To whet your appetites, here’s a quick teaser-trailer of what’s lined up for Summer Music Week next month.
Category Archives: Notes on Music
The philosophy of music: or the music of philosophy ?
Summer Music Week: events now online
And with the sound of heralding in the distance, the clarion-call of trumpets and a celestial choir, we are delighted to announce that the full line-up of events for Summer Music Week has now been published online.
The annual music celebration of the end of the University year starts with the University Big Band beside the seaside, performing at Deal Bandstand in support of Porchlight on Sunday 8 June at 2.30pm. Events then continue throughout the week – choral music, jazz, Big Band Gala, Music Scholars‘ recital, period-costume with the Dance Orchestra, foyer-stage gigs and more – culminating eventually in Music for a Summer’s Day on Sunday 15 June at 3pm, in which the combined forces of the University Chorus, Orchestra, Concert Band and Chamber Choir bid a rousing farewell to the end of another musical year.
Venues this year range from the seaside at Deal to the historic venues of St Thomas’ Hospital and the ancient St Peter’s Anglican Church in Canterbury, as well as the lively foyer-stage and the Colyer-Fergusson concert-hall.
Explore the complete programme online here: plenty to look forward to in this, the last term. Follow #SummerMusicWeek or @UKCSummerMusic on Twitter.
Sounds New coming to the Colyer-Fergusson Building
The annual Sounds New Festival of Contemporary Music will blossom around Canterbury towards the end of next week, and we’re very excited to be a partner in this year’s festival as it brings two vibrant headline concerts to the Colyer-Fergusson Building.
The boundary-trashing Icebreaker Ensemble will be here on Saturday 3 May in a performance of Brian Eno’s Apollo for all Mankind, as well as the première of composer Ed Bennett’s Suspect Device and music by Julia Wolfe.
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The Brodsky Quartet will be here on Thursday 8 May with a celebration of the music of prog-rock legend Robert Wyatt; the former Soft Machine founder’s music will be realised in a blend of strings, improvisation and live electronics, including singer Elaine Mitchener and Matt Wright.
The festival also features the Sounds New Poetry strand, with members of the University Centre for Modern Poetry in site-specific residencies in the city. Find out more about all the events happening at Sounds New online here.
Leading British composer in rehearsal with the Chamber Choir
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.
Born 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).
It 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
Image Gallery: Jonathan Mayer / Mitel Purohit workshop
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
Cathedral Concert tomorrow: nearly there…
Just under twenty-four hours until baton-down in the Nave of Canterbury Cathedral, as tomorrow’s all-day musical extravaganza looms.
Orchestra and Chorus in fine form last night; the Orchestra meets again tonight to put some finishing touches to the Vaughan Williams symphony, and then it’s back on campus at 9am sharp tomorrow, for the technical team (including your loyal correspondent) to organise all the equipment to be moved down to the Cathedral.
Not long to go, team…
HAIR raising adventure next week
Prep-HAIR for an adventure next week, as the University Music Theatre Society brings its annual production to the Gulbenkian Theatre.
Hair runs from Wednesday 19th March to Friday 21st March in a series of evenings shows starting at 7.30pm.
Here’s a trailer of the Society in rehearsal to whet your appetites.
Book your ticket on the Gulbenkian website here. Good luck to everyone involved!
Image Gallery: Mike Lovatt and the University Big Band
Pictures from the afternoon rehearsal for the concert by the University Concert and Big Band, conducted by Ian Swatman; here, ace trumpeter Mike Lovatt, making a guest appearance that evening, works with the Big Band, and singers Ruby Mutlow and Steph Richardson in action.
Images © University of Kent / Matt Wilson