Tag: York Late Music

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More Things To Do in York and beyond as March heralds an outburst of song. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 9 from The York Press

Something to be Smug about: Smug Roberts tops Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club bill today

A CHORUS of song, a clash of operas and an eye for comedy fill Charles Hutchinson’s in-box of entertainment for the week ahead.

Extremely rare chance to see Channel 4 legend: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club presents Smug Roberts, Russell Arathoon, Oliver Bowler and MC Tony Vino, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, today, doors 3.30pm for 4pm start

BACK in the day, today’s headline act, Manchester humorist and radio presenter Smug Roberts, released the novelty anthem Meat Pie, Sausage Roll (Come on England, Gi’s A Goal) as Grandad Roberts. Three years earlier, he was discovered by Caroline Aherne when playing his first gig. He has since starred in That Peter Kay Thing, Cold Feet, Phoenix Nights, 24 Hour Party People and Buried.

“Smug is one the great unsung heroes of stand-up comedy and one of comedy’s best-kept secrets,” says promoter Damion Larkin. “His act is a joy to behold. A true superstar, he’s arguably the only non-famous genius among his North West contemporaries, and he’s not very often around in town, so make sure you grab this chance to see him.” Box office: lolcomedyclubs.co.uk.

Opera International in Madama Butterfly, on tour from Ukraine at the Grand Opera House, York

Opera dilemma of the day: Either…Senbla presents Opera International’s tour of Ukrainian Opera & Ballet Theatre Kyiv in Madama Butterfly, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm.

BACK by overwhelming public demand, Opera International director Ellen Kent directs Ukrainian Opera & Ballet Theatre Kyiv in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, the heart-breaking story of the beautiful young Japanese girl who falls in love with an American naval lieutenant.

Expect international soloists, full chorus and orchestra and exquisite sets, including a spectacular Japanese garden and fabulous costume, not least antique wedding kimonos from Japan. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

English Touring Opera in rehearsal for The Capulets And The Montagues, playing York Theatre Royal tonight. Picture: Craig Fuller

Or…English Touring Opera in What Dreams May Come, York Theatre Royal Studio, today, 2.30pm; The Capulets And The Montagues, York Theatre Royal, tonight, 7.30pm

ENGLISH Touring Opera return to York Theatre Royal with a brace of Shakespeare-inspired new productions. Mixing puppetry with works by Purcell, Finzi, Amy Beach and Britten, performed by a chamber ensemble, What Dreams May Come draws on hundreds of years of music inspired by and adapted from Shakespeare’s plays and poetry to depict the joys and sorrows of a long life well lived.

The Capulets And The Montagues, Bellini’s gritty re-working of Romeo And Juliet, brings the warring families’ emotional and political struggle to life with devastating power. Soprano Jessica Cale sings the role of Giulietta opposite mezzo-soprano Samantha Price as Romeo. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Stamford Bridge Community Choir: Performing at York Community Choir Festival on March 5. Picture: Murray Swain

Festival of the week: York Community Choir Festival, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow until March 8, 7.30pm nightly, except 6pm tomorrow, plus  2.30pm Saturday matinee

A FESTIVAL that began in 2016 with only 11 choirs now comprises eight concerts showcasing up to five choirs per night. More than 1,250 singers, including school groups and choirs from Harrogate, Selby and Malton as well as York, will perform diverse music styles from pop to classical.

Among the choirs will be Stamford Bridge Community Choir, who will use Makaton signing in their March 5 performance. Full details of all the choirs and their programmes can be found at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/all-shows/york-community-choir-festival. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Visible Women company members Caroline Greenwood, left, Linda Fletcher, Helen Wilson and Marie Louise Feeley: Two evenings of monologues for York International Women’s Week

York International Women’s Week (March 3 to 9): Lyrics Of Life by Visible Women, Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, March 4 and 5, 7.30pm to 9.15pm

VISIBLE Women, a group of “mature female performers” from York, present both well-known and lesser-known monologues over two evenings.

“We met last year in York Settlement Community Players’ production of Terence Rattigan’s Separate Tables, which had good parts for older women,” says York theatre group member Helen Wilson. “But as most playwrights are male, plays tend to be male dominated, so here we are doing our own thing!

“There are still not enough plays giving women of our age a platform. As Visible Women, we want to redress the balance. Let’s move this forward. Come along for an evening of entertainment for a good cause.”

Material by Alan Bennett, Joyce Grenfell and York playwright Sara Murphy, winner of the first Script Factor in York, will feature. Box office: email basicbafmaw@gmail.com or pay on the door. Proceeds from ticket sales (£7 each) will be donated to York Women’s Counselling (yorkwomenscounselling.org).

Rob Auton: One in the eye for comedy at The Crescent, York, on March 5

The eyes have it:  Rob Auton: The Eyes Open And Shut Show, Burning Duck Comedy Club at The Crescent, York, March 5, 7.30pm; Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, May 3, 7.30pm

“THE Eyes Open And Shut Show is a show about eyes when they are open and eyes when they are shut,” says surrealist York/Barmby Moor comedian, writer, artist, podcaster and actor Rob Auton. “With this show I wanted to explore what I could do to myself and others with language when eyes are open and shut…thinking about what makes me open my eyes and what makes me shut them.” Box office: York, thecrescentyork.com; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

Fíonna Hewitt-Twamley in Myra’s Story, a tragic tale of a middle-aged homeless alcoholic struggling to survive on the streets of Dublin, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York

Charity support of the week: Fíonna Hewitt-Twamley in Myra’s Story, Grand Opera House, York, March 4, 7.30pm

DIRECT from the West End, Irish playwright Brian Foster’s four-time Edinburgh Fringe hit, Myra’s Story, tells the turbulent, tragic tale of a middle-aged homeless alcoholic struggling to survive on the streets of Dublin as she begs from passers-by on Ha’penny Bridge.

Performed by Fíonna Hewitt-Twamley, this show will benefit Restore, the York charity that provides accommodation and support to those who would otherwise be homeless. The charity will be on hand to collect donations. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Queenz: On song in Drag Me To The Disco at the Grand Opera House, York

Drag show of the week: Queenz, Drag Me To The Disco, Grand Opera House, York, March 5, 7.30pm

JOIN the gals for “an electrifying, live vocal, drag-stravaganza, where Dancing Queenz and Disco Dreams collide for the party of a lifetime”, created and produced by David Griego. Flying their rainbow-coloured flag high in the sky, Bella Du-Ball, Dior Montay, Candy Caned, Billie Eyelash and ZeZe Van Cartier serve up sass, singalongs and a message of love, equality and acceptance.

Craig Colley, alias Billie Eyelash, says: “Drag queens really do come in all shapes and sizes, but if you want to see some hilarious, stupidly talented, beautiful and of course humble ones, Queenz really is the show for you.” Age guidance: 14 plus. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Gorka Marquez and Karen Hauer: On Speakeasy terms at York Barbican

Dance spectacular of the week: Karen Hauer and Gorka Marquez, Speakeasy, York Barbican, March 6, 7.30pm

STRICTLY Come Dancing professionals Karen Hauer and Gorka Marquez follow up Firedance with new show Speakeasy on their biggest tour so far. Expect exhilarating live music and breathtaking choreography as they unlock the door to an undercover world of elegance and iconic dance flavours. 

From the clandestine New York Speakeasy to the sultry Havana dance floors and from the burlesque cabaret clubs of the mid-1900s to the glittering mirror balls of Studio 54, this “delicious dance experience” serves up Mamba, Salsa, Charleston, Foxtrot and Samba moves.  Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. Also taking to the Yorkshire dance floor at Hull City Hall, March 5; Sheffield City Hall, March 9, and Bradford St George’s Hall, March 15.

In Focus: York Late Music presents Trifarious: Roger Marsh At 75, today, 1pm; Elysian Singers, Arvo Pärt At 90, today, 7.30pm, both at Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York

Trifarious: Marking Roger Marsh At 75 with this afternoon’s concert

YORK Late Music celebrates the music of Roger Marsh, a major contributor to the music and academic life during his time as Professor of Music at the University of York (1989 – 2019).

