All posts by Daniel Harding

Head of Music Performance, University of Kent: pianist, accompanist and conductor: jazz enthusiast.
Keeping It Real: reviews.

Fright Club: Horrortorio goes to school

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Thanks to the staff and pupils of St Christopher’s School in Canterbury, who welcomed the solo singers of our current Horrortorio project last Friday.

WP_20160527_001_webSingers Charlotte Webb, Ruth Webster, Joe Prescott, Doug Haycock and Robert Loveless trod the boards of the school’s stage to entertain children and adults with the mock-Baroque oratorio celebrating the marriage of Dracula’s daughter, complete with costumes, props and some effective facial make-up from Doug in particular.

WP_20160527_003_webThe full performance takes place as part of Summer Music Week on Monday 6 June at 5pm for an in-the-round concert in Colyer-Fergusson Hall, for which the singers will be joined by members of the Cecilian Choir, smoke and mirrors. See you then – if you dare…

Notes on Music

All fright on the night: Horrortorio in rehearsal

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In the week of the composer’s ninetieth birthday, fittingly rehearsals are in progress for our production of Horrortorio, Joseph Horowitz’s mock-Baroque comic oratorio, celebrating the marriage of Dracula’s daughter to the son of Frankenstein.

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Ruth Webster; Charlotte Webb; Doug Haycock; Robert Loveless; Joe Prescott

A small group of fiends, sorry, soloists will be joined by members of the Cecilian Choir for an in-the-round performance during Summer Music Week, on Monday 6 June at 5pm, complete with smoke and mirrors, as we transform the concert-hall into a ghoul-frequented wedding party.

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Pictures above from the recent soloist’s dress rehearsal; join us in two weeks to be transported to Dracula’s grim castle…

 

International Impact, Notes on Music

Jumping pilgrims: flautist Anne Engels plays in an annual procession with a difference

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Third-year flautist and Music Scholar Anne Engels recently took part in an annual procession back home in Luxembourg with a difference; I asked her to explain what it was all about…

Anne_Engles_processionAnne: “This photo was taken at the Sprangpressessioun (dancing procession) in Echternach, in Luxembourg. There’s an entire history behind the procession. Basically, around ten thousand pilgrims come to Echternach every year on the Tuesday after Whitmonday to visit the grave of St Willibrord, a monk who originally came from Ireland and set up a monastery in Echternach. The monastery now functions as a secondary school and college.

“The procession starts in the schoolyard and goes around the entire city of Echternach. The pilgrims jump or dance to the tune of the dancing procession (a polka), which is being played by a number of different music societies from Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands. The procession ends in the crypt of the Basilika, where St Willibrord is buried.

“As far as I know the jumping is originally believed to be healing or protecting the pilgrims from a specific disease (but I’m not quite sure about that!). The dancing procession itself was also recognized as Intangible Heritage by UNESCO in 2010.”

You can hear Anne performing (without the dancing, unless you feel so moved) in the Music Scholars’ Lunchtime Recital on Tuesday 7 June, when she will be playing Poulenc and Messiaen; details here.

 

Notes on Music

Summer Music Week: full details of events now available

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The annual musical celebration of the end of the academic year at the University of Kent, Summer Music Week, is set to burst into life next month.

Deal webFeaturing many of the University’s ensembles, the week-long festival opens at the seaside on Sunday 5 June with the University Big Band, conducted by Ian Swatman, visiting Deal Bandstand. Events throughout the week include a recital by University Music Scholars, a Wednesday evening gala concert with both the Concert and Big Bands, a feast of Baroque music with the Cecilian Choir and Sinfonia at St Michael’s Church, Harbledown,plus various other lunchtime events, all culminating in the traditional Music for a Summmer’s Day on Saturday 11 June with the Chorus, Orchestra and Minerva Voices, followed by cream teas.

Sinfonia webThe full line-up of events is now live on our website here, and you can follow all the events on the Summer Music Week Twitter feed here: printed brochures are also available in Colyer-Fergusson and the Gulbenkian. Join us as we bid an action-packed musical adieu to another year at Kent!

Notes on Music

Exploring musical colour at the Gothic Colour day ahead of the MEMS Festival next month

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The University’s Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies MEMS Festival takes place next month, a two-day event highlighting new research, round-table discussions, exhibitions, talks and performances celebrating developments in the field.

A special preview day on Thursday 16 June at Eastbridge Hospital, Illuminating the Past, will explore the making and meaning of Gothic colour, as part of which Minerva Voices will be singing in the ancient Pilgrim’s Hospital during a day of interactive workshops and talks.

Ahead of the day, Your Loyal Correspondent reflects on the idea of colour in music, and reflects on the immediacy of performing ancient music in historic spaces, where song meets stone, over on the event webpage here.

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The Choir will sing music from the period, including a skirling Kyrie by Hildegard von Bingen. Find out more about the festival here.

Notes on Music

A summer evening concert at Canterbury Castle with Minerva Voices

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Next week, Minerva Voices presents a summer evening performance set amidst the historic grounds of Canterbury’s eleventh-century castle, on Tuesday 24 May.

WP_20160428_007_webThe castle is amongst Britain’s most ancient, begun around 1070 to replace a motte-and-bailey construction built as one of several fortifications protecting the Roman road from Dover to London. The keep and surrounding walls are all that remain, and the site surfaces like a blunt reminder of Canterbury’s military history.

As the sun sets, the ancient flint and sandstone walls of the surviving keep will ring to the upper-voice chamber choir’s colourful programme, which includes medieval plainsong, a contemporary Norwegian folksong, Veljo Tormis’ filigree Spring Sketches, Bob Chilcott’s scintillating Song of the Stars, and pieces by Mozart, Holst and Gounod. The concert will conclude with a dramatic Norwegian telling of the Song of Roland, for which the choir will be joined by percussionist Cory Adams.WP_20160428_014_web

WP_20160428_012_webAdmission is free; the concert starts at 7.30pm, and is with the kind permission of Canterbury City Council. Please note that there is no seating at the site, so you might like to bring a blanket or folding-chair; the performance will last approximately fifty minutes. Join Minerva Voices as the sun sets over the historic site for a musical odyssey across the centuries.