All posts by Daniel Harding

Head of Music Performance, University of Kent: pianist, accompanist and conductor: jazz enthusiast.
Notes on Music

Summer Music Week: events now online

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And with the sound of heralding in the distance, the clarion-call of trumpets and a celestial choir, we are delighted to announce that the full line-up of events for Summer Music Week has now been published online.

summer_music_flowerThe annual music celebration of the end of the University year starts with the University Big Band beside the seaside, performing at Deal Bandstand in support of Porchlight on Sunday 8 June at 2.30pm. Events then continue throughout the week – choral music, jazz, Big Band Gala, Music Scholars‘ recital, period-costume with the Dance Orchestra, foyer-stage gigs and more – culminating eventually in Music for a Summer’s Day on Sunday 15 June at 3pm, in which the combined forces of the University Chorus, Orchestra, Concert Band and Chamber Choir bid a rousing farewell to the end of another musical year.

Venues this year range from the seaside at Deal to the historic venues of St Thomas’ Hospital and the ancient St Peter’s Anglican Church in Canterbury, as well as the lively foyer-stage and the Colyer-Fergusson concert-hall.

Explore the complete programme online here: plenty to look forward to in this, the last term. Follow #SummerMusicWeek or @UKCSummerMusic on Twitter.

Notes on Music

Sounds New coming to the Colyer-Fergusson Building

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The annual Sounds New Festival of Contemporary Music will blossom around Canterbury towards the end of next week, and we’re very excited to be a partner in this year’s festival as it brings two vibrant headline concerts to the Colyer-Fergusson Building.

SoundsNewlogo_2014The boundary-trashing Icebreaker Ensemble will be here on Saturday 3 May in a performance of Brian Eno’s Apollo for all Mankind, as well as the première of composer Ed Bennett’s Suspect Device and music by Julia Wolfe.

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The Brodsky Quartet will be here on Thursday 8 May with a celebration of the music of prog-rock legend Robert Wyatt; the former Soft Machine founder’s music will be realised in a blend of strings, improvisation and live electronics, including singer Elaine Mitchener and Matt Wright.

The festival also features the Sounds New Poetry strand, with members of the University Centre for Modern Poetry in site-specific residencies in the city. Find out more about all the events happening at Sounds New online here.

Keeping It Real: reviews.

Lost Consort makes its debut performance

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The department’s newest (or oldest, depending on how you look at it) ensemble, the Lost Consort, made its debut yesterday in a lunchtime concert in the evocative Roman Undercroft of St Thomas’ Hospital, Canterbury.

Formed by Your Loyal Correspondent back in November in order to explore the music of Hildegard von Bingen, the group gave its first performance to a packed audience, with a programme including an evocative setting of the Kyrie and the luminous Columba Aspexit.

After the concert, the Choir moved out onto the high street in order to sing to one of the members of the audience who was unable to come into the Undercroft because of their wheelchair. Members of the public drew to a standstill to listen to a twelfth-century flashmob bringing medieval music to the ancient stones of the city.

Welcome to the newest, oldest, departmental ensemble; expect to hear more from the Lost Consort in the future.

Jazz Booth, Keeping It Real: reviews.

Speake the Truth: workshop with British jazz giant

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After a mesmerising lunchtime concert from the Martin Speake Trio on Wednesday, some of the University students had the opportunity to work with the musicians in the workshop that followed.

Led by saxophonist Martin Speake, the students shared insights into aspects of jazz and improvisation with guitarist Mike Outram and drummer Jeff Williams, exploring in particular Secret Woods, one of the pieces the trio had played in the lunchtime concert. The musicians examined what working together as a group involves, the role of different instruments and aspects of space and silence in music; as Mike Outram put it, “I think of space [in music] as active, rather than passive. You’re actively putting it out there.”

A terrific opportunity for some of our musicians to learn from three of the finest musicians working in the world of jazz. Our thanks to the trio.

Keeping It Real: reviews., Notes on Music

Leading British composer in rehearsal with the Chamber Choir

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Students from the University of Kent had the opportunity to work with one of the country’s leading composers last week; composer Paul Patterson was in attendance at the University Chamber Choir concert in Canterbury Cathedral Crypt last Friday, to hear the Choir perform his sacred motet Salvum Fac Populum Tuum Domine, and earlier in the afternoon came to the rehearsal to work on his piece with the Choir.

AH4A0390Born in 1947, Paul Patterson was a pupil of Elisabeth Lutyens and Richard Rodney Bennett. He is currently Manson Professor of Composition at the Royal Acadmey of Music. Major compositions include his Mass of the Sea (1983), Stabat Mater (1986), Te Deum (1988), Magnificat (1993), Hell’s Angels (1998) and the Millennium Mass (2000).

Time Piece (1972), was written for the King’s Singers, and has been performed extensively ever since as a staple part of their repertoire. His Cracowian Counterpoints (1977) was toured worldwide by the London Sinfonietta, and the phenomenally-successful Little Red Riding Hood and Three Little Pigs continue to be performed. In 1997, in celebration of his 50th birthday, he was the featured composer on BBC Radio 3’s long-running series ‘Composer of the Week.’ He has also been Artistic Director of the Exeter Festival (1991-97), and Composer-in-Residence of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (1997-2010).

AH4A0466It was a wonderful opportunity for the students to work with someone of Paul’s  calibre. A major figure on the British music landscape, the chance to work with him was a great privilege. Paul leads a hectic life following his music being performed all over the world (he was recently in Holland attending a concert combining his Magnificat with works by Eric Whitacre, and is shortly off to Denmark), and we are tremendously grateful that he found the time to come to the concert, and to be a part of the rehearsal earlier in the day.

Here is the Choir in the Crypt in the afternoon, working with Paul, together with Yours Truly and fourth-year student Matt Bamford rehearsing.

Images © Matt Wilson / University of Kent

International Impact, Keeping It Real: reviews., Notes on Music

Image Gallery: Jonathan Mayer / Mitel Purohit workshop

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After their mesmerising lunchtime concert last week, sitarist and composer Jonathan Mayer and tabla-player  Mitel Purohit stayed on to lead a workshop with some of the University students, exploring aspects of Indian classical music.

Our thanks to two stellar musicians for sharing their insights with our students.

Images © Matt Wilson / University of Kent