The programme includes works by Luciano Berio and Toru Takemitsu, who both have had a strong influence on his music, alongside pieces by two of his former students, Tom Armstrong and David Power.

Roger is coming over from France to hear this Roger Marsh At 75 concert.

Programme: Roger Marsh: Ferry Music; Tom Armstrong: The Chief Inspector Of Holes; David Power: Six De Chirico Miniatures – first performance; Toru Takemitsu: A Bird Came Down The Walk; Luciano Berio: Wasserklavier; Luciano Berio: Erdenklavier, and Roger Marsh: Easy Steps.

Here are Roger’s programme notes for the two works:

Ferry Music (1988) – for clarinet, piano and cello. This trio is composed around material originally invented for a music theatre piece Love On The Rocks – a piece concerning the mythical Charon, who poled the dead across the river into Hades. 

The piece is in five short movements, and the ferry takes approximately eight minutes to complete the crossing. For today’s performance the cello part has been rewritten for viola by Tom Armstrong.   

Easy Steps (1987) – for solo piano. The title Easy Steps may be misleading.  For the performer there is nothing easy aboutthis piece, some passages requiring a level of virtuosity which the Associated Board mayfind difficult to quantify. 

Rather the title has to do with the structure of the piece –alternating sections, horizontally then vertically conceived, increasing in complexity byeasy steps. 

Elysian Singers: Celebrating Arvo Pärt At 90 tonight. Picture: Linda Dawson

Elysian Singers: Arvo Pärt At 90

AS the great Estonian composer Arvo Pärt turns 90 this year, the Elysian Singers celebrate his enormous contribution to choral music over the last half century. York Late Music includes two of his most substantial unaccompanied pieces, alongside works by Baltic and American composers who were influenced by him.

Programme: Arvo Pärt: Nunc Dimittis; Ola Gjeilo: Ubi Caritas; Eriks Esenvalds: The Heavens’ Flock; Morten Lauridsen: Madrigali; Eric Whitacre: When David Heard; David Lancaster: Of Trumpets And Angels – first performance, and Arvo Pärt: Seven Magnificat Antiphons

Here is David Lancaster’s programme note for Of Trumpets And Angels:

THIS new is a setting of John Donne’s Holy Sonnett XIII (What if this present were the world’s last night). This text contemplates the possibility of the current moment being the end of the world – something we may have all considered in recent days!

With this in mind, he focuses on the image of Christ crucified, questioning whether or not he should be afraid. He observes Christ’s tears and the blood from his wounds, wondering if such a compassionate figure could ever condemn him to damnation.

In the sestet, Donne seeks to atone for his earlier sins, in particular his love for ‘profane mistresses’, recognising the fallacy of making judgements based on outward appearance alone, and concluding that a beautiful appearance (like that of Christ) is indicative of a compassionate and merciful mindset.

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Kieran White RIP 1961-2025: a tribute

Kieran White at the keyboard, his sublime skills to be heard at events, restaurants, weddings, clubs, pubs, street corners, theatres, cinemas, care homes, wherever, whenever

YORK composer, pianist, busker, teacher, university tutor and Buster Keaton aficionado Kieran White has died suddenly.

His wife Kate posted on Facebook last Thursday “I am writing  with the sad news  that my beautiful husband Kieran died last night [19/2/2025] after a sudden heart attack on Monday and a few days in the ICU [Intensive Care Unit] at York Hospital.

“He was the love of my life and he will be greatly missed. He was a sweet, loving, funny, clever and talented man. Please leave your thoughts and wishes here.”

In response, so far, more than 200 tributes have poured into Facebook from fellow musicians, former piano pupils and friends, one recalling how Kieran would wheel his piano to his favourite busking spot, outside St Michael le Belfrey, even in the snow, that spot being on York’s windiest corner to boot.

York singer, event promoter and public speaker Big Ian Donaghy has posted two videos, one taken at a care home for dementia patients, where a curve-ball request for Kieran to play Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody had Kieran mopping his brow, exhaling , then saying “Go on then, let’s have a go…what could possibly go wrong?!”. He duly tamed that wild rock opera behemoth off the cuff.

“Kieran had a gentle way and a rare empathy with folks living with dementia,” wrote Big Ian, whose second video showed Kieran and a man who had played piano all his life until the onset of dementia seated side by side, responding to each other’s handiwork.

Kieran had featured too in Donaghy’s story A Fish Out Of Water in his book A Pocketful Of Kindness, charting the day Kieran coaxed  a former GP and school concert pianist, now 80 and  sitting frostily at a distance in a care home, into joining him on the stool. You will find the full chapter on a Donaghy Facebook post.

“He is Quirky with a capital Q but with a heart of gold,” wrote Donaghy on Page 185. “In a world of horses for courses, many don’t fit him. Social situations…he can just get up and wander off. He is more gas or liquid than a solid. He sees life differently…

Kieran White, in 2020, holding a copy of Ian Donaghy’s book A Pocketful Of Kindness, open at the chapter entitled A Fish Out Of Water that charted Kieran’s nursing-home encounter with a former school concert pianist

“But behind all the quirks and eccentricities is a phenomenal musician with a kind heart,” Donaghy continued. “Kieran started calling for people to call out their favourite songs as he took on the role of dexterous jukebox. There was nothing he couldn’t play. Even if he had never heard something before.

“He would ask, ‘Sing it to me’, and within a few seconds he could play it. If he can hear it, he can play it. A mixture of a natural gift and hours of toil with the lid up.”

Fellow York composer Steve Crowther, administrator of York Late Music, has posted: “I have known Kieran for 30+ years. He was a genuinely remarkable musician and composer. And he possessed very little ego, a rare quality these days.

“I remember bumping into him in the city centre. We chatted about stuff. He was working on some silent movie project. Related to that, I think, was the idea of a fugue, which he then went on to improvise. Who the hell improvises a fugue? ‘Something like this…’ off he went, ‘no that’s not right…like this.”

Steve continued: “It was a bl**dy remarkable experience. The result was like Bach via Blues on speed. He was a constant: busking, singing & performing in pubs, always good for a catch-up and chat. But not any more. I will miss him.”

Originally from Colchester, Essex, where Kieran attended Colchester Royal Grammar School, he studied at the University of York. He would go on to busk prodigiously in the city, run White Rose Opera, play solo in pubs, restaurants and care homes, at weddings and with function bands too, as well as accompanying theatrical productions and being a piano teacher and tutor at York St John University.

Ultra-bright, knowledgeable, unconventional and witty, he was a dab hand at chess too, as well as displaying his trademark ability to play anything on the keys by ear.

On February 11, he had posted on Facebook of his health “deteriorating rapidly in the last year”, leading to Kieran “giving up playing piano as a result of ‘Trigger thumb’ and uncontrollable hand shaking”. Tests had revealed those tests were “purely down to stress. Thank God,” he wrote, but he revealed he had not been able to play, compose or even teach for almost a year and a half.

Kieran’s post went on to quote in full his interview with CharlesHutchPress, published on January 23 2020 under the headline “Pianist Kieran White to ‘break the silents’ at Helmsley Arts Centre screening of Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr”.

Kieran White, pencil illustration by Ian Donaghy, from A Pocketful Of Kindness, 2020

Here it is again, to add CharlesHutchPress’s voice to myriad recollections of Kieran’s talent for conjuring magic from the ivories.

ACCOMPANIED  by Kieran White’s expressive, playful, gag-driven piano score, the Stoneface silent classic Steamboat Bill, Jr, will be shown “as it was originally intended to be seen in an authentic re-creation of the early cinema experience in the picture houses of the 1920s”.

Let Kieran make his case for why someone would want to see a black-and white, silent 1928 Buster Keaton film in 2020, the age of endless reheated Disney classics and myriad Marvel movies.

“We live in an instant world. A world governed by consumerism and technology. What we want, we can get just by clicking a mouse. We have forgotten how to slow down. How to breathe,” he says.

“But Buster takes us back to a time when time itself was a different thing entirely. A time when moments were savoured, rather than squandered.”

