Northumbrian Voices touring

Some lovely comments posted here from audience members at Chelmsford, Halesworth and Farnham – thank you!

Northumbrian Voices

If you’d like to come to one of the Northumbrian Voices shows touring the UK this autumn please  contact venues as soon as you can; some performances have sold out and others are getting very full. The show is based on recordings Kathryn’s done over the years with family members and the older generation of musicians from whom she learnt. Kathryn says, “It’s not just a nostalgic look back to the past though. Many of the people whose words we are using are still alive and very much of the modern age: my neighbour, my cousin — both Northumbrian farmers. When I play tunes I am very aware of their context and of the people I learnt the tunes from. I always wish that audiences could meet some of the people I learnt from — they were such characters — and this show feels as if we are letting those people speak.”  If you’re at Sage Gateshead this Friday or Saturday we’d love to know what you think about the show — please do post a comment! A few responses from the audience at a work in progress in August:

“Absolutely blown away… It was just terrific. So powerful.”

“So moving, so special.”

“A night I will remember for a long time. I was totally transfixed.”

“I was hooked from the first second. The whole piece was so rich and perfectly paced.”

The author David Almond (Skellig, Kit’s Wilderness) was moved to comment: “History, ecology, music, myth… the local and the universal. This is beautiful and important work.”

The ensemble:

Kathryn Tickell — Northumbrian pipes, fiddle, voice

Mike Tickell — voice

Kit Haigh — guitar, piano

Patsy Reid — fiddle

Julian Sutton — melodeon

Hannah Rickard – voice

Northumbrian Voices is directed by Kathryn Tickell and Annie Rigby (Unfolding Theatre) and is supported by Arts Council England.

BBC Proms reviews

A fantastic night at the BBC Proms for Kathryn and band (Peter Tickell, Joss Clapp, Amy Thatcher), The Wilson Family, Northern Sinfonia, the ‘transcendental’ June Tabor, and the BBC Singers. A five star review in The Guardian, a great review at www.theartsdesk.com and some lovely Tweets: “her great great band raising the roof — the standing Prom goers don’t move like that for anyone.” The BBC Four crew were totally enthused by the performance and you can see the broadcast on 14 August.

BBC Proms, TV & radio

Kathryn’s live on TV BBC Breakfast on Tuesday 2 August. She’s then on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour in advance of the BBC Proms that evening. If you’re at the Prom or hear the TV/radio broadcasts, please post a comment! Wish Kathryn luck in advance, or share thoughts about the concert!

Kathryn leads the way into the musical world of Percy Grainger and his fascinating and varied responses to folk music. June Tabor, The Wilson Family, Northern Sinfonia, the BBC Singers and the Kathryn Tickell Band join forces for an entertaining night!

The concert is broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, online live and ‘listen again’ options at bbc.co.uk/proms and recorded for TV broadcast on BBC Four on 14 August.

Kathryn was interviewed earlier this year for the Proms programme:

“The thing about Grainger is the exhilaration you get listening to his arrangements. The way he treats folk music is never twee.” The Northumbrian smallpipes player and the guiding force behind this celebration of the Australian’s folk-music explorations could be forgiven for her opinion that some composers used the traditional music of these islands to present a ‘chocolate-box’ view of the peasantry. “There’s a tendency to treat traditional melodies in a rather worthy and slightly patronising way. Grainger absolutely did not have that attitude. He would choose tunes that maybe weren’t the most beautiful but use them as vehicles for his creativity. The way he orchestrates and arranges this music makes me listen to it with absolute awe and admiration — and jubilation.”  Since beginning to research Grainger, Tickell says she has found his approach to folk music “quirky and outrageous and very unconventional,” which suits his material well. “His music can have quite a bit of aggression about it, of fierceness, but at the same time a lot of humour.” And it’s addictive, too: “The only problem is that there’s so much material I was desperate to include. I could do a whole week of Percy Grainger and his folk music!”

BBC Radio 3 ‘Hear and Now’

Saturday 23rd July at 22.30, BBC Radio 3’s Hear and Now features Kathryn’s performance at Bath International Music Festival earlier this year, where she and Joanna MacGregor, with the Navarra Quartet, played new music based on Northumbrian folk tunes by composers Howard Skempton, Peter Maxwell Davies and Michael Finnissy. The presenter Sara Mohr Pietsch also travelled up to Kathryn’s home in Northumberland to talk to her about traditional tunes brought into contemporary composition.

BBC Radio 3, ‘In Tune’

Kathryn plays live on BBC Radio 3, 15 July at 17.30 in a special broadcast of ‘In Tune’, from the Royal College of Music. Alongside other featured Proms artists Kathryn will be talking about the Prom on 2 August when she will be hosting an evening of Percy Grainger’s work. The programme is streamed live on the BBC Radio 3 website, and will be available as ‘audio on demand’ for seven days after the broadcast.

Durham Brass 9th July & BBC Proms 2nd August

Trimdon Concert Brass Band perform a new work by Kathryn, based on the jolly Bobby Shaftoe tune! at Durham Brass Festival this Saturday, 9 July, 2pm, at the Miners’ Gala. Also, a reminder about tickets for the BBC Proms, 2 August, hosted by Kathryn: an adventurous romp through Percy Grainger’s work performed by the Kathryn Tickell Band, June Tabor, The Wilson Family, the BBC Singers and Northern Sinfonia, conducted by John Harle. 10.15pm at the Royal Albert Hall, tickets £12 — £16. For booking information go to BBC Proms.

If you can’t make it, listen live on BBC Radio 3 (listen online for 7 days after broadcast. Watch on BBC Four on 14th August (watch online for 7 days after broadcast).

A lovely feature on Kathryn is coming up in BBC Music Magazine: ‘Music that Changed Me’ where she chooses five pieces/performances/composers who have changed her musical life. On sale from 12th July.

Durham Brass Festival

On Monday 4th July, 7.15pm, Kathryn will be interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Front Row’. She will be talking about her new piece for the Trimdon Concert Brass Band, to be performed at the Miners’ Gala as part of Durham Brass Festival.

The festival thought of asking Kathryn to write a new tune as they knew her grandfather worked at Bowburn Colliery. The Durham Miners’ Gala (pronounced ‘gaila’) grew out of miners’ trade unionism and the first Gala was in 1871. At its peak 300,000 miners, their families and friends attended, marching each colliery’s banner through the streets, accompanied by brass bands. In The Journal Kathryn recalls going to the Gala with her grandparents (plus photos from a recent band rehearsal). The Trimdon Concert Brass Band will play the new piece at Durham Miners’ Gala on Saturday 9th July at 2pm.

Kathryn at the BBC Proms

Kathryn heads an evening at the BBC Proms on 2 August. She’s had Percy Grainger in her sights over recent months and was invited by the BBC Proms to select work for ‘a fresh look at the prodigious activities of this wild colonial boy’! The evening features the Kathryn Tickell Band, June Tabor, The Wilson Family, the BBC Singers and Northern Sinfonia, conducted by John Harle. Booking opens on 7 May. The performance will be live on BBC Radio 3 and recorded for broadcast on BBC Four on 14 August.

New show touring this autumn

Northumbrian Voices is based on interviews and recordings Kathryn has done over the years with rural Northumbrians, including her own family members. Tunes and songs feature alongside witty and moving anecdotes delivered by Kathryn, her father Mike Tickell and a superb ensemble of musicians and singers. The show promises an evening that is genuine, inventive and as lively as the communities from which the material has been gathered. With three generations of musicians on stage, this is very much a personal project for Kathryn – and we’re delighted it’s supported by the Arts Council of England. See Live Dates for autumn shows confirmed so far.