Craig Armstrong will be contributing to the 350th Anniversary celebrations of the life and work of George Frideric Handel in September with a reinterpretation of his music.

With the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conductor Harry Christophers and countertenor David Daniels, Craig's reworkings of the revered composer will be played at The Barbican Hall on Saturday, 19th September 2009. Fellow composers including John Tavener, Nico Muhly and Jocelyn Pook, have also reinterpreted Handel's music for the special evening.

Tickets for the concert are available at The Barbican website here.

As We Loved  is a hauntingly beautiful track taken from Craig Armstrong's debut classical album, Memory Takes My Hand.  

To hear the breath taking piece for yourself visit Craig Armstrong's official MySpace page by clicking HERE and select the track in the music player.

Don't forget you can purchase Craig's debut classical album Memory Takes My Hand from his very own on-line store by visiting  www.craigarmstrong.com, or alternatively you can purchase it from Amazon HERE. 

Craig's classical debut, Memory Takes My Hand, is released today.

The album, featuring three works, 'Immer', 'One Minute' and 'Memory Takes My Hand' was recorded with the BBC Symphony Orchestra - each piece reflects Craig's musical influences and interest in contemporary electronic music.

In 'Immer' Craig creates a specific acoustic sonority with techniques found in contemporary music software, using slow loops that phase in and out with one another, creating a blurred tonality, with the solo violin singing above the orchestra - a technique which also has its roots in early music; repetition, canons, fugues etc.

'One Minute' is a work composed of 15 one-minute pieces for orchestra, each minute functioning as a self-contained piece. It was commissioned by the Horse Cross Trust for the opening of the new Concert Hall in Perth.

'Memory Takes My Hand' was a commission from the Glasgow City Council to write a new concert work for the re-opening of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in October 2006. Craig Armstrong collaborated with the playwright Peter Arnott for the words, in this work sung by the British soprano Lucy Crowe.

You can watch an exclusive interview with Craig Armstrong, where he talks about Memory Takes My Hand and the thought process behind it, over on YouTube by clicking here.

The album is available in UK on download and CD from the following stores:

Buy CD from Amazon.co.uk

Buy CD from Play.com

Buy CD from Zavvi

Buy download from Play.com

The album is available in France from the following stores:

Buy CD from FNAC

Buy CD from Amazon.fr

Craig's debut classical album, Memory Takes My Hand, is not out until Monday 2nd June, but already you can look forward to it's first live performance when the Orchestra Nationale d'Ile-de-France will play all three pieces from the album; Memory Takes My Hand, Immer and One Minute, along with Visconti (a piece composed by Craig following a commission from the Barbican for a short work to be premiered by the London Sinfonietta as part of the electronic festival)* at Basilique Cathédrale on June 26th as part of Festival De Saint-Denis.

The orchestra will be conducted by Garry Walker and the soprano will be Anne De Renaissance.

Find out more about the festival at www.festival-saint-denis.com and watch out for our competition, coming soon, when you'll have a chance to win a pair of tickets to Festival De Saint-Denis.

* After re-viewing Visconti's film Death in Venice, he decided to base his new piece around the opening bars of the Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony - as used in the film's soundtrack - hence the name!

Monday 2nd June sees the release of Craig Armstrong's first classical album, titled 'Memory Takes My Hand', featuring three new works.

Composed over the last four years, this period saw Craig search for a personal style of composition which reflected his musical influences, developing his approach to the acoustic classical world with processes he had used in recording electronic music.

'Immer', his Violin Concerto No. 1, was composed in 2007 for Clio Gould, with whom Craig collaborated when she was artistic director to the Scottish Ensemble. She is regularly involved in the performance of contemporary solo repertoire. In 'Immer' Craig creates a specific acoustic sonority with techniques found in contemporary music software, using slow loops that phase in and out with one another, creating a blurred tonality, with the solo violin singing above the orchestra - a technique which also has its roots in early music; repetition, canons, fugues etc.

'One Minute' is a work composed of 15 one-minute pieces for orchestra, each minute functioning as a self-contained piece. It was commissioned by the Horse Cross Trust for the opening of the new Concert Hall in Perth.

'Memory Takes My Hand' was a commission from the Glasgow City Council to write a new concert work for the reopening of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in October 2006. Craig Armstrong collaborated with the playwright Peter Arnott for the words, in this work sung by the British soprano Lucy Crowe.

We'll be bringing you more about this release closer to the date so keep checking back!

Craig Armstrong has scored the music for Peace One Day's new film 'The Day After Peace', which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 19th May.

The piece follows in the footsteps of British filmmaker, and founder of Peace One Day Jeremy Gilley, on his quest to create a globally recognised day of peace throughout the world.

Watch the trailer below for The Day Of Peace, which features Jude Law, Angelina Jolie, Johnny Lee Miller and Michael Douglas.

Craig Armstrong, along with A R Rahman, has been nominated for a Classical Brit award for the soundtrack to the Hollywood blockbuster Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

The nomination falls under the categorySoundtrack of the Year and is up against competition from fellow nominees Dario Marianelli (for Atonement) and James Newton Howard (for Blood Diamond).

The winners will be revealed on Thursday, 8th May at the prestigious award ceremony which takes place the The Royal Albert Hall. You can catch the night's events on Thursday, 15th May, when it will be broadcast on ITV1.

With the first performance of Craig Armstrong and Ian Rankin's mini opera, Gesualdo, only a few days away, the new Five:15 project, developed by the Scottish Opera, has been getting some fantastic exposure in the press.


Both The Times and the Telegraph have written articles on the exciting collaboration. You can read the full articles at the links below:

The Times - Ian Rankin and the 15-minute opera
Telegraph - 5:15: A Bloodbath in 15 minutes

Experience the finished masterpiece for yourself when the opera hits the stage at the dates below:

Fri 29 Feb - OranMor, Glasgow
Sat 1 Mar - OranMor, Glasgow
Sun 2 Mar - OranMor, Glasgow
Sat 8 Mar - The Hub, Edinburgh
Sun 9 Mar - The Hub, Edinburgh

Tickets for the Glasgow performances can be bought from Ticketweb by calling 0844 847 1645, or by visiting www.ticketweb.co.uk.

Tickets for the Edinburgh performances can be bought from Hub Tickets by calling 0131 473 2000 or by visiting www.hubtickets.co.uk.

Craig Armstrong has teamed up with writer Ian Rankin to produce Gesualdo, 15 minutes of exhilaratingly gory opera.

As part of Scottish Opera's new project Five:15, five 15-minute specially-commissioned operas have been produced through collaborations between some select leading figures in Scotland's cultural and creative industry today.

Classic FM Magazine caught up with Craig and Ian in their February 2008 edition and you can read the full interview here.

You can also hear Craig talk about this exciting new project by tuning into Classic FM's online player right here.

Experience the finished masterpiece for yourself when the opera hits the stage at the dates below:

Fri 29 Feb - OranMor, Glasgow
Sat 1 Mar - OranMor, Glasgow
Sun 2 Mar - OranMor, Glasgow
Sat 8 Mar - The Hub, Edinburgh
Sun 9 Mar - The Hub, Edinburgh

Tickets for the Glasgow performances can be bought from Ticketweb by calling 0844 847 1645, or by visiting www.ticketweb.co.uk.

Tickets for the Edinburgh performances can be bought from Hub Tickets by calling 0131 473 2000 or by visiting www.hubtickets.co.uk.