From past experience of his Breaking The Silents shows, White anticipates a largely middle-aged and older audience, but he believes Keaton’s comedic elan should appeal to “anyone with a love of history, a nostalgia for days of yore and an unfettered imagination”.

“Breaking The Silents offers a wonderful evening for all the family,” he says. “A lot of belly laughs. An appreciation of Buster’s incredible athleticism and craftmanship but, most of all, a reawakening of that state of wonderment that children have but never know they have.”

The relentless pace of Keaton’s comedy on screen leaves no gap, no rest, no breath, in White’s score, but still he finds room for quickfire references to the Steptoe And Son theme music, Porridge and The Barber Of Seville.

“The joy of Steamboat Bill, Jr is the raw energy,” says Kieran. “You know that if the stunts went wrong there would be no take two.”

White’s piano has accompanied screenings of Keaton’s 1927 film The General at locations as diverse as Helmsley Arts Centre, the Yorkshire Museum of Farming at Murton Park and City Screen, Fairfax House and the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in York.

Last September [2019], he presented a Breaking The Silents double bill of The General in the afternoon and Steamboat Bill, Jr in the evening at the JoRo. White’s labours of love had necessitated 11 days of writing for The General, a little longer for Steamboat Bill, Jr, drawing on his love of both Keaton’s comic craft and the piano.

“I was very inspired by my grandfather,” he says, explaining why piano was his instrument of choice. “He was a superb pianist and made the most complex music sound effortless.

“Ever since a very early age, I’ve been fascinated by puzzles too, particularly chess. Watching Pop play was like sitting inside a gigantic engine, seeing gears mesh, listening to the sound of tiny hammers. Music chose me!”

Where next might Breaking The Silents venture? “I think what I do is unique. Ultimately, I’d love to perform all over the world,” says Kieran.

In the meantime, here is a recommendation from York filmmaker Mark Herman, director of Brassed Off and Little Voice, to head to Helmsley Arts Centre on February 1 for the Keaton and White double act.

“Kieran White’s score and his live accompaniment raises an already almost perfect film to fresh heights,” he said after seeing The General. “It’s a shame that Buster Keaton never knew that his flawless performance could actually be enhanced.”

Rest in peace, Kieran Michael White, December 10 1961 – February 19 2025.

The arrangements for Kieran White’s funeral are yet to be announced.

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Art Sung: Edith Sitwell, York Late Music at Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, December 7

Elizabeth Mucha: Pianist and founder of Art Sung

ART Sung, created by pianist Elizabeth Mucha, is a variable group that unites song and narrative.

In this incarnation, they were two singers, two pianists, a dancer and a videographer, all focused on the life of Edith Sitwell, Behind Her Façade – who can lay claim to be Scarborough’s most famous daughter.

Young William Walton – “Willy” as she called him – knew the Sitwell family better than most, having encountered them at Oxford and lodged with them in London for more than a decade.

His decision to set Edith’s Façade poems thrust him onto the musical map; its success can be said to have benefited her equally. Neither looked back thereafter and, by the time of her death in 1964, she had become the grande dame of English poetry.

Art Sung made numbers from Façade the backbone of its exploration of Sitwell’s life, with mezzo Lucy Stevens inhabiting the role to her fingertips, dressed all in black, including gloves and turban-style hat.

Realism was enhanced with the very curtain used in the work’s 1923 premiere, from behind which she had projected her poetry through a megaphone. James Symonds contrived a video backdrop here with animated sketches intensifying her reminiscences.

During a potpourri of some 30 items, other composers had a welcome look-in. There was a surprising song from Michael Head, The King O China’s Daughter’ and two Ned Rorem settings of Sitwell too.

Two settings of Olivia Diamond’s Sitwell-related poetry by Hayley Jenkins made an impact, the one with exciting speech-song, the other involving tenor Michael Gibson in a solemn line, which he controlled smoothly.

He also offered an all-too-brief extract from Still Falls The Rain, Sitwell’s meditation on the raids of 1940, which Britten set as his Canticle III. It deserved more, but since this was mainly a frolic it may not have seemed to fit.

An opportunity was certainly missed to look into The Heart Of The Matter, a Sitwell programme devised especially for the Aldeburgh Festival in 1956, with Britten’s music.

Three extracts from Satie’s ballet Parade, played with considerable panache by pianists Elizabeth Mucha and Nigel Foster, either or both of whom were present throughout the evening, offered an opportunity for dancer Roxani Eleni Garefalaki to evoke the spirit that led to the Roaring Twenties. She reappeared in a fragment from West Side Story, recalling Sitwell’s visit to the USA.

A Joseph Horovitz setting of Out, Out Damned Spot (Macbeth) near the end accurately encapsulated the mixture of enthusiasm and derangement that Stevens had so vividly painted in this wide-ranging programme.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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More Things To Do in York and beyond, come snow or Storm Darragh’s high winds. Hutch’s List No. 50, from The Press, York

Ensemble Augelletti: BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Baroque Ensemble present their new Christmas programme, The Morning Star, at the NCEM on December 13 at 7pm

CHRISTMAS festivities gather pace with a community pantomime, Early music festival, cabaret, Strictly dance king and a Muppet movie, as Charles Hutchinson reports.  

Festival of the week: York Early Music Christmas Festival, National Centre for Early Music, Bedern Hall and Sir Jack Lyons Concert  Hall, University of York, until December 15

YORK Early Music Christmas Festival 2024 is under way, presenting 12 concerts and one (sold-out) choral workshop led by I Fagiolini founder Robert Hollingworth in a celebration of the winter season, its festivities, traditions, darkness and light, mulled wine and mince pies.

Concerts by Solomon’s Knot (Sunday), Stile Antico (December 12), Intesa (December 15) and Awake Arise (December 15) have sold out but tickets are available for Love And Melancholy with soprano Emilia Bertolini (today, 12 noon); Siglo de Oro (today, 6.30pm); Sean Shibe & Aidan O’Rourke (December 9, 7.30pm); Green Matthews (December 11, 7.30pm); Ensemble Augelletti (December 13, 7pm); Contre le Temps (December 14, 12noon) and Yorkshire Bach Choir (December 14, 7.30pm). Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Micklegate Singers: A White Christmas lunchtime concert for York Late Music at Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York

Christmas concert of the week: York Late Music presents Micklegate Singers, A White Christmas, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, today, 1pm

MICKLEGATE Singers chart a journey from Joanna Marsh’s In Winter’s House through wintry landscapes to arrive at a Christmas prelude courtesy of Poulenc, Tallis, Vaughan Williams and more, including the world premiere of York composer James Else’s A Little Snow.

Among further works will be Holst’s Bring Us In Good Ale; Oliver Tarney’s The Waiting Sky and John Harle: Mrs Beeton’s Christmas Plum Pudding (Average Cost 3 Shillings And 6d). Box office: latemusic.org.

Rowntree Players’ principal panto players in Mother Goose, opening today at the JoRo

Let the egg puns get cracking: Rowntree Players in Mother Goose, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Saturday, 2pm and 7.30pm, Sunday, 2pm and 6pm; December 10 to 13, 7.30pm; December 14, 2pm and 7.30pm

MEET Jack (Gemma McDonald), head of hens at Chucklepatch Farm, with its newest addition to the coop, Priscilla the goose (American Abbey Follansbee). Joined by mum Gertrude Gander (alias Mother Goose, Michael Cornell) and his sister Jill (Laura Castle), they head out on their panto adventure. 

