Category Archives: Keeping It Real: reviews.

Concerts and events reviews.

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

Keeping It Real: reviews., Notes on Music

Image gallery: lunchtime concert on the foyer-stage

The University Cecilian Choir and Music Scholars came together in an evocative and dramatic lunchtime concert on the foyer-stage last week, as part of a month-long series of events across the campus to mark LGBT Month.

Conducted by your loyal correspondent, the Cecilian Choir opened the concert with several movements from Britten’s Friday Afternoons, delivered with great vigour. Following this were two of Britten’s folk-song settings; Down By The Salley Gardens (sung by soprano Kathryn Cox) and O Waly, Waly (from soprano Paris Noble). These two moving, initimate reflections on love and loss were performed with real commitment, drawing the hushed audience so close that it was as though the listeners were hunched right around the stage.

The Cecilian Choir returned to the stage, together with third-year harpist Emma Murton, to close the concert with four movements from the Ceremony of Carols, moving from the high drama of ‘This Little Babe’ to the lyrical, evergreen simplicity of ‘Spring Carol,’ through the declamatory ‘Deo Gracias’ and ending with the plainchant of ‘Hodie Christus natus est.’

An engaging concert, and a great opportunity to make a musical contribution to the month’s events. Bravo, team.

Images: Matt Wilson (c) University of Kent

Jazz Booth, Keeping It Real: reviews.

Image Gallery: Big Band and the Man in Red

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The University Big Band, with a little help from the Man in Red, brought the term to an ebullient conclusion yesterday evening, rounding off a day of seasonal music-making in the Colyer-Fergusson building.

Lunchtime saw a festive ‘Watch This Space’ with music from the Chamber and Cecilian Choirs, Tutti Flutties, The Canterberries, the Dance Orchestra and jazz on the foyer-stage.

In the evening, Ian Swatman led the Big Band in some seasonal swing, including vocal contributions from Steph Richardson, Ruby Mutlow and Sophie Meikle amidst some jazz takes on Jingle Bells and other seasonal favourites, together with the Brass Ensemble in communal carols. The evening was crowned with the arrival of the Man in Red himself, greeted with a roof-raising round of applause that almost eclipsed any musical heights the Big Band had scaled during the gig.

We’re back again in the new year with our new concert-diary (published towards the start of term), which will include details of all the lunchtime, Cathedral and informal concerts happening from January to April. From all of us in the music department – a merry Christmas!

Images © Matt Wilson / University of Kent