C R E A T I V E F O L K E S T O N E

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A U T U M N R E A D S

STRANGE CONCORD TIME MACHINE EVENT 1989 & 1990

M O D E R N N A T U R E

A Live Performance of Music and Words at Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, Kent

P r o g r a m m e

R e a d e r Ben Whishaw

P A R T 1 Excerpts from Modern Nature (1989) by Derek Jarman The Dead Man: 13 Specimen for String Quartet by John Zorn

M u s i c i a n s Rebecca Chan (Violin 1) Marije Johnston (Violin 2) Sascha Bota (Viola) Brian O’Kane (Cello) (duration 33 mins)

P A R T 2 Excerpts from Modern Nature (1990) by Derek Jarman Good Night Op. 63 for soprano, alto flute, piano and 3 tam-tams by Henryk Górecki

M u s i c i a n s Ileana Ruhemann (Alto Flute & Tam-Tams) Nazan Fikret (Soprano) Julius Drake (Piano) (duration 40 mins)

An Original Idea by Seán Doran and Liam Browne DoranBrowne

Programme Note

The idea of the Strange Concord Time Machine Event was inspired by H G Wells’ association with Sandgate, Folkestone where he lived for thirteen years. The cultural time travel to a specific year brings together an iconic text with music of the same year resulting in a conjoined event of unexpected artistic bedfellows. The title of ‘strange concord’ is borrowed from the Irish playwright and musician J M Synge.

The Strange Concord Time Machine Event was first produced at the 2019 Folkestone Book Festival The Shape of Things to Come. The 2019 FBF Strange Concords included: 1819 (’s Trout Quintet & John Keats’ Six Odes), 1966 (Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea with music of the 1960s and black spirituals) and 2003 & 1723 (J S Bach’s Cello Suites with W G Sebald’s Campo Santo essays).

Our Strange Concord Time Machine Event 1989 & 1990 for Creative Folkestone’s Autumn Reads Festival brings together Derek Jarman’s published diary Modern Nature with John Zorn’s The Dead Man 13 Specimen for String Quartet and Henryk Gorecki’s Good Night Op. 63 for soprano, alto flute, piano and tam-tams, both 1990. This combination of artistic works would very likely never have come together but through ‘cultural time travelling’.

We hope that you will relish this unexpected concord and its strangeness in a live performance of music and words in Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage in Dungeness. All scenes were shot in Prospect Cottage and its garden.

COMPOSER BIOGRAPHIES

John Zorn (Composer) Born and raised in New York City, John Zorn is a composer, performer, artist, and aesthetic philosopher who has forged an independent path through stylistic domains that range from the classical avant-garde to many popular idioms. His work is remarkably diverse and draws inspiration from Art, Literature, Film, Theatre, Philosophy, Alchemy and Mysticism as well as Music. He founded the Tzadik label in 1995, runs the East Village performance space The Stone and has edited and published eight volumes of musician’s writings under the title ARCANA. Honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, the Cultural Achievement Award from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture and the William Schuman Prize for composition from Columbia University. He was inducted into the Long Island Hall of Fame by Lou Reed in 2010 and has received honorary doctorates from the University of Ghent, SUNY Purchase and New England Conservatory.

Henryk Górecki (Composer)

