Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian is a British composer, singer, and harper. She is considered one of today's leading emerging composers.[1]
Biography
Horrocks-Hopayian was born in Suffolk, England and is of British/Armenian descent. As a child school she attended Junior Guildhall, the Saturday school run by Guildhall School of Music and Drama.[2] She later attended Girton College, Cambridge where she graduated with a first class degree in Music in 2005.[3] At Girton College, she was awarded the Rima Alamuddin Composition Prize in 2004, the Turle Scholarship for Music in 2006, and the Gamble Prize for Research in 2006.[4] She held a scholarship at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London in 2006–07.[4]
She became Visiting Fellow Commoner at Girton College in 2020.
She was inaugural composer-in-residence for the London Symphony Orchestra[9] at Khadambi Asalache's House, 575 Wandsworth Road from 2015 to 2017.[10]
Horrocks-Hopayian's work has a strong visual and tactile element,[11] which she calls "Eye Music", structuring rather than simply decorating her music.[12]
Sound and Music (formerly spnm) awarded her their artistic director (then Kuljit Bhamra) Project: 'Bhangra Latina', in 2007.[15]
An Arts Council England Award enabled her to record her first (experimental pop) album, 'Big Ears', which was inspired by her experience of partial deafness.[16] She won another Arts Council England Award for her oratorio, The Evolution of Eve. (2012)[17]
In 2015, Horrocks-Hopayian was commissioned to write 'Ser Սեր (Love)' for the London Jazz Festival, performed by herself alongside guitarist Christopher Montague.[22] She developed the piece for SATB choir in 2017, which won a BASCA call for works by BAME composers. It was premièred by the BBC Singers, and recorded for BBC Radio 3.[23]
Trish Clowes commissioned Horrocks-Hopayian to write 'Muted Lines' for her project "My Iris" in 2016.
"Muted Lines" won the BASCA British Composer Award in 2017.[24]
In 2018, Melodia Women's Choir of New York City commissioned Red Bird, sharing the story of Zitkala-Sa, for its Women Composers' Commissioning Award, with world premiere performances in New York City.[25]
Nominations
She was finalist for two BASCA British Composer Awards in 2017: "Muted Lines" was nominated for the Jazz Composition category, and "Khadambi's House" was nominated for the Chamber Ensemble category.[26]
She was finalist, with Hugh Jones, as Crewdson, in the BASCA British Composer Awards in 2018 in the Sonic Art category for "Two Machines".[27] This featured a new musical instrument developed by Horrocks-Hopayian and Crewdson, called the 'sonic bonnet', through which she can trigger sounds. Cevanne was featured in the New Music event at the BBC Proms 2019 with the Sonic Bonnet and her harp.[28]
She was nominated, with Hugh Jones, for an Ivor Novello Award at The Ivors Classical Awards 2023. Rites for crossing water, their outdoor installation, augmented reality book and EP built around instructional texts, imagined as folklore for the future was nominated for Best Sound Art.[29]
Selected works
Chamber ensemble
Khadambi's House (2017) for soprano, sinfonietta and tape (LSO commission) – BASCA British Composer Award 2017 finalist
Bird Dance (2017) for soprano and sinfonietta
The Ladies (2017) for soprano and sinfonietta
Cave Painting I & II (2015–17) for violin and viola
Muted Lines (2017) for alto voice, tenor sax, organ, bass, drums and sinfonietta – British Composer Award winner 2017
Ser Սեր (Love) (2015) for jazz quartet
23 Brook Street (Jimi's Walls) (2015–2016) for guitar, harp, bass
The Extra Room (2015–2016) for alto voice, guitar, harp, bass
Petrified (2016–2017) for alto voice, guitar, harp, bass
L'Envoi (2013) for consort recorders
Ombre Spezzate (2013) for jazz ensemble
How is a World like a Window (2012) for two violins, cello, bass clarinet & hang
Turquoise Trail (2012) for harp & strings
Dark Garden (2008) for voice, trumpet, piano, bass, congas, tabla, timbales
Hunting Bow (Home is where the harp is) (2011) for harp ensemble (clarsach, kora, krar)
If I could say (2010) for lever harps (BBC Radio 3 commission)
Round 4 (2014) for violin and cello
When I Return (2014) for viol da gamba and optional voice
Jumpy One (2013 -) for jazz ensemble
Orchestra
Ngedas Lemah (trad. arrangement) (2017) for string orchestra (LSO commission)
Love Like Salt (Amor Como Sal) (2016) for youth orchestra and electronics
A Dancing Place (2010) for symphony orchestra
Record (2008) for orchestra and electronics
Vocal
The Swallow (2017) for soprano & string quartet
Inkwells (2016–2017) for voice & tape
House Music (2014) for soprano & keyboard
'A Brief Description of the Excellent Virtues of that Sober and Wholesome Drink, called Coffee' (2014) for voice & accompaniment
Sari Siroon Yar (trad. arrangement) (2012) for voice and strings
From The Unseen World (2014) for voice and strings
The Evolution of Eve Oratorio (2012) sop & alto voice, hang, harp, cello, xylosynth, electronics, chorus
The King-napped King (2015) narrator, alto, harp, piano
The Firebird and other Russian Tales (2011) narrator, soprano, harp, piano
Women of Trachis, Sophocles, (2005), Khorus, violin, saxophone, piano
Past/Future/Fracture (2008) ensemble and electronics for dance
Dance
Seasons in our World (2019), Ballet with orchestra and electronics, for Birmingham Royal Ballet. Choreographed by Laura Day (Spring), Lachlan Monaghan (Summer, Autumn), Kit Holder (Winter).
2020 – Panufnik Legacies III – LSO, with François-Xavier Roth, 'A Dancing Place (scherzo)' (London Symphony Orchestra Publications)
2019 – BRACE – with Hugh Jones, as Crewdson and Cevanne, (Accidental Records). The album includes Two Machines, which was nominated for BASCA British Composer Award in Sonic Art, 2018)
2015 – The Evolution of Eve EP – from the Sveriges Radio play DJ Helga. Performers – Manu Delago, Ziazan Horrocks-Hopayian, Gregor Riddel, Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian (Phyllis Tweed Publications)
2013 – Peekaboogie – written by Jessica Hynes, with Maral Mohammadi, Ziazan Horrocks-Hopayian, Ben Kelly, George Bird, Wayne Francis, Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian (Phyllis Tweed Publications)
