Silent Aria is a new work, from a Suite for Oboe and piano, inspired by a book called 'Hidden Movement' the brainchild of Pawlet Brookes - Artistic Director of Serendipity UK, which celebrates the achievements of many talented Black British Dancers over 30 years. This music is written for an exciting collaboration with the acclaimed Choreographer Henri Oguike, emerging dancer, Tara Lopez and Oboist, Philip White, for which Pawlet Brookes is the Creative Producer. I am joined here in this recording, by Philip White, who is a very talented Oboist. Silent Aria will feature in the Let's Dance International Dance Festival in the city of Leicester UK May 2014 for which Pawlet Brookes is the Artistic Director. Philip White has had a passion for music since a young age where he learnt clarinet, saxophone and bassoon until finally settling for the oboe. He has recently graduated from Birmingham conservatoire with a 2:1 BMus(Hons) under the tuition of Jenni Phillips, George Caird, Melinda Maxwell and Richard Weigall. He has performed as principal oboist with a variety of orchestras including the conservatoires symphony and repertoire orchestras, the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia of Birmingham, Amadeus orchestra and the CBSO Youth Orchestra. He has also played as a member of the national youth orchestra of wales. With these orchestras he has performed concerts in many UK venues such as Birmingham’s Symphony Hall and Town Hall, The Sage Gateshead, Exeter and Wells Cathedral, as well as touring abroad to Holland, Italy, France and Belgium. Philip is also a keen soloist; his recent performances include a concert of British contemporary oboe music by Roxburgh, Birtwistle and Bainbridge. He is currently studying at the Royal College of Music. Starting in A minor, Silent Aria’s influences in the first section, combine hypnotic and expressive melismas in the melodic line supported by the accompaniment supplied by the piano, which draws on the influence of minimalism and chordal figuration that is to be found in some of the keyboard preludes of JS Bach. A more soulful and dramatic section ensues in Eb Major, modulating through C major and on to A major. A chord played with sforzando, announces the dramatic section in A minor where the oboe’s melodic line sings out over an accompaniment that is punctuated by chords played in staccato fashion: which moves through to a much more relaxed episode, where the tempo is rubato. The music eventually resumes strict tempo and returns to the section in Eb Major, before a recapitulation of the opening cantilena in A minor returns, with some delicate ornamentation that finally ends with a coda of repeated elegant and florid phrases.