Kevin Clifton in Burn The Floor, returning to the Grand Opera House next January
STRICTLY champ Kevin Clifton will return to the Grand Opera House, York, in the hot hit ballroom dance show Burn The Floor on January 21 2022.
“Kevin from Grimsby”, who left BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing professional roster after seven seasons at the end of 2019, last scorched the Opera House boards in May 2019.
After announcing his Strictly exit to make a full-time move into the world of musical theatre, he was set to play there too on the 2020/2021 UK and Ireland tour of Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom The Musical, directed by Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood, but the Covid pandemic put paid to the York run from November 23 to 28.
Clifton should have been on tour from September 26 2020 to June 26 2021 in his “dream role” of Scott Hastings, having been inspired by watching Luhrmann’s 1992 Australian film at the age of ten.
Dream role: Kevin Clifton should have played Scott Hastings in Strictly Ballroom The Musical but the pandemic put a stop to the 2020-2021 tour
He is thrilled to be rejoining his “dance family” once again for next January and February’s tour of Burn The Floor, a show with a “mix of eclectic live music, jaw-dropping choreography and ground-breaking moves, performed by an international ballroom dance company with an abundance of infectious, rebellious energy and passion”.
Clifton, 38, enthuses: “Burn The Floor is the show that ignited a spark in me and changed me forever as a performer. Through Broadway, West End and touring all over the world, this show has ripped apart the rule book, revolutionised our genre and inspired and shaped me as the dancer I am today.”
Billed as a “fiery, energetic and revolutionary ballroom production”, Burn The Floor has been packing a punch for more than two decades with its combination of Tango, Waltz and Rhumba routines.
In the heat of the moment: Kevin Clifton with the Burn The Floor company of international ballroom dancers
The 2022 tour has been rescheduled from spring last year, when it was only a week away from opening until Lockdown 1 cast theatres into darkness.
Clifton joined Strictly Come Dancing in 2013, performing in the final five times, missing out only in 2017 and 2019, and was crowned Strictly champion in 2018 with celebrity partner Stacey Dooley, the BBC documentary filmmaker, presenter and journalist.
A former youth world number one and four-time British Latin Champion, Clifton has won international open titles all over the world. After making his West End musical theatre debut in 2010 in Dirty Dancing, he starred as Robbie Hart in The Wedding Singer at Wembley Troubadour Park Theatre and as rock demigod Stacie Jaxx in the satirical Eighties’ poodle-rock musical Rock Of Ages in the West End, a role that also brought him to Leeds Grand Theatre in August 2019.
Tickets for Burn The Floor are on sale on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.
The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon: Compilation album and greatest hits tour in 2022. Picture: Kevin Westerberg
THE Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon will play York Barbican on April 30 next spring in his first York concert since May 2011.
That bygone night, the Irish chamber-pop leprechaun performed at York Minster, but the “divine” in The Divine Comedy was not the reason he could be found in northern Europe’s largest Gothic cathedral.
The Dean and Chapter had agreed to allow Tribeca Arts impresario Ben Pugh to run a series of rock/world concerts in the Minster, and if Hannon let slip a couple of X-rated words – one to describe Minster arsonist Jonathan Martin, the other in a lyric – the wrath from above did not befall him. He looked up heavenwards only when sipping red wine from a glass, mouthing “sorry” playfully.
His return to York next spring will follow the February 4 2022 release of Charmed Life – The Best Of The Divine Comedy, marking the completion of the Northern Irish singer, songwriter, musical score composer and cricket enthusiast’s third decade as a recording artist.
This 24-track, career-spanning compilation of hit singles and fan favourites, compiled by Hannon and remastered at Abbey Road Studios, London, takes in such eloquent, often mischievously humoured landmarks as National Express, Something For The Weekend, Songs Of Love, Our Mutual Friend, A Lady Of A Certain Age, To The Rescue and Norman And Norma, complemented by the new composition The Best Mistakes.
“I’ve been luckier than most,” reflects 50-year-old Hannon. “I get to sing songs to people for a living and they almost always applaud. So, when asked what to call this collection I thought of Charmed Life. I like the song and it rather sums up how I feel about my life.”
The career retrospective will be available as a 24-track standard double CD; on double heavyweight black vinyl in a gatefold sleeve; on limited-edition double heavyweight colour vinyl in a gatefold sleeve and as a limited-edition triple CD edition, bolstered a “Super Extra Bonus Album” of new and unreleased recordings.
Discussing the bonus disc, Hannon says: “It felt right to celebrate 30 of The Divine Comedy. I can’t give you an overview of these songs. They’re a crazy mixed-up bunch. Some are strangely seasonal, some relate to what we’ve all been going through recently, some are just nuts. Enjoy!”
