As part of the build-up to this Friday’s performance of Alice in Wonderland: A Musical Dream Play by the University Music department, we’re pleased to present a series of films each day this week of some of the Nonsense Songs, written by Liz Lehmann and published in 1908, that will be performed at the event.
The suite of characterful and charming songs takes its text from the nonsense rhymes that appear in the book – including How doth the little crocodile, You are old, Father William, and Will you walk a little faster – and creates a series of pieces for variously a quartet of voices, solos and duets. The songs will be performed live on the foyer-stage in Colyer-Fergusson by a quartet drawn from the principal cast, who will sing as part of the Hatter’s Tea Party which takes place immediately before the performance.
The first song – How doth the little crocodile – is here performed by Will Clothier (baritone), Maddie Jones (soprano), and two University Music Award Holders, Matthew Cooke (tenor) and Sophia Lyons (soprano). The rest of the songs will be released daily on YouTube over the course of this week, building nicely up to Friday’s performance of the Dream Play.
Tuesday: the second song, a duet of You are old, Father William, featuring baritone Will Clothier and tenor Matthew Cooke.
Wednesday: the Duchess Lullaby, Speak roughly to your little boy, sung by third-year soprano, Maddie Jones:
and the quartet sings Will you walk a little faster said the whiting to the snail:
Thursday: The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts sung by third-year soprano, Sophia Lyons:
And the final song from the cycle features the whole quartet in the heart-breakingly beautiful Epilogue.
Details and tickets for Alice in Wonderland: a Musical Dream Play can be found online here. Watch all songs as they are released on a dedicated YouTube playlist throughout the week here.
Alongside the production, there are two art exhibitions on campus celebrating the bicentenary of Sir John Tenniel, illustrator, and cartoonist, whose illustrations graced the pages of the first publication of Alice in Wonderland in 1865. The production of the Musical Dream Play will feature many of Tenniel’s ilustrations projected above the stage during the performance, and these are currently on display in Colyer-Fergusson Gallery throughout February, allowing visitors the opportunity almost to walk through pages of the book…
An early morning start saw the coach-load of musicians leaving Colyer-Fergusson in various stages of wakefulness (well, 6.30am on a Sunday can be a little early for some…), with a welcome coffee at the Folkestone terminal of Le Shuttle enlivening the group further still on its way to an 11am (French time) rehearsal in the church beneath glorious November skies.
Music by Elgar and Warlock was soon swirling around the nave of the magnificent church, with later on the strains of Marcello’s Oboe Concerto lifting into the roof courtesy of Professor Dan Lloyd, who joined the string group on oboe, stepping out of his busy schedule as Deputy Head of the School of Biosciences.
The Camerata’s international make-up mirrors that of the wider University community, with members from Germany, Lithuania, France and Canada, including an Erasmus-student cellist; the Schools of Psychology, Law, Mathematics and Biosciences were also represented by the ensemble’s constituents, many of whom are either current or former University Music Performance Scholars. It’s a testament to the nature of extra-curricular music-making at Kent that it transcends boundaries – geographical, hierarchical, institutional – as it creates communities working together in rehearsal and performance.
The concert, part of the city’s current festival, drew over six hundred people to witness the power of collaborative creativity which lies at the heart of the University’s vision. We’re already looking forward to the second event in our planned collaboration later in the year.
Congratulations to all the performers, to leader Floriane Peycelon and conductor Susan Wanless, on a magnificent ambassadorial showcase that illustrated, to an international audience, what an international University can do.
The Camerata last sailed in to port back in March for a performance of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf; we’re looking forward to presenting a largely English musical feast for the burghers of Calais at the end of next week, on Sunday 10 November; should you happen to be in the city at 3pm, the event is free, join University musicians as we celebrate our historic links with the French city-port – event details online 
The event combines projections of his best-loved masterworks with choral pieces that connect with the images. Leonardo expert Professor Martin Kemp and I Fagiolini’s director Robert Hollingworth will also be introducing the evening.
Plans for the Wednesday event include live music on the foyer-stage throughout the day, and there’s the possibility of a Scratch Orchestra play-through of popular film scores, and even choruses from Messiah.
We look forward to welcoming you through the doors of Colyer-Fergusson during Welcome Week, and especially next Wednesday – come and find out how to make rehearsing and performing a part of your university experience, whatever course you may be studying!
I really enjoyed the course. Being able to focus on just bagpiping really helped and I would definitely attend another intensive course in the future so that I can continue to develop my overall technique and repertoire.