Steel Skies workshop & performance with Alistair Anderson

[Valmai Goodyear]

Dear Everyone,

 

Happy New Year! Booking for this extremely special weekend in Lewes, Sussex, UK is now open. On the Sunday evening there will be an informal performance of the suite followed by an informal session for players and listeners. On the Saturday evening Alistair Anderson performs solo at the Lewes Saturday Folk Club (floor spots available). For anyone needing accommodation I recommend http://www.lewesbandb.co.uk/accommodation/lewes-town/, which has bed and breakfast places at reasonable rates.

 

Lewes Saturday Folk Club Workshop No 144

STEEL SKIES 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 www.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

[Valmai Goodyear]

The music is now ready to be sent out when people book. Alistair writes:

 

'I don’t think we should ask people to decide on bits they want to do until we are all together and can decide what will make best use of the sounds and skills available - part of the fun is rearranging the whole thing and seeing what we come up with - it might be better than the original...

 

However if some people decide that they definitely don’t want to tackle some pieces then that’s fine and they shouldn’t panic and burn midnight oil on a section that doesn’t work for them.'

 

My apologies for putting this in the wrong section of the board - it should really have been in Public News & Announcements.

 

Valmai

[Valmai Goodyear]

The workshop is now just over half full. It's for any melody instrument, so do pass on the details to friends who play something other than concertina. One of the chaps who's signed up is bringing a vibraphone (and is a a very good player).

 

Valmai

[Valmai Goodyear]

We have one workshop place left.

 

As well as performing at the Lewes Saturday Folk Club on the Saturday night (£8 for non-workshopppers) Alistair directs the performance of Steel Skies at the Elephant & Castle the following night.

 

Admission for this is £2 for non-workshoppers. The performance starts at 7.30 and will last about an hour. There will then be a short interval followed by an informal session for anyone with an instrument, whether or not they've taken part in the workshop.

 

Valmai