Celebrating Early Music and Early Music Performance
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Dates for Your Diary
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It’s classical concerts, Jim,
but not as we know
‘em Brighton Early Music Festival
seeks the future of the classical concert…… making its mission not unlike
Star
Trek’s!
Brighton Early Music Festival’s organisers revel in throwing out the classical concert rule book. Not content with their past work in bringing together classical, world, folk and jazz fans alike, this autumn the festival, which runs from 22nd October to 7th November is going further. The Festival’s new three year programme, Concertmakers, aims to redesign and take the classical music concert format to new places. And somewhat surprisingly, the aims of Concertmakers sound not dissimilar to the Star Trek enterprise’s famous mission statement – “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.”
“The Festival has always been at the forefront of challenging boundaries and preconceptions,” explains Deborah Roberts, Co-Artistic Director. “We’ve always tried to take concerts to weird and wonderful places where you wouldn’t expect classical music to happen, and we are always struck by how appreciated it is, even by people who didn’t expect to enjoy it.”
The festival has taken performances into pubs and has been centrally involved in Brighton & Hove City Council’s White Night all-night cultural festival to engage new audiences for the arts. Last year nearly 2000 people attended Brighton Early Music Festival events during White Night. “This year we hope to build on last year’s White Night with a fantastic programme from young professional ensembles who will perform in the beautiful setting of St Bartholomew’s church from 11pm to 2am. They will perform from different positions around the church and the audience can move with them.”
“The festival has also made a point of programming events that are more than a concert,” adds Clare Norburn, the other Co-Artistic Director. “Often we bring together different styles of music or musicians from different disciplines or we present music which is interweaved with dance, drama and film.”
“The ConcertMakers strand within
the 2010 Brighton Early Music Festival is a natural extension of this approach.
It will comprise six events which will involve staging, costume, specially
written scripts and an imaginative layout of performers and audience and
lighting design to enhance the stunning architectural space of some of
Brighton’s most beautiful buildings; including St Bartholomew’s Church,
St George’s
Church, Kemptown and St
Andrew’s Church, Waterloo
Street
“There will also be opportunities for the public to contribute ideas through a Concertmakers competition. Audiences and schools will be encouraged to come up with concert designs, one or more of which we hope to develop for the 2011 festival.”
As well as the Concertmakers programme, the central theme for the 2010 Brighton Early Music Festival is Ritual, with performances of music from antiquity to the present day which explore courtship and marriage, religion and belief, living and dying, festivals and rites of the seasons.
Described by BBC Radio 3 as “nothing if not inventive”, the festival will present 25 events, including three BBC broadcasts. The festival attracts some of the most exciting names in early music, and this year artists include The Sixteen (fresh from their latest triumph in BBC4’s Sacred Music) and acclaimed soprano Dame Emma Kirkby. There’s the swashbuckling supergroup Red Priest, a young ensemble, Horses Brawl, who mix sonic, folk and early music, Musica Secreta with Four Weddings & A Funeral, Passacaglia recreating the spirit of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in St George’s Church and medieval/world music group Joglaresa who raised the roof at last year’s festival.
The festival’s own BREMF Players under the direction of violinist Alison Bury will perform a series of baroque masterpieces including Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks (on the day after Guy Fawkes night) and extracts from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Handel’s Water Music. THE BREMF Singers join the BREMF Players and His Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts for a special 400th anniversary performance of Monteverdi’s stunning Vespers. There are also two new medieval groups: The Artisans, who pull together the roots of medieval, world and traditional music, and The Telling who will present a new kind of event – a concert-drama which blurs the boundaries of a play and a concert. And to finish 200 performers from beginners to professional, primary school children to OAPs will come together to perform the world premiere of a new piece with explores contemporary attitudes to death and dying: Dead Head by Brighton based composer Orlando Gough.
“The festival has long been known for its friendly and informal way of engaging people from different walks of life,” concludes Deborah Roberts. “We hope that this year’s vibrant celebration of Ritual, together with our first steps with Concertmakers will encourage people to participate. There really is something for everyone.”
