Friday, 20 March 2009
Friday Coffee Classics
Event number: 41
Tunsgate Square Shopping Centre, 10am - 12 noon
Free Event
Take a morning coffee break and enjoy listening to some very talented young musicians from the University of Surrey at The Continental Café in Tunsgate Square Shopping Centre.
Angels on High
Event number: 42
Dance and sound installations
Guildford Cathedral, 11am - 4pm
Site-specific contemporary, ballet and Kathak dance and soundscapes permeate the Cathedral encouraging us to walk around and see things from different perspectives.
Vertical dance performance on the west face of the Cathedral tower
4pm and 7.30pm
7pm Lantern dance procession leading to evening performances
Tickets for evening events: £10 full, £8 senior citizens, £5 children/students and other concessions
Tickets are available from the Festival Box Office: 01483 444 334 or from the University Box Office: 01483 686 876.
We look to the gilded angel on the top of Guildford Cathedral to see which way the wind is blowing and the angel is a reassuring welcome for travellers approaching the town. The Cathedral is an impressive building, holding memories, memorials and traces of people and times long past. Experience some of these ghosts and resonances through unique site-specific dance and sound happenings and installations which will take place in spaces around the Cathedral throughout the day until 4pm.
Pauline Johnson, the Artistic Director of the Festival, writes:
"This is a really unusual event, so people are asking "What is actually happening at Angels on High?"
The answer is "Quite a lot!" and for me this is one of the most exciting events in the whole Festival.
We don't have exact details at the moment, as the performers are still devising their works, although you may catch the occasional glimpse of Kate Lawrence, choreographer and vertical dance performer, practising on the outside of the Cathedral Tower!
During the day, from 11 am to 12.30 pm and then again from 2.30 - 4pm there will be dance, theatre 'happenings' in various parts of the Cathedral. For example, you might listen to war-time letters from a loved one in the Regimental Chapel, follow an ex-chorister as he retraces his journey to the choir stalls and witness uncomfortable prayer rites in the Lady Chapel.
In addition, you will be able to hear soundscapes inspired by the Cathedral and its work, in different places and spaces, such as the Baptistery or the Children's' Chapel and these will run from around 10 am until 4.30 pm, with a break at 1 pm to accommodate the Communion Service.
There is no charge for these daytime performances and you are free to wander about, follow a performer, sit and watch and listen as you wish.
At 4 pm, Kate will perform her vertical dance on the Tower, which will last about 15 - 20 minutes.
But, things are a little more dramatic for the evening.
At 7pm a candle-lit lantern procession will leave the University of Surrey Piazza (opposite the main car park) and wend its way up to the Cathedral. So you can either join the procession and walk up, or wait at the Cathedral and watch the procession arrive. On arrival, there will be a short performance outside the Cathedral by the Unique Youth Dance Company, before Kate again descends the Tower and performs her vertical dance. This performance will have special lighting and music.
You are then invited go into the Cathedral for an atmospheric promenade performance lasting approximately 90 minutes. Everyone will have a different experience of the performance and the Cathedral – which will be subtly highlighted and changed by lighting effects - depending upon what you hear and what you see, and in what order you see it. Performers will include Kathak dancer, Amita Nijhawan, and Karen da Silva, both lecturers in the University of Surrey Department of Dance, Film and Theatre. The evening culminates with an inspiring and Cathedral-filling soundscape from composer Matthew Sansom
Don't worry, there will be guidance notes and information about the performers and artists. This is an amazing opportunity to look at the Cathedral from different perspectives and to think about the sounds and images that are associated with memories and memorial. It should be a really special evening."
4pm – using vertical dance on the outside of the Cathedral tower, the angel will descend to come closer to those who watch. Daytime showings are free.
6.45pm – meet and lantern assembly at University Piazza opposite the main car park.
7pm – a lantern dance procession led by Unique Youth Dance Company and local school children will wind its way up the Cathedral Hill, to watch the angel's evening descent. You will then enter the Cathedral to experience sounds and images inspired by the spaces and traces of the building. Special lighting effects will influence and change the environment and atmosphere of the building for this intriguing event.
Make your own Lantern and join the Procession – Family Lantern-making Workshop
Lantern-making workshop
14.00 - 16.30
University of Surrey Hall
Tickets £5
Bookings: University Box Office at Senate House Reception on 01483 686 876
You are invited to join a hands-on workshop to make a personal lantern under the guidance of specialist lighting artists. The workshop is suitable for all ages and places cost £5 each (to cover materials and tuition). Places are limited and can be booked via the University Box Office at Senate House Reception on 01483 686 876.
You need to wear old clothes (as the latex covering doesn't wash out!)
Keep checking the Street Processions website for further details of lantern workshops and ways to participate.
With grateful thanks to GearBox (Sound and Vision) Ltd for providing the sound equipment for this event.
8 x 6 Prometheus Ensemble and Addison Singers Chamber Choir
Event number: 43
Guildford Institute, 8pm
£7.50 full/senior citizens, £5 concessions
After a number of appearances in previous editions of GIMF with electroacoustic music and sound installations, Anthony Bonello is returning with a varied concert ranging from acoustic to acousmatic music. For this all-première-concert he will be joined by PhD researchers, Julie Ainscough, Chris Benvenuti and Jill Jarman and composers Andrew Thomas and Philip Singleton. This programme will be performed by recently formed Prometheus, a composer-linked ensemble whose main aim is to perform new pieces by composers associated with the group. Special guest performances will include the Addison Singers Chamber Choir.
- Julie Ainscough – Piano Sonata (First movt): Andante conmoto
- Chris Benvenuti – New Work
- Anthony Bonello – Hail to the Thief and his Accomplice, Political Promises, Approach, Deproach
- Jill Jarman – Clouds
- Andrew Thomas – New Work
- Philip Singleton – New Work
View more in-depth programme and composer information about the 8 x 6 event.
The Last Five Years
Event number: 44
The Electric Theatre, 8.30pm
£10
A fresh and contemporary musical from Tony-Award winning composer Jason Robert Brown, The Last Five Years chronicles a young couple's romance in a new and exciting way: her story starts at the end of their relationship; his begins on the day they met. Funny and uplifting, the show captures some of the most heart-breaking and universally felt moments of modern romance.
Following their success at Guilfest last year, Fasten Your Seatbelts are delighted to be performing at The Electric as part of the International Music Festival. Talented local performers Pippa Winslow-Rolandelli and Nate Rogers-Branch will bring this modern masterpiece to the stage of The Electric for one night only.
This amateur production is by arrangement with Joseph Weinberger Ltd on behalf of Music Theatre International of New York.
Late Night Big Band
Event number: 45
University of Surrey, PATS Studio One, 9.30pm
£6 full, £4 concessions, £3 University of Surrey Students
In a special performance the University of Surrey Big Band will perform an exciting late night set showcasing the best in Big Band music in the intimate surroundings of PATS Studio One.