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Well, Friday's lunchtime concert in Studio 3 Gallery saw the first time when extra chairs were being called for at one of our #EarBox events: the audience just kept coming! It's always a real treat when we start rehearsing in the campus' art gallery in the Jarman Building; the first chord we sing fills the marvellously resonant space - and off we go... This time, we were singing amidst 'The Ash Archive,' the gallery's latest newest exhibition, filling the space with music including Sarah Rimkus' otherworldly O Vos Omnes, and Rachmaninov's sedate Bogoroditsye Dyevo (in rehearsal with assistant conductor, Matt Cooke, pictured right). It was a pleasure singing for such a large and appreciative audience; later this afternoon, we're heading out to the village of Hernhill, near Faversham, for a sequence of music and silence in an unusual event; pictures from that to follow. Many thanks to everyone who came along, and to the gallery co-ordinator, Rose Thompson, for helping to bring it all together. With last night's rehearsal over, the next time we sing will be in the rich acoustic of Studio 3 Gallery in the Jarman Building, for the #EarBox series of events linking visual art and music. We unveil our new programme against the backdrop of the gallery's latest exhibition, The Ash Archive, and are looking forward to doing so. But it doesn't stop there; later on Friday, we head out to the fifteenth-century church of St Michael's in Hernhill, for a meditative sequence of music and silence by candlelight, in the church's Breathing Space series of events. Hopefully, we won't set fire to anything... More details about both events here: music, art and silence - it's all to come this Friday... One of the pieces we've been working on as part of this year's choral repertoire is a wonderfully otherworldly setting of O Vos Omnes, a motet for Lent by the American composer, Sarah Rimkus. It's a real pleasure for us to be able to champion contemporary works and new music by up-and-coming young composers, and this year's piece is a beautiful motet that hovers on the brink between medieval and modern. We're very pleased to have made this recording, filmed in Colyer-Fergusson Hall this week; our thanks to Sarah for permission to make it, we're loving singing it - very much looking forward to performing it in the Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral next month! Recording engineer: Matt Wilson.
Filmed in Colyer-Fergusson Hall, University of Kent. |
Daniel hardingPianist, conductor, Deputy Director of Music, University of Kent Archives
March 2019
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