Brighton Early Music Festival 2010 runs from 22nd October to 7th November 2010 (with pre- events from 12th September). Visit www.bremf.org.uk or call 01273 833746 for a brochure. Tickets can be bought through the Dome Box Office from 1st September (01273 709709: £2.25 booking charge) or at www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets or £1 for your tickets to be posted/held)
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Brighton Early Music
Festival 2010: Events Listings
Overview festival
listing: Brighton
Early Music Festival “nothing
if not inventive” (BBC Radio 3)
22nd
October-7th November Ritual:
courtship, marriage,
belief, death and rites of the seasons: Music from antiquity to
the 18th century performed in Brighton’s most stunning
buildings 25 events including
Emma Kirkby, Red Priest, The Sixteen
(from BBC4’s Sacred Music) and Monteverdi’s 1610
Vespers October 10am – 5pm,
Saturday 9th October, Saint Michael and All Angels Church,
Victoria Road,
Brighton, BN1
3BD The
City Sings: FREE choral workshop Led by John Hancorn and Deborah
Roberts For choral singing workshop and a
day of preparation for The City Sings on
6th November. Free event, but numbers limited and
registration essential. Visit www.bremf.org.uk for full details and
registration MAIN FESTIVAL
EVENTS: 8 pm, Friday 22nd
October The
Choral Pilgrimage 2010: Ceremony and Devotion - Music for the
Tudors Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival Ticket prices £6-22 from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) 1pm Saturday 23rd
October The
Early Music Show Free entry to
ticketholders of any other BREMF event – see www.bremf.org.uk for
details Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival 7.30pm, Saturday
23rd October Four
Weddings and a Funeral Music for four weddings and
madrigals mourning the death of one of Renaissance Italy’s youngest great
sopranos. Music includes madrigals from the 1589 Florentine Intermedii, and
works by Monteverdi and Wert. Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival Ticket prices £6-20 from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) 12 noon, Sunday
24th October Rituals
of the Seasons
Ticket prices £10 (£8 concs) from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) 7.30 pm, Sunday
24th October The
Harvest Queen Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival Ticket prices £6-15 from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) 9.30 am – 4.30 pm, Monday 25th October
Half
term recorder workshop and
concert A workshop day for young players on
the theme of ‘Ritual’. Group classes and workshops will culminate in a
fun-packed Family Concert. Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival £18 (£12 concs) from www.bremf.org.uk You must pre-register to
ensure a place 7 pm, Tuesday
26th October The Brunswick Pub, 1 Holland Road, Hove, BN3
1JF The
Animal ‘Voice’ in the Mating Game David Reby
(Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Sussex)
An illustrated talk on animal
communication and cognition, including the use of ‘voice’ colours in the
courtship rituals of mammals and fascinating recordings of animal ‘love songs’!
Followed by an open discussion and possible
performance. Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival Ticket price £6 from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) 7 pm, Wednesday
27th October The Brunswick Pub, 1 Holland Road, Hove, BN3
1JF Music
and Ritual in Remote Antiquity Dirk Campbell A fully illustrated talk with slide
presentation, showing the earliest musical instruments to be discovered, dating
back 36,000 years. Strong similarities are noted between these iconographic
depictions and traditions of performance that still exist in North Africa, along
the Nile, and in other parts of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival Ticket price £6 from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) 8 pm, Friday 29th
October Divine
Rites – Songs of the Laudesi Ticket prices £6-20 from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) 1pm, Saturday
30th October Young Artist Showcase
Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival Ticket prices £10 (£8 concs) from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) 7.30 pm, Saturday
30th October Monteverdi,
the 1610 Vespers Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival Ticket prices £6-22 from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) From 11 pm – 2am,
Saturday 30th October BREMF
at White Night – Ritual and Illumination Free entry – more information at www.bremf.org.uk 4pm, Sunday 31st
October Delights
from the Pleasure Gardens Ticket prices £6-15 from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) 7.30 pm, Sunday
31st October Music
from the Orthodox Church Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival Ticket prices £6-20 from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) November 6 pm, Wednesday
3rd November Young Artists
Showcase A vibrant programme of songs and
dances follows a musical journey to the famous medieval pilgrimage centres of
Iberia. The Artisans, bringing
together talented young performers from both the early music and folk worlds,
will present a one hour programme playing some of the music that might have been
heard on the way. Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival Ticket prices £10 (£8 concs) from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) 8 pm, Wednesday
3rd November The
Victoria Requiem Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival Ticket prices £10 (£8 concs) from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) 8 pm, Thursday
4th November Rites
of Remembrance “the hottest young band around” Sean
Rafferty, In Tune, Radio 3 Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival Ticket prices £6-22 from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) 10 am – 3 pm,
Saturday 6th November and all over Brighton
Free – find out more at www.bremf.org.uk 4pm, Saturday 6th
November Revels,
Pageants & Fireworks Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival Ticket prices £6-22 from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) 8 pm, Saturday
6th November Unsung
Heroine - the imagined history of troubadour Countess Beatriz de Dia
Part of the
Brighton Early Music
Festival Ticket prices £10-15 from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) 5 pm and 8 pm,
Sunday 7th November Better
Red and Dead! Red
Head The BREMF Singers
The Paddock
Singers Children from Brighton primary
schools Part of the Brighton Early Music
Festival Ticket prices £10-15 for each
concert or £15-22 for a double bill ticket which provides access to both
concerts from www.bremf.org.uk (no fee for etickets) or
from the Dome Box Office 01273 709709 (£2.25 fee) For
further information, please contact: Clare Norburn,
Co-Artistic Director, Brighton Early Music
Festival 020 7281 6864 07778
042978
St Bartholomew’s
Church, Ann Street,
Brighton, BN1
4GP
The
Sixteen
Harry
Christophers director
Music by William Byrd, Thomas Tallis and John Sheppard,
including his monumental work Media
vita
The Sallis Benney Theatre,
University of Brighton, 58-64 Grand Parade, Brighton BN2 2JY
BBC Radio 3
broadcasts live from BREMF with
festival artists i Flautisti, Ensemble Amaranthos and The Artisans, news and
interviews
St George’s Church, St George’s
Road, Kemp Town, Brighton, BN2 1ED
Musica Secreta
The BREMF Consort of
Voices
Celestial Sirens
Deborah
Roberts
and Laurie
Stras directors
"Irresistible... Strongly recommended." Classic FM Magazine
St Andrew’s Church, Waterloo Street, Brighton, BN3
1AQ
i Flautisti
recorder
consort
with Matthew Robinson voice
“Native
American ritual has always emphasized the restoration of balance: the Four
Directions, the Four Seasons and Four Elements that make up the Sacred Hoop must
be in right relationship with one another or disharmony will result.”
J.T.Garrett, Cherokee Full
Circle.
Part of the Brighton
Early Music Festival
St Bartholomew’s Church,
Ann Street, Brighton, BN1
4GP
Horses Brawl
Driving
folk rhythms collide with the high and low musical cultures of ancient
Europe and beyond, invoking the images and
customs of people moving with the seasons and embracing the harvest. From spring
weddings to winter plough processions, the rites and rituals of lovers,
ploughboys and the seasons.
The Unitarian
Church, New Road, Brighton BN1
1UF
i Flautisti
recorder
consort
St George’s Church, St George’s
Road, Kemp Town, Brighton, BN2 1ED
Joglaresa
Medieval religious songs that that would have been performed
outside the formality of the church by brotherhoods of laymen. As they could use
instruments (such as medieval fidels, lutes and percussion) and sing in a
language that everyone would have understood, these musicians could enjoy
ecstatic celebration!
"Thrilling and
haunting" The Times
Part of the Brighton
Early Music Festival
The Unitarian Church, New Road,
Brighton BN1
1UF
Rites of Pleasure
Ensemble Amaranthos with Erica Eloff soprano
Food and
wine, tobacco and coffee, music and courting - our everyday rituals seen from a
baroque perspective. Works by Telemann, Handel, Bach, Hume, Fischer and...
Cannabich.
St Bartholomew’s Church,
Ann Street, Brighton, BN1
4GP
Faye
Newton and
Katharine Hawnt
sopranos
Charles
Daniels and
Julian
Podger tenors
Greg
Skidmore and
Stephen
Charlesworth baritones
His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
The BREMF Singers
The BREMF Players
(Alison Bury leader)
Deborah
Roberts director
St Bartholomew’s Church,
Ann Street, Brighton, BN1
4GP
A night of revels when young
performers from Brighton Early Music Live present music until the small hours
St George’s Church, St George’s
Road, Kemp Town, Brighton, BN2 1ED
Passacaglia
With
Julia
Gooding soprano
St George’s
Church will be transformed into the
Vauxhall
Pleasure Gardens in a joint celebration of the
birth of the public concert and the 300th birthday of Thomas Arne. Join us for
tea, cakes, fizz and a lot of fun!
Part of the Brighton
Early Music Festival
St Bartholomew’s Church,
Ann Street, Brighton, BN1
4GP
The Boyan
Ensemble of Kiev
Sacred Orthodox and secular folk songs from this glorious male
voice choir from The Ukraine
The Unitarian Church, New Road,
Brighton BN1
1UF
O Camino de Santiago - A Medieval
Rite of Passage
The
Artisans
St Bartholomew’s Church,
Ann Street, Brighton, BN1
4GP
Brighton
Consort
Deborah
Roberts director
Tomás Luis de Victoria’s profoundly beautiful
Requiem
Mass is placed alongside motets
by Cristóbal de Morales
St
George’s
Church, St George’s Road,
Kemp Town, Brighton, BN2
1ED
Emma
Kirkby
soprano
The International Baroque Players
includes music by Pergolesi,
Purcell, Carissimi
The Unitarian Church, New Road, Brighton BN1 1UF
The Sing Brighton! Singing Extravaganza
Opening our final weekend and
marking the climax of Sing Brighton!, the Unitarian church will host a number of
short recitals given by a range of vocal groups. Choral events will also be
happening in venues inside and out throughout Brighton and Hove.
