September 2016 to May 2017 WELCOME to to New York and many more places along the way. We’ll salute A Sheffield home the 2016–2017 our homegrown community concert season of music-makers in Forged for musical discovery, in Sheffield, and get busy in at the University learning and participation. the Sound Laboratory, where of Sheffield; a contemporary creations come to globe-trotting, life. And we celebrate all things lyrical, linguistic, sung and said in time-travelling, our first ever SongMakers Festival. boundary-crossing Throw some cracking programme we collaborations into the mix with are truly thrilled fellow Sheffield creatives like to share with you. Festival of the Mind, Human, Off the Shelf, Music in the Round, Classical Sheffield and the Year With scores of international of Making, and our programme and award-winning artists, a is fit to burst at the seams with kaleidoscope of choirs, collectives, musical magic. We’ve something to composers, and ensembles of astonish and delight music lovers all shapes and sizes, we hope of all tastes and ages, and look you’ll agree it’s quite the lineup! forward to welcoming you to one of our concerts soon. Together we’ll travel the world All concerts take place in the University of Sheffield’s Firth Hall unless stated otherwise. with Global Soundtracks, from Stewart Campbell Ticket prices are detailed on page 46 unless stated otherwise. Scotland to Sardinia, Northumbria Producer Showcasing a city of music-makers A Sheffield destination for the best in world, roots and folk #forgedinsheffield #globalsoundtracks Song Makers Electrifying performances from the cutting edge Festival of the lyric, linguistic, sung and said #soundlaboratory #songmakers 4 5 Sounds of the Birds SOUND LABORATORY Wednesday 21 September, 7.30pm Tickets: Free, booking required Pre-concert talk, 6.10pm: Professor Peter Hill discusses Messiaen’s fascination with birds and birdsong “ Organic, A mesmerising Our adventure through science, natural and meditation on music, music, nature and imagination is utterly glorious.” nature and landscape led by Tim Birkhead (ornithologist MOJO and Professor of Behavioural An immersive and multi-sensory Ecology at the University of experience; the language of birds Sheffield), with pianist Noah is translated for solo piano and Kang performing Messiaen’s illuminated by bold new visuals from monumental masterpiece. Sheffield-based design team Human. Noah Kang piano Kathryn Tickell From the brightly insistent call Professor Tim Birkhead speaker of the skylark to the menacing Stewart Campbell artistic & The Side tones of the tawny owl, Olivier director Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux Human visuals GLOBAL SOUNDTRACKS reproduces the songs of different Tuesday 18 October, 7.30pm birds, vividly capturing their interactions with a series of stunning French landscapes. A whirlwind musical northwards; follow the playful journey across the sounds of pipes and fiddle to a Northumbrian landscape place where clogs storm, harp notes fall like plucked raindrops, Feel the wildness of the land and whilst wrapped in a blanket of soft the warmth of its people when voices and rich cello. BBC Folk Awards Musician of the Year Kathryn Tickell brings the Kathryn Tickell sound of her beloved Northumbria Northumbrian pipes, fiddle to Sheffield. A truly talented folk Louisa Tuck cello quartet is our company on this Ruth Wall harp heartfelt and exhilarating quest Amy Thatcher accordion, clogs Box Office (via TicketSource): www.sheffield.ac.uk/concerts Enquiries: 0114 222 0468 6 7 Vingt Regards SOUND LABORATORY Tuesday 1 November, 7.30pm Piano meets poetry in A pianist of both power and an exploration of faith sensitivity, Cordelia Williams has and love enthralled audiences around the world. Multi-award-winning poet A fascination with the human Michael Symmons Roberts is soul unites Cordelia Williams known for his “amazing talent for and Michael Symmons Roberts. intimacy on paper” (The Guardian). Together they observe and explore Global Soundtracks Cordelia Williams piano universal themes of love, colour, Michael Symmons Roberts passion, silence and faith through words Fusion Olivier Messiaen’s Vingt Regards GLOBAL SOUNDTRACKS sur l’Enfant-Jésus (‘Twenty contemplations of the infant Tuesday 25 October, 7.30pm Jesus’); written in occupied Paris in 1944. Feast your ears! Mesmerisingly beautiful and gently A cutting-edge world haunting, guitar virtuoso Giuliano music mega-bill Modarelli’s unique style blends World Folk, Arabic, Flamenco, Latin Kefaya’s genre-busting, border- and Eastern European. crossing sound has been described as “internationalist”, “guerrilla jazz”, Kefaya “contemporary world-fusion” and Elaha Soroor vocals “global protest music”. An eclectic Giuliano Modarelli guitar