Orchestras Live at the heart of the BBC Music Nation weekend
Orchestras Live is a partner in Music Nation – a nationwide weekend of live music events across the UK on 3 & 4 March 2012. Music Nation is a nationwide weekend of live music events held across the UK on 3 & 4 March 2012. Devised and led by the BBC, Music Nation is the first nationwide countdown event to the London 2012 Festival.
Built around classical and orchestral music, but also featuring jazz, folk and world music, Music Nation will see thousands of musicians and audiences enjoy world-class performances, community projects and workshops in venues and public places up and down the country. Music Nation is a partnership with the BBC, Arts Council England, the Association of British Orchestras, British Association of Concert Halls, Orchestras Live, Making Music, Conservatoires UK and LOCOG to celebrate the richness, diversity and excellence of Britain’s musical life.
Orchestras Live is directly involved in two Music Nation projects:
Music Nation: Orchestras Live - a celebration of the best of British chamber orchestras performing innovative programmes across England. Orchestras Live is co-promoting eight concerts at eight locations with six orchestras over the weekend.
Music Nation: Invocation – a co-commission by Orchestras Live and sinfonia ViVA of a new piece for solo cellist, solo contemporary African dancer and orchestra by Tunde Jegede to be premiered at Derby Assembly Rooms on Saturday 3 March.
BBC Radio 3, Music Nation’s principal media partner, is dedicating its weekend programming to Music Nation with additional programming across the weekend on Radio 1, 1xtra, BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC local radio. For further details on all the events visit the BBC Music Nation website
Music Nation: Orchestras Live includes...
Saturday 3 March
Academy of Ancient Music at Ludlow Assembly Rooms
The Scottish Ensemble at Christ Church, Cockermouth
European Union Chamber Orchestra at Stamford Arts Centre
Sunday 4 March
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at Wiltshire Music Centre
Northern Chamber Orchestra in Shrewsbury
The Scottish Ensemble at City Hall, Hull
Academy of Ancient Music at The Apex, Bury St Edmunds
Aurora Orchestra at St George’s Bristol
Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford on Avon will collaborate with the South West Music School and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in a dual event, a BCMG concert of British and internationally influential composers and a performance project with SWMS young players.
Audiences in Stamford, Lincolnshire, will hear the European Union Chamber Orchestra in a programme that will include a new commission by EUCO from international composer, James Young.
In collaboration with Cockermouth Music Society and Hull City Halls, the Scottish Ensemble will work with trumpeter Alison Balsom, including a new work written for her by James MacMillan.
Audiences in Bury St Edmonds and Ludlow will enjoy a world class programme by the Academy of Ancient Music and award winning young violinist, Alina Ibragimova.
In Shrewsbury, the Northern Chamber Orchestra and Rafael Wallfisch will perform the world premiere of a new cello concerto by John Joubert alongside a programme of work by Sibelius, Delius and Mozart.
The contribution by Orchestras Live to the Music Nation weekend complements the plans by other larger ensembles working in urban areas because our concerts will be delivered in predominantly rural areas which are relatively under served by orchestral music and will offer opportunities for audiences and participants in those communities to experience the work of some of the best British chamber orchestras live on their doorstep.
The planned BBC Radio 3 schedule for Music Nation: Orchestras Live is as follows:
- Excerpts from the concerts on Saturday 3 March by Scottish Ensemble in Cockermouth and the Academy of Ancient Music in Ludlow will be broadcast on Sunday 4 March as part of a morning compilation.
- Highlights from Northern Chamber Orchestra’s afternoon concert in Shrewsbury on Sunday 4 March will be broadcast at 6.30pm on the same day.
- Highlights from Aurora Orchestra’s afternoon concert in Bristol on Sunday 4 March will be broadcast at 9.30pm on the same day.
Music Nation: Invocation sees Orchestras Live and sinfonia ViVA co-commissioning a new piece by Tunde Jegede. Invocation, for solo cellist, solo contemporary African dancer, and orchestra, will be premiered at Derby Assembly Rooms on Saturday 3 March.
Invocation, a brand new piece by composer Tunde Jegede with dancer Bode Lawal, is a ritualistic piece rooted in the Yoruba religious belief system of the Orisha, which is still practised in Nigeria and throughout the African Diaspora including such places as Brazil, Cuba and the USA. The use of divination and trance in the invocation of ancestral spiritual forces is traditionally always portrayed and expressed through movement, dance and music.
Invocation is a concerto for solo cello, orchestra, African percussion and a solo contemporary African dancer. The music will be driven by the infectious rhythms and musical language of the Yoruba translated and interpreted into the orchestral domain. It will draw from the musical phraseology of instruments from the Sahara region such as the Riti (African violin) and Yoruba percussion traditions. References from the Western classical tradition include the Rite of Spring, and the Kabalevsky and Shostakovich Cello Concertos.
The piece features a dialogue between the solo cellist and the dancer, where they are sometimes juxtaposed against one another and at other times harmonised to a unified interpretation of the music. The orchestra will be complimented by an ensemble of three percussionists to give a bedrock of Yoruba musical phraseology for the dancer.
This new piece will be coupled with a performance of the Rite of Spring. A new choreography will be commissioned from Tom Dale to accompany the orchestral performance of Stravinsky’s work. This will be performed by Bounceback, Déda’s auditioned gifted and talented dance group.
