Translated by Reeds

Sian Croose

Finale of first Great Yarmouth Arts Festival

In the biggest parish church in England, Great Yarmouth’s St Nicholas Minster, for the finale of the first ever Great Yarmouth Arts Festival on Saturday 22nd September, naturalist, writer, broadcaster and raconteur Richard Mabey will make a rare public appearance to give the “spoken overture” to the third ever performance of a brand new choral work, Translated by Reeds, a Waveney & Blyth Arts original.

Richard Mabey came to fame forty years ago with his book Food for Free. Since then he has published over thirty books, won the Whitbread Biography of the Year, won the British Book Awards’ Illustrated Book of the Year, won the Botanical Society of the British Isles’ President’s Award and broadcast The Scientist and the Romantic, a series of five essays about his lifelong relationship with the natural environment, on BBC Radio 3. He also wrote and narrated the BBC TV films on Kew Gardens and the Yorkshire Dales and The Flowering of Britain became a BBC TV series. And as a journalist on countryside and art issues, he has written for The Times, The Guardian and The Independent.

Richard Mabey’s talk will form the first half of Translated by Reeds.

The second half will be a new, hauntingly beautiful, short choral work composed by Karen Wimhurst, with words by Diss-raised poet Joanna Guthrie, that will be sung by a new Waveney & Blyth choir, led by East Anglia’s answer to Gareth Malone, singer Sian Croose.

Translated by Reeds is written by Norfolk born Karen Wimhurst who also plays solo clarinet in the piece. Her music bridges jazz, folk and modern classical, and has been featured on BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, and ITV. She has written original work for organizations as various as the Welsh National Opera and Sage Gateshead and has run education programmes for organizations as various as Opera North, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the English National Opera

As an instrumentalist, she is an acclaimed jazz musician. In the 1990’s she founded the Cauld Blast Orchestra, recipient of two Scottish Jazz Awards, and recently she has been performing with Zaum – the most exciting group in Europe today Penguin Guide to Jazz. Karen also has a long-term association with the environmental charity Common Ground and is now working with them on Apple Journeys in association with Cecil Sharp House and the National Trust. For more about Karen see www.karenwimhurst.co.uk

Sian Croose is Translated by Reeds Musical Director. She conducts Big Sky in Norwich and is co-director of the innovative music organisation The Voice Project, working with composers to create exciting and ambitious vocal performances with choirs of up to 150 singers. She has directed music education projects with literally thousands of adults and children and worked with composers, instrumentalists and singers from all over the world as well with organisations such as The Thames Festival, the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, The Sage Gateshead, Folkworks, 20,000 Voices, Northern Sinfonia and Dartington Summer School.

The Great Yarmouth performance of Translated by Reeds will also feature soloist Sianed Jones. Sianed is a multi-talented multi-instrumentalist and internationally acclaimed singer. She has worked as an actress, composer, instrumentalist and singer for The Royal Shakespeare Company, as a recording artist for various groups including the London Bulgarian Choir with whom she recorded the soundtrack to the Warner Bros film Troy. She also composed, arranged and performed music live on set for the Mike Figgis film, an adaptation of the Strindberg play Miss Julie.

Translated by Reeds will be an un-missable experience. Richard Mabey, followed by Karen Wimhurst, Sian Croose, Sianed Jones and the massed voices of the Waveney & Blyth Choir, who could ask for more?

Tickets for Translated by Reeds cost just £10 (or £8 for people on benefits, full-time students, and people aged over 65). Groups of 4+ pay just £8 each and, if you buy 10 tickets, you get one absolutely FREE!

You can buy your tickets for Saturday 22nd September at St Nicholas Minster, Church Plain, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk NR30 1NE in person by going into the Great Yarmouth Tourist Office on 25 Marine Parade, or via the St George’s Theatre Booking Office, King St, Great Yarmouth NR30 2PG, or, from 1st September, from St Nicholas Minster itself, or by ringing 01379 855 235, or by emailing nmstainton@gmail.com, or by visiting Waveney & Blyth Arts web site www.waveneyandblytharts.com/ourevents

“Translated by Reeds” has been made possible thanks to Lottery funding through Arts Council England and grant aid from Norfolk County Council.

Video features

For more about Translated by Reeds, watch Debra Hyatt’s two four minute videos.

The first is about how the choral project came about and the second is about the choir.

http://www.waveneyandblytharts.com/areawide-feature3/

http://www.waveneyandblytharts.com/areawide-feature5/

Gilbert and Sullivan Concert

The excellent and very entertaining Great Yarmouth Gilbert and Sullivan Society will be giving a performance of favourite Gilbert and Sullivan pieces at Christchurch in Great Yarmouth on Saturday 16th June, 7.30 pm.

The next concert for 2012 will be at St. Edmund King and Martyr, Acle, on Saturday 21st July, also at 7.30 pm.

For more information click here to go to the Society’s website or telephone 07922264984.

