BOX OF TREATS
Dust Presents: Box of Treats
Join Lizzie Holyoak, Elizabeth Marsh, and Sarah Laughton—the Dust trio—this November for the exclusive premiere of the Box of Treats Suite.
Built around this brand-new work composed for flute, clarinet, and keyboard by Lizzie Holyoak (with support from D.J. Weir), our concerts offer a refreshing reimagining of classical and contemporary styles.
Our vibrant programme also features French impressionist masterworks by Satie, Fauré, and Grovlez, paired elegantly with striking modern pieces by John Blood and Johan Kvandal.
Audiences will experience a rich tapestry of traditional melodies, classical interludes, and bold new compositions.
Temperance in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire November 8th
THIS PERFORMANCE IS SOLD OUT SO YOU WILL HAVE TO COME ALONG TO:-
South Somerset Music Centre, Crewkerne, Somerset
November 29th
And we'll be delighted to see you there!
Dust's Box of Treats 2026 Programme
Part One
February Suite: Lizzie Holyoak 2024/25
Our programme commences with this suite of five pieces created when living between Portugal and England. Sarah and Elizabeth “dusted down” these new pieces, adding their own special touch to the music.
It’s Still Raining: flute and piano
It was pouring with rain in both Portugal and in England
About leaving
Conversations I and II: flute and clarinet
Two friends gossip in the street
February: trio
February in Portugal and in England
A set of early twentieth century music from Fin de Siecle Paris
Sarabande for clarinet: Gabriel Grovlez 1929
Originally for oboe, this is the lesser known clarinet version. We have been discovering more and more of this lesser known composer and there are further treasures to be discovered.
Fantasie for flute: Gabriel Faure 1898
The Fantasie was commissioned by and dedicated to Paul Taffanel in 1898 for the "Concours de flute", a flute competition held by the Conservatoire de Paris. Faure was Grovlez’s teacher.
Gnossiennes 4 & 5 for piano: Eric Satie c. 1890s
We don’t know if Grovlez ever met Satie but they breathed the same creative Fin de Siecle air. These Gnossiennes present two aspects of Satie’s creativity: introspective and the jolly
Two easy listening Classic FM moments for the trio:
L’arme (Tear): Modest Mussorgsky arr. Dust 1880
Written soon before his demise and described by some musicologists as rather a weak effort from him. We certainly don’t agree and have arranged it for our trio.
An original folk tune arranged by James Galway and re-arranged by Dust.
Nocturne for alto flute: Johan Kvandal 1980
A renowned contemporary Norwegian composer. He took his studies in conducting and organ at Oslo Conservatory, and studied composition from Marx at the Hochschule für Musik, Vienna, and Boulanger in Paris.
Barrel Organ Waltz for trio: Dimitri Shostakovich (From Four Waltzes for Flute, Clarinet and Piano)1955
So much angst in Shostakovich’s life. His music sometimes being acceptable and other times condemned. However his waltzes are full of joy. Barrel Organ Waltz is from the Gadfly Suite, written for the film adaptation of the novel The Gadfly.
Part Two
Waltz no. III for trio: Dimitri Shostakovich 1937
From Shostakovich's film score for The Return of Maxim
Gnossiene 3: Eric Satie arranged for bass clarinet 1890
Another from the set of six piano pieces unique for having no bar lines or traditional time signatures. Quirky poetic instructions are written in the score.
April & Michael’s Tune for piano: Lizzie Holyoak 2019 and revised 2026.
Honouring a friendship during covid, Michael’s tune was granted "April," a companion piece, this year
Flute and Clarinet duets: Robert Muczyski 1991
An American composer whose music speaks the language of mid-20th-century American neoclassicism: Tonal and peppered with light dissonance and energetic asymmetries of rhythm.
Filing Clerks for clarinet: John Blood 1988
His first symphony was broadcast by the BBC, with the composer conducting, whilst he was still a school boy in Nottingham. His latest piece, titled Luminare, written for six cellos, was premiered this year by the Unsung Heroes Cello Ensemble.
John Blood worked as an editor. We imagine his experiences of filing inspired this piece.
Chinese flute piece: Purple Bamboo Melody 1
Chinese music played on the western flute. "Purple Bamboo Melody” (“Zi Zhu Diao”) is a famous traditional Chinese composition that dates back 2,000 years. “Purple Bamboo Melody" is adapted from huju, which is a variety of Chinese opera from the area of Shanghai. The piece has a bitter-sweet edge as it is about the thousands of Chinese workers in worked in appalling conditions constructing railways in the Shandong province.
Westminster Abbey for bass clarinet & piano: Gabriel Grovlez arr. Dust 1910
From his Impressions of London, a set of challenging piano pieces on three clefs, requiring crossed hands and a high degree of dexterity.
Box of Treats for trio: Lizzie Holyoak 2026
Overture: welcoming you to the box
Summer: the joy of early summer days
August: the heat rising
Swallow: a response to those folk tales of women seduced, rejected, pregnant, grief stricken, dying.
Interplay: playing games
Miracle: “deep in my heart is a miracle”
Edge for trio: Lizzie Holyoak 2025
A response to feeling invisible at a meeting!
Our Composers
Gabriel Grovlez
French Composer Gabriel Grovlez was born in Lille, Northern France, in 1879 and died in war-torn Paris in 1944.. He had piano lessons as a very young child from his mother who was a daughter of one of Chopin’s pupils. He went on to study at the Paris Conservatory with Fauré.
Eric Satie
Much has been made of his eccentricities and yet underlying Satie’s music is his serious desire to create something new. You can hear it in his popular piano pieces, such as the haunting scales and rhythms of the and the meditative world of Gymnopédies, where, as in a cubist painting, motifs are “seen” from all sides. (This word gymnopedies was derived from a festival of ancient Sparta, at which naked young men danced and competed against one another).
Dimitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was a prolific Russian composer and one of the most influential figures in 20th-century classical music. His life and works are a testament to the tumultuous political and artistic landscape of his time.
John Blood
John Blood’s first symphony was broadcast by the BBC, with the composer conducting, whilst he was still a school boy in Nottingham. In 1970 he went on to study composition for four years at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the Eric Coates Prize for composition.
Johan Kvandal
Johan Kvandal was one of Norway’s most highly esteemed 20th-century composers.He studied in Paris and Vienna, absorbing some of the influences of composers such as Bartók, Stravinsky and Messiaen. Kvandal described this himself as “modern tonality”, which, written in 1980, his Nocturne for Alto Flute reflects.
Muczyski
Robert Muczynski (March 19, 1929 – May 25, 2010) was an American composer. He studied piano with Walter Knupfer and composition with Alexander Tcherepnin at DePaul University in Chicago,
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsk was born in 1839 in Karevo, south of Saint Petersburg. His was a wealthy and land-owning family. Modest was one of the group known as "The Five". He was an innovator of Russian music in the Romantic period.