presents

THE HERMES EXPERIMENT

FILMED AT THE GREAT HALL BLACKHEATH HALLS,

ONLINE PREMIERE SUNDAY 22ND NOVEMBER 2020, 5PM

bit.ly/MCTYoutube WELCOME

Te Michael Cuddigan Trust was set up in 2014 to support the composition and performance of new vocal chamber music.

We are delighted to welcome you to a pre-recorded concert at the Great Hall in London’s Blackheath Halls.

Following the success of our July concert which was streamed online, we are streaming this concert on 22 November 2020 from our Michael Cuddigan Trust YouTube channel (bit.ly/MCTYoutube).

Te concert features a mixed programme performed by the Hermes Experiment, featuring three new Michael Cuddigan Trust Award commissions from , Ayanna Witter-Johnson and Raymond Yiu. Each of the new commissions is a duo for Héloïse Werner, soprano, and one other member of the Hermes Experiment.

Tese are unprecedented and challenging times, with live performance venues closed across the nation, and we are incredibly lucky to be able to share new music with you online. Our donors and patrons are an invaluable part of the work we do. Your support is crucial in ensuring we can continue to champion the unique role of music in these exceptional times, as well as sharing the best and brightest new works with the world.

Tank you so much for your continued support. Stay safe and take care. HOW TO WATCH ONLINE

Te online concert will be streamed on 22nd November 2020 at 5pm

You can watch it by going to the Michael Cuddigan Trust YouTube channel via this link bit.ly/MCTYoutube.

You can also subscribe to our channel in advance to receive a notifcation and direct link to the stream.

Join our live-chat to discuss the production with viewers from around the world.

Te video will be available for one month at bit.ly/MCTYoutube and michaelcuddigantrust.com alongside our archive of performances from previous concerts around the UK.

Occasionally, slow connection speeds locally may cause buffering. If this happens, reduce the picture quality to suit your connection by clicking on the gear icon, and then selecting an alternate option under ‘quality’.

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www.michaelcuddigantrust.com/support-us PROGRAMME

Brief introduction

Clara Schumann (arr. Pashley) Liebst du um Schönheit

Lily Boulanger (arr. Schofeld) Attente & Refets

Eleanor Alberga Deep Blue Sea (2020 Michael Cuddigan Trust Award)

Sergei Prokofev (arr. Schofeld) Visions Fugitives Nos. 1, 7, 8 & 16

Raymond Yiu Written at Sunset (2020 Michael Cuddigan Trust Award)

Ewan Campbell London, he felt fairly certain, had always been London

Ayanna Witter-Johnson Draw the Line (2020 Michael Cuddigan Trust Award)

Kerry Andrew (arr. Denholm) Fruit Songs Te Hermes Experiment

PERFORMERS

Te Hermes Experiment Anne Denholm – Harp Oliver Pashley – Clarinet* Marianne Schofeld – Double Bass Héloïse Werner – Soprano / Co-Director

Hanna Grzeskiewicz – Co-Director

*Sacha Rattle replaces Oliver Pashley as guest clarinet in this performance Clara Schumann (arr. Pashley) Liebst du um Schönheit words by Friedrich Rückert translation © Richard Stokes, author of Te Book of Lieder, published by Faber, provided courtesy of Oxford Lieder (www.oxfordlieder.co.uk)

Liebst du um Schönheit Liebst du um Schönheit, O nicht mich liebe! Liebe die Sonne, Sie trägt ein gold’nes Haar!

Liebst du um Jugend, O nicht mich liebe! Liebe den Frühling, Der jung ist jedes Jahr!

Liebst du um Schätze, O nicht mich liebe! Liebe die Meerfrau, Sie hat viel Perlen klar!

Liebst du um Liebe, O ja, mich liebe! Liebe mich immer, Dich lieb’ ich immerdar!

If you love for beauty If you love for beauty, O love not me! Love the sun, She has golden hair!

If you love for youth, O love not me! Love the spring Who is young each year!

If you love for riches, O love not me! Love the mermaid Who has many shining pearls! If you love for love, Oh yes, love me! Love me always; I shall love you forever!

