The philosophy of music: or the music of philosophy ?
Something different for Burns Night 2021 from the Music Department; on Monday, we present the Address to the Haggis performed by third-year Music Performance Scholar and bagpipe-player, Eloise Jack.
Together with her father, Ian, the event includes Eloise piping two pieces, followed by the oration, and closes with Eloise playing Scotland the Brave.
The event screens on Monday 25 January at 1pm, and will remain on catch-up.
Slàinte!
Welcoming the new year with a new episode in the podcast series, Zoom For Thought, featuring University alumna, Catriona Bradley, who moved from reading Biology to RADA and whose work is currently gracing our screens in the series ‘Bridgerton,’ currently taking Netflix by storm…!
Alongside reading Biology at Kent, Catriona sang in the University Chorus, Chamber Choir and Minerva Voices, and was involved in making costumes for the Musical Theatre Society.
In the short interview, she talks about making the change from science to the creative sector, the benefits and transferable skills earned from her studies, and compares her experience at Kent with that at RADA.
Listen to the episode on Spotify here.
There’s also a web interview with Catriona on our YouTube channel, a longer discussion about her experience, which screens on Friday 8 Jan at 1pm and will remain online thereafter.
Thanks to Catriona for taking the time to share her experience; this is a short part of a longer filmed web-interview, coming soon….
It’s not Christmas without a performance in the Music Department of Santa Baby, and we’re delighted to bring that annual tradition round again this month, albeit in a slightly different format.
Although we can’t bring you the traditional Christmas Swingalong, we hope you enjoy this short jazz session, featuring third-year singers Elle Soo (reading Social Anthropology) and Robbie Frederick (Comparative Literature and Drama) in a handful of festive favourites, concluding with the evergreen seasonal duet, Baby It’s Cold Outside.
A little festive cheer for us all…
Filmed in Colyer-Fergusson Hall; with thanks to Thomas Connor, Luke McCann and George Morris.
Our new series of short filmed recitals, Scholars’ Spotlight, has launched this lunchtime with a performance of twentieth-century flute repertoire by third-year Music Performance Scholar reading Legal Studies, Meg Daniel.
The developing series showcases Music Performance Scholars and Music Award Holders here at the University, in an ongoing series of closed-door performances filmed in Colyer-Fergusson Hall.
You can watch Meg’s recital here:
The series will continue with further performances, screening each day at 1pm on the Music Department’s YouTube channel.
With thanks for technical support to Thomas Connor, Luke McCann and George Morris.
Hot on the heels of the recent release of their debut EP, the Music Department hosted a live webchat with the members of HollowHead about the challenge of releasing an EP in the COVID era, their inspiration and influences, and what we can expect next from this unique trio.
The group includes third-year Drama student, Amy Tokel, and postgraduate Joshua Mitchell, reading an MA in Film Studies, both from the School of Arts.
Hosted by Dan Harding, the interview includes the band talking about their approach to writing and recording, exploring new ways of collaborating during lockdown, and brief extracts from the EP.
A remarkable event next week, in our first ‘virtual’ Lunchtime Concert – first-year international pianist from Canada and Music Performance Scholar at Kent and Medway Medical School, Michael Lam, will mark the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven next week with a filmed performance of the mammoth Piano Sonata in A major, Op.101.
A keen enthusiast of Beethoven’s rich repertoire for piano, the performance, which was filmed in Colyer-Fergusson Hall earlier today on the University’s Steinway piano, will be Premiered on the Music Department’s YouTube channel as part of this year’s Beethoven anniversary celebrations.
Michael’s performance will be a continuous, unedited take, of the first of Beethoven’s Late Period piano sonatas, rich in complexity and a formidable challenge to pianists everywhere.
The Premiere is free to watch online on YouTube on the Music department’s channel here: to whet your appetites, you can watch Michael performing three pieces from Bach’s Anna Magdalena Notebook, filmed earlier this term, online here.
Filming of some of this year’s Music Scholars and Music Award Holders has continued this week, featuring third-year Film Studies student and pianist, Kiyan Agadjani:
and second-year Physics student and Indian classical singer, Ridima Sur.
Both students will be appearing in a special filmed performance by some of our student musicians which we will be presenting online shortly.
Part of their sessions were also livestreamed over on our Instagram IGTV account, a charming piano piece by Schumann and a mesmerising raga, both of which you can see here:
Stay tuned…
It’s been a busy period here in the Music department; on top of the usual online rehearsals and coaching sessions that have been running throughout the term, we’ve recently started filming in order to bring you some online programming during the current lockdown and over the remainder of this term.
Last week, Your Loyal Correspondent was busy recording some weird and wonderful pieces on the stage of the Gulbenkian theatre for an event combining music and landscape photography and a bonkers piece for piano and digital delay unit; it promises to be quite something…
This week, we’ve also been filming for a lockdown presentation of the Cellular Dynamics project, combining high-resolution photography and film from cutting-edge research from the School of Biosciences with live piano music, with Professor Dan Lloyd and a sequence of music by Debussy, Philip Glass, Tarik O’Regan and John Cage.
Today and next week, we’re also filming some of the University Music Performance Scholars and Award Holders performing individually, and we’ve also formed a new department ensemble, the Almas Ensemble, bringing together some of the visiting music staff, to film a performance including seasonal Baroque music by Vivaldi and Corelli.
Thanks to the hard-working technicians, Thomas and Luke; it’s all coming your way over the next month, as we work to provide a programme of digital content to engage and entertain you – stay tuned as the projects unfold…
