyn Davies discuss their collaboration Old Bones

Composer Sally Beamish, fiddler Chris Stout and harpist Catriona McKay on 'Seavaigers'

Composer Michael Oliva and flautist Carla Rees compare notes on the creative process.

Composer HK Gruber and trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger compare notes.

Dutchman Louis Andreissen and Italian vocalist Cristina Zavalloni have developed a close working relationship which began in 1998 with Passeggiata in tram in America e ritorno, and includes the 2010 monodrama, Anaïs Nin.

Fellow Lancastrians Harrison Birtwistle and bass John Tomlinson talk about three-decades of creative collaboration, including the operatic roles Birtwistle, alongside librettist David Harsent, created especially for Tomlinson. The first was in 1991: the Green Knight and Bertilak in 'Gawain' and the second, the title role in 'The Minotaur' from 2007. But their collaboration goes back further still – to the recording of Birtwistle’s first opera in 1979.

Originally from China, the sheng is a traditional instrument – a mouth organ – with a three-thousand year history. Its sound was part of Korean composer Unsuk Chin’s childhood and she had long dreamed of writing for it. She was inspired finally to fulfil her dream when she heard the playing of sheng virtuoso Wu Wei. With the help of Wu, Chin began the long, collaborative process of learning how to write for sheng which resulted in the remarkable Šu for sheng and orchestra – and a deep friendship between composer and performer.

David Lang and vocalist Shara Worden talk about their collaboration on his 2012 'death speaks', Lang’s 21st century take on Schubert song inspired by Shara Worden’s singing, at once rooted in classical and indie pop music.

Fellow Finns Magnus Lindberg and clarinettist Kari Kriikku began a long and fruitful collaboration when they met as students. By far the most famous of the many pieces they’ve worked on together is Lindberg’s Clarinet Concerto which has met with extraordinary popular acclaim since its 2002 premiere.

Austrian composer Thomas Larcher and British tenor Mark Padmore talk about their creative collaboration on the set of songs evoking the Tyrolean landscape that Larcher named ‘A Padmore Cycle’

Mark-Anthony Turnage and jazz drummer Peter Erskine talk about a collaboration whose seeds were sown when an admiring teenage composer heard Erskine on Weather Report records in the late 1970s. Finally meeting in the 90s, they talk about their first major collaboration, ‘Blood on the Floor’ and the close musical, professional and personal friendship which grew from it.

Pianist Ian Pace and Michael Finnissy discuss twenty-five years of musical collaboration including Finnissy’s five-and-a-half hour piano epic, ‘The History of Photography in Sound’.

Gerald Barry and soprano Barbara Hannigan discuss past and future collaborations, including the role of Cecily in Barry's 2010 comic opera The Importance of Being Earnest.