The poster for The Divine Comedy’s April and May 2022 tour
Hannon signed his first record deal at 20 in1990, subsequently releasing 12 albums and performing hundreds of shows. He will add to that tally with 19 British and Irish dates next April and May, when he will play a second Yorkshire show at the Victoria Theatre, Halifax, on May 13.
“I am so looking forward to playing live again,” says Hannon. “The last couple of years have been a reminder of how much it means to me personally. It really is my favourite thing. And it seems fitting that we’ll be coming back with a greatest hits set. You know, in case everyone’s forgotten who I am and what we do!”
Tickets go on sale at 10am on Friday (10/9/2021) at yorkbarbican.co.uk and victoriatheatre.co.uk.
Track listing for Charmed Life:
Charmed Life; National Express; Norman And Norma; Something For The Weekend; Songs Of Love; The Best Mistakes; At The Indie Disco; Bad Ambassador; A Lady Of A Certain Age; Becoming More Like Alfie; Come Home Billy Bird; Have You Ever Been In Love; Our Mutual Friend; Generation Sex; How Can You Leave Me On My Own; Perfect Lovesong; Your Daddy’s Car; You’ll Never Work In This Town Again; Absent Friends; Everybody Knows (Except You); The Certainty Of Chance; Sunrise; To The Rescue; Tonight We Fly.
Track listing for Bonus deluxe 3CD/deluxe digital disc:
I’ll Take What I Can Get; Don’t Make Me Go Outside; Who Do You Think You Are; The Adventurous Type; When When When; Home For The Holidays; Te Amo España; Perfect Lovesong 2021; Simple Pleasures; Those Pesky Kids.
Did you know?
THE last time Neil Hannon’s compositions were heard on a York stage was in the Theatre Royal’s August 2019 production of Swallows And Amazons, a play with music that affirmed Hannon as a songwriter always ripe for musical theatre in the Flanders & Swann and Stiles & Drewe mode, with even a pinch of Sondheim salt and Randy Newman pepper.
Alex Wingfield (front) with Hanna Khogali, Laura Soper and William Pennington in Swallows And Amazons, featuring music by Neil Hannon, at York Theatre Royal in August 2019. Picture: Anthony Robling
GOOD to be back, good to be back. After a summer break, Graham Chalmers and Charles Hutchinson resume their arts chat with reflections on their return to the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Did Graham’s day out among the 90,000 throng at Leeds Festival pass the test after all that Covid testing?
Verdicts too on Harrogate Theatre’s immersive play, Our Gate, and on British Sea Power’s name change in woke times can be heard in Episode 55 at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1187561/9127399 .
“You could say, I’m a bit of an old hand! I actually first did The Woman In Black when I was 14,” says Antony Eden, who has returned to the role of The Actor. Picture: Tristram Kenton
AFTER 547 days, the Grand Opera House, York, will step out of the darkness and into The Woman In Black from September 13.
Robert Goodale will play lawyer Arthur Kipps opposite Antony Eden as The Actor in PW Productions’ latest tour of Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s ghost story.
Neither is a stranger to performing the torrid tale of an elderly lawyer obsessed with a curse that he believes has been cast over his family by the spectre of a “Woman in Black” for 50 years now.
“That is true,” says Antony. “You could say, I’m a bit of an old hand! I actually first did it when I was 14 after I saw it in the West End. I was already acting, and we wrote to PW Productions , director Robin Herford and Susan Hill to ask if we could put it on in the school theatre at Winchester.”
The answer was affirmative. “James Orr was my co-star…and in fact he came to see me in the show in Cambridge this summer with his son. I’d played The Actor when I was 14, and when we met up afterwards, I said, ‘I’m still playing the same part I was at 14, so I haven’t progressed much’!”
Robert Goodale as Arthur Kipps and Antony Eden as The Actor in The Woman In Black, haunting the Grand Opera House, York, from September 13 to 18. Picture: Tristram Kenton
Antony first performed in Robert Herford’s West End production in 2010, followed by a couple of tours, visiting York Theatre Royal in February 2013, a return to the West End in 2016 and a tour of Asia and Singapore. Now both he and The Woman In Black are back on the road again.
Such is his perennial association with PW Productions’ production that he has become associate director Of The Woman In Black. “I’ve worked with Robert Goodale before because, when he and Danny Easton were doing the last tour, part of my job was to go and see them every six weeks or so,” he says.