Gilbert and Sullivan Society Performance at the Minster

St. Nicholas Minster,  by Derek Jackson

Come and enjoy a gentle and relaxing afternoon of music with the sun streaming through the south aisle of the minster.

The Great Yarmouth Gilbert and Sullivan Society will be performing and a traditional afternoon tea will be served in the interval by Andrew and Jill Norris, Lizzie Norris and Sara Smith.

Sunday 10th June at 3.00pm in St. Nicholas Minster, Gt. Yarmouth

Please support this fund-raising event. The minster needs £1.5m to keep it in good order.

Rigajigjig at St. Nicholas

A fund-raising evening has been organised, in aid of the restoration of the organ, by the St. Nicholas Minster Preservation Trust (www.sncpt.co.uk) on Saturday 26th May 2012 at 7.30 pm.

Rigajigjig, are a band of Norfolk musicians who play traditional music and country dance tunes. The repertoire consists of jigs, hornpipes, polkas, schottishes and waltzes played on fiddle, banjo, mouth organs, melodeon and banjo. There will be dancing with a caller.

Tickets are £5 and are available from Paul Davies (01493 843647) or Brahams in Market Row or on the door. Cheques made payable to: SNCPT. A bar will be available.

Showstoppers

The Chorus of St. Cecilia will be presenting Showstoppers! at Gorleston Pavilion Theatre on Thursday-Saturday 22-24 March.  The chorus will be singing 20 of Broadway’s most popular musicas and will be conducted by musical director Matthew Hardy. Soloists include Neil Francis, Kirsty Barlow and Natasha Steffieri.  Performances start at 7.45 pm, tickets £10 and concessions £9, available from the Pavilion Theatre Box Office 01493 662832 (Mon-Thurs 10-14.00 hrs),  www.gorlestonpavilion.co.uk  or the  Dance Shop, HIgh Street, Gorleston.  A What’s On Guide, 2012 Programme can be downloaded from the website.

Also at the Pavilion, Gorleston Theatre Company are to present The Decorator on Thursday 5th  April – Saturday 7th April,  7.30 pm, tickets £10, Concessions and students £8.00 .

Great Yarmouth Choral Society concert

MUSIC FOR A ROYAL OCCASION

7.30pm, Saturday 12th November 2011 at Christchurch, Gt.Yarmouth

Handel  CORONATION ANTHEMS
Parry  I WAS GLAD.  BLEST PAIR OF SIRENS
and other works for choir and piano

Piano : Christopher Whiting
Conductor : John Stephens

Tickets: £8.00 (concessions £7.00) under 16yrs free, from:
Allen’s Music Centre. Gt Yarmouth Tel: 01493 850172
Aldred’s Estate Agents  High St. Gorleston. Tel: 01493 664600
and at the door from 6.45pm.

www.gychoral.org.uk

Rigajigjig

Saturday 25th June 2011 at 7.30 pm  in St. Nicholas Church, Great Yarmouth.    TICKETS £5

A band of Norfolk musicians who play traditional music and country dance tunes. The repertoire consists of jigs, hornpipes, polkas, schottishes and waltzes played on fiddle, banjo, mouth organs, melodeon, banjo and caller. Also, local traditional songs, music and step dancing

Presented by the St. Nicholas Church Preservation  Trust: IN AID OF THE CHURCH FABRIC.  Tickets from Paul Davies 01493 843647 or Brahams in Market Row

Concert by The Chorus of St. Cecilia

The Chorus of St. Cecilia will be performing Some Enchanted Evening at the Gorleston Pavilion Theatre from the 24th to 26th March.  The Chorus will be performing songs from 20 Broadway musicals, conducted by Matthew Hardy, the choir’s musical director.  The full choir will be accompanied by soloists Neil Francis, Kirsty Barlow, Natasha Steffieri and Chris Moore.  The concert starts at 7.45 p.m. and tickets can be bought from the Pavilion Theatre or the Dance Shop in Gorleston High Street, or by phoning 01502 733625.

Parablenalia “The Circus of Life”

A Production based on some Parables from the Bible. Music written and composed by Carol and Paul Clayton. It comprises, hilarious sketches, dancers, gymnasts, a large choir and numerous musicians. All Profits to benefit two charities, ie; Water Aid and East Coast Hospice. This promises to be an exciting show. Tickets are selling fast.

Schools Carol Concert

Schools in Great Yarmouth are getting together to perform a carol festival at the Hippodrome on 30th November, 7.20-9.30 pm.  There is so much young musical talent in the borough and Rachel Salton, secretary of  Great Yarmouth Schools’ Music, says the festival raises the profile of music and celebrates bringing schools together.  The junior schools are performing with a choir of 300 pupils and the secondary schools with a choir of 120.  Flegg High School wind band and Great Yarmouth Junior Brass Band will also be performing.

Tickets are available from the Hippodrome on 01493 844172.