Your lunchtime date?

Good morning, friends

Today we would be launching A Little Library Music with a concert by Spindle Ensemble at 1.10pm at Exeter Central Library.

Instead, may we suggest that you listen to Spindle Ensemble online from 1.10 - 1.50pm? Use the best quality speakers you have available, make yourself comfortable, and get lost in the music!

https://spindleensemble.com/music/ https://spindleensemble.com/live-visuals/ https://spindleensemble.com/video/ If you make a donation to https://justgiving.com/livemusicnow and comment that it’s for Spindle Ensemble performance, Live Music Now will direct all donations towards covering their fees for this date.

Happy listening!

Exeter Contemporary Sounds

Concert postponed

Regretfully, we have decided to postpone Spindle Ensemble's lunchtime concert on Wednesday 25th March at Exeter Central Library.

We'll post updates about the other concerts in the series in due course.

Best wishes to everyone, and we hope to see you soon.

A Little Library Music

Exeter Contemporary Sounds is proud to present A Little Library Music, a new monthly lunchtime concert series in Exeter Central Library’s Rougemont Room. 1.10 - 1.50pm
BOOK TICKETS HERE

Wednesday 25th March Spindle Ensemble features pianist and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Inzani (celtic harp, accordion), Harriet Riley (tuned percussion) and Jo Silverston (cello) playing original compositions by Daniel Inzani that hover cinematically somewhere between jazz, folk and classical idioms, taking inspiration from artists such as Moondog, Eric Satie and Mulatu Astatke. http://www.spindleensemble.com/about/

Wednesday 29th April Clifton String Trio including music by Bach, Howard Skempton and Gordon Jacob https://cliftonquartet.co.uk/the-trio/

Wednesday 27th May Ruth Wall (harps) & Graham Fitkin (composer & percussion). Medieval, Renaissance and modern works for concert and lever harps, buzzing Renaissance bray harp and Gaelic wire strung harp and rhythmic body music pieces composed by Graham Fitkin. https://www.ruthwall.co.uk 

Wednesday 24th June Haldon String Quartet 'Four Voices', including music by Bach and James Macmillan http://www.haldonquartet.co.uk

Wednesday 29th July Volo Trio Ruth Molins (flute), Claudia Alvarez Calderon (soprano) and Alex Wilson (piano) ‘Fairytales and Nightingales’ https://volotrio.weebly.com/

Produced by Exeter Contemporary Sounds in partnership with Libraries Unlimited.

Supported by Exeter & District Classical Music Trust and sponsored by Princesshay.

Concerts

We are very sad to say that, due to unforeseen circumstances. our evening performance at Exeter Phoenix has been cancelled.  You can still come and hear us there at 4pm as part of our family series, Earworms.  Tickets will be available on the door at £4.50 (£3 child).

We will keep you posted with further dates for this programme as soon as we have them.

Marenje

Our collaboration project with Chartwell Dutiro (Mbira)  and Denise Rowe (Dance/Mbira) is coming to an end - although it feels like it's just beginning. We have used a series of rehearsal days to devise a programme which we will be using in school's workshops and concerts coming up in the next few weeks.  Amanda Bayley (Bath Spa University) who brought this project together and is researching the process, has organised a showcase at Bath Spa on Wednesday 22nd April - tickets are free, do come along if you are in the area.  We'll be playing a short programme and this will be followed by a Q&A session - http://www.bathspalive.com/events/marenje-ensemble/1429722000/

On May 10th we perform a full length concert at Exeter Phoenix, 8pm.  Tickets now available.  http://www.exeterphoenix.org.uk/events/marenje/
For younger audiences - we will be playing at 4pm on that afternoon as part of our 'Earworms' series of concerts.  Ticket for this performance are from Exeter Northcott - 01392 493493.  More details on our Earworms blog - http://earwormsexeter.blogspot.co.uk/

The whole process has been a fascinating journey or us - we're realising just how different our musical backgrounds and educations are.  Having begun to put some pieces together - both english and African music, as well as working with the composer Daniel Linker on his new composition for us - we're hoping to be able to perform and tour this programme more widely.

Meta-Mbira

We've been a bit quiet on the blog but working hard on our latest project.

Our string quartet are collaborating with Mbira player Chartwell Dutiro and dancer Denise Rowe, exploring music from our individual heritages and attempting to meet in the middle.  We're also working on a new piece by Bristol based composer Daniel Linker for quartet and mbira.
It's all part of a research project by Bath Spa University's Amanda Bayley and is being recorded by her and by film students from Bath Spa.
We have spent several days exploring the music and it's been a fascinating process.  Several performances are being planned and we will up date with these as soon as we have the information.
In the meantime, here are some photos which we hope will give a flavour of what we've been up to so far.

Anima Mechanicae: Soul of the Machine - Programme Notes

To buy your tickets for our Machine Music concert 

on Sunday 6th July at the Exeter Phoenix click 

here

Anima Mechanicae: Soul of the Machine

“Dedicated to the Computers and Robots of the Future, Who Long to Dream as the Humans
Do.”

Written for string quartet and completed in 2007, this work intentionally utilizes a re-imagining
of minimalistic gestures, capitalizing on Wallin Huff's obsession with Glass-ian style
minimalism. Yet, being more prone to programmatic style over "absolute music," the
overarching flow and connecting material between elements are largely encompassed within
the tale of a science-fiction character of Wallin Huff's imagination: specifically, that of an
advanced computer program who has been given a chance to experience emotions like the
humans do.

Therefore, the work opens with moments of mechanical coldness, gradually giving way to
moments of tender and emotional beauty. Wallin Huff intentionally derived and fashioned her
various rhythmic and tonal patterns throughout the work from strict mathematical relationships
-- to showcase that a mechanically constructed framework can give way to striking beauty on
its surface, much in the way a computer program of the future might evolve into its abstract
dream-state.

The sections of this single-movement work include: Mechanically, Quixotically, Pensively, With
impish behaviour, Tenderly, and Surreal.