The simple yet monumental style for which Górecki is today renowned became fully established in the 1970s with such works as Symphony No. 2 ‘Copernican’ (1972), the much lauded Symphony No. 3 Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (1976) and the large-scale Psalm setting for chorus and Beatus Vir (1979). As a result of Poland's increasing political emancipation in the late 1980s, Górecki's music travelled more widely and attracted new performers and audiences in the West. This renewed interest led to the composition of three major string quartets, Already it is Dusk (1988), Quasi una Fantasia (1991) and …songs are sung (1995), commissioned for the Kronos Quartet. Górecki's most noted compositions of the 1990s included Concerto-Cantata (1992) for flute and orchestra and Kleines Requiem für eine Polka 1993) recorded by both the Schoenberg Ensemble on Philips and the London Sinfonietta on Nonesuch. Górecki completed two choral works in the run up to the millennium, Salve, Sinus Polonorum (1997-2000) for chorus, percussion and keyboards, and Lobgesang (2000) for chorus and glockenspiel. At his death in 2010, works awaiting performance included Symphony No. 4 (2006) premiered by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2014 and released on Nonesuch, the hour-long oratorio Sanctus Adalbertus (1997-8), a setting for choir and small orchestra of the Kyrie (2004-5) and Two Tristan Preludes and Chorale (2004) for orchestra.

(Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey and Hawkes)

Henryk Górecki wrote his composition Good Night Op.63 as a dedication to the English Arts Administrator Michael Vyner who was Music Director of the London Sinfonietta from 1972 to his death as a victim of the AIDS epidemic in 1989.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Ben Whishaw (Reader)

Ben Whishaw is a Golden Globe, BAFTA, Emmy and Critic’s Choice Award-winning actor who is best known for his leading roles in both film and television in Paddington 1 & 2; James Bond film series Skyfall, Spectre and still to be released No Time To Die; The Personal History of David Copperfield; Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns; Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; The Danish Girl; Fargo; BBC’s A Very English Scandal; Criminal Justice; London Spy and The Hollow Crown.

Rebecca Chan (Violin)

Rebecca Chan is currently Associate Leader of the Philharmonia Orchestra and has been invited as guest leader of many other , including the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.. She has also been guest principal second violin with the LSO, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Camerata Bern and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Rebecca was the winner of the string section and Nelly Apt Scholarship in the ABC Young Performers Awards, the ANAM concerto competition and the Australian Concerto and Vocal Competition. .

As a chamber musician, Rebecca has toured around Australia, Europe and Asia and played in numerous festivals and venues such as Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Musikverein in Vienna and Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Rebecca was a founding member of the Hamer Quartet (winners of the first prize, the audience prize and Musica Viva award in the 2009 Asia Pacific Chamber Music Competition). She is a member of the Australian World Orchestra and and regular guest director of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.

Marije Johnston (Violin)

Dutch violinist Marije Johnston led the Netherlands Youth String Orchestra for several years and from 2002-2005 she was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra. In 2002 Marije came to England to study at the Royal Northern College of Music with Jan Repko. During her time at the Royal Northern College of Music Marije won numerous prizes, including all the RNCM’s chamber music prizes as a member of the Navarra Quartet. As a soloist Marije performed Shostakovich’s violin concerto No. 1 with the RNCM’s Symphony Orchestra after winning the prestigious concerto auditions held at the RNCM. Since 2003 she has performed concertos by Tippett, Schnittke and the Brahms ‘Double’ Concerto with the same orchestra. Awarded the RNCM’s highest accolade, the Gold Medal, Marije went on to gain her B(mus) from the RNCM with First Class Honours and her Professional Performance Diploma (2005) and Postgraduate Diploma (2007) both with distinction. Marije is much in demand as a chamber musician and often plays with the Fibonacci Sequence, Schubert Ensemble and Aronowitz Ensemble. Marije plays a F. Cuypers violin kindly loaned to her by the Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds in the Netherlands.

Sascha Bota (Viola)

Alexandru-Mihai (Sascha) Bota began his experience as an orchestral musician in the European Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. He became a member of Camerata Salzburg in 2007 and has often played as principal viola on several international tours with conductors such as Sir and Leonidas Kavakos. In 2007 he won the audition for the Solo Viola of the Chamber Orchestra. Sascha was also associate principal viola with Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, working with conductors such as John Eliot Gardiner, Louis Langrée, Philippe Herreweghe and Ingo Metzmacher. Sascha has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Hall, the Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie and the Wigmore Hall. Since relocating to London in 2017, Sascha has been playing as guest principal with a number of orchestras, including the Aurora Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Academy of Ancient Music, English Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra. In addition to his activities as a classical musician, Sascha is dedicated to jazz and other forms of improvised music and regularly appears at jazz concerts and festivals. Sascha plays on a brescian copy English viola from 1830, a Hill&Sons modern bow 1910 and J.Dodd classical bow from 1820, His baroque viola is made by Jan Pawlikowsky.

