SEVERNSIDE Composers Alliance presents a concert at St Georges Bristol on 22 November by international violinist Madeleine Mitchell with Randwick based accompanist Geoffrey Poole.

The concert features three west-country composers, Jolyon Laycock, Stephen Kings and Sulyen Caradon, plus music by Michael Nyman, Messiaen and Beethoven.

Messiaen’s “Theme and Variations” that begins the concert is one of his most immediately accessible works.

It was written as a wedding present for the composer's first wife, the violinist Claire Delbos, and the young couple gave the first performance on St. Cecilia’s Day 1932, exactly 84 years ago.

The programme features works by three founder members of Severnside Composers Alliance.

SCA was formed in 2003 by a group of composers based in the Bristol and Bath area to promote performances of their own music and to stimulate a wider interest in the composition and performance of new music in the region.

Steven King's work as a musician encompasses composing and arranging, performing as piano soloist and accompanist, teaching, training choirs and conducting.

He lives in Bristol, but his work takes him all over South-West England, Wales, London and beyond.

His Prelude Cumulation Trio was first performed by Roger Huckle accompanied by the composer at Bristol Music Club on 16 April 2016.

Sulyen Caradon is the Druidic name of Richard Carder reflecting his long association with the annual “Bard of Bath” competition.

He is active in Bath as conductor, teacher and director of several wood-wind ensembles.

Having a strong interest in ecology, he stood as Green Party candidate for North Somerset in the 1979 General Election, and has continued an involvement with the local “green” pressure groups. “Dorian Dirge” is an example of an “open-score” composition adaptable for performance by any combination of instruments.

It was written for the organisation “Composing for All” (COMA) which exists to create opportunities for amateur musicians to get involved in the performance of contemporary classical music.

Jolyon Laycock has had a long career as a promoter of new music at Arnolfini, Bristol, at the Michael Tippett Centre, Bath, and at the Bath Festival.

His collaborations in Europe introduced British ideas of creative music-making and composing-in-education to many European organisations.

His new violin sonata takes its inspiration from two non-musical sources: one visual and the other literary.

The title comes from one of the most famous paintings of the Catalan surrealist, Salvador Dali, and the literary inspiration is a poem of Philip Larkin.

The inclusion of music by Michael Nyman continues SCA’s tradition of inviting visiting performers to include works from their wider concert repertoire.

“Taking it as Read” was written for Madeleine Mitchell's “Red Violin Festival” in Cardiff and premiered by her at the Wales Millennium Centre in October 2007.

This will be its first performance in England. Nyman is widely regarded as one of Britain's most innovative and celebrated composers.

His work encompasses operas and string quartets, film soundtracks and orchestral concertos.

Far more than merely a composer, he is also a performer, conductor, bandleader, pianist, author, musicologist and now a photographer and film-maker.

The concert ends with Beethoven’s sublime G major classic, op. 96, a work that has a special place in the working relationship of Madeleine Mitchell and Geoffrey Poole in that it is the work that first brought them together as a performing duo.