Profiling performers and activities appearing at this year’s ArtsFest.
Sedecim
Sedecim is a group of young singers aged between twelve and seventeen, all of whom are pupils at Kent College, Canterbury.
The group has only been formed recently, from present and ex-members of the well-established Kent College Choristers, winners of the ‘Outstanding’ award at the National Festival of Music for Youth and finalists in the Children’s Category of the BBC Choir of the Year 2008.
The members of Sedecim sing regularly in various local churches, both leading the worship in services and performing concerts for charity and fund-raising events. They have already had some success, reaching the finals of the Top Choir Kent Competition in March 2010.
This will be their ArtsFest debut, and it promises to be a great event: make sure you’re there!
The summer term is always a mixture of pleasure and regret: sadness that so many who have been a vibrant part of the musical life of the university are about to leave, but pleasure at being able to acknowledge some of them formally.
Last Friday saw the prize-giving for this year’s Music Awards prizes, and a chance for members of the staff and scholarship committee to recognise and thank particular students for their contribution to the year.
Winner of the Canterbury Festival Music Prize Maddie Harris received her award from Rosie Turner, Director of the Canterbury Festival, in acknowledgement of her outstanding contribution as a final-year student to Kent’s musical life.
Suzy Walton, last year’s Music Society Secretary, received the Colyer-Fergusson Music Prize for her contribution to organising music at the University from Jonathan Monckton, Chair of the Colyer-Fergusson Charitable Trust. It’s always a genuine pleasure for Jonathan to be able to present the award in honour of Sir James Colyer-Fergusson, who supported music at the University and after whom the Cathedral Concert every March, given by the University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, is named.
(l-r): Elizabeth McIver, Alanya Holder, Maddie Harris, Suzy Walton
The University Music Awards Committee Prize, an occasional award to recognise a special contribution to the year’s musical activities, went to Biosciences student Elizabeth McIver. Presenting her award was Dr. Dan Lloyd, a lecturer in the Biosciences Department, who was delighted to be able to recognise a musical student’s achievements from within his own faculty.
The University Music Prize, awarded to a returning student, went to Alanya Holder, the new Music Society President. She received her award from Dame Anne Evans, Patron of the Music Scholarship Scheme.
Each of these worthy winners has played a significant role in the continuing success of music-making here at the University, and hopefully they will continue to be involved in music after life at Kent.
To all those musical students who are leaving this year, and who have done so much to make the University’s music a success: ave atque vale. You will all be much missed.
Profiling performers and activities coming up at this year’s ArtsFest.
The Maridadi Singers: Photo credit: Robert Berry
Formed in 1997, the Maridadi Singers are a popular feature at the University’s ArtsFest. Conducted by the dynamic Anita Memmott, the group is a community of world singers who perform regularly including concerts in Canterbury Cathedral, the Canterbury Festival, the University of Kent’s Gulbenkian Theatre, and in London.
Anita is delighted to be back at ArtsFest again. ”Our group will be performing songs and drumming numbers from South Africa. We will also do some spirituals and songs from Israel/Palestine.Audience participation is encouraged and there’s always singing, drumming and dancing during our sets. Children usually have a great time with us!”
The Maridadi singers & The Strode Park Foundation are coming together for Arts Fest: Anita had the idea of a ‘Singing for Fun” group at Strode Park. Anita volunteers to facilitate the group once a fortnight and around sixteen residents regularly attend the sessions. The benefits are clear to see as the residents reminisce with songs from their past, and are always adding new songs to their repertoire.
The residents will be with the Maridadi for the first time and will perform a selection of their favorite songs at ArtsFest.
Whilst listening to the University Concert Band performing a suite from the score to the film Gladiator at a recent concert, I was struck anew by the allure that film music has for me. On browsing through my array of CDs later on, I realised that a large part of my listening library is devoted to film scores, from the spooky Classicism of Hannibal to the robust menace of Gladiator and Jurassic Park, the ethereal mystery of Solaris or the innocent jollity of Amelie.