Desperate for showbiz, Gertrude gives up the Wolds for the bright lights of Doncaster. However, ever-nasty landlord Demon Darkheart (Jamie McKeller) and his assistant Bob (Laura McKeller) will stop at nothing to collect rent, but dishy farmer Kev, the King of Kale (Sarah Howlett) and Fairy Frittata (Holly Smith) will not let the dark side rule in a rollicking romp directed by co-writer Howard Ella. Tickets update: Down to last few tickets or limited availability for most performances on 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Velma Celli: Xmas Roast cabaret songs, comedy and festive fruitiness at Impossible York

Christmas cabaret of the week: Velma Celli’s Xmas Roast, Impossible York, St Helen’s Square, York, Sunday 6pm, doors 5pm

YORK’S international drag diva deluxe, Velma Celli, hosts a fabulous evening of music, comedy and festive frolics. “Come and have yourself a merry Christmas,” says Velma, the Best Cabaret at Perth Fringeworld 2024 award-winning alter ego of West End musical actor and Atlantis Gay Cruises headline act Ian Stroughair, who promises “cabaret meets a partaaaaaay”. Box office: ticketweb.uk/event/velmas-xmas-roast-impossible-york-tickets/13855143.

The Hollywood Sisters: Cat Foster, left, Rachel Higgs, Henrietta Linnemann and Helen “Bells” Spencer

Fundraising festive concert of the week: The Hollywood Sisters & Friends, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7pm

THE Hollywood Sisters, the York vocal harmony group with vintage Hollywood vibes, have added extra tickets after selling out Sunday’s show. Expect a cabaret evening of music, song and a sprinkle of festive cheer featuring the luscious close harmonies of Helen “Bells” Spencer, Cat Foster, Rachel Higgs and Henrietta Linnemann and guest appearances by The Rusty Pegs, Mark Lovell, Phoebe Breeze and Anthony Sargeant.

All profits will go to the fundraising campaign for a new sensory room for dementia patients at Foss Park Hospital, in Haxby Road, York. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Anton du Beke: Christmas song and dance with the Strictly Come Dancing judge and Friends at York Barbican

Dance show of the week: Anton du Beke in Christmas With Anton & Friends, York Barbican, December 10, 7.30pm

STRICTLY Come Dancing judge and dashing dancer Anton Du Beke glides into York in his new festive tour show, joined as ever by elegant crooner Lance Ellington, a live band and a company of dancers for an evening of song and dance with added Christmas dazzle.

“I’ve always dreamed of doing a big Christmas show as it’s the best time of the year, so this is a real treat for me,” says the ballroom king. “It’s the show I’ve always wanted to do with some old faces and some new!” Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Jools Holland: Playing to a full house at York Barbican

No year would be complete without…Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, York Barbican, December 11, 7.30pm

BOOGIE woogie pianist supreme Jools Holland makes his obligatory winter outing to York in the company of his top-notch rhythm & blues players and vocalists Ruby Turner, Louise Marshall and Sumudu Jayatilaka.

His special guests will be Soft Cell singer Marc Almond, who previously toured with Holland in 2018, and blues guitar prodigy Toby Lee, his guest on last year’s tour too. Holland will be performing songs from the former Squeeze keyboardist and television presenter’s long-running solo career. Box office for returns only: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Marc Almond: Jools Holland’s special guest at York Barbican. Picture: Mike Owen

Christmas film double bill: Friargate Theatre, York, presents The Muppet Christmas Carol (U), today, 2.30pm, and Die Hard (15), today, 8pm

FRIARGATE Theatre serves up a double dose of holiday cheer and action-packed excitement, opening with Kermit, Miss Piggy and the Muppet gang being joined by Michael Caine’s Ebenezer Scrooge as they re-tell the Dickens tale with a whimsical and heart-warming twist.

Let’s leave the debate over whether John McTiernan’s Die Hard is or is not a Christmas film to another day. Instead, revel in Bruce Willis’s John McClane battling with terrorists in a high-rise building on Christmas Eve. Box office: 01904 613000 or friargatetheatre.co.uk.

Christmas Cinema at St Saviourgate

Pop-up film event of the month: City Screen Picturehouse presents Christmas Cinema at Saint Saviourgate, The Great Hall, Central Methodist Church, St Saviourgate, York, December 12 to 23

CITY Screen Picturehouse, York, is setting up a pop-up screen at Central Methodist Church for the Christmas season, kicking off on December 12 with The Muppet Christmas Carol (U) at 4pm and Bridget Jones’s Diary (15) at 7PM.

Next come Home Alone (PG) at 4pm and Love Actually (15) at 7pm on December 13; Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone (PG) at 4pm and Elf (PG) at 7.20pm on December 14, then Ali Plumb’s Untitled Christmas Film Quiz Project at 5pm and The Nightmare Before Christmas (PG) at 8.30pm on December 15.

Paddington In Peru (PG) will be shown at 4pm on December 16; Die Hard (15) at 7pm that night; The Polar Express (U) at 4pm and It’s A Wonderful Life (U) at 7pm on December 17; The Muppet Christmas Carol (U) at 4pm and Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone (PG) at 6.45pm on December 18, then Home Alone (PG) at 4pm and Wonka (PG) at 7pm on December 20.

Paddington In Peru (PG) returns at 4pm on December 22, followed by Elf (PG) at 7pm, before the season concludes with The Polar Express (U) at 4pm and  It’s A Wonderful Life (U) at 7pm on December 23. Box office: picturehouses.com/YorkXmas.

Mat Jones in A Christmas Carol for two nights at Friargate Theatre. Picture: Vintage Verse

Solo show of the week: Mat Jones in A Christmas Carol, Friargate Theatre, York, December 13 and 14, 7.30pm

RING in the Christmas season with Mat Jones’s spellbinding rendition of Charles Dickens’s Victorian festive classic, brought to life in vivid detail from Dickens’s original performance text as Scrooge encounters the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come en route to the redemption of London’s most miserable miser. 

“A Christmas Carol is not just a story; it’s a celebration of the human spirit and the power of kindness,” says Jones. Box office: 01904 613000 or friargatetheatre.co.uk.

York artist Jo Walton setting up her exhibition at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb

Exhibition of the week: Jo Walton, Steel, Copper, Rust, Gold, Verdigris, Wax, Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, until January 23 2025

WHEN Rogues Atelier artist, interior designer, upholsterer and Bluebird Bakery curator of exhibitions Jo Walton asked poet Nicky Kippax to put words to images she had sent her, she responded with “The heft of a cliff and a gathering of sea fret”. Spot on, Nicky.

Into the eighth month of recovery from breaking her right leg, Jo is exhibiting predominantly large works that utilise steel, copper, rust, gold, verdigris and wax in the bakery, cafe and community centre, whose interior she designed in 2021.

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York Late Music concludes 2024 with Art Sung’s multi-media performance of Edith Sitwell, Behind Her Façade on Saturday

Art Sung in performance

PHOTOGRAPHY, 3D imagery and video complement live performance in Art Sung’s exploration of Edith Sitwell’s iconic work Façade in Saturday’s concluding concert of York Late Music’s 2024 programme.

Edith Sitwell, Behind Her Façade is a semi-dramatised song recital that looks at the unusual and eccentric life of the flamboyant 20th century poet.

At 7.30pm, Art Sung tell Dame Edith Sitwell’s story in her own words, both spoken and sung, beginning with her troubled childhood at Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire, where she fell in love with a peacock, leading to a life of celebrity and notoriety in London, Paris and the United States of America.

It encompasses her encounters with various celebrities, most notably Noël Coward, with whom she was on non-speaking terms for 30 years after he parodied her in a West End revue, and Marilyn Monroe, with whom she got on famously, much to everyone’s surprise.

Edith also became a favourite subject for painters such as Wyndham Lewis, Roger Fry, and Russian painter Pavel Tchelitchew. The aesthetics of the art world from this period are the inspiration for the bespoke visual material that accompanies Saturday’s recital.

Woven through the narrative of the recital will be the story of Façade, the extraordinary musical entertainment that Sitwell created together with the then unknown composer William Walton.

His jazz-inspired music accompanied her poems that she recited through a megaphone from behind a curtain backdrop. The Sitwells saw this as an abstract method of providing poetry to an audience, without drawing attention to themselves. Ironically it had the opposite effect of turning them into celebrities.

“Saturday will be a multi-media performance with dance, animation and the interweaving of new music and poetry with excepts from Walton and Edith’s Façade and music by Britten, Bernstein and Satie, among others,” says Late Music co-programmer, composer and lecturer Hayley Jenkins, from the York St John University School of Arts.

“Elizabeth Mucha, the director, has cleverly interwoven these elements to illustrate Edith’s story via multiple characters performed by tenor Michael Gibson and contra-alto Lucy Stevens as Edith.

“This will be an evening with a difference for Late Music: we haven’t had a production on this scale for a very long time,so we are very excited to host it after such excellent reviews from Buckingham Festival, Barnes, New Malden and London Song Festival.”

Here Art Sung’s founder, Scottish-Polish pianist Elizabeth Mucha, discusses Edith Sitwell, Behind Her Façade

Art Sung founder Elizabeth Mucha

What songs from this iconic work will be included in the programme?

“There will be movements from Façade by William Walton and Edith Sitwell,  arranged for piano duet by Walton’s great friend Constant Lambert. These will include Popular Song, Fox-Trot, Swiss Yodelling Song, Scotch Rhapsody and Valse.

“There will also be music for piano duet, played by myself and Nigel Foster: extracts from the ballet Parade by Erik Satie and Leonard Bernstein’s America from West Side Story.

“The programme also includes songs by William Walton, Benjamin Britten, Ned Rorem, Michael Head and Noël Coward, as well as songs specially commissioned for this programme by Dominique le Gendre and York Late Music’s very own Hayley Jenkins.”

What is Art Sung?

‘”We are an ensemble of singers, pianist, actor and visual artists that creates connections between music, art and story in a series of semi-dramatised song recitals. Our projects have focused to date on women whose artistic careers have not received the recognition they deserve.

“Their stories are told in their own words drawn from first-hand sources, such as diaries and letters, with songs and music which reflect, comment or elaborate on the narrative, together with the creatively projected artwork.”

What is the story behind the Art Sung – Edith Sitwell: Behind Her Façade project?

“In 2022, I formed a piano duo with Nigel Foster (director of the London Song Festival). We are the London Piano Duo and one of our programmes that year included several movements from Façade by Walton.

“As we both have a huge interest in adding context to programmes through narrative and visuals, we thought it would be a great idea to join forces to create an Art Sung to tell the background story of how Façade came into being. And so, Art Sung – Edith Sitwell: Behind Her Façade was born as we joined forces with the London Song Festival in 2023 to create it.

“This is Art Sung’s fourth production and celebrates the premiere of Edith Sitwell’s collaboration with composer William Walton in 1923 on the musical entertainment Façade, as well as exploring her colourful and dramatic life.”

Who is involved in the Art Sung project?

“Lucy Stevens is both a singer and actor, who is touring with her one-woman show about singer Kathleen Ferrier. Last year, she was nominated for an OffFest Award (Edinburgh Fringe 2023) for her one-woman show about singer/actress Gertrude Lawrence.

“Michael Gibson is a tenor whose many roles have included: Borsa (Rigoletto), Young Servant (Elektra), Normanno (Lucia di Lammermoor), Heinrich (Tannhäuser), Pong (Turandot), Gastone (LaTraviata) and Ruiz (Il Trovatore).

“Pianist Nigel Foster is director of the London Song Festival, a prestigious festival that showcases the song repertoire and provides a performance platform for young singers. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and on television in several European countries.

“Roxani Eleni Garefalaki is a performance artist, director and movement instructor from Athens, based in London. She has directed the previous three Art Sung productions and is part of the visual team that creates the bespoke imagery.

“James Symonds is the videographer. Under the guise of Symian, he mixes digital filmmaking, sound production, programming and 3D design to produce large-format exhibition work, theatre staging and ‘live’ visual events for companies.”

And yourself, Elizabeth?

“I am a pianist, scriptwriter and producer. I have been fortunate enough to perform throughout Europe, the Americas and the Far East as a song accompanist, chamber musician and solo pianist. I have broadcast on the BBC and other classical music stations in Holland, Brazil, Canada and the Philippines.

“I also had the great pleasure of performing at Late Music in 2019 with baritone Robert Rice. I’m very much looking forward to performing again at Late Music.”

For more information and tickets and to download a free programme, go to: latemusic.org. Elizabeth Mucha and composer Hayley Jenkins will give a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm with a complimentary glass of mulled wine and a mince pie. Box office: https://latemusic.org/product/art-sung-concert-tickets-sat-7-dec-730pm/

Promo video: https://youtu.be/mzHA-HYstDg?si=b7bPEcTQdlPV9LKW

Lucy Stevens: Singer and actor

Saturday’s programme order

William Walton (1902-1983) and Edith Sitwell (1887-1964) – Popular Song (extract) from Façade

Hayley Jenkins (b.1990) and Olivia Diamond (b.1947) – Be A Strange Bird In A Tame Pond

William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Fox-Trot (extract) from Façade

William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Old Sir Faulk (extract) from Three Songs

Michael Head (1900-1976) and Edith Sitwell – The King Of China’s Daughter

William Walton and Edith Sitwell – En Famille (extract) from Façade

William Walton and Anon – Rhyme from A Song For The Lord Mayor’s Table

William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Daphne from Three Songs

Ned Rorem (1923-2022) and Edith Sitwell – You, The Young Rainbow

William Walton and Charles Morris (1745-1838) – The Contrast from A Song For The Lord Mayor’s Table

Erik Satie (1866-1925) – Extracts from the ballet Parade: Prélude du Rideau Rouge; Petite Fille Américaine; Rag-time du Paquebot

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) and Anon – Rats Away (extract) from Our Hunting Fathers Op 8

William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Tango-Pasodoblé (extract) from Façade

Hayley Jenkins and Olivia Diamond – Edith Regina

William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Valse (extract) from Façade

Robert Marchant (1916-1995) and Edith Sitwell – When Sir Beelzebub

William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Popular Song (extract) from Façade

Interval

William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Popular Song (extract) from Façade

William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Valse from Façade

Noël Coward (1899-1973) – Poor Little Rich Girl from On With The Dance

Ned Rorem (1923-2022) and Edith Sitwell – The Youth With The Red-Gold Hair

William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Swiss Jodelling Song from Façade

Dominique le Gendre (b. 1960) and Olivia Diamond (b. 1947) – Pavel…You…

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) and Edith Sitwell – Canticle III, Op 55 – Still Falls The Rain

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) – America from West Side Story

Lloyd Moore (b. 1966) and Edith Sitwell – Bells Of Grey Crystal

Joseph Horovitz (1926-2022) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616) – Lady Macbeth (extract)

William Walton and Edith Sitwell – Scotch Rhapsody from Façade

Roxani Eleni Garefalaki: Director and movement director

Edith Sitwell (1887-1964): the back story

BORN into an aristocratic family in 1887, she shot to fame in the 1920s through her unique and inventive collaboration with composer William Walton on her poems Façade. She was a favourite subject for portraitists of the 1920s, including John Singer Sargent, Roger Fry, Wyndham Lewis and Pavel Tchelitchew and was immortalised in black and white by society photographer Cecil Beaton.

Together with her brothers, Osbert and Sacheverell, the Sitwell literary trio became trend setters in the 1920s and 1930s, considered by some to rival the Bloomsbury set.

Her address book read like a 20th-century Who’s Who. She knew poets and writers such as Siegfried Sassoon, Dylan Thomas, W B Yeats, T S Eliot, Aldous Huxley, D H Lawrence, Robert Graves and Virginia Woolf, along with Noël Coward, Alec Guinness and Marilyn Monroe.

Descended from Plantagenet royalty, she flaunted her unusual looks with her unique fashion sense. Her six-foot frame was encased in bohemian or medieval garb, complete with feathery hats and colourful turbans. Her hands, considered by her to be her best feature, were laden with enormous rings.

Her motto was: “Why not be oneself? That is the whole secret of a successful appearance. If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a Pekingese?”

Edith’s early poems developed from fantastical, whimsical experiments with rhythm, texture and sound during the Roaring Twenties, through to her more serious poetry of the 1940s, coloured by the Second World War and the dropping of the atomic bomb, in works such as Still Falls The Rain and The Shadow Of Cain.

