On 13 Mar 2011 at 4:53pm Julia Squeezer wrote:
Lewes Saturday Folk Club Workshop No 144
STEEL SKIES SUITE:
WORKSHOP & PERFORMANCE
for any instrument, with
ALISTAIR ANDERSON
Places £60 for 2 days, £35 for 1 day
Saturday /Sunday 19/20th. March 2011
10.45 a.m.- 4.45 p.m.
Elephant & Castle White Hill Lewes BN7 2DJ vvvvvv.lewessaturdayfolkclub.org/
This is a very special opportunity to spend two days working on the music of Alistair Anderson's Steel Skies under the composer's direction, with a final performance early on the Sunday evening. Admission to this will be £2 for listeners. The full performance takes just under an hour. There will be an informal session afterwards.
Music reading is essential.
ON SATURDAY 19th. MARCH IN THE EVENING
ALISTAIR ANDERSON PERFORMS AT THE ELEPHANT & CASTLE
Admission £6 for workshoppers, £8 others.
Advance tickets from address at end of this form.
Provisional Timetable for both days
10.45 Registration & coffee; please order lunch
at the bar (refreshments not included)
12.30 - 13.30 Lunch
15.00 Tea/coffee break
16.45 Finish
N.B. Booking is recommended as numbers are limited. Music will be sent in advance & maps & accommodation lists on request.
The performance on Sunday evening will start at 7.30 p.m. and will have finished by 8.30 p.m, after which there will be an informal session for performers and listeners together. Admission is £2 for listeners.
More information about Alistair Anderson and Steel Skies follows the booking form below.
ALISTAIR ANDERSON STEEL SKIES WORKSHOP
Saturday /Sunday 19/20th. March 2011
BOOKING FORM
I would like to attend the workshops on:
Saturday Sunday Both days
I enclose a cheque for £60 or £35 (refreshments not included).
Name:
Address:
Telephone:
E-mail address:
Tick for map: Tick for accommodation list:
No. of tickets @ £6 or £8 for evening performance (include SAE for these):
Please make cheques payable to Lewes Arms Folk Club (that's right) and send with this booking form to: Valmai Goodyear,
20, St. John's Terrace, LEWES,
East Sussex BN7 2DL
ALISTAIR ANDERSON
Alistair Anderson has been at the forefront of the performance of traditional music for over three decades. Internationally acknowledged as the leading performer on the English Concertina, he has taken the music of Northumberland to new audiences around the world, touring extensively throughout Europe, and has no less than 35 tours of America to his credit. As well as championing the traditional music and musicians of the area he has a growing reputation as a composer of new music rooted in the local traditions. He also plays the Northumbrian pipes. He founded the Newcastle University Traditional Music Degree course and remains one of the most uplifting and inspiring performers of the music.
STEEL SKIES
Alistair Anderson's first major composition Steel Skies (1982) is a suite of pieces based on traditional forms and inspired by the landscapes and townscapes of his native area of Newcastle and Northumberland. The CD has recently been re-released by Topic Records as part of their 70th. anniversary celebrations.
The sold-out performances at Newcastle Festival and London??s Purcell Room caused quite a stir in 1982. Indeed the success of these, and subsequent performances, led to Alistair Anderson creating South Bank Summer Folk: a week-long celebration of folk within a high profile classical music festival. Although this event stopped when Margaret Thatcher disbanded the Greater London Council, the success of the festival led directly to Alistair Anderson being asked by Northern Arts to set up Folkworks, an organisation which went on to help introduce a whole new generation to traditional music and became one of the founding partners of The Sage Gateshead.
STEEL SKIES 1982 REVIEWS
Inspired by the traditional music of these islands, Anderson??s interweaving melodic lines on concertina, Northumbrian pipes, flute, mandolin and two fiddles produce a ??fluid living work? (Daily Telegraph). Hugely influential at the time and described by the Guardian as ??the finest recent original contribution to the tradition of English music,? the recent reissue on CD has rekindled interest in the work.
STEEL SKIES 2010 REVIEWS
??Anderson??s vision in creating a fully realised new work, drawn from and naturally embedded into the musical traditions of the British Isles, gains even more significance as the years pass. Anderson is, of course a master of the English concertina and pretty hot on the Northumbrian pipes. Yet it is the complete entity that is so impressive and even now the range and balance of Anderson??s melodies take your breath away.? Colin Irwin Froots
??This was one of the first attempts at a composed musical folk soundscape, which seek to evoke the spirit of a particular area and it remains one of the most successful. For me its greatness lies in its lack of sentimentality... The tunes are largely unaccompanied in the conventional contemporary sense of strumming guitars or vamping piano or accordion, but solo instruments weave their polyphonic magic managing to be both evocative and invigorating? Jon Boden
Steel Skies 1982 reviews
??Bravely Anderson has decided to break with the traditional mould of unison melody playing... and a complex trelliswork of harmonies is created. All in all this is a delightful landmark in the development of folk music? The Scotsman
??Anderson has achieved what many others have tried without success. He has composed a work which, while remaining rooted deeply in the traditional music of his region of Britain, contains neither pastiche nor attempts to fuse irreconcilable elements. The melodic lines of songs without words give way to dance patterns enriched by unexpected harmonies and delightful combinations of instruments. It is a fluid living work, which will yield even more riches with successive performances.? Daily Telegraph
On 13 Mar 2011 at 10:40pm Julia Squeezer wrote:
Here's a video of Alistiar having a bit of fun on stage with some students from the Newcastle University traditional music degree course. It includes David Newey, the guitarist who did a workshop for us on Saturday 12th. March and played magnificently in the evening with the fiddler Tom McConville.
h++p://vvvvvv.youtube.com/watch?v=-JkWXIV6LYU