Composition – Nicholas Korth

Composition

Nicholas Korth (b.1971) is a composer with a fascination for the extraordinary sound worlds of natural harmony and overtone singing and a love for the setting of words. He lives in Hertfordshire with violinist Deborah Schlenther and their family.

As a member of the London Conchord Ensemble he has had much of his music performed (notably in the USA and at London’s Wigmore Hall) and recorded. He has worked closely with overtone singers Rollin Rachele and Paul Terrell, tenors James Gilchrist, Toby Spence and Daniel Norman and sopranos Emma Tring and Olivia Robinson.

In 2020 he was commissioned by the London Chamber Orchestra and the Guild of Horn Players to write two works which feature the natural horn. Inscapes for tenor, natural horn and string orchestra was premiered in February 2022 at St John’s Smith Square, London. The LCO was conducted by Christopher Warren-Green with tenor Toby Spence and the composer as soloists. Midnight Rain, settings of Edward Thomas for tenor, natural horn, string quartet and keyboard was premiered at the 2023 Oxford May Music Festival, again featuring Toby Spence.

In 2022 Nicholas was appointed as Composer in Residence with the English Sinfonia. His first work in this role, Jubilare an Enigmatic Fanfare was premiered in the same year, as was Mehta Songs for soprano, string quartet and Planet Gong. The use of the Gong was inspired by the wonderful artistry of Sound Healer Chris Triplett.

He is currently working on Osden, a Sci-Fi themed opera based on a short story by Ursula Le Guin, involving overtone singing and conventional vocal techniques and the resulting rich sonic possibilities. He has also become fascinated by the extraordinary Stahlcello devised by the late great overtone singer and musicologist Jan Heinke and the wondrous sound world of Gongs.

Nicholas has held the position of Co-principal Horn with the BBC Symphony Orchestra since 2000, and appears regularly as guest principal horn with many other ensembles.

“Nicholas Korth is a composer with a unique vision. His creative exploration of harmony and sound is individual, fascinating and powerful. Using the natural overtone system – in instrumental and in vocal contexts – creates sound worlds of great individuality and originality. Nicholas is very sensitive and refined in all the musical choices he makes. Be it the texts he chooses to set, or the musicians he collaborates with in his projects. Given that Nicholas, who is a fabulous principal horn in the BBC Symphony Orchestra, has the energy, commitment and vision to compose such individual music, is something extraordinary. I have great admiration for Nicholas as a colleague and as a composer of integrity and great skill.”

Martyn Brabbins, former music director, English National Opera

“Korth has an amazing ability in his compositions to weave the best of Western music idioms with the intricacies of overtone ratios creating a uniquely beautiful sound palate that haunts and exhilarates at the same time.”

Rollin Rachele, overtone singer

“Korth’s fascinating score made me feel that I was both listening to alien music from outer space, and to something familiar all at the sametime.”

Giles Woodford, Oxford Times

Nicholas grew up surrounded by the natural beauty of the Ashdown Forest in Sussex and influenced by the creative environment of the local Rudolf Steiner school (Michael Hall). During the early nineties he wrote for the English Eurythmy Theatre who toured extensively in the USA and Europe with productions The Winds of Time and Storm’s Child.

War’s Embers, his settings of Ivor Gurney, was premiered in 2004 at the Wigmore Hall by tenor James Gilchrist, with Emily Pailthorpe, oboe d’amore and Julian Milford, piano. His series of compositions Harmoniae Naturales, explores his long-held fascination with natural tuning. Numbers I – III were written and premiered between 2005 – 2009. 2013 saw the world premier of Harmoniae Naturales IV, Luminescence, given by the Orpheus Sinfonia, cellist Tom Carroll and tenor Nigel Robson at St. George’s Hanover square, London. Also featured in this concert was …like Shining from Shook Foil, a setting of Hopkins’ transcendental poetry for soprano and orchestra with Olivia Robinson.

In 2015, the St. Paul’s Sinfonia featured Nicholas as their composer in residence, performing both Harmoniae Narurales IV and V, to Autumn. Harmoniae Naturales VI, a full-length work for soprano, tenor, overtone singers and orchestra – again involving Hopkins’ poetry – was premiered in 2019. The venue once more was St George’s, Hanover Square with the Orpheus Sinfonia conducted by Simon Wills, soprano Patricia Auchterlonie, tenor Daniel Norman and overtone singers Rollin Rachele, Wolfgang Saus, Lothar Berger and Jan Heinke.

“The audience was (literally) enveloped, but transported, by the experience of a sound world new to all of them.”

Michael Bordeaux, Iffley Music Society

“Korth’s exploration of overtones in his music gives it a unique, haunting flavour. It is unlike anything else I have ever come across.”

Douglas Paterson, Schubert Ensemble

“Taking part in a performance of Nicholas Korth’s music with Olivia Robinson and the Orpheus Sinfonia was quite simply one of the most exciting and inspirational experiences I have had in many a long year.”

Michael Thompson, conductor and horn professor at the Royal Academy of Music