Tag Archives: String Sinfonia

Circle of Remembrance: new album on Spotify features Kent alumna Aisha Bové

Fresh out on Bandcamp is a reflective album, The Circle of Remembrance, by singer-songwriter Jeska Onderwater, which also features the cello-playing of Kent alumna, Aisha Bové.

Aisha graduated in 2013 with a BA in English & American Literature and English Language and Linguistics, and played cello in the Symphony Orchestra, leading the section, as well as playing chamber music, whilst at Kent; she is also one of the founding members of the String Sinfonia. Aisha currently teaches English on the IB programme at L’Athénée de Luxembourg.

Aisha, pictured playing in Colyer-Fergusson Hall in 2013Aisha recently had the chance to record some backing cello sounds for Jeska, who originally came from the Netherlands but now lives and works in Luxembourg.

Jeska contacted her in March when she was looking for a cellist to add some final parts to her recordings. The album was recorded in different places, mixed and mastered in again other places, including Portugal and Luxembourg. Jeska and Aisha met up at Unison studios in Luxembourg to record the cello lines.

“She gave me a lot of freedom in deciding what I wanted to play,” recalls Aisha, “ and so I added some background sounds that went nicely with her singing, but also some solo parts. As her music is generally quite calm, I saw it as my main role to add that extra layer, almost like a cushion/ carpet. We recorded the four tracks in one afternoon.”

A gently meditative album, drenched in birdcalls and sounds of nature, Aisha’s cello provides a warm counterpoint to some filigree guitar and an intimate vocal line, playing as she does on tracks 6,7,8 and 11.

“The musical memories from Kent are some of the fondest ones I have, and I believe that the variety of music-making, from orchestra, to different ensembles and even busking in the streets of Canterbury have really helped me become the musician I am today.”

The String Sinfonia performing on campus in the summer of 2013

Take a reflective listen on Bandcamp here.

In pictures: Summer Music Week 2023

Another year of extra-curricular music-making has come to a close with this year’s Summer Music Week. Taking place across eight days, the series of concerts ranged from the evocative Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral to a sun-drenched trip to the seaside and Deal Bandstand, two Scholars’ Lunchtime Concerts, the ceremony for this year’s Music Prize Winners (about which more shortly…) and more, all coming to a rousing finale with the closing Saturday gala.

Here are some of the images capturing this year’s series of events; as always, our enormous thanks to everyone who took part – students and staff at a particularly busy time in the academic year, alumni, and members of the local community – in a splendid festival. There’s always a wonderful community feeling to the week, as musicians come together for the last time, some for the final performance before graduating.  To those who are leaving: ave atque vale; to those who are returning in September, see you then!

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View the full album of photos from throughout the week on our Facebook Page here.

Same again next year, then ?!

Images (c): Chris Wenham / University of Kent

Additional images by Laurence Leung / Dan Harding

String Sinfonia at Faversham with John Woolrich

Congratulations to the University String Sinfonia, who on Saturday headed to the Market Town of Kings, to perform at St Mary’s, Faversham, as part of the Coffee Concert series.

Directed by Floriane Peycelon, the players gave a spirited reading of Arensky’s Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky (a theme most often heard in the carol ‘A Crown of Roses’), followed by a performance of John Woolrich’s evocative Ulysses Wakes, featuring postgraduate Music Performance Scholar reading Chemistry, Kira Hilton, as soloist.

Music PErformance Scholar and Chemistry postgraduate, Kira Hilton, and composer John Woolrich after the concert

Woolrich’s hushed, agile responses to Monteverdi cast a shimmering spell as it lifted into the church’s generous acoustic, and the composer, who was present for the performance, talked before the piece about his music and the spirit behind his reimagining music of the past.

The String Sinfonia is back in action on Friday 31 March in Colyer-Fergusson Hall; more details here.

A night (and afternoon) at the opera: Lois Cocker reviews the Glyndebourne visit to Colyer-Fergusson and beyond

The Music department hosted players from the Glyndebourne Touring Orchestra and Pit Perfect Scheme for an afternoon performance and workshop, before we took a group of student musicians to see the production of La Bohème at the Marlowe that evening. Here, final-year Forensic Science student and cellist, Lois Cocker, looks back on her experience throughout the day.


Last Wednesday I had a fun day, full of music, which I was able to be a part of thanks to being part of the University String Sinfonia. The Glyndebourne touring orchestra visited Canterbury and put on a lunchtime concert in the Colyer-Fergusson hall which was incredible to watch. After the concert I was then part of the workshop where some musicians from the orchestra coached the String Sinfonia as part of their Pit Perfect scheme. I play the cello and so was lucky enough to sit next to one of the pro cellists who was so lovely and friendly! The professionals from Glyndebourne gave us great advice which we all took on board and will definitely use in our playing in the future.

