Welcome to the website of Stephen Pratt the Composer

In Hope has been written for Pixels Ensemble for tonight’s event, marking as it does the conclusion of my 50^th year of teaching at Hope. The outstanding musicians of Pixels Ensemble are friends and colleagues with whom I have enjoyed many collaborations in the past, and In Hope is dedicated to them.

Given the context, the backward and forward looking nature of the title didn’t need too much thinking about, especially as we find our way out of a global health crisis. At the same time as writing the piece, I was concluding my undergraduate teaching at Hope and working on a picture of my empty and (to date!) inaccessible garden in France. In Hope is a fast, short movement, which is largely bright and breezy in character; in earlier days, maybe a scherzo ...

Stephen Pratt