In Pictures: The Elements @ Royal Academy of Music

On Monday 4 February, Year 3 & 4 students  from Osmani and Kobi Nazrul Primary Schools came together to perform Elemental Songs and Dances at the Royal Academy of Music.

The performance consisted of songs that the children had written with encouragement from workshop leaders Sam Glazer and John Webb.

As well as meeting musicians from  the Royal Academy of Music and our Trainee Music Leader programme, the project enabled primary school students to take part in creative writing projects revealing the wealth of budding singers, songwriters and poets we’re lucky to have right here in East London.

A short section of a rehearsal leading up to the performance was caught on film by our Programme Manager: Learning & Participation, Kathryn.

The Elements @ the Royal Academy of Music – rehearsal from Spitalfields Music on Vimeo.

Photographs © Hana Zushi.

Facing The Elements

Neighbourhood Schools, Image: James Berry

Over the past four weeks, workshop leaders Sam Glazer and John Webb have been working with children from Osmani and Kobi Nazrul Primary Schools to compose their own songs that they will perform at the Royal Academy of Music next Monday as part of our Elements project.

Join us on Monday 4 February, 1.05pm at the Duke’s Hall, Royal Academy of Music for the premiere performance of Elemental Songs and Dances.

Here’s a sneak preview of the children’s songs:

Kobi Nazrul Primary School
Year 4 Class – Rita Bach
Sam Glazer

Clear as a Crystal

whispered:  p, p, p, p,
pitter, patter,
p, p, p, p,

You drip like beads, falling from a string (whispered: splish splash)
Rushing through pipes, flowing all around, (whispered: splish splash)
Clear as a crystal  (whispered: splish splash)

You drip like beads, falling from a string, (whispered: splish splash)
Rushing through pipes, flowing all around, (whispered: splish splash)
Falling like diamonds from the sky,
Falling like diamonds from the sky.
Refreshing everywhere!

Grey clouds, purple sky,
Angry like a volcano,
Fierce like a tiger

whispered:  p, p, p, p,
pitter, patter,

Osmani Primary School
Saffron Class – Clare Hooper
John Webb

Air Song

Whoosh!
I glide with the sea and dance with the clouds

Shhh/ssss
Have a nice day I say to the world

But I’m bored

I want to steal trousers from washing lines and balloons from little children

I want to steal skin to sleep in, eyes to see, food to eat
And the happiness of the world

If I don’t get what I want I’ll huff and I’ll puff
I’ll become a tornado
And steal your mind.

Neighbourhood Schools, Image: James Berry

Summer Festival 2012 in words & pictures

As the sounds of our Summer Festival 2012 drift away (and in the case of some of the pink Midsummer Street Party balloons, all the way to a Dutch beach), we wanted to share some of our favourite moments with you, courtesy of our Festival Photographer, James Berry and the host of reviewers who have written about us over the last month.

If you have any images or reviews of your own you’d like to share with us, get in touch, and meanwhile enjoy reminiscing with us below… (You can also find reviews of Summer Festival concerts on our new website!)

Sounds of Spitalfields with Super Critical Mass

Sound of Spitalfields in Old Spitalfields Market

Ton Koopman in concert with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra

The Sixteen in Christ Church Spitalfields

Harry Christophers conducting The Sixteen

Matthew Barley: Amongst Friends

Gabrieli Consort & Players: The Fairy Queen

Soprano Helen-Jane Howells in Gabrieli Consort & Players: The Fairy Queen

Musical Rumpus: A Fairy Queen in the Forest

Musical Rumpus: A Fairy Queen in the Forest

Anne Garner in Talvin Singh: Tabla Rasa

Talvin Singh: Tabla Rasa

Laka D & Women sing East

Performing Cage at Neighbourhood Schools: Chaos & Creation

Chance operations at Neighbourhood Schools: Chaos & Creation

Gamelan Lila City in the Masonic Temple for Undiscovered Spitalfields

Sankorfa Ensemble in Dennis Severs’ House for Undiscovered Spitalfields

Matthew Barley: The Protecting Veil

Performing in Spire at St Botolph without Aldgate

New Esperance Morris Dancers – Midsummer Street Party

Spitalfields City Farm – Midsummer Street Party

On the Main Stage – Midsummer Street Party

Hidden Gems with East London Dance at Christ Church Spitalfields

Storytelling Yurt with Idea Store – Midsummer Street Party

Compère Paul Martin at Midsummer Street Party

Hidden Gems with East London Dance at Bishopsgate Institute

Rhythms of the City – Midsummer Street Party

Street Dance the Maypole with East London Dance

Fire

Fire with The Opera Group

In the House… with a flute

In our final stop on the tour of last Winter’s In the House project, which saw student composers and performers from the Royal Academy of Music collaborate on brand-new site specific works, we reach 10 Folgate Street. The building has had a colourful history of inhabitants and the compact upstairs sitting room, along with the unusual nature of the In the House performance, was inspiration for Adam Dickson’s Focusing on Intimacy performed by flautist Jonathan Slade.

In the House take intimate solo performances in the ancient drawing rooms of Spitalfields residents.

Enjoy listening to the track below along with Adam’s programme notes about the work.

‘This piece for solo flute is influenced by the idea of voyeurism. As you tour around this house, you are entering and enjoying a stranger’s home. Looking around, curiosity builds and you wonder why a single object features in one room and, perhaps, not another. This unfamiliar object becomes the main focus of your attention. You become drawn to its existence. Its inanimate quality allows you to take hold of this object, to possess it. Those other surrounding objects, which were more familiar, fade into the background. What was once irrational and, perhaps, distasteful, is now beautiful and natural.’

Gettin’ to know you: Cathy

This time it’s the turn of our swashbuckling Programme Manager: Learning & Participation, Cathy to bare her soul for the blog!

What was the first gramophone cylinder you bought? *
Sadly my penchant for a nice charity shop bargain hasn’t yet stretched to a phonograph, though I did once have a tinkle on a player piano.

Do you have a favourite composer? If so, who?
Enduringly Shostakovich, though I’ve been known to veer into the Hindemith camp from time to time over the years. I think there’s a starkness in both that appeals to me, but also a great deal of wit and inventiveness in texture and harmony that keeps you on your toes.

Almost a dancer, now an L&P Programme Manager

What was the last concert/gig you went to?
Not sure if it quite counts but I went to the semi final of the Musical Comedy Awards recently which was brilliant. Really good to see also that those through to the final are “musicians that are really very funny” rather than “comedians who throw in some music as something a bit different”.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
As a small child a ballet dancer, despite the best efforts of my formidable teacher to dissuade me. I believe the exact words she used to my 6-year-old self were, “You’ll never be a dancer, you’re too tall and your feet are too big. The only good thing about you are your shoulder blades”, before vigorously impaling hair pins into my bun and – I maintain – head. Luckily the lady who played piano for our class was more on the relaxed side and took me under her wing as a piano pupil. Probably worked out for the best as she was right, I do have pretty big feet.

What were you doing before coming to work with Spitalfields Music?
Before coming to Spitalfields Music I spent a year as Orchestral Assistant at the Royal Academy of Music, busily trying to ensure that the right music and the right students were in the right place at the right time. Not always an easy task!

Prior to that I did my master’s with research focused on an impossible (literally!) piece of Ferneyhough, Cassandra’s Dream Song, which I also attempted to play. Luckily for me the score comes with lengthy instructions including that “a ‘beautiful’, cultivated performance is not to be aimed at”. Phew!

Red or white wine?
Ooo, yes please. That would be lovely.

What excites you most about working with Spitalfields Music?
My role in L&P means that I’m out and about lots of the time making music with different groups from all over our community. When every day is different they’re mostly pretty exciting.

Who inspires you?
I’ve always found explorers and travellers inspiring. Not just for heading out into the unknown, but for having the even greater courage to up sticks and leave the comfortable behind.

And finally, would you share an interesting fact about yourself with us?
I am a pirate. No, not really. Though I do live on a sailing boat that looks like this…

 

Cathy’s boat, the Mooi Maisga (Friesian for Beautiful Girl)

*We should point out that this was a reaction to Cathy complaining that she was too old for her first recording to have been a CD.