In the latter part of her life, she wholeheartedly embraced a return to spiritual values, both in her poetry and by converting to Roman Catholicism. By the time she died in 1964 at the age of 77, she had been made a Dame, held five honorary literary degrees from Durham, Leeds, Oxford, Sheffield and Hull and was considered the high priestess of English poetry.

In 1962, not only was a memorial concert held for her at the Royal Festival Hall, London, attended by 3,000 people, but also she appeared on the ITV programme This Is Your Life. However, only a few years after her death, her reputation crashed. She had clashed with critics publicly for more than five decades (whom she dubbed the “pipsqueakery”) and was now no longer around to defend herself as she had done so colourfully during her life.

Last year marked the centenary of the premiere of Façade in 1923. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Edith Sitwell’s death.

Did you know?

WHEN Edith Sitwell recited her Façade poems through a megaphone at the private premiere in 1922, she did so from behind a curtain backdrop designed by English artist Frank Dobson. Art Sung are “immensely grateful to film director Tony Palmer for loaning us this curtain, which was entrusted to him by Edith Sitwell’s nephew, Francis Sitwell”.

A further three curtains were designed by different artists in Edith’s lifetime, of which the John Piper curtain, created in 1942, is now considered to be the iconic Façade curtain.

For Art Sung’s performance, video artist James Symonds continues this tradition of reinventing the background to Façade with his own digital version of a curtain. Symonds  visually interprets Edith’s poetry by weaving in the experimental and abstract video work by photographer Etienne Gilfillan and creates a series of animated sketches to illustrate Edith’s reminiscences.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond as the diary takes shape for May 4 onwards. Hutch’s List No. 19, from The Press, York

Sculptor Tony Cragg with his bronze work Outspan in the Great Hall at Castle Howard. Picture: Charlotte Graham

FROM landscape sculptures to community cinema screenings, a circus company’s novel assignment to a soap star’s heavenly musical role, Charles Hutchinson’s week ahead is taking shape.

Exhibition of the week: Tony Cragg at Castle Howard, near York, until September 22

SCULPTOR Tony Cragg presents the first major exhibition by a leading contemporary artist in the house and grounds of Castle Howard. On show are new and recent sculptures, many being presented on British soil for the first time, including large-scale works in bronze, stainless steel, aluminium and fibreglass.

Inside the house are works in bronze and wood, glass sculptures and works on paper in the Great Hall, Garden Hall, High South, Octagon and Colonnade. Tickets: castlehoward.co.uk.

The Lapins: Celebrating travel, exploration and adventure in music at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York

World premieres of the week: York Late Music, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, Mike Sluman, oboe, and Jenny Martins, piano, Saturday (4/5/2024), 1pm; The Lapins, Saturday (4/5/2024), 7.30pm

MIKEY Sluman highlights the range of the oboe family – oboe, oboe d’amore, cor anglais and bass oboe – in his lunchtime programme of Lutoslawski, Talbot-Howard and Poulenc works and world premieres of Desmond Clarke’s Five Exploded Pastorals and Nick Williams’s A Hundred Miles Down The Road (Le Tombeau de Fred).

The Lapins examine ideas of space, place and time in an evening programme that extols the joys of travel, exploration and adventure through the music of Brian Eno, Stockhausen and Erik Satie, the world premiere of James Else’s A Tapestry In Glass and the first complete performance of Hayley Jenkins’s Gyps Fulvus. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.

The poster for The Groves Community Cinema festival at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

Film event of the week: The Groves Community Cinema, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 5 to May 11  

THE third Groves Community Cinema film festival promises a wide variety of films, from cult classics and music to drama and animated fun. Supported by Make It York and City of York Council, the event opens with Sunday’s Arnie Schwarzenegger double bill of The Terminator at 6.30pm and T2 Judgement Day at 8.45pm.

Monday follows up Marcel The Shell With Shoes at 2.30pm with Justine Triet’s legal drama Anatomy Of A Fall at 6.30pm; Tuesday offers Ian McKellen’s Hamlet at 7.30pm; Wednesday, Yorkshire Film Archives’ Social Cinema, 6.30pm, and Friday, cult classical musical Hedwig And The Angry Inch, 8pm. To finish, next Saturday serves up the animated Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse at 2.30pm and Jonathan Demme’s concert documentary Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense at 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Steve Cassidy: Performing with his band and friends at the JoRo

Nostalgic gig of the week: Steve Cassidy Band & Friends, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday (5/5/2024), 7.30pm

VETERAN York frontman Steve Cassidy leads his band in an evening of rock, country and ballads, old and new, with songs from the 1960s to 21st century favourites in their playlist.

Cassidy, a three-time winner of New Faces, has recorded with celebrated York composer John Barry and performed in the United States and many European countries. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Let us pray: Landi Oshinowo’s Deloris Van Cartier and Sue Cleaver’s Mother Superior in Sister Act, on tour at Grand Opera House, York

Musical of the week: Sister Act, Grand Opera House, York, May 6 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday

SUE Cleaver takes holy orders in a break from Coronation Street to play the Mother Superior in Sister Act in her first stage role in three decades. Adding Alan Menken songs to the 1992 film’s storyline, the show testifies to the universal power of friendship, sisterhood and music in its humorous account of disco diva Deloris Van Cartier’s life taking a surprising turn when she witnesses a murder.

Placed in protective custody, in the disguise of a nun under the Mother Superior’s suspicious eye, Deloris (Landi Oshinowo) helps her fellow sisters find their voices as she unexpectedly rediscovers her own. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Lila Naruse’s Memory Tess in Ockham’s Razor’s circus theatre production of Tess at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Kie Cummings

“Bold new vision” of the week: Ockham’s Razor in Tess, York Theatre Royal, May 8 to 11, 7.30pm

CIRCUS theatre exponents Ockham’s Razor tackle a novel for the first time in a staging of Thomas Hardy’s  Tess Of The D’Urbervilles that combines artistic directors Charlotte Mooney and Alex Harvey’s adaptation of the original text with the physical language of circus and dance.

Exploring questions of privilege, class, consent, agency, female desire and sisterhood, Tess utilises seven performers, including Harona Kamen’s Narrator Tess and Lila Naruse’s Memory Tess, to re-tell the Victorian story of power, loss and endurance through a feminist lens. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart: Night of dub, funk and world music at Pocklington Arts Centre

Funkiest gig of the week: Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart, Pocklington Arts Centre, May 9, 8pm

SUPREME bassist Jah Wobble’s two-hour show takes in material from his work with John Lydon in Public Image Ltd and collaborations with Brian Eno, Bjork, Sinead O’Connor, U2’s The Edge, Can’s Holger Czukay, Ministry’s Chris Connelly and Killing Joke’s Geordie Walker.

Born John Wardle in 1958, he was renamed by Sex Pistol Sid Vicious, who struggled to pronounce his name correctly. Wobble combines dub, funk and world music, especially Africa and the Middle East, in his songwriting. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

“Charming nonsense”: Steven Lee’s There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly at the SJT, Scarborough

Half-term show announcement of the week: There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, May 28, 2.30pm

FIRST written as a song in 1953, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly was a chart-topping hit for singer and actor Burl Ives before being adapted into a best-selling book by Pam Adams a few years later, one still found in schools, nurseries and homes across the world.  

To mark the nursery rhyme’s 50th anniversary, children’s author Steven Lee has created a magical musical stage show for little ones to enjoy with their parents that combines the charming nonsense of the rhyme with his own “suitably silly twists”. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

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REVIEW: Amabile/Savva Zverev & Sid Ramchander, York Late Music, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, April 6

Savva Zverev: Russian-born violinist and graduate of Royal Northern Collge of Music. Picture: York Late Music

LATE Music has been changing gradually over the years. It now encompasses two concerts on the first Saturday of every month between October and June, one at lunchtime and one in the evening.

Amabile, a clarinet trio, drew the lunchtime slot this month, with Farrenc and Brahms sandwiching a premiere by Steve Crowther.

In the welcome wave of rediscovery of female composers through the ages, the name of Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) regularly recurs. She mainly wrote for her own instrument, the piano, but chamber music – always with piano – engaged her frequently.

