Category Archives: Now Hear This!

Music you should hear at least once…

Prepare to board with the Music Theatre Showcase!

November 14, 2013 Daniel Harding Leave a comment

Get your passports and boarding passes at the ready and join the University Music Theatre Society on a thrilling, whistle-stop tour of the world, including songs from Chicago, Lion King, Oklahoma, Annie and many more this weekend, as they embark on their showcase and extend the invitation to Come Fly With Me.

Performances are on Saturday 16th November at 8 pm, and Sunday 17th November at 4 pm / 8 pm in Darwin Missing Link; tickets are available from the Mandela building and are only £5 (the cheapest holiday yet!)

Fasten your seat belts, put your tray tables in the upright position and prepare for Come Fly With Me, as this is one journey you won’t want to miss. Here’s some of the Society in rehearsal this week…

Follow the Music Theatre Society on Twitter.

Now Hear This!

Wise Words Festival next week

September 3, 2013 Daniel Harding Leave a comment

The written and spoken word is celebrated next week, as Canterbury comes alive to the Wise Words festival.

Back for a second year, running from Thursday 12 – Sunday 15 September, the festival sees poets such as Sir Andrew Motion reading from his new collection, The Customs House; the Bard of Barnsley and presenter of Radio 3’s The Verb, Ian McMillan, will be here next Friday, in collaboration with composer Luke Carver Goss.

Three of the University of Kent’s poets from the School of Creative Writing will also be participating; award-winning poet Nancy Gaffield will be leading a workshop on poetry and the journey, in the wake of her prize-winning collection Tokaido Road, and Dorothy Lehane and Patricia Debney will also be featuring in the festival.

Canterbury Laureate Dan Simpson will be presenting a crowd-sourced poem celebrating the city, and there’s also an array of events for families and children, many of which are free to attend. Poets and story-tellers will be popping up in surprising locations around Canterbury, including in a yurt in the Franciscan Gardens; or take a punt on the river to explore myths, legends and fairy-tales in the company of Emily Parrish. Join poet John Siddique free each morning at Browns Coffeehouse for his daily journal-writing session; the Three Cities Garden will be full of mystery, wonder and story-telling; or re-discover the lost art of exploration with explorer, navigator and broadcaster Tristan Gooley.

Find out more about next week online here; promising to be a festival that “re-awakens wonder and encourages curiosity,” you won’t be disappointed.

wisewords_logo Follow Wise Words festival on Twitter.

Jazz Booth, Keeping It Real: reviews., Now Hear This!

Now listening: Trish Clowes on Jazz Line-Up

July 16, 2013 Daniel Harding Leave a comment

From the opening, hypnotic circling of Atlas to the final, concise and vibrant rendition of Master & Margarita, jazz afficionados should grab the chance to hear Trish Clowes’ recent gig at King’s Place, broadcast on Jazz Line Up on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday. Regular readers (yes, both of you…) will have seen I’ve written about Trish before here, and a couple of features over on the Big Band blog here, since hearing her burst onto the scene at the ‘BBC Presents’ stage at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival back in 2011.

Trish is currently enjoying the status of this year’s Radio 3 New Generation Jazz Artist, and the gig showcases both familiar tracks and some new pieces. Her ear for sinuous, lyrical improvisation is always apparent, whilst the new Chorale is an understated exploration of the ballad form.

The quintet features the superlative drumming of James Maddren, and the dextrous pianistic skills of Gwilym Simcock (himself a former Radio 3 New Generation Jazz Artist), who delivers a scintillating solo-for-the-age in the final piece.

Here’s a live version of Atlas from last year:

Catch the King’s Place gig on iPlayer until next Monday online here.

Now Hear This!

Just because it’s June…Summer Music Week

April 30, 2013 Daniel Harding Leave a comment

I’m delighted to say that the details for Summer Music Week (Mon 3 – Sun 9 June) have just been published live.

The week-long events programme opens in rousing style with music for brass and percussion at lunchtime on Monday 3 June, and continues throughout the week with a recital from some of the Music Scholars; a day of jazz, culminating in the annual bun-fest that is the Big Band Gala with special guests; string music is the theme on Thursday, including the String Sinfonia; Friday celebrates choral music with a lunchtime of a cappella vocal music, whilst the University Chamber and Cecilian Choirs come together in the evening concert; and the whole week, nay, the whole musical year, reaches its climax on the Sunday, in a combined afternoon concert with the University Chorus, Symphony Orchestra, Concert Band and Chamber Choir.

summer_music_flower Find out all that’s happening that week, including many free events, on the website here.

Just because it’s June…

International Impact, Now Hear This!

A Khushi number: Emily cooks up a dance storm

April 6, 2013 Daniel Harding Leave a comment

As highlighted in an earlier post, saxophonist and second-year Emily Cook continues with her fund-raising for schools for street-children in India with her charity, Khushi Feet.

Emily and a team of supporters recently launched their drive for the world-record attempt at the largest Bollywood Dance, due to take place in June, with some flashmob Indian dance around her home town of Faversham.

The event was also featured in the Faversham Times.

More details on the charity’s Facebook page here.. Lots of luck to Emily in the build-up to the event, in support of a very worthy cause.

Now Hear This!

How do you measure a year ? Music Theatre Society presents ‘Rent’

March 11, 2013 Daniel Harding Leave a comment

It’s that time of year when the University Music Theatre Society is bracing itself for its annual production – previous shows have included ‘Into the Woods’ (read the review here) and ‘Carousel,’ and this year, the Society is really breaking new ground.

In this, the twentieth-anniversary year of its original performance, Musical Theatre Society is presenting ‘Rent,’ Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical based upon Puccini’s tragic opera, La bohème.

The production runs from 27th – 29th March at the Gulbenkian Theatre, with shows starting at 7.30pm; tickets available online here.

It’s the first time that the Music Theatre Society will bring its annual production to the Gulbenkian, and it will leave you crying, laughing and loving every minute, so don’t miss out! Find out more on the production’s Facebook page here.

Now Hear This!

Concert in the Cathedral looms

February 21, 2013 Daniel Harding Leave a comment

Next week sees the annual Colyer-Fergusson Cathedral Concert, and this year the University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra will come together in Brahms’ Second Symphony and Schubert’s Mass in A flat.

cathedral_cloud_floodlit_web The annual event is always one of the high points in the cultural calendar, and we’re busy amidst a final flurry of rehearsals in preparation for the big night. More details about the concert on our ‘What’s On’ page here.