4x4 puts young talent in the driving seat once again
Friday, 8 May 2009
Whilst their summer International Festival & Academy continues to be profiled as one of the UK’s premier music events, Lake District Summer Music is no longer confined to working in the summer.
From 25 to 30 May, LDSM’s 4x4 project brings one of the world’s finest vocal ensembles, The Orlando Consort, to Cumbria. The 4 performers will be workshopping and performing works written especially for this project by 4 of the top emerging professional composers in the UK, hence ‘4x4’.
Young composers are often fortunate to have 15 or 20 minutes to work with an ensemble of such international calibre. 4x4 provides then with unrivalled access over 5 days. For the four, including Cumbrian-born Phillip Cooke, this is just the sort of career-enhancing opportunity you need if you are trying to develop into a world-class composer.
There is also plenty for audiences with three public events during the 4x4 programme, including opportunities to ‘get behind’ the creative process and understand the challenges and thrills of creating new work.
The 4x4 engine is fired up on Tuesday 26 May at 7.30pm at Ambleside Parish Church with a concert of works from both the 15th century and more modern times. At 7.30pm on the 28th at Sedbergh School, the residency’s base, radio personality Chris da Souza will be exploring how composers have gone about the setting of the Ave Maria text over six centuries. Finally, also in Sedbergh, new works by the four composers gets their first public airing in a showcase concert introduced by leading UK composer John Casken at noon on Saturday 30 May. All three events include performances by The Orlando Consort.
Tickets and full details are available through the LDSM Box Office at Stricklandgate House in Kendal, by calling 08456 44 21 44, or you can book online here.
