Performing Arts in Surrey, Sussex & Kent

Archive for the ‘surrey’ Category

Conductor - Stephen Hope

September 25th saw the inaugural rehearsal session of The Orchestra of the 19th Century – an exciting new, and possibly first ever, Professional/Pro/Am Symphony Orchestra.

The orchestra is the brainchild of Surrey-based conductor Stephen hope, well known for his work in the south of England, and in particular with the Sussex Festival Choir, with whom over the last nine years he has given highly acclaimed performances with star – studded line-ups of soloists at Arundel Cathedral, raising in excess of £45,000 for St. Catherine’s and St. Wilfrid’s hospices.

The orchestra is designed to be an eclectic mix of leading professional players and ‘professional amateurs’ – instrumentalists of grade 8 plus/diploma standard are warmly invited to contact Stephen – there is currently NO audition!!

Read more in the November-December 2011 issue of Words and Music Magazine!

Surrey Choral Society - click for larger pic

April in Paris

Singers from all over the South East will be flocking to The Harlequin in Redhill on Saturday 2 April for this year’s Surrey Choral Festival, which this year has a distinctly French flavour.

The Festival is hosted once again by Reigate & Redhill Choral Society (RRCS) and will be showcasing two of the best loved choral pieces by Fauré, his hauntingly beautiful Requiem and the equally stunning Cantique de Jean Racine.

Up to two hundred singers are expected to come together for a highly rewarding and enjoyable day of professional tuition, all led by top international soloists, soprano Alison Pearce and baritone Jozik Kok.

Surrey University provides many wonderful recitals and choreographic events throughout the year, at their Performing Arts Studios on the campus in Guildford. This Lent term has many Lunchtime Recitals at Studio One where you may see and hear undergraduate and postgraduate students who specialise in performance.

Programmes are varied and run 1.10pm until 2pm. Admission is normally free and you can join their E-List by emailing: arts@surrey.ac.uk

The first one on 12th January is a recital by pianist Emilie Capuley. Others are on 19th and 26th January and 9th and 16th February.

On 30th January at 7.30pm you can attend the 23rd Annual Composers and Choreographers Collaborative Workshop Presentations – attendance is free.

On 2nd February at 1.10pm in Studio One is the Croser Hughes Chamber Music Award and the winners are appearing on 4th February at the United Reformed Church, Guildford at 7.30pm.

Saturday 19th February hear a wonderful concert performance of Bizet’s opera ‘Carmen’ at Guildford Cathedral, 7.30pm. Tickets £12 or £5 students. Box Office 01483 686876. See page 14 of current WAM issue.

Finally on 23rd and 25th February, again in Studio One, you can hear the Joyce Dixey Composition Award Preliminary Concerts at 1.10pm. Admission is free.

The St. Celia Chorus

Wonderful classical concert experience for St. Cecilia’s Day

The St.Cecilia Chorus who are based in Surrey will be celebrating their Saint’s day with a fine concert on Saturday 20th November at St. Andrew’s Church, Cheam, SM2 7HF.

The programme will consist of Cantata BWV 140 – J.S.Bach; Song for St. Cecilia’s Day – Ian Le Grice; Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring – (from Cantata BVW 147) J. S. Bach; and Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day – H. Purcell.

Wonderful concerts of Music and Dance from University of Surrey

The University of Surrey organises a wide variety of events through it’s Arts and Music departments, many of them with free admission. During November and December there will be a whole series of lunchtime concerts where people are invited to take a mid-day break, relax or be invigorated by these short recitals.  Feel free to pop down during a lunch break, if only for 20 minutes, and you may come and go between performers.

Normally given by undergraduate and postgraduate students specialising in performance, the repertoire at these concerts is extremely varied. It’s a great opportunity to hear some familiar and not so well known works. Programmes for these events are not usually available in advance but can be emailed to you a few days before the recital.

To join the e-list please email:  j.harber@surrey.ac.uk

These are the dates for these concerts which start at 1.10pm: November 3rd, 10th, 15th, 17th, 24th, December 1st, 8th, 15th. Other events worth seeing are: Friday 19th November at 7.30pm  at PATS Dance Studio `Swarm`, devised by composer Neil Luck and choreographer Aya Kobayashi with free admission.

Peter Katin

Born in London, 1930, to a family originally from northern Europe, as a child of four Peter’s  musical ability was phenomenal.  At twelve he was enrolled in the senior department of the RAM (minimum age for entry, sixteen.)   At eighteen  he was headlining at the Wigmore Hall. The first British artist to visit Russia post-WW2, he still declares his debt to his early mentors, Clifford Curzon, Dame Myra Hess and the Chilean pianist/conductor Claudio Arrau.  He rapidly became known as an interpreter of the ‘big’ works of the Romantics, particularly Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, and it was a performance of the latter’s very complicated Third Piano Concerto which really established him as the leader in this field.The University of Surrey organises a wide variety of events through it’s Arts and Music departments, many of them with free admission.

Clyde Hall, Croydon

Surrey Opera held a very special event on Tuesday 21st September entitled Surrey Opera ‘At Home’ in Clyde Hall, Croydon, to launch Operation Clyde Hall – ‘a year of favours’. Clyde Hall has been Surrey Opera’s ‘home’ and rehearsal space for the last twenty years but the Hall’s Trustees made a decision earlier this year to sell the Hall – probably to developers. This information was a double blow to Surrey Opera as, in addition to this, they had just lost their long time and inspirational Administrator, Anthea Hall, who had tragically died after a very short illness.

Jonathan Butcher, their Conductor and Artistic Director, had written in a statement that ‘ we have only  two options:- 1) to `shut-up shop` and call it a day or 2) to take a leap of faith and try to purchase Clyde Hall. ‘ After negotiations with the Hall’s Trustees, who have been enormously generous to the Company over the years, Surrey Opera have ‘done a deal’ and exchanged contracts to purchase the building for the sum of £461,000, but they estimate that to bring the building up to scratch they will require £500,000 in total and to raise this capital they are proposing to create a private limited  company.

Surrey Opera present The Bartered Bride at The Minack

Surrey Opera’s seventh visit to the Minack in Cornwall with The Bartered Bride was undoubtedly our wettest. I remember crowding into the orchestra tent during the finale of Carmen (2000) watching Carmen and Don Jose drown, only for the rain to stop for the curtain call.

On the Monday night this year, we opened in rain, closed in rain, and performed whilst getting steadily soggy. At least some of the chorus could tumble-dry parts of their costume during the interval. Eagle-eyed observers of the set might have noticed that one of the `May-poles` was shortened because the cardboard collapsed. Company spirit was, of course, excellent, with umbrellas provided for some of those required to lie on stage during most of Act Two.

Burlesque is making a return!

The art of Burlesque

A contradiction in terms? Is there any art in burlesque? Some say Yes. Others – probably the majority – vehemently deny it. Presumably the early perpetrators of this unique form of entertainment definitely considered it art, for burlesque has severely high-flown origins. Its name, for one. Originating in Spain, burla travelled to Italy and became burlesco and thence to France for the word we know. Its literal translation is ‘to send up’. Wasn’t burlesque American in origin, a product of the ‘silent’ era of Fatty Arbuckle, the early Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Keystone Cops, glamour courtesy of Mabel Normand? In 1954 Phil Silvers starred as the comic in a film about the subject, Top Banana  Read the rest of this entry »