RNCM Original Voices Festival
Programme
Thursday 23 March, 11.00am, RNCM Café Bar
Bach’s Coffee Cantata
Grab a latte and sit back as a family argument over coffee drinking plays out in the RNCM Café! The closest thing Bach wrote to an opera, this delightful, humorous cantata will bring thrills and spills to your morning.
Thursday 23 March, 6.00pm, RNCM Concert Hall
Kantos Chamber Choir
Hildegard von Bingen Spiritus Sanctus Vivificans
Knut Nystedt Immortal Bach
William Byrd Ave verum corpus
Roderick Williams Ave verum corpus Re-imagined
Traditional How lovely is thy dwelling place
Caroline Shaw And the swallow*
Barbara Strozzi arr Slorach Che si può fare?
Arvo Pärt Bogoroditse devo
Sergei Rachmaninov Bogoroditse devo
Thomas Tallis If ye love me (in canon)
Traditional Improvisation on Amazing Grace
Ellie Slorach director
Alexander Rebetge assistant conductor*
Thursday 23 March 2023, 7.00pm, Carole Nash Recital Room
Ariadne – A Modern Woman
An immersive musical experience like no other! Walk through a maze of mystery and intrigue that plays on our emotional response to abandonment amidst the sound world of Haydn’s cantata for solo voice, Arianna a Naxos.
Thursday 23 March, 8.00pm, RNCM Concert Hall
RNCM ArkEnsemble
Antonio Vivaldi/Max Richter Spring from the Four Seasons
Nina Simone Dambala
Casals/traditional Song of the Birds
Duke Ellington Jubillee Stomp
Maurice Ravel Bolero
Dimitri Shostakovich Gadfly
Michael Nyman Hotel de la Ville
All arranged by Rob Buckland
Friday 24 March, 7.00pm, Carole Nash Recital Room
Soundseeing
Experience live music in a whole new way. Join the Talland Quartet and Lili Holland-Fricke for an interactive workshop where you’ll learn to visualise and paint the sounds you hear in an exciting evening of music.
To include:
Joseph Haydn String Quartet in B minor Op 64 No 2
Friday 24 March, 8.00pm
Goldberg Variations with Henning Kraggerud (violin)
To include:
Edvard Grieg arr Kraggerud/Lund Violin Sonata No 3 in C minor Op 45 for chamber orchestra
J S Bach arr Kraggerud/Lund Goldberg Variations (selections)
Henning Kraggerud director, violin
RNCM Chamber Orchestra
See all events in RNCM Original Voices Festival.
The RNCM is committed to reducing its carbon footprint. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved so far but know we need to do more as we work to create a more sustainable world. One way we can make a huge difference is to minimise the number of printed programmes and free sheets we produce each season.
This is why we’ve decided to move away from mass produced, single use print for most of our events, offering an online programme of up-to-date information instead. Additionally, many of our concerts now include a personal introduction by members of staff and students, which gives insight into the repertoire performed as well as an opportunity to get to know our community a little more.
Where printed programmes are still required, such as RNCM Opera performances and end of term showcases, content is thoughtfully produced using limited resources. An online option is also available for those wishing to support our mission.
We always welcome feedback from our audience members and would like to thank everyone who has supported our mission so far.
Biographies
Kantos Chamber Choir
Kantos Chamber Choir was founded in 2015 by Ellie Slorach. The choir comprises the top choral singers across the North who have begun or are about to begin their professional careers. Kantos has rapidly risen to the forefront of choral singing in Manchester and the North West.
We shake up the long-standing tradition of choral music by presenting well-known works in new and innovative ways and by championing new choral music.
In addition to our own concerts, Kantos regularly records for BBC Radio (Daily Service and Sunday Worship programmes) and performs and records with orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Northern Ballet Sinfonia.
Kantos is versatile. In one season, the choir toured with Gary Numan, performing at the Royal Albert Hall, and performed a world première devised concert experience ‘The Lancashire Witch Trials’ at the Pendle Heritage Centre and Lancaster Castle.
We are committed to ensuring choral music is accessible to a wider, more diverse audience. Our events are for keen classical music fans and brand new audience members alike.
We aim to shake up the tradition of choral music and perform at a professional level in the North, where there are currently no full-time professional chamber choirs.
ArkEnsemble
Taking inspiration from the RNCM’s Platform partners The Netherlands Wind Ensemble, and Rob’s work with groups such as the Michael Nyman Band, London Saxophonic and the Apollo Saxophone Quartet, the ArkEnsemble comprises two of each of the main wind instrument families: two flutes (doubling piccolo and alto flute), two oboes (doubling cor anglais), two bassoons (doubling contra), two clarinets (doubling bass/Eb), two saxophones (doubling SATB as required), two trumpets (doubling flugel, Eb etc), two French horns, two trombones (including bass), two percussion, and double bass/bass guitar, conducted by Rob Buckland.
Engaging and striking presentation is a major part of the group’s performance, with players in individual concert dress, all players standing, theatrical elements introduced into the performances, and stylish lighting designs incorporated into the production.
The repertoire draws from an incredibly wide-ranging and open-minded legacy of music for winds and beyond: its début concert featured music by Mozart to Moondog, Martland, Andriessen, Nyman and Torke and original works by Rob Buckland, Will Gregory, and other crossover composers.
The group is also designed to be both a vehicle for the RNCM composers, and for collaboration with a wide range of artists as part of its ongoing development – jazz and pop artists, dance, voice, poetry, film, electronics etc are expected to form part of these collaborations as the group’s repertoire grows. It is anticipated that one concert per year will focus on one such new initiative, whilst other performances and outreach will draw on more standard orchestrations.
In tandem with the artistic programme, this group will lead outreach performance and workshop activities with hubs and specialist music centres around the UK.
Regular appearances as part of the RNCM performance programme will include a lunchtime concert each autumn, which will drive the development and realisation of new programmes and collaborations that will be part of that year’s additional concert programmes.
Henning Kraggerud
Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud is Artistic Director of the Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. His extraordinary reach as an artist is a result of his versatility and passion for music, as well as the genuine quality to his playing and the beauty of his performances. His teaching and educational writings provide fascinating insights into his multi-faceted approach to music-making, while his composing, arranging and improvising – frequently bringing his own works into the concert hall – recall the spirit of the old masters such as Josef Suk and Eugène Ysaÿe.
In the 18/19 season, Henning was Artist in Residence with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Norway and the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland. His eminence as a soloist and play/director have led to invitations time and again to many of the world’s most significant orchestras, most recently the Toronto Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Danish National Symphony, Tonkünstler Vienna, BBC Scottish Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony and Macao orchestras. Highlights of the current season include debuts with the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein, Orchestra della Toscana, Royal Danish Opera orchestra and Kuopio Symphony. Henning also returns to Helsingborg Symphony and Vancouver Symphony orchestras and appears with Camerata Salzburg and Janine Jansen at the Salzburg Mozartwoche and on tour in Germany.
Henning is a prolific composer whose works are performed by many prominent musicians and orchestras around the globe. His largest-scale work to date is entitled Equinox: 24 Postludes in All Keys for Violin and String Orchestra. Commissioned, premiered and recorded by the Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra with Henning as soloist, the work was composed as a musical counterpart to a story specially written by world-famous author Jostein Gaarder, and has been hailed as “a fascinating composition to return to over and over again” (MusicWeb International). In 2017, Henning composed a violin/piano version of Equinox, which was premiered in Norway in 2018 with pianist Clare Hammond and Jostein Gaarder narrating.
Henning’s output as a composer also includes Preghiera, commissioned and performed by the Brodsky Quartet in 2012, and The Last Leaf, given its first performance in 2014 by the Britten Sinfonia, as well as cadenzas for two of Haydn’s cello concertos commissioned by Clemens Hagen in 2015 and Victimae Paschali for choir and orchestra commissioned by the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival. In 2017, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra commissioned and performed Topelius Variations for string orchestra, which Henning performed again later that year in an extensive national tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
With his ever-present spirit of discovery, Henning gave the 21st century premiere of the Johan Halvorsen Violin Concerto with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra at the 2016 Risør Chamber Music Festival. Originally premiered in 1909, the concerto was subsequently considered lost until its re-discovery over 100 years later. Henning went on to play the work with the Oslo and Bergen Philharmonic orchestras, and in 2017 released a recording on the Naxos label with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Bjarte Engeset, leading BBC Radio 3’s Record Review to comment, “It’s difficult to imagine more ardent advocates for this sleeping beauty of a piece”. In the current season, Henning gives the first ever performances of the work in Poland with the Poznan Philharmonic and in Finland with the Kymi Sinfonietta.
Henning regularly performs on both violin and viola at major festivals and venues; recent collaborations have taken place at Wigmore Hall, King’s Place, Bruges Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus and Budapest’s kamara.hu festival, with artists such as Steven Isserlis, Joshua Bell, Lawrence Power, Leif Ove Andsnes, Håvard Gimse, Kathryn Stott, Natalie Clein, Christian Ihle Hadland, Christian Poltéra and Jeremy Menuhin. In the 18/19 season, Henning tours the UK with Adrian Brendel and Imogen Cooper, including a return to Wigmore Hall.
