In video: Summer Festival 2012 Highlights

So unfortunately Summer seems to be fast-fading… Three-and-a-half days left of the Paralympics, children back to school soon, and it seems to be dark by 9.00pm.

However, we’ve just put the finishing touches on a 2 minute round-up of this year’s Summer Festival, giving you a flavour of what we got up to during 16 crazy days in June. Press play below to find out more (and to enjoy snippets of footage from The Opera Group, Gabrieli Consort & Players, Matthew Barley, La Nuova Musica & Vignette Productions, Alan Gilbey and more)

(And if that’s whet your appetite, we’ll being announcing full programme details for our Winter Festival 2012 on Monday 10 September, with booking opening on Monday 24 September at 10.00am)

Spitalfields Speaks with Inspiration

Hopefully many of you will be familiar with our ongoing audio exploration project inspired and generated from the local area, Spitalfields Speaks. (If you aren’t, you can find more information here on the blog, and also on our website.)

Toynbee Hall’s Inspire group (image by Joanna Moore)

This year’s incarnation saw three dynamic individuals take us on journeys around their own lives, working with Duncan Chapman. The fourth journey asked for members of the public to contribute their own sound suggestions alongside sounds gathered by young people from Toynbee Hall’s Inspire group at our Midsummer Street Party on Saturday 23 June. At the end of the day, these sounds were gathered together and transformed into a final collective journey in a live mixing session at the Water Poet’s Underground Cinema.

You can hear the outcome below and find further details about the project (including the other three journeys) on the Spitalfields Speaks page on our website.

Phoenix Memories

You may remember reading Rus Pearson’s blog (and if not you can here!) about working with pupils at Phoenix School earlier this year. With the project over and the performance done, Programme Manager Cathy Birch went back to school to talk over their memories and experiences – a visit from which has emerged this audio blog.

In it you’ll hear comments from students, workshop leaders & audience members; all accompanied by a piece Rus put together from recordings of our sessions.

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

Bow Down Diaries: Benjamin

We’ve been speaking to the cast of The Opera Group’s Bow Down about their experiences of the production ahead of their performances in the Village Underground tomorrow. In the final instalment, Benjamin Mahns-Mardy tells us how different it has been to working on other projects.

Working on this piece has been an incredible experience. Not only due to the fact that Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s music is so different from anything I have worked on before, but also that the disciplines practiced by the ensemble (varying from being instrumentalists, actors, dancers and singers) allow for a really interesting interdisciplinary performance. If one then adds to this, the fact that each venue we are performing at is almost completely different, each venue adds another dynamic to the piece. For example, being at the Municipal Market in Brighton gave the piece, in my opinion a very industrial feel. However, at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, the venue being a clearing in a forest, with naked flames to light the performance space gave the piece a tribal, almost animalistic air. The feel of the piece will mostly likely change again at the Village Underground and at Latitude Festival. I also feel that the piece itself can alter the ‘mood’ of the venue for the audience due to its ritualistic nature.

Working with The Opera Group has also been fantastic. They have a well deserved reputation for commissioning and producing new Opera works. Now, although Bow Down is not an opera, it fits perfectly within the catalogue of works that this incredible company has performed. I very much hope to be able to work with The Opera Group in the future.

Benjamin Mahns-Mardy
Cast Member

Bow Down
Wednesday 13 June, 6.30pm & 8.30pm
Village Underground
Book your tickets now on our website.