The philosophy of music: or the music of philosophy ?
Prepare for a land of ‘Make Believe’ in the company of the Music Theatre Society this weekend.
On Saturday 1st of March at 4 pm (Matinee) and 8 pm (evening) and Sunday 2nd of March 8 pm, Darwin’s Missing Link will come alive to music from Les Miserables, Matilda, Beauty & The Beast and other favourites.
Ticket are a mere snip at £5 available from The Mandela Building on Campus or online via the Kent Union website: find out more on the Society’s Facebook event page here.
The University Cecilian Choir, fresh from its seasonal debut on the foyer-stage at Christmas, is currently in rehearsals in preparation for its concert towards the end of term, in which the Choir will present a range of contemporary pieces alongside Hassler’s Missa super Dixit Maria.
But before then, the Choir will be singing in a lunchtime concert next Wednesday, as the ‘Watch This Space’ series celebrates LGBT Month with the music of Benjamin Britten. The programme will include movements from the Ceremony of Carols including harpist Emma Murton; folk-songs sung by Kathryn Cox and Paris Noble; and will conclude with movements from Britten’s rambunctious Friday Afternoons.
The event starts at 1.10pm; admission is free.
Rachel Podger, a leading exponent in the field of period performance, will be appearing at the Colyer-Fergusson Hall next week, in a programme of music for solo violin.
Former leader of The English Concert from 1997 to 2002 and a guest director with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, as well as establishing the Brecon Baroque Festival, Rachel is an inspirational performing musician. The concert on Friday 21 February includes Bach’s Flute Partita in A minor, transposed for violin, and Biber’s ‘Guardian Angel,’ the final work from his Mystery Sonatas.
Here’s Rachel at the BBC Proms back in 2007, in the exquisite second movement of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto in D minor, playing with Andrew Manze.
More details on our What’s On page here.
As regular readers of this blog will know (well, maybe both of them will…), I’m a fan of British saxophonist Martin Speake, having written about him here and here when his playing has been broadcast on Radio 3; and I am Very Excited to announce that the Martin Speake trio will be coming to the Colyer-Fergusson Hall in March.
Speake has been a vital part of the British jazz scene ever since bursting onto the musical map as founder-member of the ground-breaking, ofttimes blistering sax quartet Itchy Fingers during the 1980s, a period which witnessed something of an explosion with groups like The Jazz Warriors and Loose Tubes and the arrival of Courtney Pine, Cleveland Watkiss, Django Bates and Andy Sheppard. A fertile period for British jazz, which had rather languished in the doldrums during the 1970s, and a time when that giant of British pianists, Keith Tippett, said he had to pick potatoes in order to make a living.
Emerging as part of this renaissance of British jazz, Speake forged a path which later saw the creation of the Martin Speake Group, with the album ‘Change of Heart’ released on that bastion of jazz record labels, ECM, in 2006, on which Speake partners the great pianist Bobo Stenson, bassist Mick Hutton and drummer Paul Motian. Active as a performer, he also teaches at Trinity Laban and the Royal Academy of Music.
https://soundcloud.com/martin-speake/09-when-your-lover-has-gone
Speake’s playing is at once effortlessly lyrical and restlessly, dextrously inventive, and is wholly accessible without being predictable or trite; it’s always subtle, assured and with a deft ear for melodic line. I’m ecstatic that the trio is bringing its current UK tour to the campus. Catch them live in the concert-hall on Wednesday 2 April at 1.10pm; admission is free. This is one gig you definitely won’t want to miss…
The University Musical Theatre Society raises the curtain to the term this weekend, with performances of the ever-popular Sweet Charity at the Marlowe Studio Theatre, in Canterbury.
Performances are this Friday 24th January, 8pm, and a matinee and evening performance on Saturday 25th January at 2pm & 8pm. Tickets are £10 (concessions £9), and Discovery Tickets £8 (16-26 or Full-Time Student), so you don’t have to be a Big Spender to see it…
To whet your appetite, here’s the Society’s trailer…
Book tickets online here, and see the Society’s event page on Facebook here. It promises to be quite an occasion…
Follow the Music Theatre Society on Twitter.
A dizzying profusion of events is unleashed over the coming months, as you can now see from our online events calendar.
The free Lunchtime Concert series includes a visit from British saxophonist Martin Speake, who brings his trio as part of his current UK tour, and from acclaimed sitar-player, Jonathan Mayer. There’s the annual Colyer-Fergusson Cathedral Concert with the University Chorus and Orchestra, this year commemorating the First World War with music by Elgar and Vaughan Williams, and the Chamber Choir returns to the Cathedral Crypt to sing a programme including Palestrina, Brahms, Whitacre and Paul Patterson.
Conductor Ian Swatman leads the Concert and Big Bands at the end of February in Ravel and Earth, Wind and Fire, and later teams up with the Big Band from St Edmund’s School in a charity gig in aid of the Pilgrim’s Hospice. There’s music down the hill, too, as the Lost Consort explores the music of Hildegard von Bingen in the Roman Undercroft of St Thomas’ Hospital, and the Chamber & Cecilian Choirs at St Peter’s Methodist with music by Hassler, Maskats and Chilcott.
Visitors to the concert-hall include Rachel Podger, who brings a recital of works for solo baroque violin, and later in May there’s a recital from pianist Malcolm Binns.
Plenty to enjoy over the coming months; see the calendar online here, or download the brochure (PDF) here. Meanwhile, the Lunchtime Concert series begins on Weds February 12 with music for two-pianos and four-hands by Poulenc, Ravel and Gavin Bryars with pianists Matthew King and your loyal correspondent, who is now off to practice…
Over on the choral blog, Cantus Firmus, there’s a look back at the University Carol Service that took place on Monday night at Canterbury Cathedral, at which the University Chamber performed, processed, and managed not to set light to anything flammable…
There’s also a look at some of the contemporary repertoire facing the University Cecilian Choir, ahead of its concert next term.
And in case you missed it, conductor of the University Big Band, Ian Swatman, ponders the inevitability of next week’s Swing-along-a-Santa over on On The Beat.
Meanwhile, we’re all preparing for tomorrow night’s concert with the University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra in the usual end-of-term extravaganza. See you on Monday…
A busy week this week for the department.
Wednesday’s lunchtime concert sees the continuing #Britten100 celebrations from the award-winning Kent College Choristers, as they bring his Friday Afternoons for voices and piano to the Colyer-Fergusson Hall at 1.10pm.
Then, on Friday evening at 7.45pm, the Colyer-Fergusson Hall hosts a return visit from the Brodsky Quartet with its contribution to our tripartite centenary observance with music by Britten, Verdi and Wagner; there’s also music by Frank Bridge, Britten’s teacher, on the programme.
Finally, also on Friday evening, the University Chamber Choir will be marking the beginning of the Advent season with a sequence of carols and readings at the Church of St Damian and St Cosmus, Blean, in what seems to be becoming an annual tradition! Woven around the great Advent antiphons is a collection of carols old and new, poems and prose exploring the meaning of the Advent season.
Plenty to celebrate this week. More details on our online events diary here.
