Just a Note…Focus Groups Ensemble 360 Bassoonist Amy Harman…
Favourite piece of music? It changes every week but the ones I always come back to are Mozart’s Requiem and Schumann’s Fantasiestücke. Who or what is your biggest influence? My teachers Martin Gatt and Andrea de Flammineis, oboist Francois Leleux, Rachel from Glee and my mum.
What do you like to do in your spare time? I don’t often get spare time but if I do I spend it shopping or drinking wine! What book are you reading? I’m reading Lucia Rising by E F Benson leant to me by the lovely Matthew Hunt. It’s absolutely hilarious. I also have Heat magazine in my bassoon case.
Marty recently met with twenty-two audience members, sixteen of whom were Friends, to discuss their experience of concerts. The aim was to help us better understand and meet the needs of our audience as we go forwards, as well as providing an excellent opportunity to check current satisfaction levels. The intimate atmosphere and informality of concerts was praised, and people felt that Ensemble 360 was continuing The Lindsays’ ethos of unpretentious, expressive communication. There were however some suggestions for improving the spoken introductions, which were viewed as varying in quality. Many people like the concerts to take them on a musical journey, which could be of repertoire, composers, or techniques and the introduction of programme notes was welcomed. It was felt that at times the programme seems fragmented, people felt strongly that a balance should be struck between variety and cohesion;
Favourite place in the world? Umbria, Aldeburgh or the South Bank in London. If you hadn’t become a bassoonist, what instrument would you have chosen? I started my musical life as a cellist, I always prefer the lower ranges. At the moment I’m convinced I should’ve been a trombone player but again that changes weekly. Also I’d have made a great soprano if I sounded less like a cat when I sing. In one sentence sum up your average working day. Heaven with a side of reed hatred. If you hadn’t become a musician, what do you think you would have chosen as a career? Celebrity chef. With a pink Aga.
You can hear Amy and the rest of Ensemble 360 throughout the May Festival.
the ideal concert would contain a piece that they know, something they might have heard once or twice before and something new. Audiences would like to hear more contemporary music but a whole programme of new music wasn’t appealing. In deciding which concerts to attend, many people remarked on their availability being the most important factor, followed by what repertoire featured in the programme. Artist was not viewed as an important consideration as Music in the Round is trusted to present great musicians, but it was noted that the occasional ‘big name’ would be welcome. Do these views represent how you feel about Music in the Round? If you have anything to add please contact Marty on 0114 281 4660 or marty@ musicinintheround.co.uk. Marty will present a report of the findings to the board and is planning more focus groups with non-attendees and students later this spring.
Ensemble 360 Photoshoot
For three days in March Ensemble 360, with its new and complete lineup, spent three days with photographer Ben Ealovega having new photos taken. Many smiles, a couple of glasses of wine and some terrible jokes later we’re delighted with the results. The new images won’t be in circulation until the summer but a sneak peek from behind the scenes of the shoot will go on our website in the next month or two. Thank you to Huddersfield University and Sheffield Theatres for their generous in-kind provision of shoot locations.