St George’s Church, St George’s
Road, Kemp Town, Brighton, BN2 1ED
The BREMF
Players
Alison
Bury director and
violin
BREMF’s own brilliant period orchestra with a
programme of popular ceremonial music including Handel’s Fireworks
Music, Autumn and Winter from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Corelli’s Christmas Concerto and music from Purcell’s King Arthur.
St Andrew’s Church, Waterloo Street, Hove, BN3
1AQ
The Telling
With
Patience
Tomlinson actress
Blurring
the boundaries of what a concert is, this intimate piece of “concert-theatre”
sets out to take you back to the heady atmosphere of Provence in the 12th
century. The evening combines the plaintive music and poetry of the troubadours,
foot-stomping medieval dances and a powerful story.
Hove Town
Hall,
Norton
Road (corner of Church Road), Hove BN3
4AH
A double
bill of concerts on the theme of Life and Death
5pm:
Red priest
"Mad, bad and deliciously
dangerous... wacky ideas, an impish sense of humour and astonishing virtuosity."
Gramophone
6pm:
Dinner break. Some local restaurants will be offering special rates
8pm:
Dead Head by Orlando Gough
World premiere
performance of a massed choral piece commissioned by Brighton Early Music
Festival
Orlando Gough and John Agard MCs
Members of The Shout
The BREMF Community Choir
Celestial Sirens
Brighton and Hove
Youth Brass Ensemble
Involving massed forces and a rich diversity of styles, the
piece takes a wry look at contemporary attitudes to death, dying and eternity.
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En Travesti Ensemble Present
- JUDITHA TRIUMPHANS -
A sacred military oratorio by Antonio Vivaldi
25th August, 7:30pm, All Saints Fulham, London, SW6
Conductor:
Philip D. Lawton
Juditha: Anne Rebecca
Højlund
Abra: Sarah Dacey
Holofernes:
CN Lester
Vagaus:
Felicity
Davies
Ozias: Jennifer
Hunt
En Travesti Ensemble present Vivaldi’s only surviving oratorio, Juditha Triumphans, arranged in a new performing edition by conductor and composer Philip D. Lawton.
“En Travesti has managed to ground an evening of exquisite music in meticulously-researched gender theory and musical history…stellar performances” KaiteWelsh. The F word.
Juditha Triumphans stands as the centerpiece of En Travesti’s 2010 concert series, an exploration of forgotten and neglected repertoire created for high voiced singers of many and varied genders: female sopranos (en travesti or otherwise), castrati, male sopranos and everything in between.
“En Travesti Ensemble present a new way of
looking at gender roles, identity and representation in vocal repertoire. Our
approach is passionate, intellectual and loads of fun.”
Anne Rebecca
Højlund
As well as replacing the huge baroque orchestration called for by Vivaldi with a small, focused band of modern instruments, this new performing edition makes cuts and replacements that encourage performance by small groups with limited means – promoting the performance of this great work in more locations by more people. First performed by an all-female orphanage choir, Lawton’s edition retains a lineup of high and low soprano soloists, supplemented by an SATB chorus - who represent soldiers as well as pious virgins!
“En Travesti Ensemble, like many similar organizations, is formed of young musicians who have the talent to perform music from the Baroque era and earlier, but lack the resources or experience to bring together a band big enough to satisfy the requirements of composers who had at their disposal any instruments they wanted.” Philip D. Lawton
In their new production of Juditha Triumphans, En Travesti Ensemble continue their unique commitment to performances of early music that respect the gender subversion and homoerotic potential contained in so much of the Baroque vocal repertoire.
“With their reliance on singers who challenged the static categories of ‘men’ or ‘women’, their exploration of the many potentials thrown up by cross-dressing and their passionate depiction of sensuality and love that flits between homo- and heterosexual, these works hold up a vocal mirror to contemporary beliefs regarding sexual orientation and identification.” CN Lester
"As a gay man
- performing with a straight woman and a trans person - it's tremendously
exciting to bring to life this music, with all its overt and covert blurrings of
sexual and gender identities." Philip D.
Lawton
Tickets are priced at £10 and are on sale now from www.Ticketweb.co.uk
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News
The DVD of David Munrow's Granada TV series 'Early Musical Instruments' is now complete and ready for prompt first-class delivery at £19.95 inclusive of worldwide shipping. Consisting of 6 x30 minute programmes introducing early musical instruments and filmed at Ordsall Hall, Salford in 1976, it represents perhaps the best introduction to early musical instruments - bringing alive the sights and sounds of early music!
Visit: www.davidmunrow.org