PrettyInScarlett

My attempt at embroidery Two weeks, two more great events. First up a Museums at Night event including music held on 19th May. The Leeds University Library Galleries hosted an event looking at the anniversary of the Russian Revolutions. A ticketed 18+ event, there was plenty of space and time to look at the various activities.  Musically, members of the Leeds Festival Chorus performed 3 times, selections from Rachmaninov's Vespers . Spine tingling stuff and very effective use of the space in Parkinson Court.  Members of stage@leeds performed dramatic readings from eyewitness accounts of the two Revolutions. This took place in the Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery, where there is currently a special exhibition of items related to the Revolutions. Diary entries, photographs, personal belongings of British citizens resident in St Petersburg/Petrograd - all of which were referenced in the readings - the exhibition is a real eye opener and well worth a visit. Alth...

Bright sunshine and another excellent lunchtime concert. This time the programme was a selection os solo harp pieces with Hugh Webb performing. Hugh was a charming presenter as well as performer, providing interesting information behind his programme of 20th century harp music (but then, according to Hugh, the concert harp is a 20th century instrument). The programme started with the evocative En France by Marcel Tournier. Sounds of the sea - very nice anticipation of summer. Then came Benjamin Britten's Interlude from Ceremony of Carols - a clear sonic difference from Tournier, very simple and direct. Colin Matthews' Little Suite for Harp was possibly my favourite piece of the hour - 3 short movements (march, barcarole, toccata) with preludes in between - from sublime to angular. Similar to the Peter Moore lunchtime concert, the programme here demonstrated the wonderful range of the instrument. Robert Keeley's Farid left me behind a little, but Hugh's own ...

The May Day weekend saw the annual Ribble Valley Jazz and Blues festival hit Clitheroe. An amazing lineup of musicians across 17 venues for the weekend. The festival is entirely volunteer run and they did an amazing job! This year, the festival organisers had a few branch-out events including A Classical Interlude - a morning of classical guitar and an afternoon of piano.  Members of the Clitheroe Piano Meetup, myself included, were invited to perform at the Interlude concerts. They were held in Clitheroe Library - so far, so familiar as this is the venue for the regular piano group.  Multi instrumentalists John Hesketh and Ian Plested performed solo and duo guitar repertoire to a packed out room.  For the piano slot, there were 5 performers: John Hesketh, Nick Mahon, Margaret Plested, yours truly and Richard Dinsmore . The repertoire - what a selection! Somehow independently of each other we'd ended up focusing on quite a few French composers. After a more 'c...