Her Trio in E flat, Op 44 (1861), partners clarinet (or violin) with cello and piano. It shows craftsmanship rather than inspiration, and is a throwback to Mendelssohn with a touch of Mozartian finesse.

Amabile, with the seasoned clarinet of Lesley Schatzberger to the fore, treated it with considerable respect. Balance was awry at first, with prominent piano and self-effacing cello, but Farrenc’s imitative tendencies soon emerged politely enough.

A slithery little figure in the minuet heralded a finale that showed flashes of imagination; it was taken at an exciting pace. There is probably more to the composer than this but it was good to hear.

Crowther’s Transcriptions from Morris Dances are nothing to do with the well-known dances but five cameos inspired by the composer’s friendship with Philip Morris, presumably originally for piano.

They are delightful vignettes, spiced with wit and insight, ranging from the light and airy in the opening homage to friendship to the thoughtfully elegiac in the final Love Song, with its quizzical ending. They were lovingly played.

Brahms’s Clarinet Trio, Op 114 in A minor (1891), has all the autumnal warmth we associate with the composer’s twilight years. The opening Allegro had a lovely flow here and a delicate ending.

In the heat haze conjured by the Adagio, the cello of Nicola Tait Baxter came into its own, entwined closely with Schatzberger’s idiomatic clarinet. Paul Nicholson’s piano neatly underpinned the lilting Viennese waltz that preceded a finale of crisp rhythms tinged with a touch of aggression. It was good to see Nicholson back in musical harness after his retirement from the Anglican ministry. He has lost none of his previous finesse on all types of keyboard.

The evening brought a surprise. There have been countless expert exponents of contemporary music in this series over the years, but never, I would guess, a virtuoso of quite the calibre of violinist Savva Zverev.

His nonchalant dispatch of a variety of works from Bach to Bartók and beyond was breathtaking. Sid Ramchander was his nimble-fingered piano partner.

Zverev opened his first half with Bach’s first solo violin sonata, BWV 1001 in G minor. He made it sound, as Bach undoubtedly intended, as if there were several instruments involved, not just counterpoint in three or even four parts but, with double and treble-stopping, remarkable harmony as well. This was cutting-edge stuff in Bach’s day. It still is – and very much belonged here.

By way of balance, Zverev’s second half began with Bartók’s unaccompanied Violin Sonata of 1944, the year before he died. It takes several leaves out of Bach’s book and is equally challenging.

Not that it held any terrors for Zverev. His top-string brilliance was not balanced by much dynamic shading in the opening chaconne, but his handling of the four-voice fugue, with its alternate plucking and bowing, was masterly. So too was the zig-zagging Melodia and bravura reached a new peak in the headlong finale.

After that, there was bound to be anti-climax. Pärt’s slow, minimalist Spiegel im Spiegel could not hold attention in this company. Franz Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy, taken from his soundtrack to the 1946 film Humoresque, inevitably came across as relatively empty display, virtuosity for its own sake. Perhaps we had simply had enough by then.

Earlier, Zverev had shown a different side to his musical personality in the delicate traceries of Webern’s Four Pieces, Op 7 and discovered genuine drama in Lutoslawski’s rondo Subito, especially in the episode on the G-string. Ramchander was with him every step of the way here, no mean feat in itself.

In five extracts from Debussy’s Préludes for piano his melody lines were not always evenly voiced, but his minimal use of pedal contributed to admirable clarity. This is certainly a duo to watch.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Robert Rice and William Vann, Late Music York

Baritone Robert Rice

Late Music York, Robert Rice and William Vann, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, February 3

WALTER de la Mare’s Peacock Pie (1922) is a charming collection of rhymes that have an appeal for all ages, not least through their evocation of childhood.

This recital, featuring baritone Robert Rice and pianist William Vann, mainly paired settings from the anthology by Armstrong Gibbs and Howells with first performances of the same poems by living composers, many of whom were in the audience.

Before that, Rice announced himself with Finzi’s song-cycle in tribute to Vaughan Williams, Let Us Garlands Bring, celebrating the latter’s 70th birthday in 1942. He at once established his sense of line and a keen awareness of text, while Vann added some tasty colour, not least in the postlude to ‘Who Is Sylvia?’. The duo was notably effervescent in ‘It Was A Lover And His Lass’.

Thereafter we had no fewer than ten premieres by nine different composers. As a whole, they were encouragingly well crafted, and a handful also revealed real inspiration.

Robert Walker found an ingenious way to conjure scissors at work in The Barber’s, which Armstrong Gibbs had not done. Also in the Gibbs corner was Charlotte Marlow’s Old Shellover, nicely shaped with its opening repeated.

Liz Dilnot Johnson exploited piano extremes in Hide And Seek and David Lancaster used effective syncopation in With Lantern Bright, a setting of the original ‘Then’. William Rhys Meek daringly selected Miss T, already wittily set by both Gibbs and Howells, and still managed to add tonal variety.

Amongst the Howells settings, Hayley Jenkins neatly milked the absurdity of Alas, Alack! in both parts, but her piano was hyperactive in The Dunce. Phillip Cooke conjured an appealing vocal line in Full Moon.

At this point we had heard no fewer than 26 songs. But there were still six to come that had nothing to do with the rest of the evening.

Having successfully curated the programme, David Power rewarded himself with his own (translated) settings of René Char, three written as a student nearly 40 years ago and the same three poems re-cast in 2016. The early ones had little to offer, the later ones were much bolder and more confident. But their relevance here was tenuous and looked like self-indulgence.

Nonetheless Rice and Vann treated them with the same tireless respect as elsewhere, despite not enjoying any biographies of their own in the otherwise truly admirable printed programme.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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More Things To Do in York & beyond, when skies are dark or lights are bright. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 6 for 2024, from The Press

Neil Vincent, left, Clare Halliday, Chris Pomfrett, Victoria Delaney and Mick Liversidge in rehearsal for York Actors Collective’s Beyond Caring

A GLUT of York theatre companies, a nocturnal sky festival, a Yorkshire musical and a colourful installation light up the dark nights of February for culture guide Charles Hutchinson.

Social drama of the week: York Actors Collective in Beyond Caring, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Tuesday to Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 5.30pm

DEVISED by Alexander Zeldin and the original Yard Theatre cast in London, this 90-minute play highlighting the social damage inflicted by zero-hours contracts forms York Actors Collective’s second production, directed by founder Angie Millard.

Performed by Victoria Delaney, Clare Halliday, Mick Liversidge, Chris Pomfrett and Neil Vincent, Beyond Caring follows meat-packing factory cleaners Becky, Grace and Sam on the night shift as they confront the reality of low wage employment, never sure whether their ‘job’ will continue. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Robert Rice: Recital at Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate tonight


Late Music at the double: Steve Bingham, violin and electronics, 1pm today; Robert Rice, baritone, and William Vann, piano, 7.30pm tonight, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York

PET Shop Boys’ It’s A Sin chills with Bach’s Allemande in D minor, while a tango from Piazzolla is thrown in for good measure, as Steve Bingham explores four centuries of solo violin music this afternoon. World premieres of David Power’s Miniatures, Wayne Siegel’s Salamander (violin and electronics) and Rowan Alfred’s Cuckoo Phase will be performed too.

York composer David Power has curated Robert Rice and William Vann’s evening recital, featuring the first complete performance of Power’s Three Char Songs (1985 and 2016). Works by Gerald Finzi, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Herbert Howells, Robert Walker, William Rhys Meek, Charlotte Marlow, Liz Dilnot Johnson, David Lancaster, Hannah Garton, Ruth Lee, Hayley Jenkins and Phillip Cooke. Power gives a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm with a complimentary glass of wine or juice. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.

Jonny Holbek as Sebastian in York Light Opera Company’s production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

Nautical adventure of the week: York Light Opera Company in Disney’s The Little Mermaid, York Theatre Royal, February 7 to 17, except February 12

BASED on the classic 1989 Disney animated film, The Little Mermaid tells the enchanting story of Ariel, a mermaid who dreams of trading her tail for legs and exploring the human world. Aided by her mischievous sidekick, Flounder, and the cunning Ursula, Ariel strikes a bargain that will change her life forever.

