ALTHEA TALBOT-HOWARD
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Trans-Atlantic ​Triptych

The International Double Reed Society Premiere of Blue Sahara Crossing & The Lost Tribe at the University of Colorado Boulder,
27th of July 2022

with Hassan Anderson, Oboe; the composer, Viola; & Hsiao-Ling Lin, Piano 
Trans-Atlantic Triptych

consisting of

​Blue Sahara Crossing (2021), The Lost Tribe (2022) & The Great Circle (2023)

​for 
Oboe*, Viola (or Violin) & Piano Trio
*or Soprano Sax, Clarinet in Bb or Flute with B-foot

Crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the Queen Mary II in 2011.

Transatlantic Triptych is a Gesamtkunstwerk, based upon prose, poems and photographs produced whilst on the Queen Mary II.   These items are included in the foreword to the scores, and a sample of them can be heard in the introductory video, below. 

Performance History & Videos of the Entire Work
​

NAVO Trio performs live on Oboe, Violin & Piano
First video: Blue Sahara Crossing
​Second video: The Lost Tribe & The Great Circle


Performances of Blue Sahara Crossing & The Lost Tribe
5th of February 2022 
World Premiere

An die Musik, Baltimore, MD, USA (behind paywall)

30th of June 2022 
British Premiere,

St Alfege Church, Greenwich, London (with Soprano Sax)

​27th of July 2022
​IDRS Premiere

International Double Reed Society Conference, Boulder, CO, USA
Saturday 18 February to Monday 25 February 2023
NAVO Trio - Veronique Mathieu, Violin; 
Margaret Marco, Oboe; Ellen Sommer, Piano

​Kansas Tour

Five live performances, including a radio recital (see video above). Venues included Navo Arts Concerts; Grace Cathedral, Topeka; Ruel Joyce Concert Series, Overland Park; & Birger Sandzèn Art Gallery, Lindsborg

Sunday 19 February 2023
The Kansas Virtuosi, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

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Natacha Hansen, soprano sax; Ivan Illingworth, viola; Daniel King Smith, piano
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Ryan Zwahlen, oboe; Leslie Knight, viola; Gary Ruppert, piano
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Betsey Selner, oboe; Diego Coral, violin; Daniel King Smith, piano

Saturday 8 April 2023
with
Ryan Zwahlen, Oboe; Gary Ruppert, Piano; Leslie Knight, Viola
​Wille Hall, COCC, Bend, Oregon, USA
Sunday 30 April 2023
​with
Lisa Ryoo, Oboe; Casey Dierlam Tse, Piano; Rebecca Vieker, Viola
​The University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA
Saturday 02 March 2024
The Great Circle - ​
World Premiere
NAVO Trio 
SHE Festival of Music
​The University of Arkansas, USA

​
Saturday 13 April 2024 
Trans-Atlantic Triptych
​NAVO Trio
Atonement Lutheran Church, 9948 Metcalf Ave,
​Overland Park, KS 66212, USA

Sunday 14 April 2024
Trans-Atlantic Triptych
NAVO Trio
Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery, ​Lindsborg, KS​, USA​

​Thursday 16 May 2024
Blue Sahara Crossing
Betsey Selner, Oboe; Diego Coral, Violin; Daniel King Smith, Piano
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance
Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London, UK​

Sunday 16 March 2025
The Lost Tribe & The Great Circle
Amherst Chamber Ensemble

Paul Schlossman, Oboe; Leslie Bahler, Viola; Linda Mabry, Piano
Trinity Performing Arts Center, ​
711 Niagara Falls Boulevard, Amherst, NY, USA
​

Sunday 23 March 2025
The Lost Tribe & The Great Circle
Amherst Chamber Ensemble

Buffalo-Toronto Public Media WNED Live Onstage #24, USA


Monday 14 April 2025
Trans-Atlantic Triptych

Brendon Bushman, Oboe; Andrew Towsey-Grishaw, Viola; Amy Grinsteiner, Piano
CSB & SJU Music Department
Stephen B. Humphrey Theater, 2840 Abbey Plaza, Collegeville MN, USA
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The Great Circle (2023) - the final piece in the set - was commissioned by NAVO Trio & The University of Kansas, with generous assistance from the Wunsch New Music Fund.  The WORLD PREMIERE performance took place on 02 March 2024, at the SHE Festival of Music at the University of Arkansas.  Featuring Margaret Marco, Oboe; Véronique Mathieu, Violin; & Ellen Sommer, Piano

​The Great Circle is now on general sale and forms part of the unified score of Trans-Atlantic Triptych.

