Winter Festival Highlights

As we head in to the New Year, Acting Executive Director, Sarah Macnee shares with us the highlights of the remaining Winter Festival concerts.

In the New Year we have two more wonderful Monteverdi concerts as well as Paul Agnew’s exploration of Monteverdi, Opera & Beyond on Thursday 6 January. This event explores the idea of recitative, examines its spread throughout Europe, and the way in which it developed. Paul is not only a great tenor, but also a great interpreter of the baroque and pre-classical repertoire and his approach through a lecture-concert format will be very illuminating and engaging.

And finally, I’m really excited about the last of this year’s Winter Festival events on Friday 7 January. It’s our only ensemble concert and Retrospect’s debut at Spitalfields. The focus of the programme is on Monteverdi’s contemporaries. Don’t miss it.

If you would like to book for any of these events you can do so online or via the Box Office on 020 7377 1362 (Re-opens Jan 4 2011)

60 seconds with… James Weeks

Lute or electric guitar?
Both please! - a sexy duet combination

Composing or performing?
Composing…then performing

Black tie or all black?
All black. Can’t stand the pomposity of black tie but don’t want to look casual either.

What’s the most played track from your MP3 player/CD collection?
Hmm… Maybe Gothic Voices’ all-Machaut album, or Ives Ensemble’s Aldo Clementi disc on Hat Hut.

When do you think your breakthrough moment was?
As a performer, EXAUDI’s performance of Ferneyhough’s Missa Brevis at Aldeburgh in 2006. I wandered around in a daze for a week afterwards. As a composer, in some ways I’ve not had one single breakthrough, just a series of small steps, but the writing process itself is full of moments of epiphany – albeit often tentative and evanescent ones.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve read about yourself?
I can’t remember – people write all sorts of rubbish about what you’re doing all the time. The best thing is to learn how to ignore it – which I’m not very good at!

Where’s your favourite venue to perform in?
I prefer places with natural light like churches or galleries - concert halls seem stuffy and claustrophobic to me even though they are quieter. But really I’m happy anywhere with a bit of bloom on the sound and a nice clean loo.

What do you like about working with Spitalfields Music?
Their openness to imaginative programming and willingness to go out and find an audience for the music they believe in.

James Weeks and EXAUDI appear at the Winter Festival on
Friday 7 January 2011.

Box office: 020 7377 1362/ spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk

Intern Diaries: Michael’s Winter Festival week

And with around 150 participants taking their final bow at Fables – A Film Opera, the first part of the Winter Festival drew to a close. (Well sort of; there were of course lots of things to do such as tidy up, and battle with the weather).

The Festival week has been a whirlwind of an experience, with daily meetings, and mucking in on a mixture of jobs. The past seven days has seen me (and everyone) stewarding, transporting, sitting in a very cold foyer, and fetching forgotten equipment(!), as well as all the usual things which occur week to week.  It has also meant being able to see bits and pieces of the performers both in concert and rehearsal.

Winter Songs Image:Celine Smith

Particular highlights for me have included watching Tower Voices make their debut in Winter Songs, hearing Caius College Choir & Consort’s sensitive performance of sacred madrigals in Madrigals Transformed, catching Carmina rehearsing the stunning music of An Icelandic Songbook, and of course the momentous premiere of Fables – A Film Opera.

Fables Image: Celine Smith

With only a month left to go until the end of my internship, it’s back to the grindstone (well at least for a few pre-Christmas days!) to prepare for the second part of the Winter Festival in January. I’m especially looking forward to Paul Agnew’s concert Monteverdi, Opera & Beyond. But for now, Merry Christmas!

Michael Duffy
Marketing & Communications Intern

Intern Diaries: Caroline’s Festival experience

As Learning & Participation Intern, the first part of the Winter Festival, for me, was focused on the L&P events. The week began with the daily staff briefing and all the abbreviations on the fat schedule suddenly became identifiable people! The mood of the office changed slightly as passing ships ran about their tasks and as the tempo increased, so did the bonhomie.

Winter Songs Image: Celine Smith

On Tuesday, I was dressed in the obligatory thermal layers for Winter Songs in the market. The performance involved more than 150 participants ranging from 6 to 60+ years. A lot of fun and a great sense of pride by everyone.

On Wednesday, the stunning Monteverdi’s Madrigals and Fables based on the story of Orpheus with 60 school children was fantastic. Sam Glazer and his team inspired the children to sing by heart and with heart the pieces they had composed over the course of the term – in unison, in parts and even with some audience participation.

Spitalfields Soundings in the market on Thursday evening attracted a large group despite the freezing temperatures. The two lively bands on stage inspired some energetic bobbing about in the market by audience members. The more intimate venue in Teasmith was perfect for the two solo performers who ended their gig with a fab jamming duet.

Soundings Image: Celine Smith

But for me, the most moving concert was Aspirations on Friday. A group of adult students from Tower Hamlets College performed songs they had composed with an exciting group of incredibly dedicated musicians who demonstrated such sensitivity to the participants as they encouraged and motivated them. Their theme was the Chinese five elements (fire, earth, metal, water and wood) – a wonderful end to my first encounter with the Festival.

Caroline Went
Learning & Participation Intern

Our Winter Festival so far…

Its been an extremely busy week for us all with Week One of our Winter Festival sadly at an end. Its been a huge success, and a highly eventful week. The performances have been so exceptional, that we couldn’t sum up in one sentence all the incredible highlights, so we thought we would share a few of our staff comments.

Carmina Choir Image: Celine Smith

“Despite the cold, a hot Festival!“

“A fantastic cocktail of performances! A particular highlight for me was Carmina’s Icelandic Songbook, a sumptuous hour of pure voices coming together in sparkling harmonies.“

“A week of artistic excellence and a creative buzz!”

“The overall programme has been beautifully unusual and very inspiring. Behind the scenes I think there’s been quite a fun sense of controlled craziness, and I’ve had several good giggle moments that have added nicely to the festive atmosphere.“

”A filetta - stunning“

Winter Songs Image: Celine Smith

“Exhilarating, spine tingling and chocolate fuelled.“

“Inspiring, energetic and intimate….following our choirs from Aspirations, Christ Church and Hague schools and Corsica and Iceland I’m listening to music in an entirely different way”

“Cold, warm, loud, quiet, high, low, fast“

“I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much at a piece of music, than I did when watching Flam by Orlando Gough.“

“Eccentric; enthralling; exciting; engaging and exhausting!“

Fables Image: Celine Smith

“Madrigals and Fables: fabulous to watch 60 primary school children sing some challenging lines of their own making- about Orpheus and Eurydice- with confidence and enjoyment, filling Christ Church Spitalfields with their sound.”

We’ll be back for round two of the Winter Festival on 5 January.

Winter Festival: 13-18 Dec & 5-7 Jan 2011
Box office: 020 7377 1362/ spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk