What's On

Speakers

Professor Wiebke Thormählen Royal Northern College of Music
Professor Jeanice Brooks University of Southampton
Sarah Cleave Manchester Metropolitan University

About

Country House Legends: Imagining Unsung Voices at Erddig
During an afternoon of poetry, music, and sound immersion, we will explore Erddig Hall, the long-time country seat of the Yorke family. Located near Wrexham in North Wales, and among the National Trust’s most fascinating houses, it is richly layered with sights, sounds, and stories from 300 years of habitation. Four poets and creative writers will share their re-imaginings of these stories through sounds, imagery, and the spoken word.

This performance-based Research Forum presents work undertaken during the project ‘Hearing History: Writing the Sounds of Erddig’, an RNCM- and University of Southampton Impact Accelerator–funded project following the large AHRC project ‘Music, Home, and Heritage’. The project explored country houses through their sounding past to investigate how sounds give space to unseen voices and narratives. ‘Hearing History’ asked creative writers and composers to bring these voices to life, and it tests how to present their creations through new immersive publication technology combined with traditional print. In this forum, we will introduce the audience to this technology and celebrate the creative outputs in their live forms.

Introduction, concept, and design
Wiebke Thormählen
Jeanice Brooks
Sarah Cleave

Poets
Theo Langdale (with sounds by Sophia Hurst)
Guruleen Khalo
Iris Skipworth
Cherry Eckel

Composers
James Waide
Colin Wu

Performers
Katrina Kackenzie soprano
Harvey Davies harpsichord
Jason Cheung, Barry Lo natural horn
Talland String Quartet
Stephen Brown, Emma Clarke, Cherry Eckles, Theo Langdale, Iris Skipworth, James Waide narration (dir. Emma Clarke)

Video and Sound installation
Bofan Ma

Tickets

Free admission, no ticket required

This event will end at approximately 5.30pm.