What is it about film music that appeals ? On reflection, I suspect it might be the immediacy of the emotion it conjures, the instant creation of a mood or effect. Unlike traditional classical music, film scores don’t rely on musical form and architecture in the same way as, say, a symphony or a piano sonata. Film music, at least non-diagetic film music, is used because a director wants to enhance the emotion of a particular scene, and the music has to respond immediately. There is no room for traditional forms such as sonata form – exposition, development, recapitulation – which is all about presenting ideas, developing them, setting up tonal or harmonic relationships, and then providing a resolution in a coda. Think of the menace of the creeping semi-tone in Jaws, or the shrieking strings in Bernard Hermann’s music to Psycho: the effect is immediate.
Of course, diagetic music can do this as well: I’m thinking of that scene in Riidley Scott’s beautiful Hannibal, where the sound of the theme from Bach’s glorious Goldberg Variations seeps into the soundtrack, and the camera tracks across the room to reveal Lecter himself playing the piece as he muses on the letter he has just written to Starling. The piece is a favourite of Lecter’s, as we know from The Silence of the Lambs when he plays it on a tape-recorder in the prison-cage. The beauty of Bach’s melody stands in stark contrast to the environment in which it appears: Lecter’s private residence, or the cage-prison, and the figure of Lecter himself. (This video of Gould performing the Aria uncannily mirrors something of the tracking effect Scott uses in the film: I wonder if he’d seen it ?).
So what film music looms large in your library, and why ?
Be My Guest: an occasional series of guest posts and contributions. This week, a review of the recent Brodsky Quartet concert at the Gulbenkian Theatre by Danielle Broadbent. Danielle is a second-year Architecture student, and Music Scholarship Student. She plays the cello in the University Symphony Orchestra, and has also set up some additional string groups.
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There was a good turn-out at the Brodsky Quartet concert at the Gulbenkian on Wednesday 19th May.
Many people come regularly to see the group play, so the audience knew to expect a good evening. There was a really friendly atmosphere with even a group of young people from St. Edmund’s School among the audience. It’s so easy to get to that I was surprised: for just £7 for a Student Stand-By ticket, you would have to pay a lot more to get such a professional performance any where else!
The quartet plays standing up which is unusual but works really well. It allows for lots of movement, which means that the group sometimes looks like they are dancing as they play. The four players dip and dive, showing the spark between them as they work together in a really strong team. The first violinist is very expressive. His showy, tapping, style took him up to two metres away from the stand at times! Complimenting this is the unfussy, solid performance of the second violinist. The viola player is the spokesman of the group, introducing pieces with interesting facts and a few jokes. Beautifully interwoven with his approach is the elegant playing of the cellist. There is a definite sparkle within the group, as they use eye-contact and general movement to bring the music alive. Their playing is so well integrated that it sometimes feels like they are holding a musical conversation.
The first piece was Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C Minor (K546). We were told how Mozart took the examples of Bach and Handel and said ‘I can do better!’ The playing was crystal-clear with incredibly expressive playing from inside players. They made the most of the silences in the piece and looked like they had great fun playing the last movement.
The second piece was the Schumann Quartet in A Major, op. 41 no 3. 2010 is Schumann’s 200th birthday celebration year and last time the Brodskys came to the Gulbenkian earlier this year they also played his music. There was rapturous applause, and even cheers at the end of the piece!
After the interval, the concert continued with Tchaikovsky’s first quartet in D major. This came complete with regulation coughs and shuffles between movements! The first movement was stirring, the second beautiful and the third fascinating, but the masterful, boisterous and playful rendition of the final movement was definitely my favourite part. The clever programming and showmanship of the performers worked the audience up so that the applause left no-one in any doubt that an encore was necessary!
This turned out to be the group’s own arrangement of a piano piece from Schumann’s Album for the Young. The tired but jubilant quartet settled the audience down with this lovely, quiet piece rounding up the concert in style.
