First-year Philosophy, Religion and Ethics student and musician, Sara Davies, reflects on the recent opportunity to work alongside the Chan-Jack Duo on their recent visit to perform in Colyer-Fergusson as part of our Lunchtime Concert series.
On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of watching the superbly talented Chan-Jack Duo play their EP Air as part of the series of lunchtime concerts in Colyer-Fergusson Hall.
This included a 50 minute set of five songs that perfectly blended the east and the west whilst incorporating a multitude of genres from rock, pop, classical, Latin and many more.
I was totally enthralled by the immense talent of both Laure Chan (on violin) and William Jack (on cello and guitar). Their music, a fusion of different cultures, was colourful, emotional and transformative.
After the concert, I had the opportunity to participate in an improvisation workshop with the duo, where we created a fusion that revolved around the pentatonic scale. We explored the different ways in which our instruments could make non-melodic sounds, and I was able to use the body of my guitar to create amazing percussive lines alongside the other instruments.
Towards the end of the workshop, I had the honour of performing one of my original songs to the duo which was amazing! The support and feedback from both of them was particularly help as well!!
All in all, I have to say the Chan-Jack Duo have definitely been my favourite concert here at the university and the opportunity to work alongside them is something I will remember forever.
Sara Davies
The piece, written for mixed-voice choir and string orchestra, is a setting of the Magnificat interspersed with four new poems written by Nancy Gaffield in the School of Creative Writing. Each poem, inspired by an historic painting, responds to the canticle, the ‘Song of Mary,’ in which Mary rejoices that she will give birth to the Christ-child and the positive changes which will be wrought in the world.
Recently named one of the Evening Standard’s 1000 Most Influential People in London, Russell Hepplewhite has won critical acclaim for his ground-breaking operas for children including Shackleton’s Cat, Silver Electra and Laika the Spacedog, written for English Touring Opera. His music appears on CD releases for labels including Regent Records and has been featured on BBC Television and Radio, as well as being performed at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, the Wigmore Hall, the Library Theatre Luton, the Purcell Room and the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Most recently, his collaboration with the poet Michael Rosen, a set of children’s songs entitled Everything, is included in the Friday Afternoons song bank project, inspired by Britten’s song-cycle of the same name.
Over the past four years I have had the honour of being able to say that, alongside my degree in Astronomy, Space Science and Astrophysics, I am a music scholar here at the University of Kent. I was awarded the Music Performance Scholarship in 2018 on the saxophone and have loved developing my playing through the various ensembles that are on offer as well as under the fantastic tutelage of Peter Cook. All of this progress led to me being fortunate enough on my year abroad last year (2021/22) to have been accepted into the Tom Walsh Jazz Ensemble at the Jacobs School of Music in Indiana University, Bloomington.
