Shea Lolin is a busy conductor for several choirs and wind groups. The breadth of his leadership takes him from a community choir and an adult education establishment to working with session musicians for recordings and other professional engagements. He adapts his style of leadership to the group of musicians and the challenges presented. Always putting the accuracy of the music first, he is equally unwavering about the importance of good programming, research and a neat sense of stagecraft.
As part of his dedication to music education and the voluntary sector, Shea Lolin lectures a clarinet and a wind course at Morley College in Waterloo, tutors two courses at the Benslow Music Trust, events for the Clarinet and Saxophone Society of Great Britain and for many other independent societies and groups. He is Artistic Director of the ‘Woodwind Orchestra Play Day’ at premier venues throughout the country, providing hundreds of woodwind musicians with valuable playing opportunities.
Aldersbrook Community Choir
Benslow Music Trust
Bloomsbury Woodwind Group
City Wind Orchestra
Clarinet and Saxophone Society of Great Britain
East London Clarinet Choir
Morley College
Woodwind Orchestra Play Day
Arranging music from one medium to another is an age-old technique that dates back to the fourteenth century when vocal polyphony was carefully crafted into keyboard arrangements. Bach and Mozart both made arrangements of other composers’ concertos before writing any of their own. Renewed energy came in the seventeenth century with the invention of the piano. Beethoven arranged his own violin concerto as a piano concerto.
The idea of transcribing a piece of orchestral music to bring it within the technical capabilities of domestic pianists, for example, is as exciting now as ever; and Shea Lolin’s arrangement work has been diverse and wide ranging. In 2006, Shea orchestrated Belizean Fantasy, a work written by Francis Reneau to celebrate twenty-five years of independence in Belize. Since 2008 he has arranged numerous scores for the publishing company Camden Music. As a conductor of unusually scored ensembles (such as woodwind orchestra and clarinet choir), Shea has had to arrange music to sustain interesting and suitable repertoire ranging from Mozart to Messiaen. Below is a selection of some of the major arrangements made.
Arrangements made for Clarinet Choir:
SAMUEL BARBER – Symphony no.1
AARON COPLAND – Quiet City
MAURICE DURUFLÉ – Meditation
MARTIN ELLERBY – Clarinet Concerto
GERALD FINZI – Five Bagatelles
ALBERTO GINASTERA – Danzas Argentinas
PHILIP GLASS – Symphony no.3 (complete)
HENRYK GORECKI – Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
Arrangements made for Woodwind Ensemble:
BRITTEN – Ceremony of Carols (for flutes, clarinets, saxophones and harp)
BUSH – Rhapsody for Clarinet and Strings
CRUSELL – Clarinet Concerto no.2, op.5
HANDEL – Organ Concerto in F op.4 no.5
GUSTAV HOLST – Hammersmith
CHARLES IVES – Fugue from Symphony no.4
MESSIAEN – Joie Et Clarté Des Corps Glorieux
MORTEN LAURIDSEN – O Magnum Mysterium
MOZART – Bassoon Concerto
PURCELL – Dido’s Lament (from Dido and Aeneas)
ANTONI SZAŁOWSKI – Sonatina for clarinet and piano
TCHAIKOVSKY – Pas de Deux (from The Nutcraker)
VERDI – Grand March (from Aida)