That tour spooked out York Theatre Royal in November 2019, but after the lockdown hiatus, Easton has gone west. “He decided not to come back into the tour. He does a running podcast now,” says Antony.
And so, while Danny keeps on running, Antony has resumed the role of The Actor from June 21 at Cambridge Arts Theatre, once more under the direction of the ubiquitous Herford, who directed the premiere of Mallatratt’s splendidly theatrical stage adaptation when it began life as a bonus Christmas show at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 1987 in novelist Susan Hill’s hometown of Scarborough.
Gripping moment: Antony Eden as The Actor with Julian Forsyth as Arthur Kipps at York Theatre Royal in February 2013
“We started working together for The Woman In Black and have done many things together since,” says Antony. “I think we have a shared philosophy of theatre, rooted in that Stephen Joseph Theatre, Alan Ayckbourn, Robin Herford mould. I love that small-scale way of making theatre.
“I’ve been a theatre fan since I was nine and I have to say that The Woman In Black is my favourite play. This piece is all about the audience, just as it is for Alan Ayckbourn, who sees the writing as only part of the process: the blueprint for the performance.”
Antony had the joy of performing in writer-director Ayckbourn’s company for the SJT premiere of A Brief History Of Women and revival of Taking Steps in summer 2018. “I was doing a tour of Relatively Speaking with Liza Goddard and Robert Powell that Alan came to see, and then did Kay Mellor’s A Passionate Woman with Liza and Russell Dixon, one of Alan’s regulars, at Cheltenham,” he recalls.
“When it then came to working with Alan, I’d already got a fair way along that path, as I was in that mindset from working with Robin and I’m naturally inclined to that style of theatre.
Antony Eden as Anthony Spates, Frances Marshall as Lady Caroline Kirkbridge, left, and Louise Shuttleworth as Mrs Reginald ffluke in Alan Ayckbourn’s A Brief History Of Women. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
“Alan would apply the philosophy of painting to setting scenes, with the most details for the central character and then the others would fill in the background. My favourite piece of advice from him was: ‘Do as little as you can and then do even less’.”
“Less is more” applies equally to The Woman In Black, where a cast of only two must do everything and yet Mallatratt’s play and Herford’s direction are rich in detail, drawing in the audience hook by hook.
“You really feel they are connected: the performers and the audience,” says Antony. “This play is a drama, a mystery, a whodunit, even a comedy at times; there’s so much to it and it plays to theatre’s strengths.
“To me, what’s important and fun about theatre is that it’s all about empathy the actors have for each other and the audience, and likewise the audience have for the actors. That’s what makes it special. This circle of empathy is what theatre specialises in; there’s no other artform like it for empathy.”
“I’ve been a theatre fan since I was nine and I have to say that The Woman In Black is my favourite play,” says Antony Eden, right. Picture: Tristram Kenton
Antony had been playing Ron in Harry Potter And The Cursed Child in the West End when Covid shutdown theatres, with 12 weeks still to go on his contract at the Palace Theatre.
“It’s a totally different experience from doing A Woman In Black. You have a staff director re-creating John Tiffany’s original direction, whereas Robin Herford is still directing The Woman In Black, and that’s why actors really want to do it because it’s a different partnership each time, two actors, one script, that’s all.
“Harry Potter And The Cursed Child is 50 actors, a script, pyrotechnics, special effects. It’s filmic in its scope, and that’s different from the theatricality that The Woman In Black is all about.
“I’ve done this play more than 1,000 times now and I’ve never once got bored with it.”
The Woman In Black, Grand Opera House, York, September 13 to 18, 7.30pm; 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
O, happy Day: CBeebies presenter Andy Day will play Dandini in York Theatre Royal’s Cinderella
CBEEBIES presenter Andy Day will be joined by Travelling Pantomime familiar faces Robin Simpson and Faye Campbell for York Theatre Royal’s homecoming pantomime, Cinderella.
Presented in tandem with perennial panto award winners Evolution Productions, creative director Juliet Forster’s production will run from December 3 to January 2: an earlier start, shorter run and much earlier last night than past main-house pantos.
Day, who will play Dandini, joined CBeebies in 2007, since when he has presented animal and nature programmes, whether tackling dinosaurs, investigating baby animals and going on safari.
Sister act: After his Dame Trott in the Travelling Pantomime, Robin Simpson will be back in York as one of the sourpuss Sisters
Nominated for a Children’s BAFTA award for best presenter in 2009, he has pantomime history, appearing in the CBeebies annual televised panto, as well as playing the Genie in Aladdin, Dandini in Cinderella, Muddles in Snow White and Billy Goose in Mother Goose.
