Celebrating Barbara Hepworth: a new violin concerto by Nick Martin with Tamsin Waley-Cohen & Manchester Camerata

Barbara Hepworth: Sphere with Inner Form, 1963, at the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands

50 years after her death, a new violin concerto will be celebrating the life and legacy of sculptor Barbara Hepworth. Commissioned by Manchester Camerata, Nick Martin‘s Violin Concerto will be premiered at Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester with violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen as soloist on 4 September, with  further performances at The Hepworth, Wakefield on 5 September and at Kings Place, London on 18 September. The programme also features music by Mozart, Britten and the South African-British composer, Priaulx Rainier which celebrate themes of youth or have a connection to Hepworth herself.

Nick Martin is a composer based in Copenhagen. The concerto was inspired by Hepworth’s sculptures and addresses themes of tenderness, birth, heartache, family and friendship. Composed whilst staying in St Ives, Martin says, “A particular point of inspiration has been Barbara Hepworth’s Landscape Sculpture—a carved torso-sized, cradle-like form in elm with nine strings of fishing line. I found the number nine resonant, suggestive of the nine months of pregnancy”.

Martin has a lifelong love of Hepworth’s work, having visited The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in St Ives as a child. The orchestra has a strong relationship with Nick Martin’s music. In 2023, it performed a version for strings of his Kolysanka written for Camerata and violinist Daniel Pioro. And last year, it performed an expanded version of Falling with another of its artistic partners, Kantos Chamber Choir.

Full details from the Manchester Camerata’s website.