Odyssean Variations (2025)

In 2025, HMDT Music celebrated our 30th anniversary with a performance of British composer Matthew King's Odyssean Variations, commissioned by HMDT Music in 2008 for internationally acclaimed virtuoso cellist Natalie Clein, who joined us again to perform alongside the Saturday Programme’s CYMH orchestra and I Can Sing! choir. Odyssean Variations was complemented by a performance from our I Can Sing! students who opened the evening with a scena of music theatre songs.

Odyssean Variations, a large-scale piece for cello, orchestra and choir is a traditional set of variations on a theme, but it also contains a musical narrative based on Homer’s Odyssey, which describes the perilous journey of Odysseus, King of Ithaca as he travels home from the Trojan War and his adventures with amongst others the one-eyed Cyclops, singing sirens and Circe the sorceress. The music also makes use of ancient Greek modes and irregular rhythmic patterns associated with traditional Greek music.

“Natalie was absolutely excellent, she had a beautiful sound. I was able to understand the music better for studying it, and I enjoyed performing a longer piece of work”

- CYMH Blue Student

Scenic view of a mountain range and lake with rolling green hills in the foreground.
A mountainous landscape with snow-capped peaks in the background and some buildings on the hillside in the foreground.
Modern wooden building with large glass window in front of a mountainous landscape with rocky and grassy slopes and snow-capped peaks in the background.
Modern house with wooden exterior, stone steps, and landscaped yard amid green hills and mountain range in the background.
A modern wooden building situated on a grassy hillside with mountains in the background and some blurred greenery in the foreground.
A modern building with vertical wooden siding and a curved roof, surrounded by tall grass and mountains in the background.
Modern house with wooden exterior walls on a grassy hillside overlooking a lake and distant mountain ranges.