Written by Danielle Broadbent.
The Brodsky Quartet in 2008, playing the Brahms Clarinet Quintet:
It’s always exciting to discover a new composer whose musical language instantly appeals to you.
I can still recall the exact moment when I first heard a piece by Steve Reich: Vermount Counterpoint. I was immediately hooked. A pal at school had made a compilation tape of pieces for me, including Eight Lines, Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ, Six Pianos, and a piece by another Minimalist, John Adams, Grand Pianola Music. Now my listening library is dominated by these two composers.
I’ve recently discovered another Adams: John Luther Adams, whose hypnotic music occupies a similar niche. The beautiful soundscape of In a Treeless Place, Only Snow is a delicate gem.
Both performances by the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, with other pieces streamed from WXQR, the classical radio station in New York’s website here as well.
(And continuing the leap into the Digital Age: you’re now using a media player on this blog as well. Blogs, virtual magazines, video-clips, floating media player: the modernisation continues!)
So, what music struck you like a thunderbolt early on and has stayed with you ever since ?
Continuing the series profiling musical alumni of the University of Kent. This week, Miles Banbery.
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Web-master: Miles Banbery
When were you at Kent ?
1990-1995 as a student – ever since as a member of staff!
What subject did you study ?
BA (Hons) in History and MA in Medieval and Tudor Studies.
What occupation are you now engaged in ?
I’m the Web Editor for the University of Kent.
If music is not your profession, do you participate in any musical experiences now ?
I belong to two local chamber choirs (one of whom I occasionally conduct and more regularly act as rehearsal pianist for) and get involved as a ‘dep’ or ‘bumper’ with a variety of local chamber choirs, church choirs and choral societies. In addition, I sing in and organise a quartet who sing a monthly unaccompanied mass at a local church. Sometimes we grow to 8 or 12 members for special occasions but always stick to the 16th century English and continental European unaccompanied repertoire.
How were you involved in music whilst at Kent
I sang in the University Chamber Choir and University Chorus as well as taking my turn conducting the Chamber Choir and the Big Band. In addition, I served as a committee member for both the Chamber Music Society and the Jazz and Blues Society. I also performed in the chorus for Tosca in the Gulbenkian and for The Pyjama Game in the Marlowe. Later on I also had the opportunity to be musical director to student productions of Cabaret and My Fair Lady as well as vocal coach for Joseph.
What did you gain from your University music experience, and has this helped you in any way since leaving Kent ?
I gained hugely from the opportunities given to students to perform as soloists, gain experience of musicals and operas and also get to conduct/direct if they wanted. That kind of experience is invaluable and, whilst its tempting to keep standards high by using local semi-pros and pros, student experience and development is so important. The solo and conducting experience I got at Kent hugely improved not just my skills in those areas, but my confidence presenting in front of large groups of people and choir work is great for learning key team skills.
I also learnt how much comes to those who are willing to organise it themselves! Its no good waiting for others to bring opportunities to you!
What was your most memorable musical experience at Kent ?
Difficult to pick just one! Chamber Choir tours to Prague including the one I conducted must be top, but I remember a wonderful Messiah in St. Peter’s Methodist Church and a wonderful Monteverdi Vespers in Wye Parish Church. I have to say how much I enjoyed the annual ‘Messiah from Scratch’. A great introduction to Kent for singers and players alike.
What would you say to current musical students at the University ?
Take every opportunity to perform you can get without failing your degree! Also, don’t neglect your practice and technique like I did! 🙂
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If you’re a musical alumnus and would like to be featured, get in touch via the Music Department website: we’d love to hear from you!
The world of classical music yesterday mourned the death of Yvonne Loriod, pianist and wife of composer Olivier Messiaen. A former pupil of the great French master, she became an astonishing exponent of Messiaen’s often fantastically virtuosic piano music.
Because it does. Doesn't it ? Blogging about extra-curricular musical life at the University of Kent.
