UK Premiere of Howard’s 'Calculus of the Nervous System'/ BBC Proms 2012

Emily Howard is delighted to announce the UK Premiere of her work 'Calculus of the Nervous System' at the BBC Proms. The piece will be performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Andris Nelsons on August 21st 2012.

'Calculus of the Nervous System' is part of The Lovelace Trilogy and Howard took inspiration from the inner world of Ada Lovelace, pioneering mathematician and daughter of the British poet Lord Bryon. Ada wished to develop a mathematical model for how the brain gives rise to thoughts, and nerves to feelings.

'Calculus' was commissioned by international contemporary music festival Wien Modern in 2011 for the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna conducted by James MacMillan and premiered in the Wiener Konzerthaus on November 20th 2011.

The composition poetically combines the worlds of science, imagination and memory. It focuses on the working of the human mind, what might be imagined, what might be real, and what it might be capable of.

Emily Howard says "I frequently use techniques and processes derived from mathematical principles to create musical structures on which to base compositions and increasingly, questions about memory processes play an important role in my music. In 'Calculus' memories occur and recur in different ways; sometimes in succession and sometimes punctured by silence; as though being experienced in different states of consciousness. "

Emily Howard is thrilled to present her composition at the BBC Proms on August 21st 2012.

Full details for the Prom can be found here.

Emily speaks about 'Calculus'