Since their first concert in 2011 Platform 4 have staged a number of concerts and collaborative events, performing existing works and writing new pieces for traditional concert settings as well as for dance works, music theatre, art installation and opera. They have forged a good relationship with musicians and singers within their local community, composing new works for amateur and professional players, and work closely with Classical Sheffield, Music in the Round and the University of Sheffield music department. Music in the Round commissioned the four Platform 4 composers to each write a new work for their Russia in the Round Festival, inspired by famous Russian repertoire, which were performed by Ensemble 360 in May 2017. Tom James’s ‘Barn Dance’ for wind quintet was recorded and later broadcast on BBC Radio 3 Listen.
You can watch past performances on our YouTube channel Watch, or Listen to audio recordings on our SoundCloud.
Please visit the website for more information and to keep up-to-date, or ‘like’ the Facebook page, or follow us on Twitter!
We would love to hear from you if are interested in a collaboration or if you would like to commission new work. Email Platform4@live.co.uk.
Upcoming events:
Passepartout Duo
New works for piano and percussion, commissioned and performed by the Berlin-based Passepartout Duo
Friday 20th April 2018
19:30
Upper Chapel
Norfolk Street
Sheffield
S1 2JD
Tickets available on the door: £10 / £8 Concs / £5 Students
Sheffield Chamber Music Festival 2018
Ensemble 360
Music in the Round has commissioned us to write a short suite of pieces for wind instruments for the Sheffield Chamber Music Festival
Sun 13 May 2018
15:00
St Matthew’s Church
Carver Street
Sheffield
S1 4FE
Tickets: £14 / £10 Disabled & Unemployed / £5 Students & Under 35s
Past events:
No Bounds festival
Platform 4
Saturday 14th October 2017 – Non Conformist Chapel, Sheffield
Clackers* – Jenny Jackson
Bloat Asterix* – Tom Owen & Robert Bentall
Adoration of the Golden Calf * – Tom James
Pod – Chris Noble
*1st performance
Music in the Round: Russia in the Round festival 2017
Ensemble 360
May 2017 (various dates) – Crucible Studio Theatre, Sheffield
Paraphrases* – Tom Owen
Bear, Ascend!* – Chris Noble
Barn Dance* – Tom James
Focus Pull* – Jenny Jackson
*1st performance
Commissioned by Music in the Round
Classical Sheffield: Classical Weekend 17
Opera on Location
Friday 17th March – Upper Chapel
Four mini operas based on palindromic word-play
Madam Adam** – Jenny Jackson
Toilet Eliot** – Tom James
Ahmenap!** – Tom Owen
Naomi, her lovers, their demise** – Chris Noble
Saturday 18th March – Channing Hall
Platform 4
Hooting and Drinking Machine – John White
Of Limits – Chris Noble
Colloquy for Flute & Piano – Movement III – Elizabeth Maconchy
Anatomical Study: Voluptuous – Tom Owen
Ophelia – Tom James
Hooting, not Drinking* (revised 2017) – Jenny Jackson
Sunday 19th March – St Marie’s Cathedral
Five Choirs; Sounds from Heaven
Kraal** – Jenny Jackson
*1st performance
** commissioned by Classical Sheffield for performance at Classical Sheffield: Classical Weekend festival 2017
Lunchtime Recital – Sheffield Cathedral
featuring flautist Rachel Shirley
Friday 3rd February 2017
Veneration Walk – Chris Noble
Colloquy for Flute & Piano (Movement III) – Elizabeth Maconchy
Of Limits (selection) – Chris Noble
Hooting, not Drinking – Jenny Jackson
Anatomical Study: Voluptuous – Tom Owen
Ophelia – Tom James
Embodiments
Platform 4 ensemble with dancer Hannah Wadsworth, featuring soprano Andrea Tweedale
Saturday 24th September 2016 – University of Sheffield Drama Studio
A performance of contemporary music and dance: the embodiment of collaborative expression through contemporary dance and movement, theatre, voice, instruments and tape.
Gifts Ungiven* – Tom Owen
Three Nerve Pathways* – Tom James
Strut Machine* – Chris Noble
Folies* – Jenny Jackson
*1st perfomance
Music composed by Platform 4
Choreography by Hannah Wadsworth
Drinking and Hooting
Saturday 21st May 2016 – Bank Street Arts, Sheffield
An evening of intermittent live performances and electronic works exploring the notion of the (un)seen/heard, using the unique spaces at Bank Street Arts, Sheffield
Package 1A – Tom Owen
Rhythmic Canons – Michael Parsons
Drinking and Hooting Machine – John White
Porridge Column* – Tom Owen
Hooting, not Drinking* – Jenny Jackson
Burdocks – Christian Wolff
Shroud – Tom James
Upright Stance – Chris Noble
Rhythmic Canons – Michael Parsons
Bottled Up* – Jenny Jackson
Oracle – Tom James
pod* – Chris Noble
Made in Sheffield
Platform 4
1st March 2016 – Firth Hall, Sheffield
A concert to showcase our individual approaches to composing which included two new works by student composers from the University of Sheffield music department, which were selected for performance following workshops.
