Category: BR Content

Pictures of Tamsin Waley-Cohen by Patrick Allen

Tamsin Waley-Cohen comes to Birmingham Town Hall on Oct 22^nd for an afternoon performance of The Lark Ascending by Vaughn Williams, launching Orchestra of the Swan’s 2014/5 season.

Ms Waley-Cohen will also be performing further compositions from Elgar, Britten and Williams – conducted throughout by David Curtis. Doors open at 2:30pm with tickets priced between £6.50 – £21.50 plus transaction fee.

Inspired by the George Meredith poem of the same name, The Lark Ascending by Vaughn Williams is one of Classical music’s most recognised and recited compositions. But despite its prominence today, The Lark Ascending was contrary to the compositions popular at the time of its debut, with Williams embracing a pentatonic scale to allow greater freedom and expression for the solo violin.

Written initially for violin and piano in 1914, it wasn’t until after the Great War in 1920 that Williams would première The Lark Ascending with piano accompaniment at Bristol’s Shirehampton Public Hall.

The following year Williams would re-score The Lark Ascending for solo violin and orchestra, premièring the new ensemble at London’s Queen’s Hall conducted by Adrian Boult – three years before Boult would conduct the City of Birmingham Orchestra (now the CBSO). The violin solos at both debuts were played by Marie Hall, the Newcastle born harpist and violinist who was both William’s muse and collaborator for The Lark Ascending.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen has been playing violin since early childhood, reported falling in love with the instrument after watching a televised Prom concert. Born in London, Tamsin Waley-Cohen became a Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music – whose other violinist alumni include Sir Neville Marriner, the late Hugh Bean, alongside contemporaries Daniel Hope and Vasko Vassilev.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen has won several awards for violin, including the Royal College of Music ‘String Player of the Year’ (2005), and is currently the Artistic Director of London’s Tricycle Theatre’s Chamber Music Series.

Ms Waley-Cohen was also the Associate Artist for Orchestra of the Swan during their 2012/3 season and plays a Stradivarius – as did Marie Hall, including during the first public performances of The Lark Ascending.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen performs The Lark Ascending at Birmingham Town Hall on Oct 22^nd, launching Orchestra of the Swan’s 2014/5 season. Ed King will be there for a Birmingham Review.

________

For further info & tickets, visit http://www.thsh.co.uk/event/the-lark-ascending-with-tamsin-waley-cohen/

For more on Tamsin Waley-Cohen, visit http://tamsinwaleycohen.com/

________

For more on Orchestra of the Swan, visit http://www.orchestraoftheswan.org/

For further listings from the Town & Symphony Halls, visit http://www.thsh.co.uk/

Words by Ed King – follow him @EdKing2210 / Pics courtesy of Fuel Theatre

*Fiction returns to mac Theatre tonight/Fri 17^th October. For further information & tickets, visit http://macbirmingham.co.uk/event/fuel-fiction/*

“…no, you won’t be able to go to the toilet.”

mac Box Office finishes their list; I get the feeling this ‘briefing’ has been said once or twice tonight. No talking, no phones, no LED watches, no “…sitting intimately together or holding hands. In fact, no touching at all”. I scan the queue for the inevitable first date… there they are. Swing and a miss.

“Fiction is ‘a surreal and immersive audio experience in total darkness’”, I read form the flyer; a five star rating from What’s On Stage follows, with the oddly placed cliché ‘an absolute must see’ as its conclusion.

“So it’s what, a play in the dark?” my friend asks. “Sort of, more a production,” I attempt an explanation and sound like a wanker, “but using sensory deprivation. They stick you in a totally dark room and make you wear headphones, then the story is told to you by a ‘chaperone’. But you don’t watch anything, it’s all done through sound. I think.”

“It’ll be fun.” I’m not selling this well, a look of irritable confusion comes back at me. “Sounds more scary, in an Alton Towers bad Halloween kind of way. And you can’t leave, not even to use the loo. I’m not sure I’m happy about that.” As the owner of the city’s weakest bladder for a man under 40, neither am I. We order shorts at the bar.

Fiction is the newest production from Glen Neath and David Rosenberg, the show’s writer and director respectively. Their last collaboration, Ring, was another blackout/binaural sound experience – receiving reviews that ranged from admiration to confusion. Fiction is, I assume, an evolution of the same concept. One I’m eager to experience, but with no clear idea of what it is I’m so ready to involve myself in. I don’t even know why it’s called Fiction.

Fuel Theatre, who produced both Ring and Fiction, are probably the compelling reason. Fiction’s marketing spiel is understandably clandestine (no point having a surprise if you know what it is) but the London based theatre company have spent ten years challenging the more traditional approaches of theatre and I want to see that first hand. Or hear that, at least.

We make our way up, up, upstairs to The Foyle Room, where a front of house steward seems intent on separating the audience from their respective companions. My friend negotiates two seats together and I look around for the first date again, but after a rather paranoid wee we’re seemingly the last ones to enter.

As we find our numbered seats (which are on either side of the isle) we walk through a full room laid out theatre style, with a podium and projection screen at the front. Everyone has their earphones on already and are complicity staring at the podium. There is nothing else to look at; the room, which I’ve seen in daylight several times before, is like the inside of a curtain. I can’t get Twin Peaks or A Clockwork Orange out of my head – a dangerous precursor to 60minutes of pitch black.

