A new CD by international euphonium soloist Dave Childs has been released an features Sparta – a work of mine that is a concert version of my euphonium concerto, Three Stories – Three Worlds.

Dave is accompanied by Cory Band who are conducted by his father, Bob Childs.

For more information, please click here to go to World of Brass.

I was recently interviewed by Chris Thomas, from 4barsrest.com, about composing, my time at Black Dyke Band, writing for Rex Richardson and Les Neish and more…

Check it out at this link:

http://4barsrest.com/articles/2010/1163.asp

Brass Band Willebroek conducted by Frans Violet plays Lament from Peter Meechan. Recorded on May 19 2010.

Jens Lindemann has performed my trumpet concerto, Apophenia, at the International Trumpet Guild, held in Sydney, Australia.

Accompanied by St Mary’s Band Club band, conducted by Paul Terracini, the concert took place at the wonderful City Recital Hall and was given an enthusiastic response form the audience – mainly made up of other trumpeters at the conference.

I was lucky enough to be able to head to Sydney to attend the performance thanks to a British Council Composers Scheme bursary, and the generous lending of a room from my old college friend, and euphonium soloist Matthew van Emmerik.

A new recording of Apex has just been released. Performed by Dik van Doorn (flugel) and Brass Band Rijnmond (under the direction of Anno Appelo), it is a live recording from their joint concert with Amsterdam Staff Band earlier in 2010.

Click here for more details at www.worldofbrass.com

It has been announced today that I am one of the two featured composers at the Royal Northern College of Music’s Festival of Brass 2011, alongside Derek Bourgeois.

Further details can be found here: http://4barsrest.com/news/detail.asp?id=11813

My concerto for tuba, Episodes and Echoes, has been awarded The 2010 Harvey G. Phillips Awards for Excellence in Composition Award, in the “Tuba in a Solo Role” category.

The concerto was written for Les Neish, and has recently been recorded and released on Les’ award winning CD Salt of the Earth.

I also had works featured on two CD’s that were nominated for 2010 ITEA Roger Bobo Awards. Elegie, performed by Steven Mead and Spanish Brass, was on the CD Brass and Wines – nominated in the “Ensemble” catagory; and Fields of Destruction, commissioned and recorded by Pat Stuckemeyer, was featured on Pat’s CD, Footprints, which was nominated in the “Solo Euphonium” category.

I was also lucky enough for three works to be featured at the conference:

James Gourlay performed Floating Dreams, Jason Ham performed Requiem Paraphrases with the UCLA Brass Choir, conducted by Pat Sheridan, and Dave Thornton performed Elegie with The Flatirons Brass Quintet.

The International Euphonium and Tuba Conference (ITEC) is currently taking place in Tucson Arizona, and three of my pieces will be featured.

James Gourlay will be performing Floating Dreams, Jason Ham will be performing Requiem Paraphrases with the UCLA Brass Choir, conducted by Pat Sheridan, and Dave Thornton will be performing Elegie with The Flatirons Brass Quintet.

The website is currently being updated…please be patient as the content is updated.

The old website is still available for the time being at this link: http://petemeechan.com/temp%202010/index.php

Many thanks

Pete

I have been commissioned by the National Youth Brass Band Championships of Great Britain to write a new work as the Intermediate section set test for the 2011 championships, held at the Royal Northern College of Music in April 2011.

The title of the new work is Sentinel, and will be published by www.petermeechanmusic.co.uk, and available from September 1st 2010.

Last weekend (14-16 May 2010), Kew Wind Orchestra, conducted by Spencer Down come together with Becky Smith (trombone), euphoniumist David Thornton and trumpet virtuoso Rex Richardson to record a CD of my wind band music.

Keith Johnson of KMJ Recordings engineered the weekend’s session, with me by his side producing.

The featured tracks are: Apophenia, Chorlton Suite, Elegie, Epitaph, Fields of Destruction and Macbeth

Some great photos of the weekend can be found here

Koninklijke Harmonie ste Cecilia Zele, conducted by Bart Picqueur will perform Macbeth on Friday 19 Feb 2010 at there concert in Berlare, Belgium.

The concert starts at 20u30.

Link to the full article: http://4barsrest.com/articles/2010/1100.asp

4barsrest.com have put together a list of “ten composers who we feel could have a serious part to play in new band music in the next few years.”

“Of our ten X Factor composers Peter Meechan is the only one to have had a piece played at a contest challenging bands at the highest level. His ‘Macbeth’ made a strong impression when it was used at the Scottish Open in 2007 whilst his Trumpet Concerto, ‘Apophenia’, played by Rex Richardson at the 2009 Festival of Brass, proved to be a complex, energetic and fascinating piece that flirted with rock, jazz and funk in an absorbing and original way. There is a strong case for ‘Macbeth’ to be heard again but listen out for his engaging ‘Purcell Variants’ which Fodens played at the Festival of Brass. We reckon that given the chance, there could be a good deal more in store from Dr Meechan in the future.”