Day is no stranger to director Forster, by the way, having been in the cast for her 50-minute CBeebies Presents: Romeo And Juliet, screened on April 2 and available subsequently on BBC iPlayer.
Day fronts his own live band, Andy And The Odd Socks, who once again will be launching Odd Socks Day for Anti-Bullying Week in schools up and down the country alongside the Anti-Bullying Alliance, a charity for whom Andy is a patron.
Look who’s back: Faye Campbell moves on from The Hero in York Theatre Royal’s Travelling Pantomime to the title role in Cinderella this winter
Faye Campbell will take the title role in Cinderella after playing The Hero in Jack And The Beanstalk and Dick Whittington in the Theatre Royal’s Travelling Pantomime in 16 York wardslast December.
Actor-storyteller Robin Simpson will be returning too, following up his Dame Trott last winter on the back of a three-year damehood at the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield. For Cinderella, he will form an (Ugly) Sister double act with Paul Hawkyard.
Comedian and ventriloquist Max Fulham, set to shine as Buttons, has played leading comedy roles in pantomimes throughout the UK, being voted Best Speciality Act in the 2020 Great British Pantomime Awards for his Washee in Aladdin at Bromley’s Churchill Theatre.
Award-winning ventriloquist Max Fulham: Making his York Theatre Royal debut as Buttons
Fulham has created his own comedy series, Drivel Pedlar, for his You Tube channel. Next summer, he will head to Australia to play Muddles in Snow White at the new Sydney Coliseum.
Forster’s cast for the first main-house Theatre Royal pantomime since the Dame Berwick Kaler reign will be completed by Benjamin Lafayette’sPrince Charming and Sarah Leatherbarrow’sFairy Godmother.
Written by Evolution producer Paul Hendy, the Theatre Royal’s Cinderella will relocate the timeless rags-to-riches story to York, as the stage “comes to sparkling life with magical transformations, glittering sets, stunning songs and side-splitting laughs”.
Sister double act: Paul Hawkyard as the other Sister, teaming up with Robin Simpson in Cinderella
Audiences should expect a ”brand-new pantomime for everyone with the promise of a truly epic spectacle and heaps of hilarity”, directed by Forster, who was at the helm of both the Travelling Pantomime’s tour of community venues and this summer’s Around The World The World In 80 Days, her circus-themed adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel that visited four York school playing fields in 16 days before a Theatre Royal finale last week.
Chief executive Tom Bird says: “We’re over the moon to be creating a spectacular new pantomime for the people of York – one that’s tailor-made for the whole family, while honouring the pantomime traditions that our audiences love so much.
“The phenomenal team will give the York Theatre Royal pantomime a new lease of life with a fresh, family friendly, fun-filled approach to the story of Cinderella, set with pride in our amazing city.”
York Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and chief executive Tom Bird with Evolution Productions producer and writer Paul Hendy
Evolution Productions, started by Emily Wood and Hendy in 2005, have built a reputation for superior, bespoke pantomimes with the emphasis on high-quality production values, strong casting and highly humorous scripts. Two-time winners of Pantomime of the Year at the Great British Pantomime Awards, they are the team behind Sheffield Theatres’ “extraordinarily successful” panto at the Lyceum Theatre.
Hendy says: “Emily and I are absolutely thrilled to be working with York Theatre Royal on Cinderella. We’re huge fans of the theatre and we’re looking forward to collaborating with Tom and his brilliant team to produce a wonderful, family-friendly pantomime with spectacular production values, a superbly talented cast and a genuinely funny script.”
Tickets are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
What’s up Duck? The Dead Ducks sketch comedy troupe head for Theatre@41 Monkgate, York
CLOWNS, ominous things, Grayson, James, tango, chamber music, horrible British history and watercolours in teamwork add up to shows aplenty for Charles Hutchinson and normal people alike to check out.
Sketch comedy show of the week: The Dead Ducks: Ducks Out Of Water, Theatre@41 Monkgate, York, tomorrow (3/9/2021), 8pm
UNIVERSITY of York Comedy Society sketch troupe The Dead Ducks make their Theatre@41 debut with Ducks Out Of Water as a cast of five serves up fun scenes that range from the relatable to the ridiculous.
Be prepared for completely original content in a humorous mix of parody and farce with a delectable side order of top-notch acting.
Look out for pirates, cowboys, clowns and assorted animals, alongside Winnie the Pooh, Sherlock Holmes and Mickey Mouse “like you have never seen them before”. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/events/.
Sunset Gazing, by Suzanne McQuade, on show at Village Gallery, Colliergate, York
Exhibition of the week: Suzanne McQuade, Touch Of Tranquillity, Village Gallery, Colliergate, York, until Octoger 23; open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm
LEEDS watercolourist Suzanne McQuade quit her long-standing customer service job five years ago to take the plunge and become a full-time artist.
“Using watercolours is like teamwork; I have to allow the watercolour to move and merge, and utilise the patterns it creates,” says Suzanne, who loves how this medium’s translucency enables light to flood into her landscapes and seascapes.
Drawing inspiration from the British countryside and coastline, she paints what she finds captivating, from a dramatic sky to underwater rocks. “I try to make the scene in front of me to be as beautiful as possible,” she says.
Alexander Wright: Performing Small, Small Ominous Things with Megan Drury at Theatre At The Mill, Stillington
Open-air theatre show of the week: Small Small Ominous Things, Theatre At The Mill, Stillington Mill, near York, Saturday, 8pm
LOOK out for a tiny red gun hidden in the grass; a picture of a puppy eating a toy dinosaur; a dull feeling in the pit of your stomach; a bug burrowing into your skin.
Welcome to a late-night mix of stories, tales and unsettling considerations from partners Megan Drury and Alexander Wright, Australian actor, writer and creative artist and North Yorkshire writer, theatre-maker and visionary facilitator respectively.
Gather around the fire as they collaborate for the first time live At The Mill, bringing small, small ominous things out into late-summer’s fading light. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/
Making a splash: The new Normal for artist Grayson Perry, performing on tour at York Barbican
Who-knows-what-to-expect gig of the week: Grayson Perry: A Show For Normal People, York Barbican, Monday, 7.30pm
IN his own words, despite being an award-winning artist, Bafta-winning TV presenter, Reith lecturer and best-selling author, Grayson Perry is a normal person – and just like other normal people, he is “marginally aware that we’re all going to die”.
Cue Grayson Perry: A Show For Normal People, where Grayson takes you through an enlightening, eye-watering evening wherein this kind of existentialism descends from worthiness to silliness. “You’ll leave safe and warm in the knowledge that nothing really matters anyway,” his show patter promises.
Grayson asks, and possibly answers, these big questions in a show “sure to distract you from the very meaninglessness of life in the way only a man in a dress can.” Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Home, James? Briefly, yes, when rehearsing at Broughton Hall, near Skipton. Scarborough Open Air Theatre awaits. Picture: Lewis Knaggs
Gig of the week outside York: James, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, September 9, gates open at 6pm
WHERE better for James to play a summer show in the wake of releasing their 2021 single Beautiful Beaches than at Scarborough Open Air Theatre.
The Manchester legends will be combining myriad anthemic favourites with selections from their “sweet 16th” album, All The Colours Of You, released in June.
Fronted by Clifford-born Tim Booth, James are completing a hattrick of Scarborough OAT visits after shows in May 2015 and August 18. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com
Prima Vocal Ensemble artistic director Ewa Salecka with Misatango composer Martin Palmeri
Well worth the wait: Misatango: Prima’s Tenth Anniversary Celebration, Temple Hall, York St John University, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York, September 11, 7.30pm
AFTER a year’s delay, Prima Vocal Ensemble director Ewa Salecka is thrilled to be holding the York choir’s tenth anniversary concert at last at a socially distanced Temple Hall.
At the concert’s core will be “the fabulous Misa a Buenos Aires, Misatango, an exhilarating fusion of Tango and Latin Mass”, by Argentinian composer Martín Palmeri, performed with the Mowbray Orchestra string quartet, bandoneon virtuoso Julian Rowlands, pianist Greg Birch and mezzo-soprano soloist Lucy Jubb. Box office: primavocalensemble.com.
Tim Lowe: York Chamber Music Festival director and cellist
Festival of the month: York Chamber Music Festival, September 16 to 18
CANADIAN pianist Angela Hewitt plays YCMF’s opening recital on September 16 and joins fellow festival artists Anthony Marwood and Pablo Hernan, violins, Lilli Maijala, viola, and Tim Lowe, cellist, for the closing gala concert on September 18, both at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York.
Marwood, Hernan, Maijala and Lowe play string quartets by Haydn, Mendelssohn and Schumann at the NCEM on September 17.
Festival director Lowe joins pianist John Paul Ekins for the first 1pm concert at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, on September 17; on the next lunchtime, Ekins plays works that connect Beethoven and Liszt. Box office: tickets@ncem.co.uk.
The Horrible Histories poke fun at Barmy Britain at the Grand Opera House, York, in October
History in the re-making: The Horrible Histories in Barmy Britain, Grand Opera House, York, October 21 to 24
CAN you beat battling Boudicca? What if a Viking moved in next door? Would you lose your heart or head to horrible Henry VIII? Can evil Elizabeth entertain England?
Will Parliament survive gunpowder Guy? Dare you stand and deliver to dastardly Dick Turpin? Escape the clutches of Burke and Hare and move to the groove with party Queen Victoria?
So many questions for The Horrible Histories’ Live On Stage team to answer with the aid of the 3D illusions of Bogglevision as skulls hover, dams burst and missiles fly into the family audience. For tickets for Birmingham Stage Company’s eye-popping, gruesome, scary and unbelievable trip through British history, go to atgtickets.com/york.
The poster for the remastered Imagine, John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s film
IMAGINE there are free tickets to see the 50th anniversary screening of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Imagine film.
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one, I hope someday you’ll join us for an exclusive show at FortyFive Vinyl Café, the Micklegate café bar, record store and music venue in York.
That day will be Thursday, September 9, but hurry, hurry, because only 30 tickets for the 7.30pm event are available to reserve via fortyfive.uk.com/events/imagine-50th-anniversary-screening.
FortyFive Vinyl Café will present this in-person screening of the remastered 1972 film in surround sound in collaboration with the Music Venue Trust, in celebration of the song, album and film.
Meanwhile, Charlatans’ frontman Tim Burgess’s Tim’s Twitter Listening Party will host a simultaneous online Listening Party event, where the experience of watching and listening to the music of John & Yoko’s film will be enhanced by a second-screen Twitter experience.
Barn Owl In Flight At Sunset, by Matt Bowden, from his Natural Landscape Of Yorkshire exhibition at City Screen, York
FILM and television location manager and photographer Matt Bowden’s exhibition of the natural world at large has re-opened at City Screen, York, after its Covid-enforced premature closure during lockdown.
“Born and bred in York, and growing up with such natural beauty on my doorstep in Yorkshire, meant it was almost inevitable I would develop an appreciation and interest in wildlife from an early age,” says Matt. “My grandfather, Eric Markham, was a keen bird-watcher, often taking me to local nature reserves for days out, binoculars around our necks.
“Taking photographs is a big part of my job as a TV and film location manager, a 20-year career that has afforded me the opportunity to develop both my creative skills and passion as a photographer, while working on such titles as Phantom Thread, The Secret Garden and The Duke.
“But the desire to capture images of wildlife came to me relatively late in life, as my growing interest in photography through my job collided with the joy and fascination that I found in the natural world that surrounded me.”
Bolty Reservoir, by Matt Bowden
The reactivated Natural Landscape Of Yorkshire exhibition in the City Screen café bar is bolstered by two new additions, one of a barn owl sitting on a post, the other of an owl in flight against a sunset backdrop.
“I’m incredibly fortunate to live near some amazing natural habitats and reserves, which offer a hugely diverse range of subjects,” says Matt. “I find owls of particular interest, having spent many hours studying their behaviour, feeding routines and hunting grounds.
“I relish the technical challenges inherent with photographing a bird that mostly hunts in very low light, making a successful capture all the more rewarding. I often use a hide, which allows me to get closer to my subject than I ever thought possible.”
Matt has just started location work on Carol Morley’s new film Typist Artist Pirate King, a hive of activity that could not be further removed from his wildlife photography pursuits, where tranquillity and isolation provide “a perfect remedy for the chaotic and often intense lifestyle most of us find ourselves engulfed in”.
Tawny Owl, Wheldrake Ings, North Yorkshire, by Matt Bowden
“The photographic challenge is not only the hours spent hidden in bushes and hides studying a natural subject, but more so to successfully create an image that proves to be both unique and artistically expressive,” says Matt, whose City Screen exhibition coincides with a pictorial feature in the September edition of Outdoor Photography magazine.
“In my photographs, the environment wherein the subject resides plays as important a role as the subject itself when forming a composition.
“Yorkshire has such a diverse and rich tapestry of nature and landscapes, and that’s why I feel fortunate to be able to call it home.”
Matt Bowden’s exhibition, The Natural Landscape Of Yorkshire, runs at City Screen, York, until September 11.
York photographer Matt Bowden with his exhibition at City Screen, York
SNAP chat as Matt Bowden answers CharlesHutchPress’s questions.
Did you take photographs during lockdown and did you notice a difference to nature at that time?
“Lockdown meant I was unable to spend as much time in the field as normal, finding comfort in the garden instead. As restrictions eased however, and I was afforded more time with my camera outdoors, I certainly experienced a heightened awareness of the relevance and importance that wildlife, and the natural landscape, plays in all our lives.
