Midsummer Street Party – the main stage

A riotous collection of artists representing the variety of colourful cultures in and around the Spitalfields area will be gearing up to take to the main stage at our Midsummer Street Party.

The performances kick off with a veritable gaggle of schoolchildren from local schools showcasing their singing talents. Next up brass group is the Gold Digger’s Brass Band who’s musical arrangements are completely original and not necessarily of tunes you would expect a brass band to play. The band draws its influence from legendary pop and soul artists such as Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson, performing in the style of some of today’s outstanding ‘second line’ and ‘street’ brass bands such as Youngblood Brass Band, Rebirth Brass Band and The Hackney Colliery Band. Expect quirky pop and funk covers with a New Orleans infused brass band twist!

She’Koyokh then takes to the stage in a stampede of sound – hailed as “Britain’s best klezmer and Balkan music band” (Songlines) and winners of the Netherlands’ International Jewish Music Festival competition, the band’s evolution spans the humble origins of busking at East London’s Columbia Road flower market to performing in the famous concert halls of Europe. She’Koyokh is a Yiddish expression meaning “nice one!”

Spitalfields Music’s very own vocal group Spitalfields Singers will sing highlights from their repertoire – a busy day for them as you will also be able to see them perform later in the evening in our final event in Bishop’s Square. A huge event aptly named Fire involving 150 singers, fire artists and a new work by David Bruce – definitely an unusual spectacle not to be missed!

Just as you think you should be winding down Rhythms of the City blaze onto the stage in a riotous explosion of sound and energy. One of the UK’s premier samba percussion squads the group perform not only authentic carnival samba, but many other funky styles (salsa, soca, reggae, funk, hiphop…) with the same passion and energy. Rhythms of the City is the beating heart of London’s multi-award winning jazz community the F-IRE Collective. Drummers, singers, dancers, horns and guitars combine in a unique spectacle to get you up and moving!

Our final event of the day is Street Dance the Maypole, produced by East London Dance. It’s a swirling, twirling, funky maypole fusion – you’ll be able to learn a funky street dance routine, mix it with folkie maypole moves all to the sound of an English bagpipe player and a beatboxer. Sound intriguing? We look forward to seeing your fancy footwork!

Kate Kelly
Programme Director: Festivals 

A ‘Fire’ starter

If you passed by the Attlee Youth & Community Centre last week you may have wondered – as did the guys who turned up for their usually quiet Tuesday evening football match – what was going on as scores of people poured in through the door. This was the first gathering of the “Fire choir”, coming together for some fun singing, to meet the composer David Bruce, and to give a section of his new commission Fire a whirl.

Sam Chaplin and the 'Fire' singers

The 96 amateur singers in attendance were in fine voice and quickly built up into part singing under the direction of chorus leader, Sam Chaplin. After a break to catch up with faces old and new it was time to tackle Fire. This they did with admirable ease, the section worked on coming together quickly and sounding very fine – which bodes well for the performances in June and July!

The more experienced in the group ably supported those new to choral singing, including one young woman who’d turned up for something else but got gathered into the fold. Her parting remark was “I never thought music could be fun; but I’ll be back!”

If you’d like to join her in giving at a whirl there are still places available, especially for male voices. To find out how to get involved contact Natalie Ellis on 020 7377 0287 or send an email.

Cathy Birch
Programme Manager: Learning & Participation 

Intern Diary: 180 Days of Summer

I know. You wish summer could be so long. Who wouldn’t daydream of sunny days, bright colours or contagious happy smiles?
Although you might get a bit jealous now, believe it or not, this year I somehow had a six month summer. It started sometime in February with brochures, research, planning sessions and lovely people, all heading towards the Spitalfields Music Summer Festival.  More like a time travel, every working day on Brushfield Street was directly related to June 2011, or most precisely 10-25 of June.  A lot of cups of tea, laughs, Tuesday meetings, brainstorming sessions, Learning & Participation workshops, leaflets and communications plans.

