Octandre Ensemble, who played a LeFanu portrait concert in London in March, have now released a video of its highlights. The link is here:

https://vimeo.com/281296974

It features 'Deva' for cello and ensemble (solo cellist, Corentin Chassard), interviews with myself, and extracts from The Same Day Dawns and String Quartet no2.

Here are links to an interview,  June 2018: http://bit.ly/DonneYouTubePlaylist
http://www.drama-musica.com/ComposersofToday.html

I gave the biennial Sophia Lecture at Newcastle University on Tuesday May 8th. 'A Composer's half-century' was the title of my reflections on some of the changes in music - in its practice and its reception - during the fifty years of my career in Britain.

Peter Sheppard Skaervard's salon recital at Fairfax House in York on Monday May 7th included a performance of Pleiades for solo viola.

A Celebration of the music of Jeremy Dale Roberts will include Croquis (Kreutzer trio) Tombeau, Capriccio, Beautiful are the Dead (soprano Carola Darwin, piano Roderick Chadwick) and music by Rainier, Causton and LeFanu.

Royal Academy of Music, London, Sunday April 22nd, 4pm.

'A Travelling Spirit' for soprano and recorder will be performed at the New Paths Festival in Beverley, East Riding, on Friday April 6th, by Caroline MacPhie, soprano and Ian Wilson, treble recorder. The concert is at 8pm in St Mary's Church. The songs set two of the medieval Exeter riddles, translated by Kevin Crossley-Holland.

The choir Aurora Nova, director Patrick Craig, gave a beautiful performance of 'Misterium Mirabile' (SSA) in a fine programme of choral music composed by women. The concert at St James's Church, Piccadilly, was in aid of the charity Refuge.

The Irish composer Ina Boyle (1889-1967) was celebrated in a lunchtime event at the Wigmore Hall. As one of the few people left who had known her, Nicola spoke of her memories of Ina Boyle.

Nicola can also be heard in the Sound and Music podcast for IWD:

Here is the link to the podcast: https://thesampler.org/podcasts/sound-music-podcast-episode-4/

On March 4th 2018, Octandre Ensemble, together with the Ligeti String Quartet, gave a very fine concert of LeFanu works, plus pieces by Lumsdaine and Maconchy. The links to interviews with Nicola are here:
Part 1 (texts, titles, ‘Eastern' influences) : https://www.octandre.com/lefanu-interview-1
Part 2 (‘Women in Music’): https://www.octandre.com/lefanu-interview-2
Part 3 (‘Reflections of an established composer’): https://www.octandre.com/lefanu-interview-3

Octandre ensemble are presenting a LeFanu Portrait concert at the Print Room, Notting Hill Gate, on March 4th 2018 at 5pm. It includes Deva for solo cello and ensemble, and String quartet no2 played by the Ligeti string quartet. Music by Lumsdaine and Maconchy is featured too.

https://www.octandre.com/nicola-lefanu

My new cantata, 'St Hilda of Whitby', to a text by Wendy Cope, will be premiered on February 18th, 2018; 5.30 pm at the University Church, Oxford. It was commissioned by the Association of Senior Members of St Hilda's College, Oxford. It will be performed bySt Hilda's College choir and instrumentalists, conducted by Jonathan Williams.