Wednesday 28 October 2015

The shock of the New...

Well, what a pleasant surprise, this blog received some correspondence regarding my coverage of the Moot Hall Organ and new compositions written for it. Thanks to Alex for getting in touch.

Turns out the organ is not the only lucky instrument in Colchester - Colchester New Music have a series of very varied events this autumn. So if you're interested in New Music (and after all, all old music was new once, Bach and Scarlatti just as innovative as today's composers), here's a couple of events. Certainly the Gig at the Arts Centre looks worth a punt. One of the most off-the-wall but excellent musical experiences I have enjoyed in the last few years was when an organist played her interpretation of the Shipping Forecast!



  CNM Piano Project 20157:30pm, 4th November 2015, Swinburne Hall, Colchester Institute,
Sheepen Road, Colchester, Essex, CO3 3LL
Tickets £5 on the door, or via CMPA Live Box Office:
01206 712999 /
creativeartslive@colchester.ac.uk /http://creativeartslive.colchester.ac.uk

Following on from last year's successful event, Colchester piano
teacher Dylan Christopher presents another evening exploring
contemporary piano music for aspirant pianists. Together with
professional guests David Mitchell and Elspeth Manders, and local
piano pupils, Dylan will perform a programme of exciting new solo and
duet pieces of ABRSM Grade 1-5 standard, contributed by composers from
Essex and beyond. The performers - teachers and pupils - will discuss
what it is that makes a contemporary piece educationally and musically
satisfying for learners.

Full details of the programme are here
http://colchesternewmusic.com/2015/10/03/results-of-piano-project-2015-call-announced

Recordings of last year's pieces can be found here:http://colchesternewmusic.com/listen/piano-project-2014


*** Fretless Architecture: Rich Perks + vLookup Trio

Doors
7:30pm (starts 8pm), Thursday 5th November 2015, Colchester Arts
Centre, Church St. Colchester CO1 1NF
Tickets £7/£6: Box Office 01206 500900 /
colchesterartscentre.com

New constructions for solo fretless electric guitar, plus explorations
from avant-garde noise to funk-rock for fretless electic guitar,
trumpet, percussion, effects and live electronics.
As both a guitarist and composer Rich exhibits a keen interest in
anything unusual, progressive and innovative. As well as being an
active gigging musician in the commercial industry, he performs much
contemporary, experimental and improvised music, specialising in
fretless electric guitar.

The vLookup Trio is comprised of Rich Perks (fretless electric
guitar), Andrew Hall (trumpet) and Tom Atherton (percussion). Together
they explore pieces which combine pre-composed material with
improvisation in styles that range from avant-garde noise to
funk-rock, whilst also pushing the sonic possibilities of a trio
instrumentation by incorporating effects and live electronics.

Last year Rich released an international call for scores, in
conjunction with Colchester New Music. His aim was to explore the
possibilities of the fretless electric guitar further; in the hope
that through making relationships with composers, the full potential
of this young and exciting instrument could be discovered and
developed. In this ground-breaking performance, Colchester Arts Centre
hosts the premieres of five works selected from this call, juxtaposed
with vLookup's sonic adventures.
http://www.colchesterartscentre.com/events/gigs/rich-perks-vlookup-trio-fretless-architecture/
http://richperks.net

No music today - it hasn't been written yet!

1 comment: