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York drag diva Velma Celli’s on your telly for online fundraiser for St Leonard’s Hospice

Velma Celli: Adding more than a little sparkle to lockdown

VELMA Celli, York’ very own globe-strutting drag diva, will host a special fundraising concert for St Leonard’s Hospice live from her kitchen on Saturday night to “add a little sparkle to lockdown while helping this great cause”. 

Ian Stroughair, the alter-ego of fabulous cabaret creation Velma, returned to self-isolate in his native York directly from a tour of Australia, since when he has joined a host of fellow West End performers to create a season of online streamed concerts from their own homes. 

In the wake of Velma’s successful Leave A Light On concert, when viewers tuned in from York, London and even as far afield as New York, Ian decided to organise an intimate gig in support of St Leonard’s Hospice, in Tadcaster Road, York.

“Unfortunately, too many of us have seen the amazing work of the team at St Leonard’s Hospice first hand, as loved ones, including my mum, spent time there as cancer was making life increasingly difficult for them,” says Ian, who presents The Velma Celli Show at The Basement, City Screen, York, each month.

“I’ve always wanted to find a way to support the hospice, and this seems like the perfect opportunity. With so many conventional fundraising events postponed due to the lockdown, this is a great way for people to support the hospice while enjoying a fantastic, fun and fruity evening of live music in their own living room.” 

Ian’s glittering cabaret queen has starred in such self-originated shows as A Brief History Of Drag, Equinox – Something Fabulous This Way Comes and Me And My Divas, as well as The Velma Celli Show.

Diva Velma’s repertoire takes inspiration from many of the best female vocalists of the past 75 years, from Judy Garland to Lady Gaga and beyond. “So there’s something for everyone – including hilarious impersonations of the voices and peculiar mannerisms – of some of pop music’s most famous stars,” Ian says.  “Unlike many drag queens, Velma always performs live, adding her own special spin to familiar songs.”

Tickets for Saturday’s event are available from https://www.ticketweb.uk/event/velma-celli-is-live-in-secret-york-venue-tickets/10574895, priced at £7.  “With all proceeds going to St Leonard’s Hospice, we’re hoping that each person watching will buy a ticket, rather than one ticket for the whole room!” requests Ian.

Online audience members will receive a link to watch the performance 30 minutes before the 8pm show, which can be streamed on a PC or internet-enabled smart TV.

Velma Celli: From her kitchen to your living room on Saturday night

Charles Hutchinson asks Ian Stroughair/Velma Celli for quick answers to quick questions in the build-up to Saturday’s gig.

Where are you playing this online show? In York or are you back in London now?

“Darling, I’m in Bishy Bishopthorpe. I came up a week before lockdown.”

Why did you choose a kitchen as the performance space for Saturday’s stream?

“It’s the biggest room and better acoustically.” 

Describe your kitchen. Colour scheme? Favourite kitchen gadget?

“We are white and grey in our kitchen. Gadget? Bottle opener (obvs!).”

What do you most like about kitchens?

“I love kitchens ’cos I’m a mean cook. Not a bitchy one, just very good! I actually wanted to be a chef, that was the plan. I love to bake.”

What’s your favourite dish you make? 

“At the moment, my favourite thing is a custard cake. It’s my great friends Eliza and Suzie’s grandma Dot’s recipe and it’s heavenly.”

Any tips for cooking in lockdown?

“Get creative with what’s in and try not to over-shop.”

How have you been coping with lockdown in York? What are you doing to fill your days?

“I’m coping well. I have my moments because I travel so much with work. I’m cycling a lot and writing.”

Are you good in total isolation? 

“NO.”

What are you missing most in lockdown?

“Being with my friends and family.”

What had you been doing this year before lockdown struck?  

“I toured Australia with my latest show, which was amazing. I also went on the Atlantis Gay cruise around New Zealand and just lots of fabulous gigs in the U.K.”

What was in your 2020 diary that you now can’t do?

“So many gigs – and I was supposed to open and star in Funny Girls in Blackpool for a few months.” 

Why are you doing this concert for St Leonard’s Hospice?

“St Leonard’s Hospice cared for my Mum in her last days. It’s a fantastic facility in York that – since Mum’s passing – I try to support as much as I can because they are utterly fabulous.

“The staff are like living angels. I am in awe of them.”

How did the Leave A Light On show go?  When was it broadcast?

“I did it as a solo show on April 2 and it was so much fun. Special shout-out to Eliza and Jamie at Lambert Jackson Productions for their involvement. They’re awesome.”

What songs will you be performing this weekend and why?

“Ooooo, don’t want to spoil the surprise! There’ll be some Queen, Gaga, Judy [Garland] and many more.”

Will there be any special new additions on an isolation theme?

“Yes! A Nirvana classic but re-written lyrically.”

Which one? Maybe that new President Trump Covid-19 favourite Smells Like White Spirit?

“That’s it. Bang on the sentiment.”  

What length will the show be? Any guests?

“One hour. I’ll have the insanely talented Twinnie joining me, though safely apart. She’s up in York at her Mum’s for lockdown. Her album Hollywood Gypsy just came out and it’s amazing!

York country singer Twinnie: Velma Celli’s special guest on Saturday

“She hasn’t decided on what else she’ll performing yet, but most likely we’ll do an album track together too.”

I know just the song! May I suggest her candid yet candied single Better When I’m Drunk?

“Perfect. That’s the one. Whoop!”

Finally, how will you celebrate when you can perform on a stage again, in front of an audience?

“By being ready and raising my game.”

To listen to York country singer Twinnie’s debut album, Hollywood Gypsy, last week’s BBC Radio 2 album of the week, go to: https://twinnie.lnk.to/hollywoodgypsyWE

Copyright of The Press, York

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NCEM goes online in May with inspirational archival recordings and fancy footwork

Palisander: Watch out for spiders in all that foliage

THE National Centre for Early Music, York, will continue to reach out from behind closed doors to provide inspirational music online with a series of concerts throughout May.

Confirmed for next month are Palisander, Beware The Spider!, on Saturday (May 2); Rumorum, Medieval Music for voices and instruments, May 16, and European Union Baroque Orchestra, Handel & Bach, May 30, all starting at 1pm.

To view these concerts for free, follow https://www.facebook.com/yorkearlymusic/ or log on to the NCEM website, ncem.co.uk, where you also can find details of the Cuppa And A Chorus community singing sessions, now on Zoom, plus other NCEM news and more concert footage.

Palisander’s fancy footwork

In Beware The Spider!, first performed at the NCEM in March 2019, the young recorder quartet explore the Tarantella, the effects of a venomous spider bite, and the curious world of folk medicine. 

Fast moving and fun, with some fancy footwork to boot, the Palisander programme combined music by Vivaldi and many others with an entertaining narrative.

Like Palisander, Rumorum first played Medieval Music for voices and instruments at the NCEM in March 2019. These 12th to 15th century music specialists turn back the clock to the time of Medieval Europe when musicians travelled across the continent, gathering stories, sharing knowledge of love, pain and exile.

Rumorum: Rebec,, harp, flute and voice ensemble

This youthful ensemble formed while studying medieval performance at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland and took York classical audiences by storm when winning the York Early Music Festival Friends’ Prize in the 2017 festival competition.  “If you can’t quite visualise a rebec, harp, flute and voice ensemble, this is your chance,” says NCEM director Delma Tomlin.

European Union Baroque Orchestra’s concert recording dates from March 2017, led by director and harpsichordist Lars Ulrik Mortensen, who was joined that day by soloists Maria Keohane, soprano, Bojan Cicic, concertmaster,and Neven Lesage, oboe.

The concert was performed to celebrate Early Music Day 2017 on the birthday of JS Bach. “Entitled Betrayal And Betrothal, it features music by Bach and Handel and provides an exciting opportunity to hear this outstanding group again, presenting one of their last ever performances on stage,” says Delma.

“Keeping in touch with our audiences is so important to us in these difficult times,” says NCEM director Delma Tomlin

As “an added bonus”, harpsichordist extraordinaire Steven Devine will “help you beat the blues” with Bach Bites – bite size chunks to inspire and uplift – every Wednesday evening at 6pm.

Delma says: “Keeping in touch with our audiences is so important to us in these difficult times and we’re delighted to be able to bring you this eclectic selection of archival recordings from concerts recorded over the past couple of years.

“We’re also continuing our Cuppa And A Chorus event, where people can meet regularly to sing in a relaxed environment. We’re now meeting virtually on Zoom, so even though we can’t be together, we can all try and stay in touch.” 

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Prima Vocal Ensemble transform into Prima Virtual Ensemble by making room for Zoom

Prima Vocal Ensemble transform into Prima Virtual Ensemble for an online rehearsal on Zoom

ZOOM. Boom! What a boon this now ubiquitous electronic embrace is for singers, artists, musicians, whatever.

Musical director Ewa Salecka and her Prima Vocal Ensemble are a case in point. In a year when the York choir’s tenth anniversary celebrations “haven’t quite turned out as we expected”, nevertheless as many as 90 singers are still rehearsing weekly, gathering remotely, virtually, every Tuesday night to “sing and socialise”.

Tonight will be the latest such opportunity to make room at home for a Zoom session, led as ever by the exuberant Polish-born Ewa, who settled in York in 2009. “I’ve been using Zoom for five years now,” she says. “I started by doing vocal teaching that, whichever technique, was possible through this form of media, and I now do one-to-one sessions on Skype and Zoom.”

Ewa, by the way, had been spending the day teaching university students online before doing this interview. Turning her thoughts to her mixed voice choir Prima Vocal Ensemble, she is delighted with how the members have taken to the Zoom sessions.

“I remember hearing the Government’s announcement shutting down non-essential activities and thinking ‘what can we do now?’, but we didn’t waste even a week,” she says.

“The day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered the Coronavirus lockdown, with everybody largely confined to their homes, I launched the Prima Virtual Ensemble.”

She wrote to choir members to say: “We all need human contact to maintain our mental health, and so this is the time to embrace the technical world”.

“I just hoped they would embrace this technology that so many people had never heard of – and they have!” says Ewa.

Prima Vocal Ensemble musical director Ewa Salecka

“It’s not straightforward to set up Zoom for 90 people – whereas with one-to-one sessions it’s easy – and so I was a bit cautious with a large group where everyone’s internet plays to different rules.

“On the Friday, I had my first test session, then on the Saturday we did a rehearsal ‘as normal’, but remotely, sorting out the technical options for everyone, with help available for the less technically minded. Since then, we’ve reverted to Tuesday rehearsals from 7pm to 8.30pm, and the response has been really positive.”

Through their first decade, Prima Vocal Ensemble have sung at Carnegie Hall, New York, and the Royal Albert Hall, London, atop Alpine mountains and in European cathedrals and “underground” churches.

They have performed world premieres and collaborations with choirs from Europe and the United States; taken part in competitions, concerts and festivals in the UK, USA, Italy, Poland, Spain and Hungary, and sung with tenors Russell Watson and Aled Jones and The X-Factor’s 2013 winner and musical actress Sam Bailey.

As part of the tenth anniversary celebrations, Ewa had organised a June concert at the Riley-Smith Hall, Tadcaster, and a trip to Berlin later that month, both now scuppered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Instead, Ewa has put together a special repertoire for the Zoom rehearsals, comprising old favourites, new material suitable for on-line sessions and topical works, such as Lean On Me to mark the March 30 death of American composer Bill Withers.

“Choir members were thrilled,” says Prima Vocal Ensemble’s Christine Kyriacou. “Many said that in these difficult times it was extraordinarily comforting to see one another on screen and be able to chat and rehearse together from home.

“One member wrote to Ewa to say: ‘So good to see everyone last night. It is massively morale-boosting for people like me who live alone, and I think what you are doing at the moment is not only amazing but absolutely vital. When this is all over, we will look back on the efforts people like you have made to keep connected and treasure the moments.

Prima Vocal Ensemble performing in competition in Manchester earlier this year , with the judges’ feedback

“I’m saving all the photos you are taking of Prima Virtual Ensemble, hoping I can say, ‘Do you remember when none of us could meet up for rehearsals, yet we kept on singing!”

Ewa shares that enthusiasm. “I miss seeing everyone; we’ve built some really strong connections and we do miss making music together under one roof, but the feedback has been fantastic, and now I’m thinking of gathering the comments I’ve received and putting them into a piece of music,” she says.

The June concert programme will form the basis of a tenth anniversary celebration provisionally re-arranged for the Riley-Smith Hall on October 3. “We’re definitely going to produce something new for that concert from the Zoom rehearsals,” promises Ewa.

“Over recent years, people have played with this technology, producing virtual sessions, but it’s a massive thing to do, putting videos together, but I’m now thinking about how to put the resources together for the concert, though it’ll be more about celebrating still being together.”

Later this year, Ewa still hopes that Prima Vocal Ensemble will be able to support Russell Watson on tour, and two concerts with orchestra and soloists are in the pipeline too.

In the meantime, she reflects proudly on how Prima Vocal Ensemble have been transformed into Prima Virtual Ensemble. “Prima still meet online to support each other. We keep singing, keep rehearsing and we’ve even created our Prima support group for those who may need it as time progresses,” she says.

“At the end of the day, I’m sending a message of hope and creativity. We’re like-minded York residents sticking together, helping each other and not letting the lockdown beat our cultural spirit.”

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Ford and Dickenson’s collaborative gig at The Crescent rearranged for September

David Ford and Jarod Dickenson: “Not ‘I’ll headline, you support’, not a co-headliner , but a collaboration”

DAVID Ford and Jarod Dickenson should have been playing their double bill of exquisite songwriter fare and soulful Americana tonight at The Crescent, York.

Instead, the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown has enforced a switch to September 17, pending any further Government social-distancing strictures, with tickets valid for the revised date.

Ford, from Eastbourne, has known Dickenson, from Waco, Texas, for “years and years”. “The first tour we did together, I invited him to be my tour buddy for my album Charge [released in March 2013] and he’s been coming over ever since,” says David.

“I’ve been wanting to do this joint tour for ages, where it’s not ‘I’ll headline, you’ll support’, or even co-headlining, but instead it’ll be a collaboration, taking our catalogues of songs and combining our talents, and seeing if we can make an interesting show out of that.”

Until Covid-19 intervened, Ford and Dickenson’s plans were to make a long list of songs on either side of The Pond, then meet up a few days before their spring tour to knock the show into shape.

That still will be the case, whenever the shows are confirmed for take-off. “I’ve got an idea of what songs of mine will fit with Jarod, and I’m a big fanatic of his songs, sometimes jumping on stage to join his band, so we’ll be thinking about what songs will work best,” says David.

They will just have a longer time to think about those choices now.

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York Musical Theatre Company may be off stage, but tomorrow night they go digital

YORK Musical Theatre Company will present a digital concert, Off-Stage But Online!, tomorrow night on YouTube.

The 7.30pm show will feature 20 home-made videos from company members performing songs from the world of musical theatre, including Miss Saigon, Les Miserables, Guys And Dolls, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cabaret and more besides.

Company member and publicist Anna Mitchelson says: “People suggested what they’d like to sing and director Paul Laidlaw put the concert programme together.”

The digital concert will open with a lovely instrumental on the piano by musical director John Atkin: Music In The Night from The Phantom Of The Opera.

To follow will be: Amy Lacy singing Over The Rainbow (The Wizard Of Oz); Dave Martin, If I Can’t Love Her (Beauty And The Beast); Jessa Liversidge, Take Me To The World, and Matthew Clare, Out There (The Hunchback Of Notre Dame).

Jessa Liversidge: Two contributions to Off-Stage But Online!

Rachel Higgs will perform Someone To Watch Over Me from George Gershwin’s Oh, Kay!; Jessa and Mick Liversidge, Anything You Can Do (Annie Get Your Gun); Eleanor Leaper, Maybe This Time (Cabaret); Matthew Ainsworth, This Is Not Over Yet (Parade) and Holly Inch, The Spark Of Creation (Eden).

Chris Gibson’s choice is Poisoning Pigeons In The Park; Heather Richmond, I’d Give My Life For You (Miss Saigon); Mick Liversidge, Luck Be A Lady (Guys And Dolls); Marlena Kelli, I Don’t Know How To Love Him (Jesus Christ Superstar) and Chris Mooney, Hold Me In Your Heart (Kinky Boots).

Next will be Charlotte Wetherell’s rendition of What I Did For Love (A Chorus Line); John Haigh’s Who Should I Wake Up? (Cabaret); Chris Gibson and Marlena Kelli’s You’re Just In Love (Call Me Madam); Flo Taylor’s I Dreamed A Dream (Les Miserables) and Peter Wookie’s Stars (Les Miserables).

To watch online, type in the link: youtube.com/channel/UCiTrGyeP93_to9uYOsvoS4w?view_as=subscriber.

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Be Alarmed! Mike Peters’ New Wave musical Oxy to be streamed on Facebook

Oxy & The Morons: re-formed but not reformed in the punk-spirited New Wave musical Oxy. Pictures by: Mike Kwasniak

NEVER mind the lockdown, here comes Oxy, a night of Alarming virtual theatre on Saturday night, presented live on Facebook by musician Mike and Jules Peters.

This “life-saving New Wave musical”, co-written by The Alarm frontman, Steve Allan Jones and Paul Sirett, will be streamed from 7pm as part of the weekly Big Night In With The Alarm broadcast at facebook.com/theofficialalarm.

“Turn your home into a theatre for the night,” comes the invitation. “Get dressed up, prepare the pre-show dinner and chill the drinks for the interval. Play the music loud and pogo along from the best seats in the house – your front room – and help save lives.”

Molly-Grace Cutler as Sheena in Oxy

The Big Night In broadcast also will feature live interviews with cast members, writers and production staff and the chance to join in the live commentary and interact with theatre and music fans from all over the world.

In Oxy, when a routine check-up leads to a startling diagnosis, Andy decides this is the time to put the band back together, to crank up the amps and party like it’s 1978!

Why not re-form the legendary Oxy & The Morons, who burned fiercely before exploding in a riot of rivalry, jealousy and bitter betrayal?

The publicity poster for Saturday’s Facebook streaming of Oxy

Andy’s mission involves twisting arms, healing wounds and putting his family and friendships back together, but can that New Wave spirit of DIY defiance be rekindled more thirty years later? Will they play their trademark version of It’s Not Unusual as an encore?  Can you still pogo when your knees go?

Driven by a machine-gun playlist of a dozen new Peters and Jones songs and a powerful message, Oxy’s affectionate look-back at the days of teen spirit suggests “we could all do with some of that garage band power right now”.

The life-affirming theme of Peters, Jones and Sirett’s fast, furious and funny musical helped to save someone’s life during its first production run at the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich.

Robbie Jarvis (Andy) and Mark Newnham (Oxy) in Oxy

Now, Peters and co hope the online premiere during the Coronavirus lockdown “might just save even more lives”. Through Mike and Jules Peters’ association with the cancer charities Love Hope Strength and DKMS, an online bone-marrow donor drive will be taking place throughout the evening.

Recorded on film by All Media Works, Saturday’s online premiere features a cast of Robbie Jarvis, Janet Fullerlove, Sean Kingsley, David Rubin, Mark Newnham, Matthew Durkan, Molly Grace Cutler, Adam Langstaff and John Hasler, directed by Peter Rowe.

The Big Night In With The Alarm has been broadcasting throughout the lockdown, attracting 100,000 viewers each week.

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Nothing happening in these Lockdown limbo days. Everything off. Here are 10 Things To Do on the home front, courtesy of The Press, York. LIST No. 4

Nothing happening full stop. Now, with time on your frequently washed hands, home is where the art is and plenty else besides

EXIT 10 Things To See Next Week in York and beyond for the unforeseeable future in our now extended Lockdown hibernation. Enter home entertainment, wherever you may be, whether together or in self-isolation, in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic. From behind his closed door, CHARLES HUTCHINSON makes these suggestions.

Celebrating Shakespeare’s 456th birthday: Tamsin Greig as loyal servant Malvolia in the National Theatre’s Twelfth Night, screening on YouTube from tonight

Shakespeare’s birthday

WILLIAM Shakespeare’s 456th birthday falls today. The Bard, by the way, was no stranger to writing under debilitating duress, working in London amid the bubonic plagues of 1592 and 1603, when more than 30,000 Londoners died, and a third plague in 1606.

That year alone, Bill quilled three of his mightiest works, King Lear, Macbeth and Antony & Cleopatra. Tonight is a chance to celebrate on a lighter note, watching the National Theatre in the NT At Home YouTube streaming of Twelfth Night, starring Tamsin Greig as loyal servant Malvolia, at 7pm for free. Twelfth Night will be available for seven nights and days on demand.

No Morris dancing in York on St George’s Day under lockdown rules

St George’s Day

TODAY is not only the Bard’s birthday but also St George’s Day, in principle another cause for English celebration, given the dragon-slaying, princess-saving Roman soldier’s status as this nation’s patron saint. However, if outbreaks of Morris Dancing and Punch & Judy shows are the best we can throw at it in usual circumstances, maybe Lockdown is a chance for some home schooling instead.

Today’s task: Find out in more detail who St George was; why he is England’s patron saint and why the English flag is a red cross on white. Oh, and come up with your own way of celebrating at home; surely it must be better than dancing with bells on.

York Shut Studios…but artists embrace the virtual to compensate for Coronavirus-enforced cancellation

York Open Studios going virtual

THIS should have been weekend number two for York Open Studios, the chance to see work by 144 artists and craft makers in 100 locations in and around York, whether in their homes or studios.

Instead, as with last weekend, it will be York Shut Studios but that does not mean York’s artists have put their brushes into lockdown. Creativity demands improvisation, and so you can head to yorkopenstudios.co.uk for the “Virtual Open Studio”, where you can still bring their home work into your home.

Stream team: Compere Tim FitzHigham, left, and comedian Mark Watson in their living rooms for the first Your Place Comedy online show

Your Place Comedy, streamed from their living room to yours

AT the initiation of Selby Town Hall arts centre manager Chris Jones, here comes Your Place Comedy, a Sunday night when comedians stream a live show via YouTube and Facebook from their living room into yours. There is no charge, but you can make donations to be split between the ten small, independent northern venues that have come together for this Lockdown scheme.

The first one, featuring Hull humorist Lucy Beaumont and a pyjama-clad Mark Watson, drew 3,500 viewers last Sunday. Chris is planning the second 8pm online gig for May 3 at yourplacecomedy.co.uk; acts to be confirmed.

Puppet Theatre: the third Lockdown Legends Challenge set by York  Theatre Royal

Lockdown Legends Challenge, set by York Theatre Royal

EACH Monday morning, York Theatre Royal will post a theatrical #LockdownLegendsChallenge on its Twitter and Facebook pages for the whole family to take part in, just for fun. Even the participation of pets is “actively encouraged”.

After One-Minute Plays in week one and Costume Creation in week two, this week’s challenge is Puppet Theatre, or pup-pet theatre if your pooch partakes. “Re-create a scene from Shakespeare with household objects,” comes the invitation. “Then send your responses to lockdownlegends@yorktheatreroyal.co.uk and we’ll share these on our social media pages throughout the week.”

It’s time for Bingo in the street

Vintage game of the week: Bingo…in your street

BINGO is all about houses, and Lockdown Limbo is the chance to shout “House” in a game conducted with neighbours in our sunny springtime streets at Bruce Forsyth’s favourite social distance: “Nice two metres, two metres nice”.

What is bingo, should you never have ventured to Mecca Bingo or Clifton Bingo Club? Bingo is “a game in which players mark off numbers on cards as the numbers are drawn randomly by a caller, the winner being the first person to mark off all their numbers and exclaim ‘House’.” Repeat. Bingo.

The Boomtown Rats: Re-arranged York Barbican gig

Still keep trying to find good news

DEER Shed Festival, off. Courtney Marie Andrews at Pocklington Arts Centre in June, off. The Boomtown Rats at York Barbican, off. Jack Dee, Off The Telly, Barbican too, off. The list of cancellations grows like the spring grass, but do keep visiting websites for updates.

Deer Shed, at Baldersby Park, Thirsk? Definitely returning in summer 2021. Boomtown Rats? October 26. Jack Dee, October 1. No news on Courtney, yet, alas.

Venturing outdoors…

…FOR your daily exercise, be that a run, a cycle ride or a stroll near home, in a changing environment. Amid these disconnected, alien, strange days, your senses heightened, there is the chance to appreciate the previously unexperienced: the bird song in excelsis, a chorus no longer impeded by traffic; the bluer, bigger skies; the fresher air, the pollution levels so noticeably dropping.

York actor Mick Liversidge has taken to reciting Shakespeare’s sonnets in the fields, exercising mind and body alike. Why not Shake up your routine too?

York’s city walls lit up in blue for the NHS

Clap for Carers

STAND by your doors at 8pm every Thursday, no excuses. Theatre-goers, concert-goers, save your hand-clapping for our NHS doctors, hospital staff, carers, volunteers and key workers. How moving, too, to see familiar buildings and landmarks bathed in blue light: a tribute growing and glowing by the week.

Play at home: York country singer Twinnie’s new album, Hollywood Gypsy, released on April 17

And what about…

NEW albums by Laura Marling, Ron Sexsmith, Cornershop and York country singer Twinnie. Interior design books. Cerys Matthews and Guy Garvey on Sundays on BBC 6Music. The return of BBC One’s Killing Eve on Sunday nights and iPlayer. A themed new recipe of the week, whatever reason and seasoning grabs you.

Catching Rick Witter’s improvised home version of Shed Seven’s Chasing Rainbows on social media:. “I’m just staying home all the time”. Well, you are, aren’t you.

Copyright of The Press, York

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NCEM presents vocal group Voces Suaves in Facebook streaming premiere today

Voces Suaves: Madrigals At Your Service streaming today (April 18)

THE National Centre for Early Music series of Facebook streaming premieres presents vocal ensemble Voces Suaves this afternoon at 1pm.

Over the coming weeks, the York music venue, at Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, will be streaming a line-up of past performances from the NCEM archives.  

In today’s Facebook concert, Voces Suaves perform Madrigals At Your Service, focusing on the musical treasures of the Italian Renaissance and re-creating the magnificence of the courts of Ferrara and Mantua, with music by Monteverdi, Gesualdo and Wert.  

NCEM director Delma Tomlin says: “This group of nine professional singers are graduates of the Creative Europe EEEmerging programme and have performed at major European concert venues and festivals, taking audiences and critics by storm. 

Palisander: Online concert coming next on May 2

“This performance, recorded at St Lawrence’s Church in York, was a highlight of the 2018 York Early Music Festival and it forms the third in a series of NCEM Online concerts designed to welcome audiences from across the world into the extraordinarily rich world of early music.”

Future streaming concerts include a 2019 performance by the recorder ensemble Palisander on Saturday, May 2, at 1pm. “The group have been part of the EEEmerging programme too and their debut album, Beware The Spider!, released in 2017, received outstanding reviews from the critics,” says Delma.

Palisander’s concert was recorded in the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, at the 2019 REMA Conference. 

To join the merry streaming throng, simply click on to the NCEM’s Facebook page @yorkearlymusic. Alternatively, log on to the NCEM’s website, ncem.co.uk, and click on the news section. 

Future concerts and streaming dates will be announced at ncem.co.uk.

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Yorkston Thorne Khan re-arrange Selby Town Hall concert for November 24

Suhail Yusuf Khan , left, JonThorne and James Yorkston: new album, new tour date in Selby

YORKSTON Thorne Khan, the first gig at Selby Town Hall to fall foul of the Covid-19 shutdown last month, has been re-arranged for November 24.

Tickets for the postponed March 20 show remain valid for the new date, with further tickets still on sale at selbytownhall.co.uk.

Yorkston Thorne Khan are Scottish songwriter James Yorkston (guitar, nyckelharpa, voice); Bishop’s Storford  jazz musician Jon Thorne (double bass, voice) and Delhi-born eighth generation sarangi player and vocalist Suhail Yusuf Khan.

The trio will be touring in support of their third album, Navarasa: Nine Emotions, a January 24 release on Domino Recordings that followed 2016 debut Everything Sacred and 2017’s Neuk Wight Delhi All-Stars after they first met by chance backstage in 2015 and played together ever since.

On the latest recording, they tackle Robert Burns and Sufi poetry, via Dick Gaughan and Amir Khusrow Dehlavi, traditional Scottish songs, ragas and their own spidery compositions.

At the heart of Yorkston Thorne Khan’s transporting new album is the subcontinent’s navarasa: the nine (nava) emotions or sentiments (rasa) of the arts. This “unifying underpinning” is a centuries-old organising principle, wherein the individual artistic emotions range from Shringara (love, beauty), through Hasya (laughter, mirth, comedy), Raudra (anger), Karuna (sorrow, compassion or mercy), Bibhatsya (disgust), Bhayanaka (horror, terror), Veera (heroism, courage), Adbutha (surprise, wonder), to Shanta (peace, tranquillity).

The artwork for Yorkston Thorne Khan’s Navarasa: Nine Emotions

Each song is connected to one of these emotions; for example Westlin Winds is paired with Adbutha, opening with the life-destroying Act I of Robert Burns’s poem Now Westlin Winds (And Slaught’ring Guns).

Then it deliciously transplants its disjoined, nature-extolling and life-affirming Act II on to Indian soil with a composition in Purbi, a dialect of old Hindi. “I learnt the song by listening to various qawwali [Muslim devotional song] singers singing at Hazrat Nizammuddin’s dargah [shrine] in Delhi,” says Khan. “Its source is Hazrat Amir Khusrau.”

In this way, Yorkston Thorne Khan unite one of the key spiritual visionaries and architects of Hindustani art music, the poet-philosopher Hazrat Amir Khusrau, with the key literary visionary of Scottish culture, Robert Burns. 

This bricolage of diverse cross-cultural elements is apparent across Navarasa: Nine Emotions.  Yorkston weaves in Scottish folk, sangster and literary strands; Thorne is grounded in jazz and groove. Then add New Delhi-based Khan’s feast of northern Indian classical, light classical and Sufi devotional musical and literary influences. “What binds these diverse musical strands together is a dark happiness,” says Yorkston.

Looking forward to the re-arranged show in the autumn, Selby Town Hall manager Chris Jones says: “Sadly James, Jon and Suhail’s show was the first in our calendar to fall victim to the lockdown. They are such a phenomenally talented trio, and the feedback I had heard from the early gigs on their tour was amazing, so it was desperately disappointing not to be able to give the Selby audience that experience.

“Thankfully though, we’ve been able to reschedule the show for November 24, and this is definitely one that’s worth waiting for.”

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York Music Hub shares online platforms to keep young talent on song in lockdown

In sunnier times: York Music Hub musicians playing outside the Spurriergate Centre, York

YORK Music Hub is responding to the Covid-19 lockdown by launching an online sharing site, #YMHShare.

The idea is to build an online forum featuring music making and creativity by the young people of York, celebrating the fantastic talent within the city. 

The site has been put together by Squeegee Design, the York web design company based at Lancaster House, James Nicolson Link, and is monitored and updated regularly with content sent in from families, individuals and groups.

“The #YMHShare initiative is for anyone who had a concert cancelled, a festival pulled, an exam postponed or indeed anyone who’s using this time to work on being musical,” says Molly Newton, York Music Hub’s strategic manager.

“So much hard work has gone into school productions, concerts and all kinds of events, and #YMHShare offers a virtual alternative. We’ve been overwhelmed by the response so far, as many of York’s young musicians have uploaded digital performances and video-link collaborations, and groups have taken this opportunity to showcase previous triumphs in absence of planned concerts.” 

York Music Hub had two major events cancelled as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic: the Schools Choral Festival in March and the upcoming city-wide showcase Hubfest2020, now in its second year.

Molly Newton: York Music Hub strategic manager

“The Schools Choral Festival usually takes place at the University of York in March,” says assistant strategic manager Craig Brown. “This year would have seen nine primary and five secondary schools perform.

“Hubfest2020 would have built on the success of the inaugural festival last year, featuring 15 primary and eight secondary schools. The festival is a showcase of all youth music within the city; last year’s festival attracted more than 1,000 young people to make music as part of the event.”

The hub’s response to 2020’s cancellations has been to curate the hard work in a virtual space, as young people, families, groups of friends and bespoke online collaborators come together for this initiative, drawing on the many providers and musicians in a “central area of celebration”. Cue #YMHShare, a sharing platform for a “whole host of music making from any and all young people in and around York”, aged five to 21.

“From next Monday (April 20), when school term would be restarting, we’re launching YMH Online Learning,” says Molly. “This will be a dedicated section of #YMHShare where downloadable resources, YouTube live and Zoom music-making sessions will be posted for anyone to get involved with.”

These sessions will kick off with the York Music Hub Zoom Choir, led by York singer and entertainer Jessa Liversidge, the ubiquitous driving force behind so much online singing activity in York and beyond at present, on Mondays at 2.15pm.

Open to any singer aged eight to 18 -18 from York and the surrounding area, the Zoom Choir offers the chance to connect with other singers, take part in fun vocal warm-ups to develop your vocal technique and learn songs in a range of styles: a “fantastic way to wind down and interact with others in these strange times”.

” I’m raring to go with the young singers of York,” says online-singing driving force Jessa Liversidge

“I’m hoping to attract young people who are missing the inspiring feeling of connecting with others through song,” says Jessa. “I can’t wait to see who signs up for a Monday afternoon, after a day of doing work at home (or at school); those who would enjoy seeing and hearing other melodious youngsters on screen. All young singers are welcome, whatever their previous singing experience.”

Jessa adds: “How the York Music Hub Zoom Choir evolves and what we can achieve depends very much on who gets involved, and how long the lockdown continues.

“I have all sorts of fantastic songs planned to work on with the group, as well as some lag-resistant experiments, and I’m really looking forward to getting going. After a short, self-taught crash course in Zoom choirs these past few weeks with my adult groups, I’m raring to go with the young singers of York.”

Singing For All @TheHub will take place on Fridays at 11am. All are invited to tune in to these lively singing sessions suitable for all ages, again led by Jessa Liversidge. “We want to get everyone involved and lift your spirits with songs and singing games, from well-known school assembly songs, partner songs and rounds to classic pop tunes and even some new songs to learn,” says Molly. “Tune in every Friday at 11am, live on the York Music Hub YouTube channel.”

Ukulele Stars tuition will be open to all ages on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11am, with these fun and interactive YouTube sessions being led by Steven Hawksworth, of Hawkulele fame. No previous ukulele experience is necessary.

Curriculum-based GCSE/A-level Zoom music composition sessions for Key Stages 4 and 5 will run throughout the summer term, led on Wednesdays from April 22 at 11am by York Arts Barge Project co-founder, workshop leader, teacher and bass player Christian Topman.

York Music Hub GCSE/A-level Zoom music composition session tutor Christian Topman

These tutorials will be delivered via Zoom but also will be available every week to catch up on via York Music Hub’s YouTube channel. They are aimed at students in Year 9 to 13 who will need to access the Zoom app to join in with the live sessions. They can contact Christian directly at christian@yorkartseducation.org.uk with any composition ideas 

Those needing more information regarding the sharing site or any of the online sessions should contact info@yorkmusichub.org.uk.

Summing up the importance of music-making at this time, Molly says: “It seems to me that music is our salvation. It’s what we turn to in times of celebration and sadness; it keeps us calm or builds us up, it helps us relax, escape, endure, survive.

“It’s the medium through which we express and share our feelings. As everything stops, the thing that keeps going – and keeps us all going – is music.

“The internet is now flooded with “virtual” responses to current events: isolation compositions; play-off challenges; streamed concerts and Broadway shows; balcony performances and quarantine choirs.”

“It’s our fundamental method of communicating,” says Molly Newton of her love for musical interplay

Molly’s passion for music oozes from her whenever she leads a project or performance. “I was lucky enough to have hugely supportive parents and inspiring music teachers in my youth and grew up believing that anyone can achieve musically, regardless of their perceived ability or intellect,” she says.

“It’s our fundamental method of communicating and I’ve been lucky enough over the years to see hundreds of young people flourish and grow through music-making opportunities.”

Why is music such a good educative tool, Molly? “I’m going to draw from Plato, who said: ‘I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning’.

“However, regardless of how much music can support the learning of other subjects, music is important in its own right in that it’s a fundamental aspect of all societies.

“Music is a truly collaborative subject, a universal language, and learning it enables a global communication with others that transcends borders and cultures. It’s a subject that teaches creative thinking, discipline, confidence, resilience, patience, perseverance, diligence, achievement and joy, to name but a few!”

“As everything stops, the thing that keeps going – and keeps us all going – is music,” says Molly Newton, as she builds up the York Music Hub online sharing forum

In these strange, alien, disconnected days, Craig has noted our power still to be creative and musically resilient. “The #YMHShare site has really embodied a public celebration of the arts,” he says. “Within this feed, we see so much of the appreciation, value and celebrations of music.

“We speak to many of the city’s instrumental teachers, who are continuing to give private lessons through video links, and it is clear that pupils and parents really value the role that music is playing, offering an escape, opportunity of relaxation, or providing a welcome challenge.”

Looking ahead to when musicians can meet up again, how may York Music Hub celebrate? “We’re already planning a ‘Post-Lockdown’ celebration and are hoping that we will be able to bring as many schools, providers and young people together in a truly collaborative and inclusive way,” says Molly.

“Given the uncertainty and challenge we’re all facing, we’re hoping that when this is all over, we will be able to bring people together through music and remind ourselves how joyful it feels to play and sing together.”

Roll on that day. In the meantime, make a home for music at home.