Celebrating Somerset

Graham Bland | Helen Ottaway | Peter Donohoe

This year Frome Festival has reached another milestone in its impressive development with the inaugural establishment of two posts within the Music Programme. These will have a major impact on both performance and teaching events throughout the whole ten-day period.

Graham Bland

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Director of Somerset Music, Graham Bland, has described his delight to be extending the links and support for the Frome Festival in its sixth year: "Somerset Music is a vibrant and exciting element within the thriving artistic community in and around Frome. We are striving to achieve our mission and aims through our partnership with the Frome Federation of Schools. In particular, our 'Wider Opportunities' programme is developing significantly, providing a greater range of high-quality music-making opportunities. This is a project where we provide a range of high-quality music teaching to primary school children in their normal classes for one academic year, at no charge to parents. The results are outstanding, as you will hear at the Festival. We are also delighted to be able to subsidise the Festival in providing masterclasses, given by the Artist in Residence that should not be missed. Such opportunities are a high priority and they need to be available to as many young Somerset musicians as possible. I am grateful to the Festival for this opportunity to continue to offer excellence for all. Furthermore, the Somerset County Youth Orchestra will be, for the first time, the orchestra for the Summer School. It will be tackling an exciting and challenging programme, including the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2 with Peter Donohoe and the Sea Symphony of Vaughan-Williams with the Frome Summer School Chorus, all under the baton of Jason Thornton. Therefore, working with the Frome Festival to develop a closer relationship has been exciting, inspiring and satisfying. I am sure that we are at the beginning of a long and productive partnership. I look forward to many other exciting musical projects."

Helen Ottaway

Helen Ottaway will fill the second inaugural post of Composer in Residence 2006. She was thrilled with the news: "I see it as an opportunity to focus my work as a composer in the town that has been my home for nearly a decade and to immerse myself in the physical and cultural landscape of Somerset." She continues, "One of the themes this year is celebrating youth talent, in Somerset and Frome. My residency reflects this focus on youth music. I am working with Frome Youth Choir, writing a new choral piece for performance in the Festival and mentoring young composers from within the Choir. I was also commissioned to compose a new work for massed strings which would have brought together instrumentalists of all levels of expertise and experience; but due to lack of funding “It's a String Thing” has had to be postponed." Helen uses space and movement in her work to create atmosphere and it has been described as haunting and magical. Since 1989 her compositions have been performed throughout the UK and abroad with commissions from BBC2, Salisbury Cathedral, English Nature, Cork 2005, European Capital of Culture and Bath Film Festival among others. In 1999, she co-formed Artmusic to produce and promote collaborative work between such different disciplines as painting, sculpting, video and the performing arts, producing site-specific installations and multi-media concerts. Currently Helen is collabor-ating with artist Barry Cooper on a series of duets for pianist and painter, and developing a site-specific work for the Bishop's Palace in Wells with visual performer Melanie Thompson.

Read Review of 'Sounding Brass & Voices'

Read Review of 'Quills, Hammers and Nails'

Event Name	Timing	Venue	Event Code
Sounding Brass And Voices	12 noon	St John's Church	0808
Workshop: for Composers	10am–12.30pm	St John's Church	1002
Quills, Hammers and Nails	7.30pm	Rook Lane Chapel	1514

Peter Donohoe

As Artist in Residence 2006, the participation of Peter Donohoe represents a highly significant coup for any musical gathering, anywhere. Furthermore, it is extremely unlikely that anyone would disagree with Detief Brandenburg (Schleswig Holstein Festival) that,"Donohoe is a pianist in a class of his own, an interpreter with a quite extraordinary feeling for music phrasing, a 'sculptor' of the piano . his relentlessly clear representation of thematic conflicts brings the drama to life." In 1982 Peter was the first British pianist to be awarded first prize in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Since 1984 he has been much in demand, performing throughout the world with orchestras, conductors and chamber musicians, such as the Berlin, Los Angeles and Czech Philharmonic Orchestras, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Swedish Radio and all the major British orchestras; and at festivals like the renowned French Piano and Ruhr Festivals and during six consecutive visits to the Edinburgh Festival. He also performs regularly in Australia, New Zealand and the Far East. Since 1979 Peter has performed annually at the BBC Proms. One of the major highlights of the Frome Festival 2006 will undoubtedly be his collaboration with the specially formed Frome (jazz) All-Stars for a performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

Read Review of Piano Recital at St John's Church

Read Review of Rhapsody in Blue at the Memorial Theatre
by Miles Kingston

Read Review of Piano Recital at the Memorial Theatre

Read Review of the Summer School Performance

Read Assessment of the Summer School & German Tour
by Peter Donohoe

See the full list events involving Peter Donohoe below.
For additional information on an event click on the Event Title.

Event Name	Timing	Venue	Event Code
Piano Recital: Peter Donohoe	7.30pm (talk 6.45pm)	St John's Church	0916
Workshop: for Composers	10am–12.30pm	St John's Church	1002
Rhapsody in Blue	7.30pm	Memorial Theatre	1207
Workshop: For Performers with Peter Donohoe	10am–12.30pm	Memorial Theatre	1301
Piano Recital: Peter Donohoe	7.30pm (talk 6.45pm)	Memorial Theatre	1407
Summer School Performance	4pm	Cheese & Grain	1609
Summer School Performance	8pm	Cheese & Grain	1611