Museuns at Night - Leeds and Aoife O'Donovan at Brudenell Social Club

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. Although the whole of the Treasures Gallery is worth multiple visits.

In one corner of the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, there was a pop-up embroidery event - anyone could participate in creating an item, either based on artifacts on display or something else!


Aoife O'Donovan

On Thursday, 25th, we discovered Brudenell Social Club thanks to Aoife O'Donovan's current tour. A really good, cosy, friendly venue and meeting place. After having seen Aoife with the I'm With Her tour it was interesting to see her performing solo. The set comprised mostly songs from In the Magic Hour and a few covers, with a couple of older songs thrown in. A super event, with good solid support from Blair Dunlop.

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Pigeon Funk

Notes on a very random purchase. Earlier today I acquired Venetian Snares 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Sz ü letett ' purely on the basis of the language and artwork. Its certainly something different - and most definitely not pop. After a bit of searching: Venetial Snares is, according to Wikipedia, the performing name of Aaron Funk, who seems to specialise in experimental tracks in odd time signatures. Article here . The sleeve notes for this album (whose title is Hungarian for 'Born under a bad star') poses the question: what if, for just a day, we could both be pigeons? Interessant. Apparently this concept (a day in the life of a Hungarian pigeon) is non-typical of Venetian Snares sound, but one could ask, does Mr Funk do 'typical'? On first listening, the sound of this CD mixes classical/traditional Hungarian sounds and breakbeats. but aside from that? Definitely a 'listen for yourself' artist; try the website , fan site or myspace .

Lang Lang: a little bit of stardust in Southam Hall

Lang Lang with Anita Pari Like many National Arts Centre regulars, the idea of a Lang Lang concert sounded fantastic... except that for me the Gala tickets are rather too expensive. As a result the turnout for today's masterclass with young artists Anita Pari (Ottawa), Alexander Malikov (Calgary), and Tina Chong (Banff) in Southam Hall was pretty good. No surprises that there were photographers and a TV camera all over the stage... so much so that during Lang's analysis of Malikov's rendition of Transcendental Étude No 8 'Wild Hunt' (Liszt), someone shouted at the cameraman to move. To my mind they seemed a little intrusive on the performances, but none of the artists seemed to take any notice. Lang Lang with Tina Chong Up first and for me the best performance was Anita Pari with the captivating Ballade No 1 by Chopin. In comparison, Malikov's performance did not have anywhere near as much projection. Final performer Tina Chong seemed

New talent at Southminster

As a follow-on from last weekend's excellent Chopin concert, there is an afternoon of New Artists from the NAC's Summer Music Institute at Southminster United Church on 17th June. Entitled 'Dover Beach and other works for summertime', the concert features new artists Katarzyna Sadej , Emily Nenninger , Drew Santini, Hannah Min, Paul Casey , Karen Kang and Bryan Wagorn. I had the chance to hear Bryan Wagorn at one of University of Ottawa's Concerts at the NAC 4th Stage concerts back in February and thoroughly enjoyed his performance. The proposed programme is very enticing: MENDELSSOHN String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13 MONIUSZKO Sen (The Dream) Prząśniczka (Spinner Girl) SZYMANOWSKI Lecioły Zórazie (The Swans Were Flying) Ściani Dumbek (The Dark Forest) CHOPIN Piosnka Litewska (Lithuanian Folksong) Moja Pieszczotka

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