In 2015, Henning became International Chair in Violin at the RNCM, and in 2017 received a Fellowship. Passionate about musical education, Henning is a Professor at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo, and in 2018 was a jury member at the Menuhin Competition in Geneva, where he also performed the opening concert with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Marin Alsop. This season, he is a jury member at the Leeds Piano Competition.
Henning’s eclectic discography includes many recordings on the Naxos label. His Naxos recording of Mozart Concertos Nos. 3, 4 and 5 with the Norwegian Chamber orchestra included Henning’s own cadenzas, and was awarded an ECHO Klassik Award as well as chosen as Classic FM’s Album of the Week, NDR Kultur’s CD of the Week, Editor’s Choice in Classical Music Magazine, Recommended in The Strad, and featured on BBC Radio 3’s Record Review.
On the Simax label, Henning’s most recent release is a collaboration with the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra and world-famous author Erik Fosnes Hansen. Entitled Between the Seasons, the disc features Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons interspersed with Henning’s own compositions. Also for Simax, Henning has recorded the complete solo sonatas of Ysaÿe, on a disc which won the prestigious Spellemann CD award. On the ACT label, he released a disc entitled Last Spring which explored improvisations on Norwegian folk music with jazz pianist Bugge Wesseltoft. This season, the two artists re-join for a performance at Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic.
Born in Oslo in 1973, Henning studied with Camilla Wicks and Emanuel Hurwitz. He is a recipient of the Grieg Prize, the Ole Bull Prize and the Sibelius Prize.
Henning Kraggerud plays on a 1744 Guarneri del Gesù, provided by Dextra Musica AS. This company is founded by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB.
Personnel
Bach's Coffee Cantata
Henry Strutt Narrator
Georgie Malcolm Lieschen
Jonny Hill Schlendrian
Andrew Taheny, Leda Mileto violins
Susanna Ward viola
Nathan Jackson-Turner cello
Edward Campbell-Rowntree harpsichord
Philip Turner theorbo
Kantos Chamber Choir
Sarah Keirle
Megan Rickard
Clara Phelps
Camilla Seale
Georgie Malcolm
Jess Conway
Peter Hicks
Louise Wood
Rachel Gilmore
Andrew Morton
Louis de Satge
Joseph Taylor
Matt Pope
Matt Secombe
Harry Mobbs
Edmund Philips
Patrick Osborne
Ariadne – A Modern Woman
Phoebe Watts Ariadne
Daniel Pugh-Bevan piano
ArkEnsemble
FLUTES
Jack Rainey
Jessie-May Wilson (picc)
OBOES
Mariam Jackson
Will Graham (cor)
CLARINET
Laurel Saunders
Josh Pyman (bass)
BASSOONS
Will Hartley
Ruiying Wang (contra)
SAXOPHONES
Laura Kjaergaard
Matthew Hodson
HORNS
Chak Hin Lo
Ziying Chen
TRUMPETS
Freddie Ball
Andrew Farrow
TROMBONES
Rachel Wong
Jack Holmes
BASS
Harvey Falla
PERCUSSION
Calum Montgomery
Oscar Williams
Soundseeing
Lili Holland-Fricke workshop leader
Dylan Edge, Orla McGarrity violins
Ben Norris viola
Nathan Jackson-Turner cello
RNCM Chamber Orcehstra
FIRST VIOLINS
Henning Kraggerud
Jasmine Morris
Dylan Edge
Nathan Fenwick
Elana Kenyon-Gewirtz
Becky Cheung
Katie Jankinson
Ines Ferreira
Robert Bates
SECOND VIOLINS
Dylan Latham
Sean Morrison
Julia Sandros-Alper
Rachel Stonham
Charlotte Sweeney
Emily Tomlinson
Sam Kane
VIOLAS
Sarah Greene
Hannah Borlase
Tom Broadbent
Rhiannon Collins
CELLOS
Fangning Dong
Ellen Quinn
James Conway
Kara Taylor
BASSES
Marcus de Oliveira
Bryn Davies
Marcelo NunesRodrigues
FLUTES
Bogdan Jeler
Naomi Robinson
OBOES
Charlotte Soerland
Anna Miroslaw
CLARINETS
Samuel Austin
Lauren Ellis
BASSOONS
Beatriz Carvalho
Zhicheng Cao
FRENCH HORNS
Abbie Young
Sophie Hearson
TRUMPETS
Grace Harman
Isabel Thompson
TIMPANI
Simone Herbert-Moores
