Montrose Composers’ Club is a group of like-minded composers based in East Kent who meet regularly to try out new ideas, perform their music and promote it to the wider world.

The MCC, founded in September 2015, comprises of local composers Aidan Shepherd, Matthew Brown, Anna Braithwaite, Phil Self and Sophie Stone. Their eclectic careers have lent their writing flavours of folk, jazz, cabaret and electronics, allowing them to create genre-defying sounds for savvy ears.

We are currently working with Sacconi Quartet to create new repertoire for ‘isolated’ performance. Scroll down for more information.

To stay in touch please follow us on social media or subscribe to our mailing list to receive up to date information in our occasional news letters.

As part of their experiments with isolated playing and writing the MCC created a two minute improvisation for Free Range TV. Please consider donating to Free Range so they can continue to give a platform to experimental artists HERE.

Fortopia

The Montrose Composers’ Club were commissioned by Albion Inc. to record a sound track for a series of short films created by artists Matt Rowe as part of his residency at Fort Burgoyne (Dover) entitled ‘Fortopia’. The films were screened at the site during an open day on Sat 29th Feb 2020 called ‘Waking the Giant’. Aidan Shepherd, Phil Self, Sophie Stone and (MCC associate) trumpeter/composer Sam Loveless also performed music inspired by the Fort around the site at intervals during the day to a capacity audience of 2,000 people.

A second film (edited, arranged and produced by Sophie Stone) is available for viewing on request.

Waking the Giant – a glimpse into an imagined future for Fort Burgoyne, Dover’s hidden gem.

MCC vs SACCONI

Saturday 11th May 2019

2pm - 4.30pm
Customs House, Folkestone Harbour Arm, Kent. 

The Montrose Composers' Club collaborated with the Sacconi Quartet to present newly commissioned works by the MCC alongside quartets by Haydn, Grieg and Korngold. An audience of people aged 1-80years enjoyed an eclectic mix of entertaining chamber music played by this internationally renown quartet, in the atmospheric surroundings of Customs House, ahead of the 12th annual Sacconi festival. 

"A beautiful blend of sound ... highly engaging" THE TIMES

"Great power and sweetness ... intimate closeness." SPECTATOR

MCCV

MCCV was the fifth in the MCC’s series of concerts. They premiered new works at their Free Range, Canterbury. There was boundary-stretching, expectation-challenging music using loops, field recordings, wine glasses and an excessive amount of accordions!

Images by Kamila Lobuzinska

PROFOUND SOUND 2019

For their fourth appearance at the annual experimental music festival ‘Profound Sound’ the group performed at intimate venue the Brewery Tap to a growing audience of loyal followers. Anna Braithwaite, Phil Self and Aidan Shepherd were joined by MCC associate Stuart Hughes, for a forty five minute set of free improvisation against the backdrop of Shred It! Collectives’ sound responsive light sculpture ‘Transpose’. For a taster, see a the short video below.

‘ABYSS’ FOR THE CITY OF ROCHESTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

During summer 2018 the MCC jointly wrote a piece for orchestra through a series of workshops and improvisations which was then workshopped by the City of Rochester Symphony Orchestra in January 2019. During this project the MCC began their exploration into how to write together as a group and looked at defining what their group style was as well as looking at their strengths as individuals.

Watch this space for opportunities to hear the piece played in public soon or sign up to our newsletter.

MCCIV

The Montrose Composers Club presented their fourth concert at Profound Sound Festival 2018. Each member wrote a piece to be performed against the backdrop of 15 tape cassette players all playing specially prepared tape loops. These pieces were performed for the first time at MCCIV, on Sunday 11th February 2018 in Folkestone and then again at the experimental music night,  in Canterbury, MCCIV also saw collaborations with sound artist Liz Hayward and action artist Helen Lindon along with performances by MCC regulars Flo Peycelon (violin), Karen Jolliffe (violin), Sarah Boxall (cello) and new collaborators Nicola Burnett Smith (clarinet/vocals) and Craig Gell (percussion).

MUSIC WORKSHOP @ BLOCK 67

On Saturday 27th January 2018 MCC members Phil Self and Anna Braithwaite invited the folk of Folkestone to try something new for 2018 and make some music, with the Montrose Composers’ Club.

Participants created their own sounds in Phil' s ‘mini studio’ using a granular processing app, samples and live instruments. Elsewhere Anna help people create and record their own tape cassette loops, whilst regular MCC collaborators Helen Lindon and Stewart Hughes encouraged children, OAPs and everyone in-between to create a large scale graphic score. At intervals the whole group would get together to form an improved orchestra which would play the graphic score 'live'. 

CLUB NIGHT

The MCC are excited to be part of a new event which coincides with the Folkestone Triennial called 'Club Night'. Between 7-9pm on October 5th 2017 local artistic clubs and associations, who usually meet privately, will hold open meetings in shop windows on Folkestone's Old High Street. Passers by and those on the map led tour of the event can enjoy listening to the MCC rehearse new works  and give feedback or even join in! We hope to see you there.

RECORDINGS FOR THE MCCs' FIRST RELEASE AVAILABLE  SOON...

The MCC have recorded five pieces of original music from their concert MCCIII. Watch this space for more details of how to obtain a copy.

SATURDAY 3RD jUNE 2017 at Turner Contemporary, Margate.

As part of a festival of experimental music the MCC and special guests Helen Lindon and Sam Bailey performed in the beautiful surroundings of the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate, Kent.

THE WOODEN KNIGHT

"As part of ongoing writing experiments with other members of the Montrose Composers' Club I composed a piece with Aidan Shepherd. He gave the piece a name, 'The Wooden Knight' and wrote the first eight bars for solo voice. I then added the next eight bars but only revealed the last two to Aidan. He then added to those without knowing what came before, a compositional game of 'head, body, legs'. We did not discuss the piece at all during this process. I had no idea whether it would be a revelation or disaster but for me as a composer and performer it certainly pushed me out of my comfort zone." Anna Braithwaite

CHINESE WHISPERS

The MCC are continuing to explore 'games' as an inspiration for new music, in a collaboration with graphic artist Myah Chun Grierson and a local artist Helen Lindon. Using the  idea of a Chinese whisper the project began with a piece of text, this inspired a Graphic score by Myah, an improvisation by the MCC and a live piece of art by Helen. Everyone agreed that the live are created behind the players really give a unique energy to the performance. We hope to continue work on this project throughout 2017.

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