Song Company Newsletter June 2011
The Song Company at rehearsal, Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour
OCTOBER 2011
Hello!
Spring is in the air at last and there is a spring in our step as we approach the last major project for the year, the sweetest, nicest, yet most intriguing undertaking for some time. A new collaboration always brings new excitement to the fore. Even a well established one such as our work with William Barton …
Congratulations to Principals and the Song Company. Thank you for your support, Principals. This is a winning partnership that demonstrates excellence. The SME Award recognises best practice partnerships between businesses employing fewer than 200 people (globally) and arts and cultural organisations. We enjoyed a wonderful evening, hosted by Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir, AC CVO Governor of New South Wales at Government House. The Song Company and Principals are now finalists in the national AbaF Awards so please keep you fingers crossed for us when these are announced in Perth in October.
Watch an interview with Roland Peelman as he shares the stories behind the 2011 season, Voices Unearthed
Watch us here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5HN2An81-U
The last two weeks have been a whirlwind but the show is getting better and better with every performance. We opened in Orange to a keen audience of about 300 and we couldn’t have been happier!
We performed amidst vats in a winery in Bathurst, sold out the City Gallery in Wollongong, managed to miss the storms in Canberra and STILL get excellent numbers at the Street Theatre.
We received a standing ovation from our dear friends in Newcastle last night and tonight it’s onwards to the Glasshouse in Port Macquarie. We’re thrilled to be returning to Port Macquarie for the first time since 2005! Our final performance is at City Recital Hall Angel Place on Sunday afternoon before kicking back and sharing a few Christmas drinks.
After three weeks of touring around this diverse country and 10 performances (in 10 regional centres) of our two programs, The Seasons and Sweet Dreams, the title of our older program, The Seasons (Sweet Dreams was specifically devised for the New Zealand tour with the premiere performances of Jack Body’s new work), couldn’t have been more appropriately named based on the nature of the weather we’ve encountered along the way! Our arrival in Invercargill was welcomed by a violent hail storm and 50km winds from the Antarctic which thankfully passed but couldn’t match the wild southerly we experienced on round return trip from Napier to Auckland, via Lake Taupo, a week later where we were met with snow! Our tour travelling companion, Iris, close friend of Roland and wife of Frank Nuyts (the Belgian composer whose work “Old Airs” featured in our Seasons program) thought she would experience warm, delightful spring weather during her tour of NZ however was quite surprised by the snowy dusting on the mountain tops – it made for lovely postcard images!
Let the extraordinary voices of the Song Company transport you, from the warming embers of the Bach family hearth to the fairytale world of shadow puppetry. Be captivated and inspired by the pioneering spirit of the Song Company and explore the endless possibilities of six soaring voices.
Surprising, impeccable, breathtaking; if you haven’t discovered them yet, 2011 is the year to unearth the Song Company.
Buy tickets online or request a 2011 season brochure.
Our run began in Canberra on the 8th of August, then on to Wollongong, Sydney and finished up in Newcastle of the 12th. Audiences were strong in all four cities and comedian Drew Forsythe was the perfect addition to the Song Company. Those who attended will corroborate that Drew had audiences in stitches with his seemingly endless array of comedic expressions. Playing 13 different characters and using only a handful of simple props, Drew expertly flitted between characters never once skipping a beat as he switched hats and expressions several times within one conversation.
Period musicians Tommie Andersson and Laura Vaughan played beautifully and our very own Roland Peelman directed the group from behind the harpsichord giving us a taste …
It was about 15 years ago that the Song Company last set foot on the Chinese mainland when we extended a trip to Hong Kong by going by train to the teeming and hugely polluted city of Guanzhou. It was a somewhat strange experience with the whole trip being chaperoned by two minders who never let us out of their sight. The concert was also strange in that the audience didn’t stop talking and obviously had no knowledge of Renaissance music.
So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that we stepped off the plane in Shanghai and into a waiting bus to take us to our first port of call – the provincial city of Hangzhou with a population …
Drew Forsythe joins the Song Company to make an Italian comedy. Hear what he has to say about the creative collaboration for L’Amfiparnasso …
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“Our concert at Blacktown Performing Arts Centre as part of the Aurora Festival was approaching and the music I had been learning for the past 4 months was about to stand the test, or more correctly, my brain was about to be stretched! Performing this programme for one night only….couldn’t we do it again tomorrow as well??