Martyn Knight’s production for York Light features stunning projection, dazzling costumes, unforgettable musical numbers, such as Under The Sea and Kiss The Girl, and choreography by Rachael Whitehead. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The poster for Colour & Light, soon to illuminate the facade of York Art Gallery

Installation launch of the week: Colour & Light, York Art Gallery, February 7 to 25

YORK BID is linking up with York Museums Trust for the return of Colour & Light: an innovative project that will transform the facade of York Art Gallery to counter the cold winter with a vibrant light installation.

This “high impact and large-scale visual arts project” uses 3D projection mapping to bring York’s iconic buildings to life, first York Minster last year, now York Art Gallery, where the projection will play every ten minutes from 6pm to 9pm daily in a non-ticketed free event.

Watching the detective: Steven Jobson’s Lieutenant Frank Cioffi in Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Curtains. Picture: Jennifer Jones

It’s Curtains for…Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Wednesday to Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

WHEN the leading lady of a new musical mysteriously dies on stage, a plucky local detective must solve this 1959 case at Boston’s Colonial Theatre, where the entire cast and crew are suspects in Kander & Ebb’s musical with a book by Rupert Holmes.

Cue delightful characters, a witty and charming script and glorious tunes in the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s staging of Curtains. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Sunflower power: The Calendar Girls cast on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, from Tuesday to Saturday

Touring musical of the week: Calendar Girls The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

YOU know the story, the one where a husband’s death to leukaemia prompts a group of ordinary women in a small Yorkshire Women’s Institute to do an extraordinary thing, whereupon they set about creating a nude calendar to raise money for charity.

Premiered at Leeds Grand Theatre in 2015, Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s musical is now touring with a cast of music, stage and television stars. Baring all will be Laurie Brett as Annie; Liz Carney as Marie; Helen Pearson as Celia; Samantha Seager as Chris; Maureen Nolan as Ruth; Lyn Paul as Jessie and Honeysuckle Weeks as Cora. Once more the tour supports Blood Cancer UK. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

 Nicola Holliday (as Jean Tanner) and James Lee (as Charles Stratton) in rehearsal for Settlement Players’ Separate Tables. Picture: John Saunders

English manners of the week: York Settlement Community Players in Separate Tables, York Theatre Royal Studio, February 8 to 17, 7.45pm except Sunday and Monday, plus 2pm Saturday matinees

AFTER directing four Russian plays by Chekhov, Helen Wilson turns her attention to Separate Tables, two very English Terence Rattigan tales of love and loss, set in a shabby Bournemouth hotel in the 1950s.

Guests, both permanent and transient, sit on separate tables, a formality that underlines the loneliness of these characters in a play about class, secrets and repressed emotions. Chris Meadley, Paul French, Molly Kay, Jess Murray, Marie-Louise Feeley, Caroline Greenwood and Linda Fletcher are among the Settlement cast. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Festival of the month: North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales Dark Skies Festival, February 9 to 25

TEAMING up for the ninth time since 2016, the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales National Park authorities celebrate the jewels of God’s Own Country’s night sky this month.

Discover nocturnal activities to heighten the senses such as the Dark Skies Experience (February 9 to 25) night navigation (February 16); trail run and yoga (February 17, sold out); canoeing; planet trail and constellation trail at Aysgarth Falls (February 9 to 25); astrophotography workshops at Castle Howard (February 22), stargazing safaris, children’s daytime trails, art workshops and mindful experiences. More details: darkskiesnationalparks.org.uk; yorkshiredales.org.uk/things-to-do/whats-on/shows/dark-skies-festival/.

Richard Ashcroft: Heading to the woods for Forest Live at Dalby Forest in June. Picture: Dean Chalkley

Outdoor gig announcement of the week: Richard Ashcroft, Forest Live, Dalby Forest, near Pickering, June 23

FORESTRY England completes its Forest Live return to Dalby Forest for the first time since 2019 with Richard Ashcroft, the two-time Ivor Novello Award-winning Wigan singer, songwriter and frontman of The Verve.

Canadian rocker Bryan Adams and disco icons Nile Rodgers & CHIC were confirmed already for June 21 and 22 respectively. New addition Ashcroft’s set list will draw on his five solo albums, along with The Verve’s anthems Bittersweet Symphony, The Drugs Don’t Work, Lucky Man and Sonnet. Leeds band Apollo Junction will be supporting. Box office: forestlive.com.

In Focus: York Ice Trail, City of Dreams, York city centre, today and tomorrow, from 10am

York Ice Trail: City of Dreams this weekend

THE theme for York Ice Trail 2024 transforms York into the City of Dreams, inviting visitors to dream big.

The last York Ice Trail, in February 2023, drew 40,000 visitors to York to view 36 sculptures. Organised by Make It York, the 2024 event again sees the “coolest” sculptures line the streets of York, each conceived and sponsored by businesses and designed and created by ice specialist Icebox.

Sarah Loftus, Make It York managing director, says: “York Ice Trail is one of the most-loved events in the city for residents and visitors alike, and we’re excited to be bringing it back for another year in 2024. 

“It’s a huge celebration of our city and businesses, and the concept will inspire everyone’s inner child, encouraging people to let their imagination run wild.” 

Icebox managing director Greg Pittard says: “Returning to York for the 2024 Ice Trail is a true honour for us. The York Ice Trail holds a special place in our hearts, and we are thrilled to bring this year’s theme to life.

“Our talented team of ice carvers pour their passion into crafting magnificent ice sculptures that will transport visitors to a world of wonder and delight.”

The 2024 ice sculptures:

Our City Of Dreams, provided by Make It York, Parliament Street.

A Field Of Dreams, Murton Park, Parliament Street.

A Journey In ice, Grand Central, Parliament Street.

City Of Trees, Dalby Forest, Parliament Street.

Chasing Rainbows, in celebration of York band Shed Seven topping the UK official album chart in January, York Mix Radio, Parliament Street.

I’m Late, I’m Late! For A Very Important Date!, Ate O’Clock, High Ousegate.

Sewing Like A Dream, Gillies Fabrics, Peter Lane.

Mythical Beasts: The Yeti, York BID, Walmgate.

Hop On Your Bike, Spark:York, Piccadilly (Spark:York will be open from 12 noon).

Belle Of The Ball, York Castle Museum, Eye of York.

Brolly Walks, The Coppergate Centre.

Supporting Our Armed Forces, Crombie Wilkinson Solicitors, Clifford Street.

Mythical Beasts: The Kraken, York BID, Micklegate (moved from King’s Staith on account of high river levels).

The Slithering Serpent, The Potions Cauldron, Middletons, Skeldergate.

Oompa Loompas, York’s Chocolate Story, Middletons, Skeldergate.

Wonkavision, City Cruises, Middletons, Skeldergate.

The Golden Ticket, filled with Terry’s Chocolate Oranges, Middletons, at Middletons, Skeldergate.

Mythical Beasts: The Phoenix, York BID, Micklegate.

Throne Of Dreams, Storage King, Station Road.

York Principal, The Principal York, Principal Gardens.

A Hat Full Of Dreams, The Grand, York, Station Rise.

Judges And Dragons, The Judge’s Lodging, Lendal.

Your Key To The National Park, North York Moors National Park, Exhibition Square.

Mythical Beasts: The Unicorn, York BID, Gillygate.

Mythical Beasts, The Hydra, York BID, Goodramgate.

The Big Bad Wolf, York Minster, Minster Piazza.

Train Of Dreams, National Railway Museum, High Petergate.

Bradley’s Jewellers’ Christmas Robin Egg, Bradley’s Jewellers, Low Petergate.

Floating Dreams, Lucia Bar, Grape Lane.

Fly Into York With P&R, York Park & Ride, St Helen’s Square.

RMS Queen Mary, Betts, Davygate.

Dreaming Of Cut And Craft, Cut And Craft, St Sampson’s Square.

Live Carving, Make It York, St Sampson’s Square.