Lily Boulanger (arr. Schofeld) Attente & Refets words by Maurice Maeterlinck translation © Richard Stokes, author of Te Book of Lieder, published by Faber, provided courtesy of Oxford Lieder (www.oxfordlieder.co.uk)

Attente Mon âme a joint ses mains étranges À l'horizon de mes regards ; Exaucez mes rêves épars Entre les lèvres de vos anges! En attendant sous mes yeux las, Et sa bouche ouverte aux prières Éteintes entre mes paupières Et dont les lys n'éclosent pas ; Elle apaise au fond de mes songes, Ses seins effeuillés sous mes cils, Et ses yeux clignent aux périls Éveillés au fl des mensonges.

Expectation My soul has folded its strange hands On the horizon of my gaze; Satisfy my scattered dreams Between the lips of your angels! Waiting beneath my weary eyes, Mouth open in prayers Extinguished behind my eyelids Whose lilies never open; My soul brings peace to the depths of my dreams, Its breasts bared beneath my lashes And its eyes blink at the perils Awoken through the thread of lies. Refets Sous l'eau du songe qui s'élève Mon âme a peur, mon âme a peur. Et la lune luit dans mon coeur Plongé dans les sources du rêve! Sous l'ennui morne des roseaux. Seul le refets profonds des choses, Des lys, des palmes et des roses Pleurent encore au fond des eaux. Les feurs s'effeuillent une à une Sur le refet du frmament. Pour descendre, éternellement Sous l'eau du songe et dans la lune.

Refections Beneath the water of the dream that rises, My soul is afraid, my soul is afraid. And the moon shines into my heart Tat is bathed in the dream’s source! Beneath the sad tedium of the reeds, Only the deep refection of things, Of lilies, palms and roses, Still weep on the water’s bed. One by one the fowers shed their leaves Upon the frmament’s refection To descend, eternally, Beneath the dream’s water and into the moon. Eleanor Alberga Deep Blue Sea words by Eleanor Alberga (2020) with excerpts from the shipping forecast

Low Northwest Malin one thousand and two Losing its identity by one eight double-o Tuesday. Viking North Utsire, timeless, drifting aggregate Tundery showers, good, occasionally moderate

Why am I and not another? Forties, Cromerty, Forth, Tyne, Dogger Who sees? Who closes eyes at rest? Fisher, German Bight, South West.

Deep blue sea beyond azure Humber, Dover, distract, allure Northwest Trafalgar, Southeast Iceland Becoming fair later, Tames, Portland

Sole, speck of mind among myriads Veering southerly, abstruse, obscure Southeast Fitzroy, gale 8 later Plymouth, Wight, am I God’s door?

Who knows? Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea Shannon, westerly 2 or 3 Wide cerulean, recent rain Cromerty, Dogger, Tyne, again

Rockall, South Hebrides, cyclonic Indigo Fairisle, variable, plutonic Tundery showers, fog patches, cloudburst Bailey, fair, very poor at frst

Tiree Automatic, Stornaway, rain twelve miles, one thousand and seven Lerwick, Leuchers, Boulmer, Bridlington, rising slowly one thousand eleven St. Catherine’s Point Automatic, Jersey Channel Light Vessel, rising more slowly Earth-orb, foating, quivering, squalling Ronaldsway, Machrihanish Automatic falling Timeless gravity trawl, Cape Wrath to Rattray Head Lough Foyle to Carlingford Lough, warning of gales ahead Speck of mind among myriads Distract, obscure the question Why am I?

Deep blue sea Timeless falling indigo mystery Halo shimmering air Rising moon-sun Floating gravity sphere

Deep blue sea Wide cerulean paradox Been, being, be.

Sergei Prokofev (arr. Schofeld) Visions Fugitives, Nos. 1, 7, 8 & 16

Te Visions fugitives date from the years 1915-1917. Tese twenty miniatures (average length about a minute) take their cue from Schumann’s Carnaval and Chopin’s Op. 28 Preludes, their title and inspiration from these lines by the Russian Symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont: “In every fugitive vision I see worlds, / Full of the changing play of rainbows.” While overall the expressive range is oriented more toward the restrained end of the emotional spectrum, they nevertheless serve as a workshop for a great variety of colorful, experimental epigrams. Moods range from the lyrical to the whimsical, from the spirited to the serene, from the sedate to the seductive. – Jason Missal Raymond Yiu Written at Sunset movements I, II and IV: words by Hsiung Hung (translated by the composer) movement III: words by Emily Dickinson

I.