Brian O’Kane (Cello)

Brian O’Kane is one of the finest Irish musicians of his generation. He came to prominence by taking first prize at the Windsor Festival International String Competition and is also a former prizewinner of the Royal Overseas League Competition. An avid chamber musician, Brian has toured extensively throughout the Far East, Australasia and Europe. He has collaborated with a wide variety of artists such as the Vanbrugh Quartet, Michael Collins, Ian Bostridge, Pekka Kuusisto and Alison Balsom. He enjoys playing as a member of the Navarra Quartet and in 2012 he made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and his Wigmore Hall debut as a Maisie Lewis Young Artist. An award winning graduate of both the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Brian‘s biggest influences have come from Louise Hopkins and at the International Musicians Seminars, Prussia Cove from studies with Ralph Kirshbaum, Gabor Takacs-Nagy and Steven Isserlis. Brian currently plays on a Grancino cello made in Milan in 1698, generously on loan from the Cruft – Grancino Trust which is administered by the Royal Society of Musicians.

Nazan Fikret (Soprano)

Nazan Fikret studied at the GSMD, is a Britten-Pears Young Artist and an International Opera Awards bursary recipient. She continues her vocal studies with Marie McLaughlin and Yvonne Kenny. As a teenager she performed Flora The Turn of the Screw across Europe, including productions directed by David McVicar, Stephen Langridge and Elijah Moshinsky.

Performance highlights include Queen of the Night Die Zauberflöte (Glyndebourne, Garsington Opera, Opera på Skäret and Scottish Opera); Blonde Die Entführung aus dem Serail (English Touring Opera); Arasse Siroe (Nederlandse Reisopera) Euridice

Orfeo ed Euridice (Longborough Festival Opera); Diane Disney The Perfect American (ENO and Teatro Real); Girl/Bear in Julian Philips’ How the Whale Became (ROH Linbury); Elin Agreed, (Glyndebourne - a new community opera); Fiordiligi Così fan tutte (European Opera Centre/RLPO); and the title role in Theodora with Christian Curnyn and Sarah Connolly (Snape Maltings).

Ileana Ruhemann (Alto Flute)

Ileana Ruhemann studied at the Purcell school, Cambridge University and the Paris Conservatoire. She has been Principal flute of the BBC Concert Orchestra for over 30 years, a job she loves and appreciates for the variety of the work and versatility of the players. She has enjoyed a solo career alongside and has been committed to several chamber groups, currently Fibonacci and Gemini. She has played as guest Principal flute of most of the orchestras in the UK and works regularly in the studio recording soundtracks for film and TV. She has had works written for her by composers ranging from John Tavener to Stanley Black. Teaching young children to play the flute has also played an important part in her musical life.

Julius Drake (pianist)

Julius Drake, described by The New Yorker magazine as the ‘collaborative pianist nonpareil’ is one of the finest instrumentalists in his field, collaborating with many of the world’s leading artists. He appears regularly at all the major music centres and festivals: the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Munich and Salzburg Music Festivals; Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre New York; The Kennedy Center, Washington; The Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and Philharmonie, Berlin; and Wigmore Hall and BBC Proms London.