The rooms settles. The doors closes and the lights stay on. As a series of messages appear on the screen I begin to get childishly excited, in an Alton Towers bad Halloween kind of way. The messages tell us ‘half the room are actors’ before asking random seat numbers to stand up. Number 32 is asked to stand on the podium and read an introduction into the microphone, which, in turn, is read direct into our earphones. The binaural recording is already quite overwhelming, giving the sensation of still being in a room listening to someone read an introduction (which indeed we are) but experiencing it only through our headphones, hermetically sealed.

Number 32, who is asked by her own introduction if she is, in fact, an actor (she is, and admits as such with nonchalance) continues to explain 3^rd hand how our minds will make real characters and places in a narrative, filling in the appropriate blanks of consciousness to propel a story. We are the creators of our own experience, and experience is the only measure of our own reality. I’m beginning to understand why the production’s called Fiction and what part each audience member will play – even if only to themselves.

Number 32 continues, but I’m only half listening – to the words at least. The speed of her voice is altered and as the light in the room begins to fade I hear other noises through my earphones – noises that I think, or at least feel, are coming from the audience. From somewhere I hear sheep. I’m tired now. The voice I’m listening to changes. The noises increase then subside. A whisper comes in through my headphones. The room is in total darkness now. A woman called Alex introduces herself. I think we’re in a hotel; we are. Someone’s broken an ornament. I’m not sure if my eyes are open or closed.

As the lights come back up, an hour later, I watch the audience stand up and shake themselves off. It feels like a TV screen. My friend puts her hand on my shoulder and mouths ‘take off your headphones’. At this point I’d do probably most things suggested.

Back in the bar we tear the evening apart; a powerful approach that fell short on the narrative. The woman who’d sat next to my friend felt “manipulated, without fun” and had been the one making sheep noises. I add “or conclusion” but recognise the narrative had been carefully crafted, with deliberate impetus and omissions that left the rest up to us. And the experience, however unsupported, was immense; both Glen Neath and David Rosenberg certainly know what they’re doing.

But like my old school report card Fiction could do better, potential dear boy potential, especially as it’s the second Neath/Rosenberg production (that I know of) to use sensory deprivation. And it has to be experienced firsthand; not only would a step by step review spoil the adventure, but it wouldn’t even come close to an appropriate representation.

And as I sit on the other side of the evening, in an open bright bar, free to move liquid though my body with frivolous abandon, I still don’t fully understand Fiction. As a story, at least.

Fiction returns to mac Theatre on Fri 17^th October. For further information & tickets, visit http://macbirmingham.co.uk/event/fuel-fiction/

For more on Fiction, visit http://www.fueltheatre.com/projects/fiction

_____________

For more on David Rosenberg, visit http://www.requardt-rosenberg.com/

For more on Glen Neath, visit http://www.glenneath.co.uk/

_______

For more on Fuel Theatre, visit http://www.fueltheatre.com/

For more on mac Birmingham, including full event & exhibition listings, visit http://macbirmingham.co.uk/

Pics by Jo Hornsby

Percy Pursglove will be premiering new work at the CBSO Centre on Friday 17^th October. The Birmingham based trumpet player, double bass player, Jazz musician and composer will present original compositions for octet and eight voice choir, titled Far Reaching Dreams of Mortal Souls. Doors open at 8pm, with tickets priced at £12 + booking fee.

Based on speeches and ‘associated works’ of prominent figure of history, including Charles Darwin, Nelson Mandela, Joan of Ark and Galileo, Far Reaching Dreams of Mortal Souls will feature ‘key players in the British jazz scene’ including Julian Arguelles, Paul Clarvis, Hans Koller, Michael Janisch and Jim Rattigan. The eight voice choir will be led by soprano Nadine Mortimer Smith.

Although still a young man, Percy Pursglove has been a prominent and active member of both the Birmingham and British Jazz scenes for several years – graduating from Birmingham Conservatoire with first class honours, where he now lectures Jazz in both Junior and Senior departments.

Following graduation, Percy Pursglove received a scholarship to study on the Jazz and Contemporary Music Program at the New School University. Whilst in New York, Pursglove played with ensembles including The Duke Ellington Orchestra at Birdland, The Coltrane ensemble and the Rene Marie Big Band at Town Hall, and with Matt Brewer and Tommy Crane at The Knitting Factory.

On returning to the UK, Percy Pursglove took on several roles including director of the National Youth Jazz Wales, tutor for National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland/National Youth Jazz Collective, and music for youth mentor and improvisation clinician for Wales Music Teachers Federation.

Then in autumn 2013, Pursglove became one of the first Jazzlines/Jerwood Foundation Fellows – hosted at Town Hall-Symphony Hall Birmingham.

The CBSO Centre performance of Far Reaching Dreams of Mortal Souls marks the conclusion to Percy Pursglove’s 12month tenture at Jazzlines, with October 17^th being the first time the public will hear his new composition. Althea Patterson will be there for a Birmingham Review.

Percy Pursglove premiers Far Reaching Dreams of Mortal Souls at the CBSO Centre on Friday October 17^th. For further information and online tickets, visit http://www.thsh.co.uk/event/percy-pursglove-far-reaching-dreams-of-mortal-souls/

For more on Percy Pursglove, visit http://www.percypursglove.com/

__________

For more on Jazzlines, visit http://www.thsh.co.uk/jazzlines/

For more on the CBSO Centre, including full concert listings, visit http://www.cbso.co.uk/