Making a Manchester Songbook

A Manchester Songbook is an exploration in collaboration between writers and composers in partnership with the Royal Northern College of Music led by Squad3 grad Laura Attridge and Glyndebourne Young Composer in Residence Lewis Murphy.

Following our first workshop on March 11th, six Squad writers will pair with six RNCM composers to write a solo song for singer and piano. Their pieces will be workshopped in April then showcased on May 13th. All participating writers and composers will receive one-to-one mentoring from Laura and Lewis between the workshop days.

The Squad writers taking part are Andrew Owen Cook, Elizabeth Lomas, Gregory Kearns, Hannah Sowerby, James Varney and Katie Byford – The RNCM composers are Athanasia Kontou, Charlotte Marlow,Jingyu Chen, Lucy Hale, Robert Smith and William Hearne. They will be supported by sopranos Helen Te and Dasha Papysheva, baritone Patrick Relph and pianist Brian Low.