“We’ve become victims to the strains and pressures of our modern world, and if one positive thing emerged from the devastation of the pandemic, it was a universal appreciation of our natural surroundings.
“While I’m certain hitting ‘Pause’ on excessive human activity would have given nature some much-needed breathing space, only time will tell if it has sparked a longer-term effect on the way we value, and consequently treat, the increasingly threatened natural world that surrounds us. I’ve taken some of my best images during the last year.”
Barn Owl On A Post, by Matt Bowden
Why is nature your favoured subject matter?
“I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors and being among nature. It is as complex and baffling as it is beautiful and exists all around us. For me, it’s a constant comfort that asks only for our limited respect and appreciation, in return for boundless joy and fascination. “
How did the feature in Outdoor Photography come about?
“I’ve enjoyed reading the magazine for a number of years now, which is a great means of gathering inspiration from other photographers’ work. Social media has its benefits, but finding creative focus among the sea of visual noise can be time consuming and draining.
“A publication like Outdoor Photography offers a very specific output, showcasing a high standard of work in the field I’m most interested in, without distraction. While I’ve always loved the idea of having my images featured in the publication, it was actually my hugely supportive partner, Grace, who pushed the process over the finishing line, submitting the initial images on my behalf.”
“If one positive thing emerged from the devastation of the pandemic, it was a universal appreciation of our natural surroundings,” says Matt
What makes the perfect conditions for a photograph of nature?
“The right light, which is a luxury nature photographers can rarely rely on. There are so many elements that make a successful capture, and while the subject is always front and centre, the right light conditions play a huge part.
“Low, flat light levels provide not only huge technical challenges when trying to achieve high-enough shutter speeds to photograph an unpredictable and often fast-moving subject, but also make for a less-inspired final image.
“The photographs I’m most proud of were taken amid the warmth and beauty of early-evening sun, while it’s low in the sky and still bright enough to sufficiently light the landscape.”
“Yorkshire has such a diverse and rich tapestry of nature and landscapes, and that’s why I feel fortunate to be able to call it home,” says Matt
What characteristics are required of the photographer? Patience? Calmness? Instinct?
“An appreciation and love of the natural world is the most important characteristic, along with a creative vision of the final image. My favourite subject is the barn owl, and I always had an idea in my head of the shot I wanted, which allowed me the drive and focus to achieve it.
“While composure, calmness and patience in the field are all important elements, having a passion for your natural surroundings and a clear vision makes this less of a considered discipline.
“That said, the mental challenges inherent with spending hours isolated in the field, with hope and anticipation your only companion, should never be underestimated.”
Prima Vocal Ensemble artistic director Ewa Salecka with composer Martin Palmeri at Carnegie Hall, New York City in 2019
AFTER a year’s delay, Prima Vocal Ensemble artistic director Ewa Salecka is thrilled to be holding the York choir’s tenth anniversary concert at last.
“It’s just a few weeks since restrictions lifted and our 18-month perseverance against the odds has paid off,” says a relieved Ewa. “We’re now very excited to announce Misatango, a signature Prima evening of eclectic and surprising material with professional guest artists on September 11 at a socially distanced Temple Hall, York St John University.
“Our celebration event will feature the fabulous Misa a Buenos Aires, Misatango, an exhilarating fusion of Tango and Latin Mass by the Argentinian Martín Palmeri, performed by the award-winning Prima choir, Mowbray Orchestra string quintet, London-based bandoneon virtuoso Julian Rowlands, pianist Greg Birch and mezzo-soprano soloist Lucy Jubb.”
The “wonderfully diverse” programme will embrace familiar traditional music from the British Isles, Ireland and North America, taking in a cappella pieces by Tallis and Antognini and trad songs, such as Shenandoah, Scarborough Fair and Parting Glass, before travelling across the Equator to embrace the distinctive patterns and harmonies of Buenos Aires in Palmeri’s work.
“This is probably the first choral performance in York since lockdown ended, and it’s a truly outstanding orchestral and choral work to mark this event,” says Ewa. “Rest assured, Palmeri’s work is becoming extremely popular for a very good reason: it’s a stand-out and stand-alone composition, a Latin Mass that brings a smile to the face and gets everyone’s toes tapping.”
Prima Vocal Ensemble joined singers aplenty at Carnegie Hall, New York City, in 2019 to perform Martin Palmeri’s Gran Misa
Prima was founded by Polish-born performer, producer and music director Ewa Salecka and pianist Greg Birch in 2010. “Since then, we’ve collaborated with top composers and singers, put on spectacular shows in and around York and in prestigious locations from London to New York,” says Ewa (pronounced ‘ever’).
