Music + Art Series wins Festival Award
“These concerts attained the highest standard with musicians who impressed with their playing, interpretation and ensemble”
One of the best things to have come from the Pandemic is a new Concert Series combining Music + Art in Buxton, UK. A new partnership with The Green Man Gallery, Buxton has been growing since my first hand at co-curating an Art inspired concert in the Buxton Fringe 2021 with wonderful friends Rosie Bowker (flute) & Aleksandra Myslek (piano).
Chamber music and improvisation inspired by art resulted, and more importantly, the start of a new relationship and series of Classical Music Concerts inspired by art in the Gallery in 2022.
Now halfway through the 2022 series, I’ve had a wonderful and inspiring time inviting friends and colleagues to the Gallery to perform, and co-curated many of the programmes. From an initial solo viola concert with Q&A afterwards - I got to know the lovely audience in a welcoming and warm space that is unique to the Gallery. Improvisations both to Art, to voice and even to improvised poetry based on Art in the Gallery. It was truly ‘Cross-Arts’ and wonderfully accessible.
Trilogy Ensemble (Flute, Harp & Viola) returned for a Spring inspired concert and the corner stage of the Gallery truly does look purpose-built for concert harp! The trio returns for a ‘Classical Christmas’ inspired concert on 11th December.
Endli5 Wind Quintet truly astounded us with their sound - Nielson and the most fantastic Stockhousen, beautifully introduced with readings and the musicians disappearing into the gallery to improvise their parts in antiphonal murmurings among the artwork. The whole space and acoustic created a magical experience of instruments seeming to appear from the art.
Our most adventurous programming to date has been the latest x2 linked concerts held as part of The Buxton Fringe Festival in July. This time music for string quartet, trio, duos and solos with Christopher Jones (violin); Martin Cropper (violin) and Ben Michaels (cello) joining me on viola. Inspired by the Gallery’s Fringe Exhibition the two concerts ‘Music of Water & Stone’ drew on Art, the landscapes surrounding Buxton and the elements. Resident Artists Geoff Chilton, Suzanne Pearson and Caroline Small created their own reactionary artwork during the music performances with stunning results! Something completely out of their comfort zones and the musicians in turn improvised to their artworks, and the Gallery art. From Bach’s Goldberg Variations, to Solo Cello Demenga and quartets by The Danish String Quartet, the thread of music crossed genres, styles and ages in its storytelling of water, stone and the local area. Read the official review below.
We are delighted that ‘Music of Water and Stone’ received the Small Ensemble Award for the Buxton Fringe 2022. A big thank you to the Fringe and to their wonderful audiences!
Our next concert in the series celebrates the Gallery’s 10th Year Anniversary with a concert inspired by ‘The Green Man’ and the Gallery’s exhibition ‘The Green Gathering’. We look forward to inviting back the Endeli5 Wind Quintet, and musicians from previous concerts in the series including Christopher Jones (violin); Bethan Griffiths (Trilogy Ensemble - Harp) and the premiere of a new commission by Composer Alice Beckwith, composed especially for this event. With huge thanks for support from the RVW Trust and The Buxton Museum and Art Gallery.
Tickets: £12/£10 concession; under 18s free!
Thank you to everyone who has supported this new series, and to The Green Man Gallery for being such wonderful collaborators! There are x6 concerts in the 2022 series, and I look forward to what next year will bring too - stay tuned.