group of immigrants, travellers John Ball santoor and international artists, Kefaya seek the common ground between folk traditions of the world, whilst “ Soulful, beautifully staying rooted firmly in the 21st paced and etching deep century. Kefaya are joined by Afghan emotions” singer Elaha Soroor. The Sunday Express on Giuliano Modarelli Box Office (via TicketSource): www.sheffield.ac.uk/concerts Enquiries: 0114 222 0468 8 9 “ One of Karine Chango the finest Polwart Spasiuk singer- songwriters GLOBAL SOUNDTRACKS GLOBAL SOUNDTRACKS in Britain ****” Saturday 5 Nov, 7.30pm Thursday 10 Nov, 7.30pm The Guardian All Tickets: £16 Subtropical folk from an Argentinean Darkly beautiful and accordion master socially conscious folk from award-winning “Music is a way to go to a place singer-songwriter you’ve never been before,” says Chango, and so he carries us To Scotland, and songs peopled away with alluring rhythms and with the ghosts of childhood mesmeric melodies to a land of adventures, elderly neighbours, red earth, lush vegetation, rivers eroding shorelines and exiled and waterfalls. mothers. Reflecting her pre- Image © Paul Heartfield musical background as a social A folk recipe of South American Image © Ignacio Arnedo worker, Karine’s songs are and Spanish flavours peppered poignant and powerfully relevant, with polka overtones from eastern whilst her warm voice, succinct Europe, Chamamé music reflects storytelling, enduring melodies the different communities that “ A gifted, and traditionally-inspired settled in northeast Argentina profoundly arrangements draw you in as if to a in the 16th to 19th centuries. expressive late night tale told by the fireside. Chango’s sometimes melancholic performer” but always optimistic brand of Rootsworld Karine Polwart is four times Chamamé has earned him a BBC winner at the BBC Radio 2 Folk World Music Award and a Latin Awards, including twice for Best Grammy nomination. Original Song. Box Office (via TicketSource): www.sheffield.ac.uk/concerts Enquiries: 0114 222 0468 SongMakers Festival Friday 11–Sunday 13 November Song Festival of the lyric, Makers linguistic, sung and said Festival Pass: £40 Full Price £30 Over 65/Unwaged/Staff/Student/Under 26 Pass excludes Die Winterreise and Bach: St John Passion concerts 12 13 Food for Die Thought Winterreise Friday 11 Nov, Friday 11 Nov, 2.30pm–3.10pm 7.15pm–8.30pm Venue: Firth Hall Venue: Crucible Tickets: Free, booking required Studio Theatre Tickets: £19/£13/£5 Booking: Autumnal musings www.musicintheround.co.uk from young minds or 0114 249 6000 Celebrate all things harvest, A journey through snow autumn and food in this outreach and ice, frozen hearts concert by hundreds of Sheffield’s and lost love primary school children. Franz Schubert described Die Winterreise to a friend as “a cycle of terrifying songs” that “please me more than all the rest, and in time they will please you too.” Wilhelm Müller’s poems depict a solitary individual amid nature at its cruellest and coldest: it’s a vision of numbing intensity expressed in music that is by turns bold and desolate. The singer’s journey proceeds relentlessly towards desolation, alleviated only by shards of piercing beauty along the way that merely highlight the descent into a personal hell. Sung “ Roderick Williams in German. No interval. imbued each song with myriad colourful Roderick Williams baritone nuances, his rich, Christopher Glynn piano burnished baritone Image © Benjamin Ealovega lovely throughout the evening.” New York Times Box Office (via TicketSource): www.sheffield.ac.uk/concerts Enquiries: 0114 222 0468 14 15 Music, SongMakers Language Pop Up and Poetry Saturday 12 Nov, Saturday 12 Nov, 11am–6pm 10am–3.30pm Venue: Winter Garden, city centre Venue: Firth Hall Tickets: Free, no booking required Tickets: £5, tea and coffee included Enjoy Sheffield’s Winter Garden as singers from the city perform song An expert-led exploration all day long. of German song Delve into a world of words, language and music, focusing on German song, with world-famous Nights Not baritone Roderick Williams, Spent Alone poetry and song specialist Professor Helen Abbott Saturday 12 Nov, (University of Birmingham) and 2pm–3pm German literary and cultural history specialist and BBC Radio Venue: Upper Chapel, city centre 3 New Generation Thinker 2016 Tickets: £7/£6 Dr Séan Williams (University of Sheffield). A musical portrait of a provocative poet The session will focus on: – The challenges of singing in Pulitzer-winning poet Edna St German and how singers Vincent Millay inspired a generation approach languages in with her frankness about her performance of song unconventional life. Performed by – The relationship between text acclaimed mezzo Kitty Whately and and music with a focus on 19th pianist Simon Lepper,