The Anticipation of 2012

Niharika joined us last year as our Marketing & Communications Intern, working on our Winter Festival. As she finished her time with us, she took a moment to tell us about what she’d been up to over the past few months.

2011 was a fabulous year for me because I had the chance to join Spitalfields Music as their Marketing and Communications intern! I’ve learnt loads with the help of an awesome team. I worked at the recent Winter Festival, which was really exciting as I had the chance to take on different roles such as front of house, concert management and box office.  If you haven’t already, check out some of the photos and reviews from our Winter Festival here.

Currently, The Spitalfields Music HQ is buzzing with anticipation about our Summer Festival 2012: the line-up is ready, artist photo shoots are complete, images are being chosen and written material is being proof-read. We have an exciting range of events in our programme featuring early and contemporary music, music theatre, late night after-dinner concerts, walks, talks, free outdoor events and family activities!

Summer Festival 2012 brochure cover featuring one of our Associate Artists Matthew Barley – renowned cellist and Music Director of BBC2 TV’s Classical Star programme

There will be a lot of fun things on in London during 2012 and Spitalfields Music will be bringing you something you will definitely want to be a part of!

Booking for the Spitalfields Music Summer Festival 2012 is now open!
You can book via our website or call the Box Office on 0207 377 1362 (Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm)

Niharika Jain
Marketing & Communications Intern

Intern Diaries: Christmas lights and festive cheer in Spitalfields

Spitalfields is looking prettier than ever since all the Christmas lights are up in the market and festive cheer is in the air! The Spitalfields Music Winter Festival is now underway, after opening last Saturday with the Christmas Market in Crispin Place which saw puppetry, fashion and of course, live music to get people into the Christmas spirit!

Christmas lights are up in Spitalfields Market

It has been really busy here at Spitalfields Music HQ. The Winter Festival now the Winter Festival is in progress and I am really excited as this is the first time I’m working at our various venues in Spitalfields!

I also recently attended the City of London Sinfonia’s first ever CLoSer event! It was amazing and had a really relaxed atmosphere. After the main performance, individual musicians were available for informal Q&A sessions. The Strings Masterclass event was held at Village Underground which is a great venue (it used be a Victorian warehouse!) I also discovered that the trains on top are actually offices used by the Village Underground staff. There are two more CLoSer events coming up in 2012; head over here to find out more.

I have also been working on our Winter Festival Learning and Participation events’ inserts, and they have been sent to the printers which is very exciting! The festival has an awesome mix of events for the whole family which means we will be drawing in great crowds – I can’t wait!

Niharika Jain
Marketing & Communications Intern

The Winter Festival is now on with tickets available from £5! See our website spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk for further details on contact the Box Office on 020 7377 1362 (Mon-Fri, 10am-6pm).

Open Mic Night

Mark Twain said, ‘Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.’ We encounter fear in all different forms. What is it about facing an audience, standing up on stage, behind a mic that triggers a sense of fear in most people? To be honest, I don’t know. But what I do know is that open mic nights are definitely great opportunities to gather courage, ‘master’ our fears and have a lot of fun at the same time!

At the Winter Festival’s Open Mic Night you will get to hear some great performers, have the chance to share your talent with the community, and help two great charities whilst having a wonderful time! You can even take a solo slot in support of the charities. Don’t forget to invite your friends and family!

More about the charities:

Streetwise Opera: ‘Streetwise Opera is an award-winning charity that uses music as a tool to help 500 homeless people per year move forward in their lives. They have a weekly music programme in 11 homeless centres across England and they stage critically-acclaimed opera productions starring their own performers! ’  You can read more about Streetwise Opera here.

Crisis Skylight: ‘Crisis Skylight London is an award winning education, training and employment centre for homeless and vulnerably housed people in East London. It offers practical and creative workshops in a supportive and inspiring environment together with formal learning opportunities that lead to qualifications and finding work.’ Find out more about Crisis Skylight here. Don’t forget to pop into the Crisis Skylight Café when you’re in the vicinity for some freshly-made tasty food.

Open Mic Night, Crisis Skylight Cafe, Thursday 15 December 7.00-9.00pm
Pay what you can on the night, booking required.
To book please contact our box office on 020 7377 1362.

Niharika Jain
Marketing & Communications Intern

Spooky stories, scary cupboards, and inspiring strangers – Bernadette Russell in conversation

White Rabbit is an alternative performance group which uses the stage, installation, films, music and sound to create exciting storytelling events. They will be spooking Spitalfields at their upcoming Are you sitting comfortably? event at our Winter Festival. We chatted with Bernadette Russell, co-founder of White Rabbit to discuss scary cupboards, the importance of stories and how talking to strangers can be inspiring! 

Niharika Jain: First of all, Are you sitting comfortably?

Bernadette Russell: Quite, sitting on my vintage Chesterfield, drinking eye-wateringly strong coffee. Thanks for asking.

NJ: The image of the White Rabbit is strongly linked with the rabbit who is always in a rush in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. It evokes a sense of curiosity, and wonder. Any chance you were inspired by Carroll in naming your group?

BR: Yes! I am interested in nurturing and creating as much wonder and magic in our live shows as possible, and I love the topsy-turvy world that Alice discovers, it’s dark and light, funny and frightening, confusing and illuminating. All the things that theatre and stories can be.

NJ: So what is the story behind your White Rabbit?

BR: I was sitting in the North Laines in Brighton waiting to meet a friend and I heard a woman say “curiouser and curiouser.” Strange but true. Ironically, I am never late, and I once got my foot stuck in a rabbit hole. Rabbits have loomed large in my life, as I was in the now legendary anarcho-vaudeville double act ‘WonderHorse’ and spent much of my life dressed as a rabbit. Our White Rabbit is enigmatic and cheeky, and invites you to follow him wherever he goes…..

NJ: What is unique about White Rabbit’s style of storytelling?

BR: Gareth and I wanted to create a supportive atmosphere and an exciting platform for writers to showcase their work: having your work read out means you can sit back and enjoy the experience, whilst observing how the audience reacts. The writers are often pleasantly surprised: characters speaking in ways they never thought of, laughter where they didn’t expect it! The audience has an immersive experience as we include them in the creative process by running literary competitions throughout the night, and we make it as friendly and relaxed as possible. Plus we feed everyone when we’re allowed to. A lot.

Bernadette Russell - White Rabbit

NJ: Stories are the basis of your performance, and indeed theatre, why are stories important?

BR: They are what make us human. Although I suspect animals tell their own stories, when we’re not looking.

NJ: What is the best story you’ve ever seen performed?

BR: A totally impromptu performance by a man who called himself ‘Billy The Poet’ who told us raggle-taggle crowd of tourists and drunks a meandering tale by a fire in Galway. I have never forgotten it. Can’t remember what it was called, but that doesn’t matter.

NJ: What are you and Gareth working on at the moment? [Gareth Brierley is the co-founder of White Rabbit]

BR: Gareth  and I are just about to read the next lot of submissions for the next two shows: there’s always some in the mix that are exciting and some that are a challenge! We are lucky because there’s always something great to perform.

Gareth Brierley - White Rabbit

NJ: Where are the best places to find stories?

BR: Inspiration for stories is everywhere; I like talking to strangers, the opposite of my mum’s advice! Also London is full of stories, so it’s good to go for a walk somewhere you’ve never been before and keep your eyes open. And ears.

NJ: A lot of your performances are based on submissions from budding writers and members of the public – is involving the community something you believe strongly in?

BR: I think it’s important for live shows to include and involve the community they are in. For every show Gareth and I write something new, and whenever possible we include local writers in the shows.

NJ: What do you enjoy more – writing or performing? And how important is each for you?

BR: Both, can’t choose. In the same way I can’t choose when people ask if I prefer dogs or cats. Writing – I do that every day; it would obviously be inappropriate and annoying to perform every day uninvited. Writing and performing feed each other, so I need both for inspiration. I would add that performing, especially cabaret means you meet some truly extraordinary people, which is priceless.

NJ: Did anyone tell you stories when you were young or did your own imagination and creative story writing skills suffice?

BR: My grandparents told stories, my Nana wrote poems and I always got a birthday poem; my mum read stories to me; and my sister Natalie wrote brilliant stories usually involving Vikings! I wrote a book about a vegetarian dinosaur when I was five or six called The Adventures of Thathilegthornjessie.

NJ: Do you still have a copy of The Adventures Of Thathilegthornjessie?

BR: Good question. I think so, in the cupboard under the stairs I refer to as ‘HELL CUPBOARD’ because when I open it the contents attack me! You know, one of those cupboards. [NJ: We recently tamed our stationery cupboard here at Spitalfields Music HQ, so no attacks as yet!]

NJ: Where do ideas for your performances come from?

BR: Firstly, from stories. Then I usually create a character, a narrator, and think about them, and their story informs the performance. I collect bits and pieces that become shows: snatches of overheard conversations, things I have seen, stories people have told me, urban myths.

White Rabbit Are You Sitting Comfortably?

NJ: Your theme for the Winter Festival is ‘Ghosts’ – are you looking forward to ‘Are you sitting comfortably?’ at the Spitalfields Music Winter Festival? What can the audience expect?

BR: I am very excited about working with the musicians; we have wanted to do this for a long time. The audience can expect to be chilled, in a Georgian coffee house, in Spitalfields, in London, in December! They can expect a great night, and the hairs on the back of their necks to rise, and beautiful music. They can expect to enjoy being a little bit afraid, like they were when they were children tucked up listening to scary stories.

NJ: What plans does White Rabbit have for the future?

BR: We are planning a show of my year long project #actsofrandomkindness (I have been doing something kind for a stranger every day since 18^th August 2011 and recording the results. I’m doing it for a year) and we are planning a big project HOTEL for the Brighton Festival 2012, working with Marcella Puppini. We would like to continue to work with live music and musicians, as music is a big influence on our work. [NJ:And we certainly hope you will!]

White Rabbit are also currently looking for story submissions. If you have a spine-tingling tale brewing away in your head, put pen to paper, make sure it is around 1000 words and send it to areyousittingcomfortably@live.com by midnight 26th November 2011. Your name and the title of your spooky story should appear on every page. You can read more about the White Rabbit here. White Rabbit will be performing at our Winter Festival on  Sunday 18 December at The English Restaurant from 8.00pm-10.00pm. In the beautiful Georgian interior of The English Restaurant, White Rabbit will bring you an evening of ghost stories written by Londoners, accompanied by haunting live music – book your tickets here.

Intern Diary: Niharika explores Spitalfields

We recently had an internal event during which students from the Royal Academy of Music performed at various historic locations in Spitalfields. I worked on the programme book for that event, and got to find out loads about historic Spitalfields! Did you know that some buildings date back to the 1700s and are still standing? Many of the redecorated private properties around Spitalfields were originally craftsmen’s (such as carpenters, blacksmiths, and silk weavers) workshops and doctors’ surgeries. When you are walking around the area, make sure you sneak a peek at the front and see if you can spot any signs dating the building. I found that some still have exterior mechanisms for blinds from ‘back in the day’!

Old blinds mechanism outside a house in Spitalfields

I also find these two metal emblem-sign-cool-badgey-things on a street and have no idea what they are – do you know? [NJ: Thanks to our Twitter followers and our blog readers, I now know these are fire insurance plaques].  I’d love to know how old they are, what they were used for, and if there are any more around Spitalfields?

Fire insurance plaques

Spitalfields is a wonderful area for wandering. During my lunch breaks, I always try to go somewhere new. So far I’ve found loads of great places to eat around the area:

The Crisis Skylight Cafe does amazing baked potatoes and yummy fillings! The cafe is spacious and has really friendly staff.

The Luxe restaurant near the old Spitalfields market has an outdoor cafe part – they make fish finger burgers!

The Flying Burrito does burritos and nachos for a reasonable price, but be warned – if you eat a burrito here, you won’t be able to eat anything else for the rest of the day. To say the burritos here are ‘filling’ would be an understatement.

If you walk towards Brick Lane, you will find a huge selection of Bangladeshi restaurants serving delicious Indian food.

Other updates:

• Two of our Winter Festival events are now SOLD OUT!

• We have created a sneak-preview Winter Festival playlist on Spotify.

• I have had the opportunity to interview Gabriel Crouch, director of Gallicantus, the talented illustrator Joanna Moore, and there is an upcoming interview with Bernadette Russell, co-founder of White Rabbit! All three artists (along with many more) are helping make this year’s Winter Festival programme truly unique! There will be a mix of early music, family events, a storytelling performance, an open mic night, and a unique take on Handel’s Messiah. I am really looking forward to the festival!

• Spitalfields Music is working on a Special Education Needs project and have launched a new campaign with The Big Give. This Christmas, our challenge is to raise £72,000 to ensure our Learning and Participation programme can continue to do the remarkable outreach work it is well known for. If you would like to donate, read about our campaign here.

We have a lot more exciting stuff coming up on our blog – so stay tuned!