In pictures: the award-nominated ‘We are Shadows’

As many of you may have heard, we’ve been fortunate enough to be shortlisted twice(!) for this year’s RPS Music Awards.

In the RPS Music Award for Learning & Participation category is last Summer’s fantastic We are Shadows - our opera project that was two years in the making and involved over 300 participants of all ages from Tower Hamlets.

It’s got us reminiscing about the project and so we thought we’d take the opportunity to share a selection of images captured from along the way. We hope you enjoy!

Composer John Barber and librettist Hazel Gould

Workshopping with The Sixteen at Village Underground

Rehearsal at Barbican Centre

Director Mia Theil Have in rehearsals a Barbican Centre

The City Chorus in rehearsal at Barbican Centre

Robert Anthony Gardiner as Toby

The City Chorus

Toby, his Shadow, Rattus Rattus and the Shadow Voice

Rattus Rattus and some of the young rats

Shoreditch Church dressed for We are Shadows

If you fancy a little bit more, have a look at the We are Shadows videos on our YouTube channel. There’s a great documentary from Andy Weir, and you can enjoy a short film below:

Images by Jez C Self.

Booking now open for Summer Festival 2012!

So it’s still cold and miserable outside, and too dark in the evenings, but summer is hotting up Spitalfields Music HQ as booking is now open for our Summer Festival 2012!

Matthew Barley at Village Underground (Image: Alys Tomlinson)

Running from 8-23 June, the Festival is packed with more musical treats than ever! Leading the programme as our Associate Artists are the Gabrieli Consort & Players, cellist Matthew Barley and tabla player and music producer Talvin Singh. Between them they present an eclectic series of performances ranging from Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, and Stravinsky’s mass setting to a fusion of tabla, folk and electronic, a candle-lit performance of John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil and a search for the answer to the question, What’s Music For?

Paul McCreesh in Old Spitalfields Market (Image: Alys Tomlinson)

We welcome a number of music-theatre encounters, as The Sixteen return with a new commission from Alec Roth with Samuel Beckett’s Old Earth monologues. La Nuova Musica collaborate with Vignette Productions on Sacrifices: a new staging and installation around two baroque oratorios, and The Opera Group come together with the London Sinfonietta in Harrison Birtwistle’s tale of love and jealously, Bow Down.

Talvin Singh at Oxford House (Image: James Berry)

Alongside all this, Dutch cult sensation Night of the Unexpected makes its London debut, with a cocktail of experimental beats improvised jazz, composed repertoire and conceptual pop music. Late-night concerts from Melvyn Tan with Bach suites and new variations plus EXAUDI celebrating the beauty of John Cage’s vocal music. There’s also choral music of every flavour as the Monteverdi Choir go on a European choral pilgrimage, the Choir of Royal Holloway bring songs from the Baltic States and the distinct sounds of South American baroque from Florilegium and the Arakaendar Bolivia Choir.

All this and much, much more will be filling the extraordinary spaces of Spitalfields this summer! See our website for the full festival listings, or flick through the Festival brochure online.

Booking is now open: online 24 hours-a-day at spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk (just register an account if you’re new to us) or via the Box Office phone lines on 020 7377 1362 (open Mon-Fri, 10am-6pm).

Staff Pick: Gallicantus

As the Winter Festival draws ever closer, Marketing & Box Office Assistant, Michael Duffy, shares why he thinks Gallicantus’s Dialogues of Sorrow is one of the unmissable events this festival.

So, Gallicantus may be one of this festival’s lesser known artists, but are most definitely one of the most unmissable! Their early-seventeenth century programme is taken from a period of national mourning (for Henry, Prince of Wales) that has probably never been matched or produced such a large extraordinary outpouring of grief-stricken and wholly beautiful music.

What is also striking is the sheer variety of what emerged  (as the selection for this concert demonstrates), with lute songs such as John Coprario’s O Grief, lamenting madrigals like Tis Now the Dead Night by Thomas Ford and sacred anthems using texts describing King David’s loss of his son Absalom. Some of the works may be familiar, but many won’t and are a treat to discover.

Gallicantus deliver this with ease and clarity – do check out their tracks on our Spotify Winter Festival playlist (some of which are in their Dialogues of Sorrow programme).

Gallicantus perform on Thursday 15 December, 7.00pm at Shoreditch Church (St Leonard’s). Book your tickets online.

Winter Festival Staff Pick: Open Ears

We asked members of the Spitalfields Music team to pick out a Winter Festival event that they are feeling particularly excited about. This week, Ellie Folkes, Programme Manager: Festivals , tells us all about Duncan Chapman’s laptop orchestra.

The other day I enjoyed a mid-afternoon escape from the office and popped into Canon Barnet primary school, which is tucked away just behind Toynbee Hall on Commercial Street. I found my way into Class 6 just in time to catch the last bit of a workshop session led by the wonderful electronic composer Duncan Chapman. The excitable 10 year olds were masterfully using laptops and special music software that transformed the regular keyboard keys into sounds ranging from whales to trombones. I watched as selected few took it in turns to ‘conduct’ the laptop orchestra by holding up different letters, as the rest of the class hit the relevant keys, followed the directions and a cacophony of polyphony ensued! This was indeed a true test of how successfully one can control a room of kids – and I must say I was massively impressed by the children’s level of attention and self restraint!

Class 6 will be having several more of these workshops over the coming weeks, in lead up to the laptop orchestra’s debut performance at Open Ears on Wednesday 14 December at Shoreditch Church. The concert is all about exploring and challenging notions of what it is to be a composer, and will include not only the laptop orchestra, but also performances on more traditional instruments such as piano, horn and (very excitingly) the shakuhachi – a 13^th century Japanese bamboo flute traditionally used by Buddhist monks as a spiritual tool. Come along – it’s fun AND free! The intention is that the concert will not only encourage you to explore the church and its beautiful acoustics, but also to become inspired by the possibilities of composition and to open your ears to all the sounds that surround you.

Open Ears is free to attend, however booking is required – call our box office on 020 7377 1362 reserve your place for this exciting family event!

Artist Focus: European Union Baroque Orchestra

‘EUBO plays music from 300 years ago, not to create a museum but a here-and-now experience.’ 

(Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Music Director, EUBO)

European Union Baroque Orchestra

Bringing together some of the finest young baroque musicians from across Europe, the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO)  provides a creative platform for new talent. The orchestra offers around 25 graduates the opportunity to immerse themselves in baroque music and performance, playing around the world and working with some of the most respected conductors and directors.

The ensemble has racked up a number of accolades over its 26 year history. They are currently orchestra-in-residence in Echternach, Luxembourg, and have the honour of being an EU Cultural Ambassador. In this role they start a tour around the continent of their new programme Joy and Sorrow unmasked with music by Bach, Handel, Ferrandini and Torelli, and featuring Swedish soprano, Maria Keohane.

Their concert at our Winter Festival explores the breathtaking transformation of instrumental writing style that occurred towards the end of the 18th century. The so-called ‘Enlightenment’ moved away from strict baroque structures, focusing on melody and sentiment, allowing for more freedom of expression. Virtuoso flute and recorder player Alexis Kossenko directs A Breath of Enlightenment, and will also feature as a soloist.

To experience some of EUBO’s music, have a listen to our EUBO Spotify playlist.

Discover Europe’s most talented musicians at our Winter Festival – EUBO in A Breath of Enlightenment, Saturday 17 December, 7.00pm at Shoreditch Church (St Leonard’s). Book your tickets now!