圓葉浮起，光陰刻在青蒼的臉上 。 我們的⼼是海，是湖， 最後是⼩⼩的池 游絲交錯，圓葉之上，圓葉之下 盼望如⼀滴⽔珠 。

Time, engraved on the pale green faces Of the foating lotus leaves. Our hearts are a sea, a lake, And a little pond, where Spiderwebs interlocking over the round foliage, And below them, our longing Is a single drop of dew.

II.

有時我們會突然的愛著陳舊的故事 時間便勝利了 它披著⾧髮 ⽽且很陰暗 像那曳了⼀地的，那垂柳 。

Every so often, old stories would suddenly seize us. As time triumphs And lets down its hair, Dark shadow Trailing all over, like drooping willow. III.

To fee from memory Had we the Wings Many would fy Inured to slower things Birds with surprise Would scan the cowering Van Of men escaping From the mind of man

IV.

那些古⽼的傷感，總要從盼望以外來 。 暮⾊加濃，影⼦貼在⽔⾯ 撕也撕不開...

寫在⿈昏 - 夐虹

Immemorial melancholy Comes from the land of longing. Te colours of the sunset thicken, And the silhouettes cling on the water. You can tear them, But not to tear them away…

V. vocalise Ewan Campbell London, he felt fairly certain, had always been London

Te Hermes Experiment will introduce this piece.

Ayanna Witter-Johnson Draw the Line

Tis song explores the tension between two friends from different backgrounds during the current pandemic and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Te composer has chosen not to include a full transcript of the lyrics

Kerry Andrew (arr. Denholm) Fruit Songs

I intended to write a set of 1-2 min. miniatures that were sultry, ambiguously exotic and quirky in character. And about fruit! Particular musical infuences for these songs include Björk, Meredith Monk, Sheila Chandra, English folk, Japanese, West African and Indian music. – Kerry Andrew

Kerry’s Fruit Songs were originally written for soprano with guitar accompaniment but she has also composed versions accompanied by piano and chamber group. My arrangement takes inspiration from all three versions and uses varying combinations of Te Hermes Experiment’s forces. ‘Plum’ (text by William Carlos Williams) is a simple song with a refrain of ‘forgive me’, as the protagonist has eaten some promised fruit. ‘Blackberry’ (text by George Bowering) is based on an 11-note row with one quaver pitch per syllable which is gradually deconstructed. ‘Cherry’ is the most theatrical of the songs and explores many extra-vocal techniques. Te text is by Yasuhara Teishitsu, translated by Geoffrey Bownas and Anthony Twaite. Finally, ‘Apple’ is a magical, ethereal and folk-inspired song, setting part of a poem by John Drinkwater about apples glowing in the moonlight. – Anne Denholm Plum – excerpts taken from text by William Carlos Williams

Forgive me I have eaten the plums Forgive me that were in the ice box Forgive me And that which you were probably saving from breakfast Forgive me Tey were delicious so sweet and so cold

Blackberry – excerpt taken from text by George Bowering

I went to blackberries on the vine they were

Cherry – excerpts taken from text by Yasuhara Teishitsu, translated by Geoffrey Bownas and Anthony Twaite

Yoshino….o,o,o Is all I can say for the cherries that grow on Mount Yoshino

Apple – excerpts taken from ‘Moonlit Apples’ by John Drinkwater

Te skylight lets the moonlight in, and those apples are deep-sea apples of green.

Te moon again Dapples the apples with deep-sea light.

Tey gather the silver streams Out of the moon, those moonlit apples of dreams,

Tey keep Tryst with the moon, and deep is the…, deep On moon-washed apples of wonder.

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS

Te Hermes Experiment

Te Hermes Experiment is a contemporary quartet made up of harp, clarinet, voice and double bass. Tey are winners of the Royal Over-Seas League Mixed Ensemble Competition 2019, Tunnell Trust Awards 2017, Nonclassical’s Battle of the Bands 2014, Making Music Selected Artists 2019/20 and Park Lane Group Young Artists 2015/16. Capitalising on their deliberately idiosyncratic combination of instruments, the ensemble regularly commissions new works, as well as creating their own innovative arrangements and venturing into live free improvisation. Te ensemble has commissioned over 60 composers at various stages of their careers. Tey were shortlisted in the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards 2019 in the Young Artists Category and their debut album HERE WE ARE was released in July 2020 on Delphian Records to critical acclaim: “an imaginative disc that mirrors our current musical landscape” – Te Observer.

