Michael Price

Official page for composer Michael Price.

20/08/2026

The Flowers Left Thick, the first single from The Seasons (1914–18), is out on 4 September. Each of the Seasons was recorded in a different church, chosen for its history and acoustics. For Spring in Steep, 1915, with the Galliard Ensemble, we went to St Bartholomew’s Church, in Orford, Suffolk, where Benjamin Britten recorded and premiered many of his later works. The church still has a green slate memorial set in the floor of the nave in memory of him.  When we arrived the bells were being rung, a beautiful sound, but not ideal for a woodwind recording. We asked what the occasion was, and the Tower Captain said they were ringing a ‘full peal’ (around 3 hours) for one of their number who had recently died. You can see them ringing in the first shot of this video.  We all sat and listened together and let the music say the things for which, as TS Eliot says, “Words strain, Crack and sometimes break, under the burden … “  —  film by      

19/08/2026

The first single from The Seasons is out on 4 September — The Flowers Left Thick, performed by the wonderful Galliard Ensemble. It’s the first movement of Spring in Steep, 1915, written after Edward Thomas’s poem “In Memoriam (Easter 1915)”.  The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood This Eastertide call into mind the men, Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should Have gathered them and will do never again.     

18/08/2026

All the artwork for The Seasons is by of Split , based at Salts Works, Shipley.  Oli is a letterpress and traditional print master. These designs began digitally, were made into a ‘forme’ and hand-printed, then scanned to become what you see here.  If you really zoom in, you’ll see the texture from the printing and the beautiful imperfections it brings.  One moving detail of many - the white ‘leaves’, which could also be snowflakes, are shaped like soldiers’ helmets.
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17/08/2026

My new album, The Seasons (1914-18), has a release date - Nov 6th, for Remembrance Sunday, with 3 singles starting Sep 4.  Here’s a pic with the lovely The Gesualdo Six gang, back in Nov 2025, at the first recording in a freezing St Michael’s Church, Highgate.

Wintery it was. 🎹💙

📷 - Alex Kozobolis

Faber Music Naomi Belshaw Stay Tuned Tashmina Artists Connaught Brass Solem Quartet Matthew Bennett FiLO Classical

24/07/2026

Always my favourite time of day in the studio - before we begin! There’s a physical and musical threshold you cross, when the travel is done, the (much sought-after) parking is sorted, and the reception pass is waved.

Then I can sit, and try and change gears from the busy-ness of the day to the business. Which is to try and create an environment for brilliant people to do beautiful work. To make a room where everyone has permission to care, and do their best, and, on a good day, connect with why they started playing, or recording, or producing in the first place.

This will be the 7th season of Unforgotten we’ve recorded here at Abbey Road but when you take a breath and sit, it’s as magical now as it was in the beginning, (and evermore shall be!) 🎹💙

Unforgotten Mainstreet Pictures ITV

07/07/2026

Social media orthodoxy would have us believe that the best way to do your work, is to show your work. I don’t agree. I’m more of a believer in the ‘circle of trust’ approach, where the people involved in making something create a zone where they can be wrong without embarrassment - sometimes repeatedly, and frustratingly - and out of the wrongness something even better eventually emerges.  For me, narrating the process, or filming too much on sessions, or anything that disturbs the flow state can ultimately make the work just that little bit less good.  And it is the work that will last, not the commentary on the process, interesting though that may be along the way.  So here’s to those of us who go into ‘monk mode’ when we’re working. The algorithm will have to manage without us. That’s OK.  PS The work on Unforgotten Season 7 continues …💙🎹😉

24/06/2026

I’ve joined Faber Music & Manners Faber   I seem to have crossed paths with Faber so many times over the years. One of my old school friends, Tim Brooke, is now the Senior Composer Manager there; the first score published using Avid Sibelius (I was their first employee) was George Benjamin’s Antara, on Faber; and right up to the present day, I’m recording new work in Orford Church, in the footsteps of Benjamin Britten, who with Donald Mitchell was instrumental in setting up Faber Music in 1965. (PS I’m now firmly on Team Dorico 😉)  Now, as well as the storied and serious music publishing arm, there is a wonderful team from Faber Music | Manners McDade covering other publishing areas and composer agenting too. Excellent for the composer who wears many hats.  I’m more and more drawn to writing concert music these days, for new recordings or live performance, so being able to develop new work like The Seasons (1914-18) in the company of some of my musical heroes is literally a childhood dream come true.  When I was still a youngster, at Batley Grammar School, one of my friends, Pete Earnshaw, saw a 16 bar tune I’d written for what would have been an O-level exam. He proudly said it was “good enough to be published”. It wasn’t, and it wasn’t, but to see new music, written with conviction, published underneath the famous Faber ‘ff’ banner - well it means a lot.  Pics: Faber & MannersFaber Team Benjamin Britten Me at school Recording at Orford Church  Naomi Belshaw Dorico

05/06/2026

The 4th Season has been recorded. Nearly two years after the idea of 4 chamber groups, and four new works for the Seasons started to emerge - we’ve reached this milestone with the amazing Galliard Ensemble recording “Spring in Steep, 1915” in St Bartholomew’s Church, Orford where Britten premiered and recorded much of his later work.

It’s been a long and inspiring road, with & all surpassing my already high expectations of them, both musically, and also being very funny to spend time with. You’re legends all.

Although the project began with a literary structure, the illness and passing of my Mum in the middle of it and the comfort I found in poetry has meant that the whole project is now framed around remembrance texts from WW1. There are key poems from Edward Thomas, Alice Meynell, and May Wedderburn Cannan, and the Seasons actually play in reverse, from Summer 1914 to Autumn 1918.

The album will be out by the end of the year, and I’m hugely grateful to everyone wrangling the multiple groups, locations and recordings.

22/05/2026

Back in the humane & heart-breaking world of - trying to honour all the characters as best I can. 💙🎹

21/05/2026

Inspired, over-tired, potentially over the limit? Must be the awards again. Congrats to all the nominees and all the writers that bring the love. 🎹💙

Address

PO Box 1709
Berkhamsted
HP4 9FN

Website

http://www.michaelpricemusic.com/

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