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Issue No.55
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Forthcoming Highlight
Don’t miss the Prague Café Experience day in the May Festival. As well as two concerts featuring Janáček, Schubert and Strauss, there’s an Austrian and Hungarian themed lunch, coffee and cake served all day plus dancing and strudel-making workshops! Sunday 8 May, Sheffield City Hall Ballroom
Friends Newsletter ’
April 2011
Meeting James Gilchrist How did you get into singing? I can’t remember not singing. When I was a boy, I sang in church choirs, and was lucky enough to get into the choir of New College in Oxford. I didn’t realise it at the time - it was just “normal” - but the music-making there was of a very high standard, and the ethos very professional. So singing later as a tenor in King’s Cambridge and in various professional groups I think I found the attitude and approach and determination to produce the best result to be an extension of what I was used to, and a natural way of working in music. But I never for a moment considered that music might be a career, as I very much wanted to pursue my dream of becoming a doctor. So I studied medicine in Cambridge and London, and worked as a doctor in London and Leicester. All the while, I continued to indulge my love of music by singing either in early music groups (for instance The Sixteen, Cardinall’s Musick and Tallis scholars) or as a soloist for various choral societies. My musical diary was getting fuller and I was singing more as a soloist, so when I reached a natural pause in the medical career ladder I decided to take a couple of months off. Well, so far that couple of months has stretched to fifteen years. Do you miss medicine? Yes, terribly. I miss the structure of the life, the intellectual rigour, the subject itself, but above all the enormous privilege of being so intimately involved in other peoples’ lives and doing a job which is so manifestly useful and beneficial to society. But if I’m honest, I think I am now doing something that fits me better as a person and that still - especially recital work - gives me an enormous thrill and buzz. I am incredibly lucky to be able to be making my living from doing something I love. Did you know Angus before talking about the May Festival? Yes! Angus and I have worked together
on many projects, working with groups such as the Monteverdi Choir and The King’s Consort, for instance. We’re both tenors. I’m not sure whether that means we should have an affinity, or that we should be fighting! Do you work often with Anna Tilbrook? We’ve worked together for many years now. Both of us, of course, work with other people, and I do think that’s very important, but when you have done a fair bit of work together there’s an ease of expression which is irreplaceable. We’ve been lucky to have made so many recordings. We’ve done Finzi, Leighton, Berkeley, Vaughan Williams and (last week) Britten, but also Schubert and Beethoven: a real boon for us. Are you looking forward to singing in the round? It’ll certainly be a challenge, and a new one. Chamber music is intimately connected with the relationship between the performers and audience being equal and immediate. I’m used to being able to eye-ball the audience and clearly that’s going to be tricky to do for everybody at all times. I’ll be very interested to hear how people react. Tell us about your programme in the Festival Angus was quite strict with me! He’s so good at seeing the wider frame of the Festival, and so he wanted to confine us to the Austro-Hungarian theme, and I think he’s right. We’re so lucky to have some significant anniversaries this year: Mahler and Liszt. And of Mahler, we immediately thought of his Lieder einer fahrendes Gesellen. These may be known to your audience from their wonderful orchestral arrangements that Mahler made. I’m quite sure he conceived them with the orchestral colours in mind, but nevertheless, he first published them as songs for voice and piano, and they’re so gloriously immediate and impactful this way, that it’s like coming to a new work. Thinking about these songs really
Contents...
page one M eeting James Gilchrist page two W hat’s Happen ing in the Commun ity | May F estival Reception | Sneak Peek page three Getting to K now Gemma | F riends’ Choi ce page four Ju st a Note | Focus Group s | E360 Ph otoshoot
brought our theme for the recital. “Wenn mein Schatz abschied nimmt”... “When my love says goodbye”... leads to parting and distance and striding in the countryside and nature and loss and longing. We’re beginning with “the first song cycle of all”, Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte, which is just one of my huge loves. It’s so fresh and alive and perfectly wrought. And leads inevitably to Schubert, whose Goethe obsession we’re looking at, and then some songs of Liszt, which might well be new to people. They are a real delight, and seem so delicate and tuneful. Surprisingly simple, in some ways. And leaping in years and sentiment, we explore the rich, balmy-scented world of Hugo Wolf. This programme spans about a hundred years of song-writing in the empire, which seems a little time in a small space, but it’s packed with jewels and explorations of eternal questions of human existence. It’s something I always love about song recitals: you get two for the price of one, as the music and poetry seem to be both together and apart, delighting two bits of the brain simultaneously. What else is coming up for you? I’ve a recital the next day in Oswestry with (sorry Anna!) another pianist and I’m off to Sao Paolo later in the month to sing Haydn’s Creation. Anna and I have a recital at the Aldeburgh Festival in June and then I’m doing La Finta Giardiniera with the Academy of Ancient Music. Anna and I are looking forward to our last Orchid release this winter of Winterreise, and next year our disc of Britten cycles should be out on Linn. You can hear James and Anna at the Crucible Studio at 7.45pm on Wednesday 11 May, including a postconcert chat with Angus.