“We’ve performed in choral festivals and competitions throughout Europe, from the summit of the Italian Tyrol to 100 metres underground in Poland’s Wieliczka Salt Mines!”
The lockdowns of the past 18 months have challenged Ewa and the choir, but nevertheless she has worked tirelessly to keep members practising, first through Zoom meetings, then with outdoor and indoor in-person rehearsals.
“These have all been in Simulcast form, allowing both attendees and remote-access singers to practise together,” she says.
In a display of continued international collaboration despite the pandemic, Ewa even gained a bronze award for the choir during lockdown by submitting a virtual entry of the choir singing in a choral competition in Szczecin, Poland.
Prima Vocal Ensemble’s poster for September 11’s tenth anniversary celebration concert
To mark both the tenth anniversary and the return to live performance, she has chosen an inspiring, uplifting repertoire, encapsulated by Palmeri’s Misatango, first performed by Prima in York in 2017 in its North of England premiere.
“The choir then had the privilege to meet and perform with the composer himself at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 2019 for the world premiere of his subsequent work Gran Misa,” says Ewa.
“Palmeri remains a firm friend, sending the choir a personal, inspiring message in the midst of the first lockdown.”
Suffused with a daring mix of sacred music and tango to plunge you into a world of intense emotions, passion and syncopated rhythms, Misatango is “perhaps just what’s needed at the moment,” reckons Ewa.
Prima Vocal Ensemble presents Misatango: Prima’s Tenth Anniversary Celebration, Temple Hall, York St John University, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York, Saturday, September 11, 7.30pm to 9pm.Box office: primavocalensemble.com.
For the full programme and socially distanced tickets, available in advance only, head to: primachoralartists.com/events/misatango-by-m-palmeri-primas-10th anniversary-concert
Angela Hewitt: Canadian pianist to play recital and gala concert at York Chamber Music Festival
YORK Chamber Music Festival 2021 celebrates the return of live chamber music with a stellar cast of musicians and “some of the most beautiful music ever written” from September 16 to 18.
Billed as “the chance for a few days to refresh ourselves after the lockdown”, the festival opens with a solo recital by Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt, performing works by Francois Couperin, Mozart and J S Bach at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, on September 16 at 7.30pm.
Two nights later, she joins fellow festival artists Anthony Marwood and Pablo Hernan, violins, Lilli Maijala, viola, and Tim Lowe, cellist, at the Lyons for the 7.30pm closing gala concert of Mozart’s String Quartet No. 17, The Hunt, Mahler’s Piano Quartet in A Minor and Dvořák’s sunlit Piano Quintet in A Major.
Festival artistic director Lowe persuaded Angela Hewitt to come to York at a dinner party in London. “Her passion, on which her international career has been built, is playing Bach’s keyboard music on the piano,” he says.
“This music would have been composed for harpsichord or clavichord. Bach himself was always a great experimenter and surely would have loved the sound world of the piano, which, apart from anything else, is much more suited to modern concert halls.
Tim Lowe: York Chamber Music Festival artistic director and cellist
“Why not do the same for Bach’s contemporary, the French composer François ‘Le Grand’ Couperin, who also composed for the harpsichord? So, Angela’s recital is based around these two great composers.”
Festival artists Marwood, Hernan, Maijala and Lowe play string quartets by Haydn, Mendelssohn and Schumann at the National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, on September 17 at 7.30pm.
Two lunchtime concerts at 1pm at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, complement the programme. On September 17, Tim Lowe and pianist John Paul Ekins perform Beethoven’s 12 Variations on a Theme from Handel’s oratorio Judas Maccabaeus, Schumann’s Fantasiestücke and Rachmaninov’s lush, romantic Cello Sonata for Cello and Piano.
Ekins returns on the Saturday to play works that connect Beethoven and Liszt: Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 27 in E Minor, followed by Liszt’s Sonetto del Petrarca and Liebesträume No. 1 in A flat, concluding with Beethoven’s Adelaide, arranged for piano by Liszt.
Lowe, once a chorister at York Minster, looks forward to this month’s festival enriching his home city’s cultural life. “The idea is that everyone, players and audiences, should have a joyous few days of deep listening to music that is both intimate and compelling. We’re going live!” he says. “Please note, we’re offering an outreach free ticket for young people aged 18 and under.”
Festival tickets for adults cost £10 to £15. To book, go to: tickets@ncem.co.uk. Full festival details can be found at ycmf.co.uk.
