|
| Neyire Ashworth: Stenclmusic |
Outcome and Impact: The outcome of this project is to kick start an overview of what is happening in current processes and
practices of theatre making by instrumentalists which is both lacking in the industry and in academy. This will be accomplished
by observing and listening to how different instruments activate or intone creative journeys, by finding commonalities in
the practical language of description and explanation in what might be labeled ‘concert theatre’, and arriving
at a general understanding of corporeality of music in a theatrical space. This will have far-reaching impacts that include
primarily (a) establishing the motive for a future festival or multiple-day conference that will investigate and explore theoretical
hubs relating to notions of musicality and theatricality, (b) growing areas of practice-led research, and (c) creating outlets
for different forms of concert theatre. The one-day colloquium will reach out to conservatoires, where instrumental teaching
may rarely incorporate this practice, and on music theatre courses in HE which are asking important questions about the ways
and means to integrate the instrumentalist in the overall integration of singing, dancing and acting within music theatre
training. Within industry, a network of instrumental-musical theatre makers will have been generated, establishing
easier access to creative works, exchange of information and potential for collaboration, and support in the public domain
for a growing specialist area.
Within industry, a network of ‘instrumental’ musical
theatre makers will have been generated, as a consequence of which a network will have been created to connect and share in
creative projects, to exchange current information and set-up new collaborations, and to support,
in the public domain, a growing specialist area. Thus far, there is no centralized network that facilitates professional instrumentalists
who want to develop or promote concert theatre.
Dissemination of our findings is significant as a means of establishing a specialist area in postgraduate music theatre
training. ZD and PB will be presenting this at ‘Music on stage’--
The third international, interdisciplinary conference at Rose Bruford College, Sidcup, Kent; October 23rd
and 24th, 2010; Subject to peer review, papers will be published in the journal Studies in Musical Theatre (Intellect Press)
CONTRIBUTORS
Paul
Barker has composed
many operas and music theatre works as well as concert, vocal and orchestral works. He sees music – and theatre
– as essentially collaborative forms: each performance combines a unique group of people in a unique space. he
enjoys performances which reflect that and celebrate the liveness and its ephemeral nature. Recent works in the genre
include Stone Song/Stone Dance – for percussion quartet with stones, and the clarinet quintet In
Memoriam: for those who fall in time of war – for Joan Lluna and the Brodsky Quartet. But his operas and music
theatre works often involve instrumentalists integrated into the performance, and many of the concert and vocal works
carry stage instructions. An excerpt from In Memoriam can be seen here:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dG2JnYvEPhMIt is also available complete on this academic website:http://primo.sas.ac.uk/eprints/37/
Zachary
Dunbar trained as a concert pianist at Yale and at the RCM (Fulbright Scholar), and subsequently pursued an active
concert career. Recently, music merged with theatre (www.zebfontaine.com) and he has written, composed and directed several critically successful
productions in the UK and in European festivals. He works across several theatre genres including musicals, song cycles, music
plays, post-dramatic dance and soundscape theatre, and transpositions of Greek Tragedy. His PhD was on the tragic chorus alongside
the history of science and of music, and among his publications are contributions in Theorising Performance: Greek Drama,
Cultural History and Critical Practice (Duckworth, 2010), and a forthcoming chapter ‘Music Theatre’ in the Cambridge
Companion to Theatre History (Cambridge, 2011). Zachary is a lecturer in the MA Music Theatre course at Central School of
Speech and Drama. For some video links, visit (The Cows Come Home) http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=YoSt8oT1rKg
(Delphi, Texas) http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=nj8m7QN5iUU
Emily White trained as a trombonist and violinist at The Royal Academy of
Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Trinity College of Music. She works as a classical and early
musician but the trombone’s human communication also interests her in the blurred line between theatre and music. Emily
gave several performances with the ensemble Talking Trombones, (director Julia Hollander) presenting an evening
of poetry using trombones and voice. She premiered John’s ground-breaking
‘Secret House’ - a trombone sonata that uses high female vocal range
multiphonics, and dancer, in 2001. With the South African contemporary dancer Lean Coetzer Emily gave a
improvisation performance as part of her Deveron Arts Residency. Emily
has been a player and musical director at
several productions at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
over the last decade. She is currently working
on ‘e-mails from Palestine’ by
David Ward in which she becomes the voice of
the witness, vocally and instrumentally.
The piece will be premiered in November 2010
Matthew Sharp has performed at major venues and festivals worldwide. In concert, he has appeared with the RPO, LPO, Ural Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, European
Camerata and Orchestra of the Swan. In opera, he has sung principal
roles for Opera North (Papageno, the Pied Piper), ROH2 and Almeida Opera. In theatre, he has performed at the Young Vic and National Theatre Studio. In addition, he has recorded for Sony, Naxos and Avie, appeared in recital at Wigmore Hall, the South Bank, Salle
Gaveau and Stockholm’s Musikmuseet, launched the Bath and Brighton festivals, given solo performances at Glastonbury
and Latitude and broadcast widely on TV and Radio. Matthew
combines these core, ‘classical’ activities with a uniquely pioneering outlook both within music and across disciplines,
embracing world premieres by major composers, collaborations with musicians at the forefront of jazz, world and electronic
music and cross-disciplinary projects with leading artists. Upcoming plans include performances with the LPO, his debut with the CBSO, The
Lost Chord and Bach's Solo Cello Suites at Opera North and performances at festivals in India, New Zealand
and across the UK.
Neyire
Ashworth is one of the UK’s most versatile clarinettists
with a career spanning solo, chamber music, orchestral and theatre work. She plays with The New London Chamber Ensemble, the
Zimro Trio, and often appears with UK’s finest chamber orchestras. Her passion for music and theatre has led to a search
for innovative, accessible performances which immediately connect with the audience. As performer, writer and composer Neyire
has worked with some of UK’s top directors (David Glass, Annabelle Arden, Peta Lily, Marianne Elliot) and is with the
National Theatre’s highly acclaimed, multi award-winning production of War Horse which is now in London’s
West End. Neyire is developing techniques and
repertoire for a new instrumental music theatre. Her first piece Stenclmusic (music by Rachel Stott) won
awards from both the European Association for Jewish Culture and the Jewish Music Institute London and Neyire’s latest
solo instrumental-theatre show, Stolen Voices, supported by the National Theatre Studio, premiered to critical
acclaim last summer 09 in London’s Tete-a-Tete and Grimeborn music theatre festivals, Buxton Fringe (Winner Best Performer
Award 2009) and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Stolen Voices will be at the PULSE Fringe Festival, Ipswich on
June 2nd at 7pm.
John Kenny lives in Edinburgh, teaches trombone and sackbut at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music &
Drama, and trombone at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Since 1980 he has performed internationally as a concert
artist specialising in contemporary solo and chamber repertoire, but has also worked consistently with dance and theatre
as a composer and performer. He has recently returned from a six week European tour of TNT Theatre’s “The Mystery
of Edgar Allen Poe” for which he co-composed the score, and also performed both a musical and principal acting role.
|