Recent highlights include performances at Wigmore Hall, BBC Radio 3 Open Ear at LSO St Luke’s, Tallinn Music Week, St Petersburg’s Sound Ways Festival, Southbank Centre, Kings Place and Spitalfelds Festival. Te Hermes Experiment were one of the showcase artists at the Classical:NEXT Conference 2019. In January 2019, they celebrated their ffth birthday with a concert supported by Arts Council and RVW Trust, and recorded for BBC Radio 3.

Te quartet has received funding from Arts Council England, Aldeburgh Music, the RVW Trust, Hinrichsen Foundation, Britten-Pears Foundation, Future of Russia Foundation, Oleg Prokofev Trust, Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust, PRS for Music Foundation and Help Musicians UK.

thehermesexperiment.com / @TeHExperiment ABOUT THE COMPOSERS

Eleanor Alberga is a highly regarded British composer with commissions and premieres from the BBC Proms and Te Royal Opera. Her work is noted for its emotional impact, depth of craft and brilliant colouring and orchestration. Born and growing up in , her cultural inheritance is wide including performing with the Jamaican Folk Singers and as a dancer with an African Dance company. Coming to the UK initially on a scholarship to study piano and singing at the , her compositional talents came to the fore whilst working in the contemporary dance world and she now boasts a rich catalogue of works in all genres: her Opera based on an Isabel Allende story, ‘Letters of a Love Betrayed’, drew comparison with Debussy’s Pelléas and Berg’s Wozzeck; three string quartets; a growing sequence of chamber music Nocturnes featuring horn and oboe, and orchestral music including two violin concertos and a rip-roaring adaptation of ’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as well as her Last Night of opener Arise Athena. Her early piano music has a deep connection to her Jamaican heritage and there is music for solo voice and for choir.

Alberga now lives in the English countryside with her husband, the violinist Tomas Bowes, and together they have founded and nurtured an original festival - Arcadia.

eleanoralberga.com / arcadiamusic.org.uk Singer, songwriter, cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson is a rare exception to the rule that classical and alternative r&b music cannot successfully coexist.

Graduating with a frst from both the Laban School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, Ayanna was a participant in the London Symphony Orchestra’s Young Composers Scheme and become an Emerging Artist in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre. She was a featured artist with Courtney Pine’s Afropeans: Jazz Warriors and became the only non-American to win Amateur Night Live at the legendary Apollo Teater in Harlem, NYC.

As a composer she has scored original music for various productions and as an arranger and orchestrator Ayanna has worked with the London Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Urban Classic).

Since releasing her EP’s (Truthfully, Black Panther and Elle, Reuben and Ay) and her debut album Road Runner Ayanna has extensively toured the UK and , whilst gaining a MOBO award nomination and getting airplay on BBC Radio 1 & BBC 1Xtra. A performer of extraordinary versatility her live shows are intimate journeys that chronicle her experience as a female artist in the 21st century.

Because of her musical prowess, mesmerizing vocals, non-compromising lyrics and ability to deftly reinterpret songs on the cello Ayanna is able to straddle both the classical and urban worlds effortlessly

She is the defnition of eclectic soul. ayannamusic.com / facebook.com/ayannawj / twitter.com/ayannawj / instagram.com/ayannawj / youtube.com/ayannawj Raymond Yiu is a Hong-Kong born, London-based composer, jazz pianist, conductor and writer on music. He is the winner of a BASCA British Composer Award in 2010, and nominated for the same award in 2004, 2012, 2013 and 2018. Originally trained as an engineer, Yiu was self-taught as a composer until he undertook his DMus under the auspice of at Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2009. He has worked with ensembles and artists including Lukas Foss, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Singers, Chroma, Ensemble 10/10, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and Lontano.

Te Original Chinese Conjuror was commissioned for the 2006 Aldeburgh Almeida Opera, and Maomao Yü was commissioned by LSO for and the Silk String Quartet. His ‘hugely impressive’ (Te Guardian) Symphony was commissioned by the BBC, and premiered during Proms 2015 by Andrew Watts, BBCSO and Edward Gardner. First performed at International Festival 2017, and given its London premiere by , BBCSO and Sir in 2018, Te World Was Once All Miracle was nominated in the large-scale composition category of 2018 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards. raymondyiu.com THANK YOU

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Performed and flmed at Blackheath Halls, London Recorded and edited by Alexander Barnes (Apple and Biscuit) Programme designed by Jordan Hunt