Michael Duffy, Head of Programming for Cheltenham Music Festival, explains how Cheltenham Festivals honours its heritage by looking to the future.
Classical music is endlessly refreshing and reinventing itself. Just compare Bach to Beethoven, or read Leah Broad’s recent book Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Music World, to see and hear how radical composers can be and often are. Music never stands still – it is always building on what has come before to create new ways of experiencing music.
A big part of ensuring classical music remains vital is ensuring that it retains a contemporary edge. Honouring our proud heritage, our mission involves both celebrating beloved work form the past and the latest in contemporary classical music – and this year’s programme is full of opportunities to see what’s new.
Rakhi Singh – Friday, July 14, 9.30pm at The Old Courthouse
Singh is the violinist, co-founder and leader with the radical Manchester Collective – who also play Cheltenham this year (at the Town Hall on Thursday, July 13 from 7.30pm). Her work both solo and through Manchester Collective is keenly focused on the power of music to move and excite audiences: Singh has made Manchester Collective a kinetic, diverse and accessible home for today’s most exciting musicians – and audiences looking for new, intimate musical experiences.
Singh herself is a dynamic, genre-spanning performer, and in this set will perform music by electronica-influenced composers like Emily Hall alongside the work of seventeenth-century Baroque violinist Nicola Matteis. Enhanced by electronics and a late-night vibe conjured by a remarkable venue – its debut with Cheltenham Music Festival – this show is guaranteed to appeal to music lovers of all kinds: from BBC 6 Music Freak Zoners to lovers of chamber quartets and contemporary ensembles. Don’t take my word for it, either: BBC Radio 3 have selected this concert as one to catch.
Music is a remarkable and universal kind of language. In the prize-winning Sound Voice Project, presented daily at Cheltenham from noon each day, the composer Hannah Conway demonstrates this in a unique and moving way. Bringing together people with lived experience of voice loss with the writer Hazel Gould, the video designer Luke Halls, and sound designer David Sheppard, they created three (frankly, amazing) audio-visual experiences that focus on the beauty and value of the human voice. What does it mean to have a voice? How does our voice affect our identity? And… what happens when we lose it?
In the three pieces presented here –Tanja, Paul and I Left My Voice Behind – poignant and powerful stories emerge that are equally heart-rending and uplifting. The Sound Voice Project is a celebration and evocation of the power and breadth of what the voice means. Audiences for these presentations will be treated to truly beautiful music that is both universal and rooted in specific life experience. Featured recently on BBC Radio 4, I can’t recommend experiencing The Sound Voice Project enough.
12 Ensemble & GBSR Duo – Friday, July 14, 7pm at Cheltenham Town Hall
12 Ensemble (strings) and GBSR Duo (piano and percussion) met while bringing to life the Royal Opera House’s hit show about the final hours of Nirvana-front man Kurt Cobain’s life, Last Days. They’ve also worked on films such as Spencer and the Oscar-nominated Power of the Dog. They continue their remarkable collaboration in this project that brings together heavenly and hellish visions.
Starting with the twisted sounds of Oscar-nominated composer Mica Levi, from her soundtrack to Under the Skin (starring Scarlett Johansson), they bring to life a brand new piece by Laurence Osborn called TOMB! This was commissioned by Cheltenham Music Festival and looks at musical mourning by pulling apart music from the past. This will be contrasted with the heavenly ambient sounds of Brian Eno and Harold Budd’s landmark album Ambient: The Plateaux of Mirrors, especially arranged for this ensemble.
