LSO Discovery
Free Friday Lunchtime Concert
Soundhub Showcase
TODAY'S CONCERT
Omri Kochavi shablulim
Amy Crankshaw Moonflower (world premiere)
Nico de Benito No abras nunca esa puerta (world premiere)
George Frideric Handel Sonatine
Brian Lynn Posh Duet No 14
Luke Mombrea Redwood Hymn (world premiere)
Olivia Gandee horn
Holly Clark trumpet
Ben Jarvis trumpet
Gemma Riley trombone
Stuart Beard tuba
Jacob Brown percussion
Karen Hutt percussion
Rachel Leach presenter
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Omri Kochavi (b 1994)
shablulim
✒️2024 | ⏰ 5 minutes
Originally a movement from arugot for string quartet (2024), shablulim (Hebrew for snails) hints at the astronomically rapid pace these underground dwellers can destroy a defenseless young cucumber plant, despite their infamous slowish reputation.
The piece was newly arranged for brass and percussion especially for this LSO Friday Lunchtime Concert, with the Barbican Conservatory providing the perfect backdrop – urban nature at its finest.
Note by Omri Kochavi
Amy Crankshaw (b 1991)
Moonflower
(world premiere)
✒️ 2025 | ⏰3 minutes
The full moon is often considered a time of abundance, blossoming, and harvest. It is also a time of sacrifice, release and loss. Informed by the ceremonial nature of percussion playing, Moonflower explores the contrasts embedded in this lunar ritual: the fragility inside flowering; the quietude inside celebration; the desolation that comes with reaping.
Note by Amy Crankshaw
Nico de Benito (b 1990)
No abras nunca esa Puerta (world premiere)
✒️ 2024 | ⏰3 minutes
No abras nunca esa puerta takes its name from a 1952 Argentinian film noir. The piece finds its inspiration in two common misconceptions: firstly, that classic noir films of the 1940s and 50s were scored with jazz music (in reality the scores were mostly orchestral), and secondly, that noir films were entirely American. The first misconception (which David Butler calls 'retrospective illusion', borrowing Michel Chion’s term) serves as the entry point for a chamber brass piece engaged with the warped dream logic of memory, which replaces historical musical reality with a collapsed, simplified, signifier.
The mournful call of a jazz trumpet is likely to evoke film noir more readily in the public imaginary, than any real score from an actual classic noir film. My piece attempts to bridge the gap between this imagined jazz score and the reality: film scores inspired and written by composers trained in Western Art Music, who were interested in unconventional tonalities and chafing against conventional musical scoring, 'defying the tonal tradition of classical Hollywood film scoring … in favor of a more modernistic, 'urban' American sound' (Richard R Ness, 2008).
Note by Nico de Benito
George Friedric Handel (1685–1759) arr Alwyn Green
Sonatine
✒️ c 1720 | ⏰ 1 minute
Born in Germany, George Frideric Handel studied for a law degree and took up music after his father, who objected to the pursuit of music, died. After gaining a little fame in his home, he travelled to Italy and was declared a genius by his rival, Corelli. He then travelled to England and realising the potential for fame in a country with no composers of his stature, he settled in London and championed the British music scene. A sonatine is a Baroque term for a small piece usually for solo instrument. This one started life as a one-page harpsichord piece and has been arranged for brass quintet by British composer and arranger Alwyn Green.
Note by Rachel Leach
Brian Lynn (b 1986)
Posh Duet No 14
✒️ 2021 | ⏰2 minutes
Brian Lynn is a British trombonist and composer. After study at the Guildhall School, Lynn took up a post with Scottish Opera and whilst there to ‘relieve the boredom’ of touring he began to write pieces for his fellow trombonists. The section would play them before concerts as a fun way to warm-up. In 1986 he composed 20 duets for a collection called Posh Duets and now they are played by trombonists all around the world. Since Scottish Opera, Lynn has played with most of London’s orchestras including LSO. He lives in Hornchurch, Essex where he grew up.
Note by Rachel Leach
Luke Mombrea (b 1995)
Redwood Hymn
(world premiere)
✒️ 2021 | ⏰ 5 minutes
'The sobering reality is that we have seen another huge loss within a finite population of these iconic trees that are irreplaceable in many lifetimes' (Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Superintendent, Clay Jordan).
Sequoias or Redwoods are the largest and some of the oldest trees on the planet. They are incredibly resilient to weather and in particular, fire. However, with the advent of severe droughts in California, these trees are threatened for the first time in their history.
This is a hymn for the Redwoods that will not return for many lifetimes. It quotes the hymn All Creatures of our God and King.
Note by Luke Mombrea
About LSO Soundhub
LSO Soundhub provides a flexible environment where composers can explore, collaborate and experiment, with access to vital resources, support from industry professionals and LSO members and staff.
LSO Soundhub is a composer-led resource, responding directly to the needs of those using it: a supportive framework for artists to try out new ideas, develop existing work and benefit from peer-to-peer networking and support.
LSO Soundhub is generously supported by Susie Thomson.
Amy Crankshaw
composer
Amy Crankshaw’s music has been described as having 'a real feeling of ecstasy' (Planet Hugill); 'carrying images and sensations' (Ôlyrix); and as 'an act of love' (Opera Now). Her compositions are performed internationally, with commissions by Radio France, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, South African Music Rights Organisation, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and Ensemble Matters, and performances at Barbican Hall, LSO St Luke’s, La Scala Paris, Centre in the Square, Silk Street Theatre, Donald Gordon Theatre, Festival Présences, Aix en Juin, ISCM World New Music Days, Festival Texte & Töne, Grahamstown National Arts Festival and Bloomsbury Festival.
Crankshaw is a composer for the 2025/26 LSO Helen Hamlyn Panufnik Composers' Scheme and was an LSO Soundhub composer in 2023–24. She has held multiple residencies with Académie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the London City Orchestra. She has won the RCS Muriel Dawson Award, the Priaulx Rainier Composition Prize, and second prize in SAMRO’s Overseas Scholarship Competition.
Crankshaw is a doctoral (DMus) candidate at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, with research in composing in relation to the natural world.
© Wai Lok Cheung
© Wai Lok Cheung
Omri Kochavi
composer
Omri Kochavi is a London-based composer and guitarist whose work draws on a wide range of influences, focusing on the reality of sounds, plants, and people. He is currently writing an orchestral work for the London Symphony Orchestra, a new choral piece, and a collaborative audiovisual piece with Joanna Ward.
Also upcoming is Ladies in Bloomers, an outdoors 'hortimusical drama' about pioneer women gardeners for ensemble, singers, and on-stage gardeners, inspired by Fiona Davison’s An Almost Impossible Thing. Commissioned by the London Sinfonietta, it will premiere in Summer 2025.
Recent highlights include moon on mint (2023), commissioned by the Orchestra of Opera North; anafim (2023) for the Aestus Quartet; and Kishtatos (2022), performed by the BBC Singers and nominated for a 2023 Ivors Classical Award.
Omri holds a Master’s from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he later held a Junior Fellowship, studying with Julian Anderson and Laurence Crane.
© Louisa Rosi
© Louisa Rosi
Nico de Benito
composer
Nico de Benito is a composer, singer-songwriter and violinist based in Brighton. They have co-composed music for award-winning experimental theatre (This Is How We Die), scored short films and podcasts, and toured nationally and internationally as a violinist for artists as varied as ambient musician Julianna Barwick and art pop group The Irrepressibles. They are interested in the sacred/profane, music for moving image, and auto-ethnographic and queer approaches to sound-making. They completed a master’s degree in Composition at Goldsmiths.
© John-James Laidlow
© John-James Laidlow
Luke Mombrea
composer
Luke Mombrea is a composer originally from Oakland, California. His work spans many different mediums including concert works, art installations and scores for film and television. Luke’s work utilises folk materials, improvisation, microtonality and electroacoustic processing.
His concert music has been performed internationally, including performances by players from the London Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His concert works have also been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and NTS Radio.
Luke frequently collaborates on audiovisual performances, particularly with New York-based artist, Nate Mohler. Luke’s audio visual work has been featured at the Barbican Centre, SXSW, The Wallace Collection and Art Basel.
Luke has also scored numerous award-winning films, including Juliet, which screened at the Cannes Film Festival and he recently completed the score for Point Unknown, a pilot being developed by HBO/Warner.
© Ben Wulf
© Ben Wulf
Rachel Leach
presenter
Rachel Leach was born in Sheffield. She studied composition, and her music has been recorded by NMC and published by Faber. She has won several awards including, with English Touring Opera (ETO), the RPS award for best education project 2009 for One Day, Two Dawns.
Leach has worked within the education departments of most of the UK’s orchestras and opera companies. The majority of her work is for the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Rachel has written well over 20 pieces for LSO Discovery and 15 community operas, including seven for English Touring Opera.
Increasingly in demand as a concert presenter, as well as presenting the LSO Discovery Free Friday Lunchtime Concert series, she regularly presents children’s concerts and pre-concert events for the LSO, LPO, Philharmonia Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal College of Music and Royal Northern Sinfonia.
© Kevin Leighton
© Kevin Leighton
LSO Free Friday Lunchtime Concerts 2025-26
12.30 pm, LSO St Luke's
Curious about instrumental music? Looking to make lunchtime musical? Try one of our bite-size, informal concerts, performed by a small group of musicians.
Friday 7 November
Friday 28 November (Relaxed)
Friday 23 January
Friday 6 February
Friday 27 February (Relaxed)
Friday 13 March
Friday 24 April
Friday 8 May
Friday 12 June (Relaxed)
Friday 26 June
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