 And one day, Friday 10 June was actually here.  The Sounds of Spitalfields invaded the market and the summer frozen in time came to live. It was music all around for two weeks. From baroque, contemporary classical and jazz to an extremely one of a kind experience: a musical secret hidden under the monotony of an office. And what the audience is never aware of: an incredibly organised team taking care of every little thing and making sure that music reaches everyone the way it was supposed to.

I find it impossible to describe in words everything that I have experienced in my 180 days of summer.  But I guess music is not about explaining and wording. It’s definitely more about listening and enjoying.  And I’ve been surely meeting and listening to a lot of interesting people and enjoyed working within such a nice team, experiencing how a music festival is brought to life.  I will definitely miss that!

Ruxandra Mateiu
Marketing & Communications Intern

Late nights at the Village Underground

Tonight we welcome Barokksolistine along with members of I Fagiolini  to perform some really old pub-music all under the direction of Bjarte Eike.
Join us from 9.30pm for humour, anecdote, drinks and some 17th century pop music in a relaxed and informal setting!

Not sure what to expect? Have a look at Barokksolistine in action:

On Friday, Village Underground will also be host to  The Night Shift, with the OAE performing an all-Handel programme. Early in the evening there will be a pre-concert show by collaborators from the Roundhouse Experimental Choir and Circulate,  our group of Young Programmers, and afterwards DJ Postino will see us through til midnight.

Find out what the orchestra’s players think about the programme behind this  summer’s Night Shift in this video by the OAE:

Visit www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk for more info!

Diggers for Victory – James Weeks

James Weeks writes about the inspiration behind his new choral work The Freedom of the Earth. The following is an excerpt from his article published in this morning’s Guardian.

In the beginning of Time, the great Creator Reason made the Earth to be a Common Treasury, to preserve Beasts, Birds, Fishes and Man: but not one word was spoken in the beginning, That one branch of mankind should rule over another. And if the Earth be not peculiar to any one branch or branches of mankind…Then is it Free and Common for all, to work together, and eate together.

 As we wallow in our 21st-century mires of recession and environmental destruction, gluttonous children of a selfish and profoundly unequal society we seem to have no serious intention of reforming, it’s salutary to read these bracing words from a distant, more hopeful time. In 1649, as Parliament consolidated its triumph in the Civil War and Charles I mounted the scaffold, Gerrard Winstanley and his band of True Levellers climbed St George’s Hill, near Weybridge in Surrey, and began digging the earth to cultivate it for food.

Writing such as this, finding transcendence and exaltation in the simplest, most fundamental things in life, persuaded me to try and set Winstanley to music. Could it work?  Winstanley is about collective action, and the act of music-making, of rehearsing and performing, is itself a direct engagement with this idea. Collective music-making embodies the co-operation and togetherness that binds a society together, and none more so than choral singing, which, whether a hymn or a requiem, allows us to articulate a shared thought together, not negating the individual but gathering all into a harmony made of many different parts.

Winstanley’s words, the product of an individual mind but aspiring to a collective ideal, fit perfectly into the mouths of a choir. My new work, The Freedom of the Earth, for chorus and an ensemble of 10 players, presents these highly modern ideas about society through this pre-eminently co-operative medium. The relation of music and text I envisaged was not so much a traditional ‘setting’, but more of an incorporation of the words into the texture of the music. I imagined two quite contrasted types of group expression: firstly, a rhythmic and energetic type of music, modelled on the idea of a street demonstration, where many voices are raised in protest, sometimes altogether, sometimes apart, sometimes clearly, sometimes lost in the crowd. Then the second part of the piece, setting texts from Winstanley’s great manifesto The True Levellers Standard Advanced, moves out of the streets, away from the city and onto the land, weaving together many independent strands of hymn-like material in different sections of the choir, as Winstanley describes the work of the Diggers and their aims.

At the centre, between these two halves, stand the words Winstanley claimed to have heard “in a Trance”:

Work together, Eate Bread together, Declare all this abroad.

An incredibly simple phrase, embodying the deepest aspirations. A society built on these foundations would be a big society indeed.
James Weeks

The Freedom of the Earth will be performed by New London Chamber Choir and London Sinfonietta
Monday 13 June
Shoreditch Church
Book Now!

To read the full article as published by the Guardian, please click here.