Current Projects
New prize for Composers/Performers
LDJ60_Compose_Perform_Film is a new prize for students at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire to commission new student pieces alongside selected music by Liz Dilnot Johnson to perform and release as films on YouTube.
Full details will be announced on November 1st 2024 in conjunction with Composers Edition
Children, Choirs and Refugees, Coventry Cathedral
When A Child Is A Witness - Requiem for Refugees
Liz Dilnot Johnson's Ivors Composer Award-winning multi-dimensional work for refugees, choirs and solo instrumentalists, with ‘windows’ of reflection, raising awareness of the plight of those seeking refuge.
Scintilla
Scintilla is a multi-arts project collaboration with dancer choreographer Dane Hurst exploring notions of isolation and connection through wild exterior landscapes and the interior of the mind.
Liz introduces award-winning music video ‘Can You Hear Me’
Liz Dilnot Johnson introduces her film Can You Hear Me? part of I Stand At The Door - a cantata for our times
On Malvern Hill - Behind the Hills
A short documentary film by Tarquin Shaw Young about the commissioning and performance of the Malvern Male Voice Choir centenary commission 2022.
The Dymock Poets Re-imagined
A new setting of the tragic poem Rain for choir and piano as part of the Ledbury Poetry Festival 2023 commissioning scheme for the Hereford Chamber Choir
Intricate Web
This double album is centred around Liz Dilnot Johnson's complete string quartets, performed by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet with singer Loré Lixenberg and clarinetist Ronald Woodley.
‘a superb introduction to a major composer deserving wide recognition.’ Divine Art Recordings
Gentle Flame choral album
Insights into Liz’s album of selected choral works on Divine Art Records. ‘This recording represents a significant achievement, and I shall seek out other recordings of this composer’s music.’
Colwall Requiem for Peace
The village version of When a Child is a Witness arranged for amateur 4-part choir, bringing people of all ages and backgrounds together to share music and words on the theme of seeking and finding refuge.
Gentle Flame Cantata
Gentle Flame Cantata premiere November 2019 (Part 1 of I Stand at the Door 2021)
Setting words by Greta Thunberg, David Hart, Kurt Masur and the Book of Revelation 5**** review Midlands Music Review ‘constantly gripping’ Christopher Morley Read more.
Inflorescence for saxophone and piano
Liz talks with saxophonist Kyle Horch about her large-scale piece Inflorescence for soprano saxophone and piano. Influenced by the poetry of David Hart’s Crag Inspector the music conjures up flowers, landscape and isolation on the wild island of Bardsey in NW Wales.
Voyage
Voyage is a project featuring a set of 3 solo pieces for baroque instruments that explore female body image after major surgery. The work is inspired by Dora Williams’ artwork Triptych – a scarred series.
Lost in Song: Blake Re-imagined
Lost in Song - a new online, immersive platform promoting song for wellbeing - combines Sir Hubert Parry’s Jerusalem with Liz Dilnot Johnson’s Blake Re-imagined.
WILD ARTS YEAR - Midwinter
Creating (and enabling others to create) artistic evocations of wild nature at different times of year in the UK. The multimedia project sets out to inspire creativity in others and encourage connection with our natural landscapes through creative interactions.
More info coming soon on a new multi-arts evocation of MidWinter on the Malvern Hills…
We Wait Together
A creative project by a group of refugees who collected images and stories for a new children's book.
Breathing and Co-Musing
British Music Collection: To mark her time spent on Sound and Music’s New Voices 2018 Artist Development Programme, Liz and filmmaker Oli Clark produced a trio of films exploring the creative processes behind Scintilla.
Read the full interview by British Music Collection here.
Cello Suite: Reflections, Dances and Fantasias
This flexible work is made up of 28 short movements, some of which include improvisatory moments. The player is invited to shape their own interpretation, selecting and reordering movements if they wish, or performing the entire work which spans 28 minutes.
One-Minute Creative Challenges
Videos and downloadable sheets inspiring creativity within one minute!
Becoming a composer
Podcast with Liz Dilnot Johnson, interviewed by Michael de Groot about how she became a composer (19 July 2019)
The Space Between Heaven and Earth
A new work for basset horn and piano that forms the start of a wider project exploring healing from trauma: Fight/Flight/FREEZE, for dancer and projected images. Inspired by the myth of Daphne, who turns into a tree to escape trauma, the music slowly unfreezes and returns the tree to human form.
Liz is currently looking for opportunities to expand this work into an choreographed installation.