Category Archives: Keeping It Real: reviews.

Concerts and events reviews.

All in a Flash: carol-singing, flash-mob style

The musicians of the university are nothing if not adventurous. The culture of ‘flashmob’ events, where performances arise, apparently spontaneously, in public places to entertain (or bemuse) unsuspecting members of the public, who go from being passers-by or shoppers to audience-members, is a growing phenomenon. Singers from the University entertained (or bemused) assembled visitors and diners in Rutherford College yesterday, to bring Christmas cheer and highlight the musical culture of the University community.

Ready...

Singers from the Chamber Choir, Cecilian Choir and Sing! (plus the Director of Music) amassed in Rutherford College courtyard earlier today, grabbed carol books, and scurried in to the dining-hall, where they crouched, like Agents of Subversion, leafed through the books to find the right page, and then leapt up as one to sing an array of carols in rich, four-part harmony.

A lady from Rutherford Reception burst in, issuing a demand: that we go out into the courtyard and sing where staff in Reception and offices arrayed around the courtyard could also hear. Thus summoned, we duly gathered around the palm-tree (what season are we in ?!) and sang for the college staff.

Get set...

The flash-mob style was then developed one stage further: in the break between one batch of Open Day visitors departing and the next set arriving, we went back down into the dining-hall and sat at tables, as though we were visitors ourselves. At a pre-arranged signal, when most of the visitors were similarly seated for lunch, we rose from five of the tables to sing the last selection of carols, to an enthusiastic reception.

Great fun; a way of making music on an informal footing for fun, and to showcase some of the music-making that goes on at Kent to prospective applicants.

Go!

Well done to everyone who participated: same thing again next term – without carols, obviously – keep your eyes peeled for details in the Spring…

Be My Guest: Alanya Holder on bringing Christmas cheer to campus

If you heard the quasi-medieval sound of recorders and carols floating on the crisp, winter air around the campus at lunchtime yesterday, it was us: members of the Music Society, accompanied by a recorder duo, travelled from the Gulbenkian to Rutherford Dining Hall, where they sang to visitors to the UCAS Open Day, ending up on the Jarman Piazza and bringing some seasonal music to the university community. Here, Music Society President (and instigator of the event) Alanya Holder looks back at it.

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It’s that time of year again! Yes, once again it’s Christmas time and everyone is slowly getting into the Christmas spirit, so a few of us in the Music Society thought that we would help speed up the process. On Wednesday 8 December, a group of talented and eager singers wrapped up warm and braved the elements in order to bring Christmas joy to the masses. There was even a Santa hat and a pair of antlers!

With medieval-style duet recorder accompaniment, we sang a few old favourites including the Holly and the Ivy, O Come All Ye Faithful and Good King Wenceslas. But deciding the temperature outside was a little too much to bear, we also brought joy to the masses inside Rutherford Dining Hall. With smiles and Christmas joy well and truly spread, everyone is very much looking forward to Christmas.

Same time next year!

Carols, Christmas and the Caribbean: Canterbury Cathedral Choristers

It’s been twelve years since the Choristers of Canterbury Cathedral were invited to perform in the Lunchtime Concert series, and the auspices were not good: last time, fourteen of the twenty-two boys succumbed to seasonal flu and the concert had to be cancelled – the only time a lunchtime concert has been called off.

In fine voice: Cathedral Choristers

This time, however, fortune favoured them, and they performed a varied programme, ranging from the warmth of Caribbean calypso to the chill of winter, to a highly enthusiastic audience.

They began with the Baroque, opening with a bright rendition of Purcell’s ‘Sound the Trumpet’ from Come Ye Sons of Art, and Vivaldi’s motet ‘Nulla in mundo pax sincera.’ Thence to Jamaica, with local composer Brian Kelly’s setting of the ‘Magnificat,’ which features calypso rhythms in the accompaniment, and was delivered with a great sense of rhythmic vitality.

Stanford’s ‘Song of Peace’ from the Four Bible Songs gave the first intimation of the Advent season, with a brief quotation from the opening of the melody to ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel,’ before winter truly arrived with Chilcott’s Midwinter, a setting of the text of ‘In the bleak mid-winter’ in Chilcott’s trademark sugary harmonic style.

The Choristers then rode a jolly romp through ‘As I outrode the endless night’ before the more contemplative ‘I wonder as I wander’ by Richard Lloyd, a lyrical meditation on the familiar melody.

Finally, the boys broke ranks and arrayed themselves around the Gulbenkian stage to sing the popular ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ in a setting that scattered the individual lines around the singers, grouped in ones and twos; the last occurrence of the partridge in a pear tree needed a second attempt, in order to finish on a final flourish which the young chap singing it forgot first time round, but the audience didn’t mind: he’d sung it so many times around, who could blame him ?

