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
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…
This year’s lunchtime concert series burst into ecstatic life with a visit from the ebullient Marici Saxes, launching the year-long monthly series at the Colyer-Fergusson Hall.
The set opened with Michael Nymans’s Chasing Sheep Is Best Left To Shepherds, with the group in rhythmic, robust form. The tour of Britain continued with music by the late Richard Rodney Bennett, three sections from Travel Notes; the lyrical, arcing melody in ‘Helicopter’ effortlessly played by Sally McTaggart on soprano saxophone (a late stand-in for the indisposed Sarah Field, whom we wish well). There was a lively, jocular air to the final ‘Car Chase’ that showed to the full the wonderfully liquid grace of the group’s ensemble-playing, and demonstrated they have a real affinity for this repertoire.
Michael Torke’s July is a tour de force for a sax ensemble, and was here delivered with assurance and a firm grasp of its rhythmic drive, coupled with contrasting, elegaic melodies. There was a punchy, vibrant swagger to the piece which was bursting with vigour, as the group ducked and dived in terrific unison through Torke’s no-holds-barred minimalism.
A change of mood next in Piazzolla’s ‘Cafe 1930’ from his Histoire de Tango, originally written for flute and guitar but here rendered for ensemble that had gently weaving lines spiralling up through the group.
Baritone saxophonist Josie Simmons turned composer for First Moon which followed, and showed a keen ear for dissonance in the opening chords, turning into a rhapsodic melody before springing to life in some mischievious post-minimalist textural writing, including some fiercly-skirling arabesques for the soprano sax.
The group ended its recital with the show-stopping Hoe Down by Will Gregory, in a performance that was truly hair-raisingly exciting, with some blistering agility displayed by Josie on baritone, who demonstrated that the instrument can be just as mobile as its smaller counterparts.
The piece, and the concert itself, was greeted with a roof-raising ovation from an enthralled audience, including a group of schoolchildren who were clearly held spellbound throughout the gig. A top-notch performance, delivered by an ensemble in fighting form. Catch them when you can…
Drum-roll please….our new Autumn music events details are now online!
Kicking off in October with the Marici Saxes, the Lunchtime Concert series also sees music from Covent Garden Voices and the KD Jazz and Dance Orchestra. The Brodsky Quartet returns with a concert celebrating the musical anniversaries of Wagner, Verdi and Britten, and there’s also Britten from the award-winning Kent College Choristers in Friday Afternoons. We are very excited that the Doyenne of Wagner, Dame Anne Evans, will be giving a singing masterclass and also appearing ‘In Conversation’ to talk about her career on the stage in November.
The University Chamber Choir will celebrate the beginning of the Advent season at Blean Church, and the December concert with the Chorus and Orchestra includes Vivaldi’s ever-popular Gloria alongside Respighi , Verdi and Cimarosa.
Our informal series of foyer-gigs, Watch This Space, will burst into life again on the foyer-stage, starting with live jazz in October, and the University Big Band will be providing some seasonal entertainment to round off what promises to be a very busy term.
We’re pleased to welcome the Canterbury Festival, who will be bringing the English première of a new opera by Sally Beamish in a double-bill with Britten’s Curlew River, and pianist Mikhail Rudy exploring Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Other visitors to the Colyer-Fergusson concert-hall include John Harle and the Festival Chamber Orchestra, Ashford Choral Society, Simon Langton Girls’ Choir and Caritas Chamber Choir.
See for yourself online here; you can also download the new brochure (PDF) here.
Click the album below to view photos from events throughout Summer Music week: more added as they come.
For non-Flash users, open the gallery here. More photos on the Music Week Twitter account.
Images © University of Kent
A selection of images from yesterday’s performance platform for the BMus Music and Popular Music students from the School of Music and Fine Arts, in the concert-hall at lunchtime.
Next week sees the opening concert in this term’s Lunchtime Concert series, a celebration of the music of Mozart with the Camerata, the Sirocco Ensemble, and pianists Sharon Yam and Susan Li.
The Sirocco Ensemble has been busy rehearsing Mozart’s Serenade no.12 in C minor, while the Camerata is preparing the ‘Andantino’ from the Concerto for Flute and Harp. Last night, the two soloists, Music Scholars Emma Murton and Kathryn Redgers, were warming up in the Hall beforehand…
Also in the concert is a work for piano duet, the Adagio and Allegro in F minor, which will be played by Sharon and Susan, who also played a Mozart duet in the Scholars concert last term. This time, however, they’ll be playing on the Steinway…!
The concert starts at 1.10pm, and admission is free; come along and enjoy a feast of Mozart’s music; details online here.
Ahead of their Lunchtime Concert in the Gulbenkian Theatre on Monday 3 December, I caught up with Sarah Ellen Hughes, singer with the group, and asked her about what we can look forward to.
DH: Tell us a little about the group.
SEH: Sector7 originated as a jazz group, but now plays a selection of gospel, folk, jazz and soul, that has been brought to the table by the diversity of the members. We have 4 singers in the group and a rhythm section, allowing us to explore some a cappella work, but also some groove-based music with the band too.
DH: And what excites you about the music you perform ?
SEH: Vocal harmony is always exciting, and having four strong voices performing things in sometimes incredibly difficult and intricate harmonies is great to be a part of. We also have a new member at the moment, who is a beatboxer, so we’ve been able to incorporate that into a few tunes which is brilliant!
DH: So, what can we look forward to in your gig in a few weeks’ time ?
We’re going to be playing a selection of Christmas music and some Sector7 originals. There are plenty of great Christmas standards out there that we’re going to put a twist on and arrange in our own way. But we don’t want to do a Christmas overload as it’s only the first week of December, so we’ll also be playing some songs from our EP:
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Thanks to Sarah for her time; find out more about the concert on our online diary here.