Julius Drake’s many recordings include a widely acclaimed series with Gerald Finley for Hyperion, from which the Barber Songs, Schumann Heine Lieder and Britten Songs and Proverbs won the 2007, 2009 and 2011 Gramophone Awards; six award winning recordings with Ian Bostridge for EMI; several recitals for the Wigmore Live label, with among others Alice Coote, Joyce DiDonato, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Christopher Maltman and Matthew Polenzani; recordings of Kodaly and Schoeck ’cello and piano sonatas with the ’cellists Natalie Clein and Christian Poltera for the Hyperion and Bis labels; Tchaikovsky and Mahler songs with Christianne Stotijn for Onyx; English song with Bejun Mehta for Harmonia Mundi; and Schubert’s ‘Poetisches Tagebuch’ with Christoph Prégardien, which won the Jahrpreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2016.

Julius Drake’s most recent recordings include a critically acclaimed performance with Nicky Spence of Janacek’s Diary of One who Disappeared (Hyperion) and ‘Paradise Lost’ (Alpha) with Anna Prohaska. Forthcoming concerts include La Scala, Milan with Aleksandra Kurzak, Wigmore Hall with Alice Coote, Barcelona with Dame Sarah Connolly, Berlin with Angelika Kirchschlager, in Munich and at the Edinburgh Festival with Gerald Finley, at the Schubertiade, Austria with Christoph Prégardien and Ian Bostridge, and tours in Europe with Anna Prohaska and Eva-Maria Westbroek.

Seán Doran (Artistic Curator)

Seán Doran (www.seandoran.co.uk) is a former Artistic Director & Chief Executive of the English National Opera (2003-06), AD/CEO of the Arts Councils GB UK Year of Literature and Writing 1995, Festival Director of Perth International Arts Festival Australia (2000-03) and Artistic Director of the Belfast International Arts Festival (1997 & 1998). In partnership with Liam Browne, Seán programmed the Sgt. Pepper at 50 festival for Liverpool (2017), the Opening Year programme for Ireland’s new Seamus Heaney HomePlace (2016/17) and co-founded the annual Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival (2012) and the Lughnasa FrielFest (2015) as Ireland’s first cross border festival. For his Sgt. Pepper at 50 festival (2017), the Daily Telegraph Magazine wrote of him as 'now considered the preeminent Festival Director in Europe'.

Seán’s artistic achievements include commissioning Antony Gormley's Inside Australia 51 sculptures on a salt lake in the Australian desert (2003) and an indoor- outdoor production of Australia's first home created Wagner Ring opera (Gotterdammerung, 2003). At English National Opera he commissioned film director Anthony Minghella’s Madam Butterfly and brought composer Philip Glass and theatre visionary Phelim McDermot together resulting in ENO‘s Satyagraha. It was his idea to take ENO to the Glastonbury Festival in 2004 with Wagner’s Valkyrie Act III. For his 1997 & 1998 Belfast Festivals, he presented the Irish debuts of international artists Robert Wilson, Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, Philip Glass, DV8, Bill Viola and the Wooster Group with Willem Dafoe. In 2001, Seán was awarded the Centenary Medal by the Australian Government and in 2017 received an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Ulster University.

Liam Browne (Artistic Curator)

For many years Liam worked primarily in the field of literature; he is a former Literature Officer at the South Bank Centre in London, Literature Programmer of the Brighton Festival and Programme Director of the International Literature Festival Dublin. With Sean Doran he is the co-director of the multi-arts festivals Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival (2012 onwards), Comment C’est: Paris Beckett (2016) and Frielfest in Derry & Donegal (2015, 2017 - 19). Under their arts consultancy, DoranBrowne, he co-curated with Sean, Sgt. Pepper at 50 Heading for Home (Liverpool, May 25 - June 16 2017), the first year of the new Seamus Heaney HomePlace, 12 months 12 books (Bellaghy, Co. Derry, 2016/2017) and The Shape of Things to Come in Folkestone (2019). Most recently they have been commissioned by NHS England to curate a series of conversations with major actors (including Naomie Harris, Fiona Shaw and Minnie Driver) exploring mental well- being. Liam’s novel, The Emigrant’s Farewell, was published by Bloomsbury.