Songs of the Countryside

A popular choice for summer music festivals, this programme contrasts arrangements of folk song with contemporary classical music. Poetry settings by Sally Beamish, Howard Skempton and Rachel Stott stand alongside Philip Cashian’s evocation of a Czech folk tale, and Zillah Myers’ recounting of a shipwreck off the North Devon coast.

Visionaries 

Diverse visionaries are represented in this programme.   From the religious mysticism of Hildegarde of Bingen, John Donne and William Blake, to the culinary writings of a 16th century lady of the manor, the audience is transported to experience beyond the everyday. Emily Doolittle and Vanessa Brown’s lively interpretations of these texts are contrasted with reflective settings of medieval verse by Gustav Holst.  

Flowing East

This programme takes the listener on a journey from the slumbering rivers of Eastern England (Simon Rowland Jones River Gods) to the vast ocean bound rivers of North America (Shenandoah) .  Vanessa Brown’s Pannes Puffes sets extracts from A Proper Newe Booke of Cookerye used by the wife of Archbishop Parker whilst exiled in East Anglia.

Songs of Mirth and Madness

This programme requires a 3rd performer. Poems by William Shakespeare, Stevie Smith, Emily Bronte and Lewis Carroll are set by Amanda Dean, Paula Gardiner and Rachel Stott.