Glyndebourne Pit Perfect players performing in Colyer-Fergusson Hall
String Sinfonia and Glyndebourne players at the workshop in the afternoon

After the workshop, some of us went into town to get some pizza before heading out to watch the Glyndebourne opera – La Bohème at the Marlowe Theatre, which we were lucky enough to attend thanks to being treated by the music department here at Kent. This was my second ever opera I had seen. (Last year I was able to see my first ever opera with the String Sinfonia, The Rake’s Progress which was also a Glyndebourne production). La Bohème was such a beautiful opera which I enjoyed so much- it even made me cry! The music from the orchestra was incredible, I almost forgot that it was all being performed live as it was immaculate! I’m so glad I was able to experience this.

Members of the String Sinfonia and director Flo Peycelon, with some of the Glyndebourne players at the Marlowe Theatre

Before I had ever watched an opera, I always assumed it wasn’t really my cup of tea, but after now seeing two operas I can’t wait to see more! I was so engrossed watching La Bohème, it was comedic and also emotional. The voices of the opera singers were so beautiful. After the performance we had the opportunity of speaking to some of the musicians again. I was able to learn about their musical upbringings and their musical careers which I found so interesting and inspiring.

A forensic approach: final-year student and cellist, Lois Cocker

All-in-all it was an amazing day and I feel so lucky to have been part of the experience. It’s a massive part of my university experience that I will cherish forever!

Lois Cocker

With thanks to Chris Stones (Head of Tour Development), Jonathan Tunnell (Tour Orchestra Manager) and all the visiting Glyndebourne staff and players.

Image Gallery: Summer Music Week: Part Three: String Sinfonia

The University String Sinfonia celebrate music for string orchestra on Day Three of Summer Music Week, directed by Flo Peycelon. The programme included final-year Economics student Jenny Pang in Massenet’s Meditation and second-year Architecture student, Kammy Pike, in Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, as well as the premiere of a work by Canterbury-based composer, Matthew Brown.

Images © Chris Wenham / University of Kent

#EarBox: art and music in dialogue returns to Studio 3 Gallery

After a lengthy absence, it was good to be back in the richly-resonant acoustic of Studio 3 Gallery, the University’s art gallery, for a performance by the String Sinfonia yesterday.

The #EarBox series of events bringing music and visual art together returned with a programme relating to Le piazze [In}visibili, an exhibition of photographs documenting empty Italian piazzi during the first lockdown in 2020, when normally vibrant social spaces became suddenly silent.

The ensemble’s opening piece, the Chacony by Purcell, took on a greater emotional significance as it rang out against the backdrop of the images, Purcell’s aching dissonances assuming more of an impact. Vivaldi’s Spring picked up on the Italian connection, and in a wonderful moment of serendipity, birdsong in the spring afternoon outside the gallery could be heard in between the movements. Music Scholars Jeni Pang, Alice Nixon and Kammy Pike each took a movement.

Music Scholar Kammy Pike warming up with Vivaldi in front of a photograph of an empty St Mark’s, Venice

Matt Brown’s Solitude at Dusk had one or two ravishing chords, and the performance ended with the weighty Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis, whose main melody (When rising from the bed of death) somehow again took on different overtones in light of the photographic evidence of the impact of the pandemic which surrounded the audience.

Congratulations to the students, and to its director, Floriane Peycelon. #Earbox will return to Studio 3 Gallery again in the future…

Empty squares, unknown shores: #EarBox returns to Studio 3 Gallery

Images of empty Italian piazzi find echo in music for string orchestra, including John Woolrich’s Ulysses Wakes, as the #EarBox series bringing music and images together returns to Studio 3 Gallery with the University String Sinfonia on Weds 23 March at 1.10pm.

Charlotte Cane
John Woolrich: image by Chesney Browne

Woolrich’s piece is a transcription of Ulysses’ first aria in Monteverdi’s opera Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, first performed in 1640. Washed up on the coast of Ithaca, Ulysses wakes on the shores and asks ‘Am I sleeping or awake? / And what country surrounds me?’ as he fails at first to recognise his home. In Woolrich’s reimagining, Ulysses’ questioning aria is sung not by a voice, but by the darker-hued tones of a solo viola, played here by Music Performance Scholar, Kira Hilton.

The University String Sinfonia

The programme will also include Purcell’s Chacony and Vaughan Williams’ reflective Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. as well as Vivaldi’s vivacious ‘Spring’ from The Four Seasons.

The concert is set against the backdrop of the gallery’s current exhibition Le Piazze [In]visibili – Invisible Squares, which was created during the early days of lockdown in Italy in 2020, and reflects the desolate emptiness of town squares which traditionally throng with residents and tourists, but which suddenly became empty like so many social spaces around the entire world.

Admission free

Find out more about the exhibition here.