Rapturous applause from a delighted crowd brought forth a lively encore, Love Changes Everything, delivered in ebullient style.

Conducted throughout with great craft by Director of the Choristers, David Flood, and accompanied with terrific sensitivity on the piano by Simon Lawford, this was a fine finale to the term’s lunchtime series. The Choristers are heading into their own musical Christmas rush: we wish them well.

Furley Page logo
Sponsors of the Lunchtime Concert series

The weather outside is frightful…a seasonal Jazz @ 5

Snow ? Ice ? Freezing temperatures ? Events being cancelled at the fall of a flake ? Jazz @ 5 laughs at such things!

Jazz @ 5
Lights out for the territory...

With temperatures plummeting and snow and ice everywhere, the last Jazz @ 5 of the term warmed a suitably appreciative audience on Wednesday night, with a sprinkling of jazz-infused carols and popular Christmas favourites, a dash of funk and a slice of soul.

Making her debut at Kent, and beginning the evening in fine style, Ruby Mutlow gave a robust rendition of Macy Gray’s funk-laden Why Didn’t You Call Me, and Marvin Gaye’s soul classic What’s Goin’ On.  Also one of the Big Band singers this year, as well as singing with Chorus and Sing!, Ruby has a vibrant vocal presence on-stage, and will be one to watch this year.

In contrast, the Music Department’s very own Sophie Meikle stepped away from upright bass in the previous gig and stepped up to the microphone to sing White Christmas and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, the latter holding the attention of a rapt audience so closely that it felt like no-one breathed for the duration of the song.

Returning to the Gulbenkian Foyer stage was the classy Steph Richardson, with a poised reading of Peggy Lee’s Black Coffee, a coquettish Santa, Baby and a deft Let It Snow! There’s a real sense of accomplishment whenever Steph performs, she is completely at ease on the stage and with the other musicians. With Ruby and Jo as well, it’s an exciting year for jazz singers at Kent!

Also stepping onto the stage for the first time was first-year pianist Kirstie Robbie, who played Winter Wonderland with the ensemble, and also Wagglestick Walkabout as a solo item, the latter with a firm boogie-woogie feel to the left-hand.

Regulars Dan Harding on piano, Andrew Kitchin on guitar, Will Rathbone on sax and Matt Bardrick on drums,  were joined by Alastair Disley, a member of the Music and Audio Department of the School of Arts based in Medway, on electric bass, who heroically sat in at a few hours’ notice for his first Jazz @ 5. The group played a spirited performance of Herbie Hancock’s funky Canteloupe Island.

Thanks to all those who performed and especially to those making their debut on the University jazz scene. Jazz @ 5 returns in January: watch this space…

Lights, camera: Christmas!

Christmas in Canterbury has officially begun, and the Chamber Choir yesterday braved the freezing weather to sing to the good citizens in the town, still shopping at 5pm, with a selection of seasonal music.

May you beautifully rhyme...

A well-lit stage in the pedestrian precinct adjacent to Fenwick’s hosted the Cathedral Choristers, pupils from King’s School, and the University Chamber Choir, who gave rousing performances of popular carols under the exuberant direction of the Deputy Director of Music, whilst fourth-year Drama student (and a former Chamber Choir conductor herself) Amy Clarke also stepped out of the soprano section to conduct the not-so-seasonal but lively piece, Words by Anders Edenroth.

The Choir then adjourned to the street market in Whitefriars for some much-deserved mulled wine, where they showed their appreciation to the ladies on the market-stall by bursting into a spontaneous rendition of Ding, Dong, Merrily on High, to the delight of late shoppers who came out of the surrounding shops to listen.

Make good cheer and be right merry

Celebrities from this year’s Marlowe Theatre pantomime (including The Fast Show’s John Thompson) then entertained the crowds and the town’s Christmas lights were turned on. Christmas has officially begun here!

The Chamber Choir are in action next week, in hopefully warmer circumstances, in their ‘Advent by Candlelight‘ concert at St. Mildred’s, Stour Street on Friday evening: catch them if you can!

Photos: Susan Wanless.

Pudsey comes to Sing for Children in Need!

Well, alright, Pudsey actually conducted, rather than sang, if the headline misled you slightly.

Musicians and visitors at the University of Kent sang for Children in Need last Thursday, and raised £155 in thirty minutes as they performed ‘O Fortuna’ from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff.

Photo credit: Spencer Scott, University of Kent

Complete with two electric pianos and an array of percussion, volunteers arrived in Eliot Hall at lunchtime to piece together the famous theme to ‘The X-Factor,’ and raise money to support this year’s Children in Need appeal. The event was featured in the hourly cyclorama of county events during the Friday night broadcast on the BBC.

Many thanks to all who participated and made a donation, to Hannah Perrin who assisted, and to Pudsey himself for turning up!