Dave Childs gave the first performance of Sparta on the 13th February, at the Bedworth Civic Hall, accompanied by the Cory Band and conducted by Bob Childs.

Sparta is a specially adapted version of the euphonium concerto Three Stories – Three Worlds, featuring some of the second movement and the final movement as a 7 minute solo.

Several performances of my brass music are happening over the next week.

On Saturday, the Foden’s Band will perform Purcell Variants at the RNCM Festival of Brass – click here for details. Before that performance, a new fanfare for three trumpets will be performed in the RNCM….on top of the bar!!

Belgian soprano cornet star, Bert Van Thienen will perform These Mist Covered Mountains when he is guest soloist with Brassband Hombeek.See here for details.

Jason Ham, accompanied by the West Point Band, has recorded Requiem Paraphrases, in a new version for solo euphonium and wind band, specially transcribed for Jason.It has recently been released on CD, and is available from here where you can download it free of charge, too!

John Robert Brown has written an article for the BASBWE magazine, Winds, that features an interview with myself. You can read it online at John’s website by clicking here.

Les Neish’s debut solo release, Salt of the Earth – which features my concerto for tuba (Episodes and Echoes) has won two major prizes.

The recording has been voted Solo CD of the Year by both the British Bandsman, and Brass Band World.It is a truly remarkable CD, and my congratulation go out to Les! Click here to visit Les’s website.

A performance of Elegie (featuring Jacques Mauger & Strombor Brass Quintet), recorded at Eglise d’Yerville, September 2008, has been uploaded to youtube. Please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvYeCCxj0Cw

Peabody Wind Ensemble, directed by Harlan D. Parker, will be performing Bang 2 in their 9 December concert. The full details can be found here: http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/560

The Rutgers Euphonium Ensemble will be performing “Break It Down” on Friday 20th November.They will perform the work, which was originally written for trombone 4tet but works equally well for euphoniums, in the Share Auditiorium as part of the 2009 Chamber Competition

Three works will be given World Premiere’s tomorrow at the BASBWE/RNCM Festival.

Manchester University Wind Orchestra will premiere Fields of Destruction in the morning, featuring Mark Bousie as the euphonium soloist. And in the afternoon Kew Wind Orchestra will give the world premieres of two works: The Karman Line and Epitaph. The festival is free all weekend.

More details available at www.rncm.ac.uk

Episodes and Echoes, which was commissioned and dedicated to Les Neish, has been released on Les’ new CD, Salt of the Earth.

Click here to visit Les’s website.

Swiss Euphoniumist Tom Ruedi will be giving three performances of my extended works for euphonium in October.

Fields of Destruction, for solo euphonium and wind ensemble, will receive its world premiere at the BASBWE/RNCM Festival in October.

Manchester University Wind Orchestra, conducted by BASBWE Chairman Phil Robinson, will accompany euphonium soloist Mark Bousie.

More details of other premieres and performances at the festival will appear on here soon!

Today (26 September), the RNCM Wind Orchestra, conducted by Clark Rundell, recorded my new work The Karman Line.

Episodes and Echoes, my concerto for tuba, has received its premiere recording, by my great friend (And fellow Liverpool supporter!), Les Neish.

Les commissioned the concerto, and gave it its premiere back in 2005. He has performed it on numerous occasions with both brass and wind band accompaniments. The cadenza was originally written with Les, but left open for the soloist to experiment with – and Les has taken it to a new level!

Click here to visit Les’s website.

Brass Band Willebroek’s performance of “Lament from Macbeth” has been released on DVD. It was recorded at the farewell concert of the 2009 European Brass Band Championships.

More details can be found by clicking here.

September sees the publication of several new titles.

Elegie (Euph or trombone solo) and Fields of Destruction (Song cycle for euphonium) – both with wind band – are now released, as is the piano reduction (Including optional percussion part) of Apophenia.

Chamber music to be released this month includes …a night devoid of stars (Three unaccompanied pieces for euphonium, commissioned by Aaron Tindall).

On Saturday 26th of September Brassband Willebroek will celebrate their 30th birthday in Antwerp (www.desingel.be) in front of a sold-out audience. The concert will be broadcasted on Klara (Belgian equivalent of BBC Radio 3) and BBW’s program will include Lament from Macbeth and a rendition of Innuendo where they’ll be joined by the trumpet section of the Brussels Jazz Orchestra.

American euphonium soloist Aaron Tindall commissioned a set of three unaccompanied pieces for euphonium, titled “…a night devoid of stars” and gave the world premiere at the Conservatoire National de Region in Perpignan, France on May 16. He has also recorded the set of three pieces for his debut solo recording.

The piece is now published and available from www.petermeechanmusic.co.uk

Several of my pieces for brass or wind band have been expertly transcribed for fanfare band by Belgian Luc Vertommen.They are published by Band Press VOF who have recently produced a CD, entitled Sirocco.

Sellers International Youth Band is a brass band that I have had the pleasure of writing four pieces for, and they have recorded three of them on their first CD release.