Autour du monde

Mardi / Dienstag / Tuesday 10.02.2015 20:00 Salle de Musique de Chambre

Kathryn Tickell & The Side Kathryn Tickell Northumbrian pipes, fiddle Ruth Wall harp Amy Thatcher accordion, clogging Louisa Tuck cello

~45’

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~45’

Kathryn Tickell Northumbrian pipes, fiddle Kathryn Tickell is the world’s foremost exponent of the Northumbrian pipes, a com- poser, performer and successful recording artist, recipient of the coveted Queen’s Medal for Music, and current BBC Folk Awards Musician of the Year. Highlights of her 25-year career include three appearances at , two TV documentaries about her work, 14 albums, and collaborations with , , Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Andy Sheppard and many more.

Ruth Wall harp Classically trained Scottish harpist Ruth Wall performs as a soloist and in some of the most exciting ensembles and bands (Goldfrapp, Fitkin) as well as working extensively with composers, orchestras, electronic and visual artists.

Amy Thatcher accordion, clogging Amy Thatcher is an accordionist and clog dancer who has worked with Kathryn on various projects including «JigHop», a multi-genre spectacular commissioned for the 2012 Olympics celebrations. Amy is also a member of The Shee and The Monster Ceilidh Band.

Louisa Tuck cello Louisa Tuck is principal cellist at the Royal Northern Sinfonia, a position she has held since 2007. She is a regular guest principal with many UK orchestras including the John Wilson Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Louisa plays a rare Italian cello dated 1752 by Jacobus Cordanus. Programme notes

As a traditional folk musician Kathryn Tickell does not set her programme in advance, preferring instead to have the flexibility to change the repertoire and order depending on the context of the performance, the acoustics of the venue, the response of the audience and how she feels on the day.

Her solo repertoire is drawn from the traditional tunes of and the Borders and also includes contemporary tunes written within the broad confines of a living tradition.

When Kathryn performs with The Side there are some pieces which form part of their core repertoire, so you can expect to hear the following at some point in the programme:

New Minuet (Henry Purcell, arr. Kathryn Tickell & The Side) / Confluence(Kathryn Tickell) New Minuet in D minor Z 689 was written by English composer Henry Purcell (1659–1695). We have chosen to pair it with a melody taken from one of Kathryn’s larger scale compositions, Confluence, which was com- missioned in 2008 for the joint forces of London Sinfonietta, Hungarian group Muzsikás, and the youth folk ensemble of the Sage Gateshead, Folkestra. The title refers to the imaginary junction where the river Rede (Northumberland) meets the Thames and the Danube.

Stonehaugh (Kathryn Tickell) Originally written by Kathryn to celebrate the opening of the new hall in the tiny little forestry village of Stone- haugh in Northumberland. At the opening ceremony, however, she was dismayed to see the timbers of the old hall stacked in a pile and visible from the windows of the new building. Having been brought up hearing various tales of the goings on in the old building (including her Great Uncle Wat’s dance classes!). Kathryn felt compelled to slow down the happy little tune she had written and turn it into a farewell to the old as well as a welcome to the new.

The Nightingale / Molly on the Shore (Percy Grainger, publ. Bardic Edition / Traditional, arr. Kathryn Tickell & The Side) This set of two tunes is a tribute to Percy Grainger: the first is his arrangement of a Danish folk song and the second is our version of one of Grainger’s most popular works. We have performed a kind of reverse trans- formation on it; taking it back closer to how we imagined it might have been played when Grainger first dis- covered the tune as a traditional Irish reel.

The Return / East Meets West / The Monday Club (Kathryn Tickell / Amy Thatcher / Kathryn Tickell) The Return was written in hopeful anticipation of the eventual return to the North East of England of the Lindis- farne Gospels which is one of the most magnificent illuminated manuscripts of the early Middle Ages. It has survived for over one thousand years in almost perfect condition. Apart from its intrinsic value as a remarkable survival of an ancient and astonishingly beautiful work of art, the manuscript displays a unique combination of artistic styles that reflects a crucial period in England’s history. Lindisfarne is also known as «Holy Island» and is part of Northumberland. At low tide the island is accessible via a causeway, but at high tide it becomes an island again. The middle tune of this set was composed by Amy and follows the rhythm of some traditional clog dancing steps which she combined in unexpected ways, making new, syncopated rhythms. The «Monday Men» are a group of men (including several of Kathryn’s relatives) who meet on Sunday nights in the Grey Bull pub in the village of Wark on Tyne and discuss what good deeds they are going to do the fol- lowing day. As they are all over retirement age they like to spend some of their spare time in doing jobs to benefit the village, such as keeping the paths free from snow, ice or fallen leaves. Of course a few pints may well be consumed over the course of the discussion!

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII AUTOUR DU MONDE Prochain concert du cycle «Autour du monde» Nächstes Konzert in der Reihe «Autour du monde» Next concert in the series «Autour du monde»

Lundi / Montag / Monday 23.03.2015 20:00 Grand Auditorium

Buika & Band