Transatlantic Triptych (2021-23) is thematically linked - through both contrasts and similarities - to another three-part modular piece, The Door of No Return.  Whereas The Door concerns itself with sorrowful departures from Africa, crossing the Atlantic in slave ships, forced labour in the New World and returning across the Atlantic by air four hundred years later to reconnect with Ghana, Transatlantic Triptych deals with the opposite:  the creativity experienced by the composer - who is of African descent - when crossing the Atlantic on a luxury cruise ship hundreds of years later, in 2011.  In Blue Sahara Crossing, the Atlantic Ocean is likened to the Sahara Desert, which is similar to it in area. The Lost Tribe is a lament for the Lenni Lenape, the original inhabitants of Manhattan.  The Great Circle explores love and loss through the metaphor of waning late-night midsummer sunlight, as the ship sails into the lower latitudes. 

Sets of PDFs contain the following Scores & Parts in C & Bb:
1) Piano Score
2) Oboe/Flute (with-B-foot) Leading Score 

 Oboe line in large font, Viola or Violin & Piano in small font, enabling oboist to lead rehearsals effectively
3) Oboe Part
4) Bb Woodwind Parts
(CLARINET & SOPRANO SAXOPHONE)
5) Viola (or Violin) Part with Blue Sahara's perpetuum mobile abbreviated
6) Viola (or Violin) Part with perpetuum mobile written out in full

TO PURCHASE a PDF EDITION:  Please send a message via the CONTACT PAGE
PDF & PRINTED EDITIONS
PDF Editions - Price: £29.50 (@US$38.15)
To purchase on this site,
Please SEND A MESSAGE via the Contact Page
​
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PRINTED Editions
To purchase directly from June Emerson Wind Music,
​​Please CLICK on the SCORE IMAGE
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Based in London, England, international prizewinning musician Althea Talbot-Howard is a classical composer who began her professional career in 1992 as a soloist and orchestral guest principal. In 2005, Gramophone Magazine called her “a superb oboist”.  A graduate of Girton College, Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music; she won Third Prize in the Paris-Ville d'Avray International Oboe Competition in 2007; and was one of twelve equal prizewinners in the Ora Singers Christmas Gift Composition Competition in 2019. 
​​
Of Afro-British ancestry, she is a 12th-generation direct descendant of King Charles II, who formalized Britain’s involvement in the Atlantic slave trade; and therefore a 14th-generation descendant of King James I & VI, who commissioned the Authorized Version of the Bible.  Both anti-slavery and 
Christian themes feature strongly in her compositional output. 
  • Home
  • Featured Works
    • List of Works by Instrument
    • List of Works by Theme
    • Solo Works (1 player) >
      • Fantasia Dodecaphonica
      • Fantasia La Folia
    • Duo Recital Pieces with Piano >
      • Byzantion 2 Through Space and Time
      • Chanson de l'Eternel II
      • The Church at Errislannan
      • Deep River
      • Deep River Sonata
      • The Door of No Return
      • Ego Flos Campi
      • The New Chevalier Sonata
      • Prelude The Seafront & Vallum Mare
      • Thata Nabandji
      • Troparion
    • Duets >
      • On Walmer Beach
      • Three Country Dances
    • Chamber Music (3+ players) >
      • Byzantion Hagia Sophia
      • Rievaulx
      • Seville Cathedral
      • Three-Ply Yarn
      • Trans-Atlantic Triptych
    • LIFT: Solos for Horn by Black Composers
  • About
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