March 2020

Musica Secreta - From Darkness Into Light

directed by Deborah Roberts and Laurie Stras

From Darkness Into Light presents the complete Lamentations of Jeremiah for Good Friday by Antoine Brumel, discovered by co-director Laurie Stras in a modest manuscript preserved at the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence. This huge work, composed in the form of a Renaissance tragedy, provides the first half of the programme. Its scribe, an obscure friar, also left another manuscript, copied for a Florentine convent. The second half brings into focus the anonymous beauty of works that decorated the nuns’ worship throughout the year. Musica Secreta will present these startling new discoveries combining music, visuals and commentary in a live ‘documentary-concert’. 

University of Huddersfield Saxophone Day

The 2020 University of Huddersfield Saxophone Day will focus on the saxophone from its inception to modern day. Including talks, recitals and playing opportunities encompassing repertoire from across its history. Directed by Sarah Markham, the day will also feature 'Over 100 Years of Women and the Saxophone' presented by composer Charlotte Harding and saxophonist Amy Green. There will be opportunities to play in the Saxophone Day Orchestra, participate in workshops throughout the day, and learn about technical developments and history from industry specialists.

The day long exhibition features exhibitions by all the major saxophone companies, including: Vandoren, Selmer, D’Addario Woodwind, Yamaha, Yanagisawa, Trevor James.

Students and children free. Students please bring ID cards.

Richard Craig - Flute

A concert of new works for flute/s and electronics performed by internationally renowned soloist Richard Craig. Programme to include Mary Bellamy’s Semblance for solo bass flute, and Brian Ferneyhough’s Mnemosyne alongside newly composed works by postgraduate student composers at Huddersfield.

The Rose Consort of Viols and University of Huddersfield Chamber Choir

Director: John Bryan

Sing we and chant it: music from renaissance England ‘apt for voices and viols’

When the Italian madrigal arrived to be ‘Englished’ by composers like Morley around 1600, it joined a wealth of music designed for voices and viols, including consort songs from choirboy plays and verse anthems. We explore something of this varied repertory, from homegrown madrigals by Weelkes and sacred music by Byrd and Gibbons to Latin motets by Peter Phillips, whose career took him to work in Brussels.

Voices of Venus

Sarah Dacey, Anna Snow, Stef Conner

Experimental vocal trio Juice Vocal Ensemble present three new commissions for voice and electronics from three pioneering composer-vocalist-artists: Gazelle Twin, Nwando Ebezie and Olivia Louvel. The pieces draw inspiration from: the 'dark side' of Venus and its somewhat mangled folkloric and ritualistic traditions; the Haitian Vodou goddess versions of Venus and her role as fierce protectress; and textural elements of erosion and volcanic activity present on the planet, contrasting with the common imagery of Venus as an embodiment of love.

Ensemble Plus Minus

Ensemble Plus minus will perform a concert of new music for piano, clarinet and cello including Galina Ustvolskaya's Grand Duet and David Franzson's Ideation #2.1 as well as newly written pieces by postgraduate composers.

Flights of Fancy

The Rose Consort of Violas - Ibrahim Aziz, John Bryan, Alison Crum, Andrew Kerr, Roy Marks

For English musicians from Tallis to Purcell the fantasia or ‘fancy’ was the highpoint of a composer’s craft, ranging from ‘songs without words’ to pieces of great contrapuntal ingenuity. We explore these riches, together with more recent pieces composed for the Rose Consort by Ivan Moody and Pavol Šimai.

Inja Stanović Piano Recital

Dr Inja Stanović presents some of Chopin’s most loved works. Using nineteenth-century piano techniques, this recital is a product of Inja’s extensive research on early recordings, supported by University of Huddersfield and Leverhulme Trust.

This all-Chopin recital will be accompanied by short explanations about long-gone techniques, and will give you a chance to experience some of Chopin's most exquisite compositions in unfamiliar ways. 

Featuring a wide selection of forms: mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes and more, this evening will whisk you away to XIX century Warsaw and Paris. Come and celebrate the work of one of the most extraordinary and innovative composers of the romantic era.

Happy Birthday Mr. Reicha!

2020 marks the 250th birthday not only of Beethoven, but also his childhood friend from the Bonn court, Antoine Reicha. Czech-born Reicha settled in Paris where he taught many of the 19th Century’s most important composers. Boxwood & Brass celebrate Reicha’s anniversary with a special concert of his ambitious and conversational wind quintets, using original instruments.

Masterclass and Recital

Piano works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Liszt.

32 Variations in C minor by Beethoven, 12 mins

Group of Songs Without Words by Mendelssohn, 11mins

Intermezzo op 117 No 2 by Brahms, 6 mins

Concert Paraphrase on Verdi’s Rigoletto by Liszt, 8 mins

The Huddersfield University Big Band return to the Lawrence Batley Theatre with an evening of swinging jazz and big band numbers.

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