Programme:
Sanctum – Jenny Jackson
Rhythmic Canons – Michael Parsons
Changeable, Out – Chris Noble
Cohesion* – Chloe Phillips
Teeter* – Jenny Jackson
Hooting and Drinking Machine – John White
Upright Stance – Chris Noble
Oracle – Tom James
SEA Aquarium* – Stephanie Ho
Piano Concerto – Tom Owen
*1st performance
Classical Sheffield Festival 2015
Saturday 24th October – Sheffield Winter Gardens
POP-UP 1:
Veneration Walk* – Chris Noble
St Anthony’s Sermon to the Fish* – Tom James
POP UP 2:
Three songs of Swooping* – Tom Owen
- Suffolk Owl’s Back
- Condor-Human
- Sparrow
[S]pan* – Jenny Jackson
Two Sketches of Arran – Chris Noble
- The Beach at Torrylinn
- Cir Mhor
Sunday 25th October – Sheffield Cathedral
CONCERT:
Waxing Crescent / Waning Crescent – Tom James
Lament – Jenny Jackson
Three songs of Swooping – Tom Owen
Two Sketches of Arran – Chris Noble
*1st performance
Platform 4 & JS Bach
3rd July 2015
JS Bach’s Brandenburg concertos 2 & 6 plus new and recent works by Platform 4.
Lament* – Jenny Jackson
Package 1a – Tom Owen
Prowl Routine
A Kind of Murky Blue – Chris Noble
*1st performance
Moot
Endcliffe Orchestra
28th July 2014
Performance of ‘Moot’ for Orchestra and piano, six hands. Composed by Jenny, performed by Sheffield’s Endcliffe Orchestra with Tom Owen, Tom James & Chris Noble on piano.
Moot – Jenny Jackson
Conducted by Martin Lightowler.
Remote Locations
6th August 2014
Collaboration with artist Lisa O’Brien. Broadcast on Resonance 104.4fm on Wednesday 6th August 2014.
Vent – Jenny Jackson
Hut Ritual – Tom Owen
Changeable, Out – Chris Noble
Remote Location 1 – Tom James
Winds
3rd October 2014
A short concert of mostly new music from Platform 4 with the emphasis on winds.
Fluxus Boxes – Jenny Jackson
Womb – Tom Owen
Bust* – Tom Owen/Bach
BWV555 Boom* – Tom James/Bach
Industrial Landscape 1* – Tom James
*1st performance
Philip Thomas
17th & 19th October 2013
Internationally-renowned pianist Philip Thomas performed original and existing works from Platform 4, and Huddersfield-based composers, in two concerts.
Sanctum* – Jenny Jackson
Desire Lines – Jenny Jackson
Exhibition Suite* – Tom Owen
Of Limits* – Chris Noble
Quartet* – Tom James
*1st performance
Brandenburg Project
18th -20th April 2013
All of Bach’s Brandenburg concertos, Biber’s Batallia and works from all the Platform 4 composers.
Hot Flush – Jenny Jackson
[S]urge* – Jenny Jackson
Triple Concerto* – Tom Owen
Fastener (Bra 3) (Plunge)* – Tom Owen
Nawleans Processional* – Chris Noble
Waxing Crescent – Tom James
Waning Crescent – Tom James
Shroud* – Tom James
*1st performance
Five Dances
Ffin Dance
April 2012
We toured with Welsh dance company Ffin Dance on their Connections tour. The music was written by Jenny Jackson, performed by Platform 4, and was produced in collaboration with the choreographer Sue Lewis.
Five Dances – Jenny Jackson
Underscore
21st June 2012 – The Hepworth Wakefield
The award-winning gallery The Hepworth Wakefield was host to our collaboration with Sheffield sculptor Gillian Brent. Together our aim was to produce a changing installation of sculpture and live music.
Spectators will be encouraged to drop in at any time during the performance, to move around the space, and to view the sculptures as they are arranged and rearranged. The addition of sound will affect the way that the sculptures are perceived and it will become an interactive multi-dimensional audio-visual experience.
The collaboration is one of mutual response to spatial relationships, shape, balance, tension, phrasing, light and shadow, and there has been a healthy exchange of ideas to enable as much of a collaborative process as possible, whilst ensuring that the individuality of each contributing artist is maintained.
Parabola* – Jenny Jackson
St. Anthony’s Sermon to the Fish* – Tom James
Sawtooth* – Chris Noble
Prowl Routine* – Tom Owen
*1st performance
Joint Concert – fundraiser
28th April 2012
Platform 4 took part in this joint concert in aid of the Shirley House Redevelopment Project along with other local performing groups to raise funds to redevelop a local small-scale performing venue.
Gina Walters (soprano) premiered two new pieces: Tom James’s ‘Crop Circle’ for soprano, bass recorder, horn and cello, and ‘Sweet Suffolk Owl’ for voice and instruments by Tom Owen. Jenny Jackson presented ‘Tableaux’ – a light-hearted sequence of five ‘sounding’ tableaux, or frozen pictures.