CARPE VITAM: WORLD PREMIÈRE
Thursday 15 November 2018 – 7.30pm
The Stoller Hall Manchester
Music by Laura Rossi
Film & live visuals by Romana Bellinger & Mike Eden
DerbyshOramiCoda composed and performed by Henry Dagg
Performed by Chetham’s Chamber Choir
Conductor – Claire Campbell-Smith
Violin – Sophie Langdon
Cello – Miriam Lowbury
Electric Guitar – Mike Outram
Piano – Laura Rossi
Electronics – Henry Dagg
Vibrant imagery, live camera work, electronics and acoustic instruments are joined by the voices of Chetham’s young singers in the world premiere of Carpe Vitam.
Carpe Vitam goes on a journey documenting women making their own way in the world, including footage from 100 years ago, women working during WW1, the struggle for women’s rights to work and votes for women, through to present day, with video/projection art created from new and archive footage of great female role models. The text for Carpe Vitam, with music composed by Laura Rossi, is from quotes and poems from inspirational women (which are sung by the choir and spoken). Multi-instrumentalist and sound sculptor, Henry Dagg has composed, created and will perform the last 10 minutes of the work – the ‘DerbyshOramiCoda’, which segues in from Rossi’s composition and is inspired by electronic music pioneers Delia Derbyshire and Daphne Oram.
Laura Rossi is a composer for Film, TV & Concert Works. Credits include London to Brighton, Song for Marion, Silent Shakespeare, The Cottage and Hurricane. In 2016/17 Laura was artistic director for Somme100 FILM, a project coordinating 100 live orchestral performances of her score for the 1916 film, The Battle of the Somme. The project was attended by an audience of over 37,000 people, involved over 4,200 musicians, and was televised live on BBC1 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Concert works include Voices of Remembrance, a choral/ orchestral work featuring poems read by Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave performed multiple times to critical acclaim, including with Chetham’s at Jersey Opera house & Manchester Cathedral. Her music has been performed by the Philharmonia, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, London Contemporary Orchestra and BBC Concert Orchestra, at the Barbican, Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. Laura is lecturer for film music at the London Film Academy and regularly gives masterclasses about film composition. www.laurarossi.com
Henry Dagg is composer, multi-instrumentalist and creator of sound-sculptures. He joined the BBC with the aim of creating special music for radio and
television, and after a short attachment to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1983, was commissioned to compose music for numerous programmes, often using advanced tape manipulation techniques. A BBC TV documentary was made about his work as a composer and performer in 1989. His commissions for sound sculpture include a suite of musical gates and railings given a premiere performance by Dame Evelyn Glennie, O.B.E. which
featured on ‘Richard & Judy’, and a stainless steel automatic harp known as ‘The Sharpsichord’, resulting in a collaboration and many live performances with Bjork for her project / album ‘Biophilia’. His most recent sound-sculpture is a 6-octave instrument incorporated into a suite of Gates and Railings at Rochester Independent College.
Mike Eden and Romana Bellinger are the directors of RouteStock, which explores routes to uncover the roots of people, by collecting and sharing the lives of individuals using the medium of video, stills, sound, projection and live shows. They also create live projected visuals for musicians such as Michael Nyman and Max Richter, and for live performance at venues including Royal Festival Hall, The British Film Institute, and Tate Britain as well as churches, cathedrals, old cinemas, town halls and their own new venue ‘The Hot Tin’ in Faversham. They have also done extensive work on restoring silent film prints for digital projection including the London Coliseum with full orchestra and will be performing again at The Barbican in 2019. Other projects include the Lost Lectures and filming for Breakin’ Convention at Sadler’s Wells with live streaming. They have been working in broadcast video and live events in producing, directing, educational and technical roles for clients including BBC, Pepsi, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount, British Council, Imperial War Museum, Royal Opera House, Sadler’s Wells Theatre.
Sophie Langdon is one of Britain’s leading violinists. She has appeared as soloist with many major orchestras: the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and the Berlin Radio Orchestra. She broadcasts regularly for BBC Radio 3, has appeared at most of Britain’s music festivals, and is a familiar figure on London’s concert platforms. Her CD recordings include the Ethel Smyth Concerto for violin and horn on the Chandos label, and two volumes of Spohr violin and harp music with harpist Hugh Webb on the Naxos label – both of which were released to critical acclaim. Recognised as a violinist and musician of great versatility, Sophie is active in many different spheres: as chamber player, soloist and recitalist, orchestral leader and director, and teacher. Langdon is Professor of Violin at the Royal Academy of Music.
Miriam Lowbury studied at Bristol University, the Royal Collage of Music, and the Royal Academy of Music with the Amadeus Quartet on a Leverhulme Scholarship. As a chamber player she has toured widely, played on radio and TV, and appeared with artists including Raphael Wallfisch, Jack Brymer, Michael Collins and Peter Donohoe. Her highly acclaimed recordings have been nominated for a Gramophone Award, and gained the top rating of five stars in the BBC Music magazine. Miriam is a member of Fourth Dimension String Quartet, Solarek Piano Trio, and Double Image. She has played as guest cellist in many chamber groups, and worked many orchestras, most recently BBC Concert Orchestra, ENO, LMP, CLS, Chroma, also for ballet, sessions and West End shows, frequently as principal cellist. Education work includes workshops in schools, universities and prisons, and teaching at the Junior Royal College of Music.
Mike Outram is a guitarist & improviser. He has toured internationally and made music with Carleen Anderson, Tim Garland, Theo Travis, Steven Wilson, Nikki Iles, Steve Lawson, Gareth Lockrane, Martin Speake, Hadrien Feraud, Julian Siegel, and Laura Rossi. He is Guitar Professor at The Royal Academy, Trinity Laban & The Guildhall, London, and leads an online community of over 650 guitarists at ElectricCampfire.com
This performance is part of the Women’s Work festival at Stoller Hall: http://stollerhall.com/festivals/this-womans-work/
200 years ago, Clara Schumann was born in Vienna. 100 years later, some women won the right to vote in British elections. Yet in 2018, only one female composer featured in Classic FM’s 300-strong ‘Hall of Fame’.
The Stoller Hall marks these auspicious anniversaries with a series of performances, commissions and conversation bringing women’s musical voices to the fore. From November 2018 through to International Women’s Day in March 2019 and beyond, Manchester’s superb new concert hall celebrates the vital role of women in music – as performers, teachers, learners, and especially as composers.
The series begins in November with the world première of Laura Rossi’s Carpe Vitam; a new audio visual performance marking 100 years of votes for women. Vibrant imagery, live camera work, electronics and acoustic instruments are joined by the voices of young singers in an evening which also features The Pankhurst Anthem, written and composed by the great-granddaughters of Emmeline Pankhurst.