Oblivion Wins Best Musical Film at the 2025 World Film Festival at Cannes

Posted on by John Aylward

Oblivion took home the award for Best Musical Film at the 2025 Cannes World Film Festival this summer. It was a thrill to be there. With so much on my plate, at first I was not sure if I’d be able to attend. But I was nudged by my dear friend Jeff who was one of the opera’s initial supporters. Jeff was even there the day the film shoot wrapped, so it was a great pleasure to have him see the fruits of our labor.

The World Film Festival in Cannes is an annual competition for international filmmakers dedicated to feature films, short films, independent films, documentaries, experimental films, animated films, and more. The Festival Jury, made up of members from the film and music industries and other artistic and cultural fields, has no connection to the films in competition and rewards the best films in each category.

The Cannes World Film Festival award is Oblivion’s first major global recognition and I am now thrilled to see the film picking up more success on the international film circuit.

Festival Pass and a Stella!
On the red carpet!
French country look?
Peter Riegelbauer also joined!
A quick evening in Cassis
Sunset in Cannes

Moondial

Posted on by John Aylward

Just wrapped a production shoot for the new work for cello and video, Moondial. The work features cellist Robbie Bui. We captured Robbie performing one of the two parts on video, then flipped the image as he performs live alongside it. The work is conceived to be either an installation work (two videos) or to be performed (one live cellist alongside the second cellist as video / mirror / digital avatar). The working title of the piece is Twin Paradox. As we worked through the staging and costuming, a different title seemed necessary. While Twin Paradox captures the sensations of phasing and temporal rift in the piece, the title Moondial reflects the historic and mythological aspects of the work’s staged context.

You can read more about the work here.

We are aiming for a late spring release of the video, so stay tuned.

New England Public Media Airs Oblivion and Angelus

Posted on by John Aylward

New England Public Media has produced a special feature on my latest two works for stage, Oblivion and Angelus. The show, hosted by John Voci, will air and livestream Sunday, January 25th, at 7PM EST. You can check NEPM or other NPR affiliates closer to you for the radio broadcast, or you can listen to the online broadcast.

The recordings broadcast feature some exceptional performances. You can read more about Oblivion here, and more about Angelus here. 

Hope you will tune in on Sunday!

The NEPM description:

“The broadcast will feature Aylward’s entire one-act opera “Oblivion” and selections from his ten-song monodrama “Angelus.” “Oblivion” explores the afterlife, in all its spiritual, mythological, and existential aspects. “Angelus” is a personal work that reflects on the history of displacement and isolation that John Aylward’s mother encountered as a child refugee in Germany after WWII.”

Premiere by Boston Modern Orchestra Project

Posted on by John Aylward

It was an absolute thrill to hear the Boston Modern Orchestra premiere Eternal Return, a new work for full orchestra composed this past year. I took Debussy’s Jeux as the primary inspiration for the piece, but as I was finishing later movements, I was braced by the death of Kaija Saariaho, such an immense luminary in the field who I was fortunate enough to have a furtive correspondence with. And so the work takes its title from a meditation on passing into the afterlife.

The Boston Musical Intelligencer wrote that the first movement “showcased Aylward’s skill in orchestration, masterfully pulling interesting colors out of the orchestra.” Clifton Ingram, who wrote notes for the program, remarked that the historical underpinnings of the ‘eternal return’ are apt to revisit during a moment of rebuilding and reevaluation after the covid pandemic. Ingram also remarked on the works ‘pointedly impressionistic gestures’, which are surely connected to Debussy’s Jeux being a point of departure, and also noted the finale’s reference to William Kentridge’s Shadow Procession: another allusion to a proto-Christian reference to the ‘eternal return’. Ingrams says of the ending that it, ‘glides with scorrevole fluency but is never lacking in its variation.”

Score Excerpt from movement I, Awakening:

Oblivion CD Release on New Focus Recordings

Posted on by John Aylward

“An imaginative and resourceful talent”
— so says Gramophone in their review of Oblivion, just out on New Focus Recordings!

Avante Music says, “Aylward derives a maximum of dramatic tension”, with a, “bracing clarity that brings the voices into focus.”

The album features a stellar cast: Nina Guo, Lukas Papenfusscline, Ty Boque, and Cailin Marcel Manson, plus an incredible ensemble led by conductor Stratis Minakakis.

You can download your digital copy to read more about the cast and crew, and here are some links about the upcoming movie!

Remembering Kaija Saariaho

Posted on by John Aylward
The Etchings Festival. From left, Martin Brody, Francesco Filidei, Kaija Saariaho, John Aylward

I was saddened to hear about Kaija Saariaho’s passing this week. In 2014, a few of my works were being performed in New York and I thought of inviting Kaija on a whim. I didn’t know her at that time, but I knew she was in residence at Columbia. I was so happily surprised to receive such a warm response to the invitation, but alas, Kaija said she was too busy to attend. To my surprise, as the concert was starting, I turned to the doors so see Kaija standing their with a smile. I was thrilled, and of course looking forward to talking with her after the show. But at intermission, she had already disappeared! Nevertheless, our correspondence had begun.

Kaija and I exchanged a great deal of correspondence over the course of the next few years and I was encouraged by her words about, and belief in, my music. We kept up over the years, meeting in New York when she was there, which was often. In 2019, Kaija and I worked together at the Etchings Festival in France, along with composers Martin Brody and Francesco Filidei. It was a memorable week, and Kaija became great friends with my mother who I brought along that summer. My mother and Kaija connected over their shared stories of life in post-war Europe. My mother was a refugee in Germany from ’45 to ’53, the year just after Kaija was born.

There are few composers that have impacted my life as deeply and as spiritually as Kaija has. She will be sorely missed and deeply remembered.

Oblivion Cast Recording at Bombyx

Posted on by John Aylward

Last week we wrapped a recording of my new chamber opera Oblivion at Bombyx. The work is a one-act, 70 minute work for four voices, chamber ensemble and electronics. Learn more about the work here

Back Row: Cailin Marcel Manson, Joel Gordon, Peter Atkinson, Tyler Boque, Greg Chudzik, Dan Lippel. Front Row: John Aylward, Lukas Papenfuscline, Laura Williamson, Nina Guo, Issei Herr, Stratis Minakakis.