Jason Thornton of Bath Phil talks with Jordana Greenberg of Harpeth Rising about the roots of their music and their exciting collaboration with the Bath Phil at St John’s Church on Saturday 17th. Contact the festival box office (01373 455420) for tickets and details. See article below on Bath Phil for full details of the Appalachian evening.

If your browser won’t display the video you can watch it here on YouTube.

Shake along to classical showpiece

Frome Festival music director Jason Thornton conducts Bath Philharmonia & Harpeth Rising in Copland’s Appalachian Spring

Frome Festival’s music director aims to create one of the most talked about classical events of the year as he embarks on his most ambitious festival project to date.

To celebrate the festival’s 10th anniversary, Bath Philharmonia’s Jason Thornton has chosen works by two American composers – Aaron Copland and John Adams. Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Adams’s Shaker Loops drawtheir inspiration from Shaker folk songs written in the late 18th century. To add an authentic twist, Thornton has asked Harpeth Rising, an American bluegrass band, to play with the orchestra amid the celestial splendour of St John’s Church, Frome, on Saturday 17 July.

Thornton said: “The collaboration came together by pure coincidence. Festival director Martin Dimery mentioned he had signed up a bluegrass band to play the festival this year and I immediately saw the link. Harpeth Rising, Copland and Adams draw from the same source and put the ordinary man at the heart of their music. Though this is most definitely a classical event, my hope is to weave the folk and classical traditions together during the concert to see what transpires.”

Thornton hopes Harpeth Rising, who play a solo gig at The Granary on Monday 12, will improvise with the orchestra

Nashville bluegrass band Harpeth Rising join Bath Philharmonia for this year’s classical showpiece

 during Simple Gifts (Lord of the Dance), the rousing finale to Appalachian Spring. “This is not how Copland intended. To my knowledge, a bluegrass band has never before joined an orchestra to perform these works. It’s unique,” he said.

Harpeth Rising are a four-piece band from Nashville, Tennessee, who have never toured outside the US before. Band spokesperson Jordana Greenberg said: “The great coincidence is we are all classically trained musicians. Although we play bluegrass, our music has deep roots in the very programme that Mr Thornton is presenting with the Bath Philharmonia,” she said. Greenberg found Frome Festival online. “It looked so lovely I emailed Martin Dimery right away. We are truly excited about performing in Frome.”

Two members of Bath Philharmonia have a professional connection with Copland and Adams. The last time principal bassoon player Martin Gatt played Appalachian Spring as a member of the London Symphony Orchestra in the 1970s, Copland conducted. And Thornton met Adams in Reading during an education education project with Berkshire Young Musicians and the London Symphony Orchestra in 2002. “I had to take John Adams for tea. Nowhere in Reading was open though so we ended up in a Burger King and he bought me a Whopper Meal and Fries. Charming man,” Thornton said.

At the time, Adams had almost finished On The Transmigration of Souls, a score commissioned by the New York Philharmonic after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “John showed me the Transmigration score over a Whopper meal. Not even the music director of the New York Philharmonic’s music director had seen it. Quite bizarre,” he said.     
          
Copland (1900-1990) wrote Appalachian Spring as a ballet for Martha Graham, who performed the lead in the 1944 premiere. The following year Copland received a Pulitzer Prize for Music. The piece centres on American pioneers in Pennsylvania in the 1880s as they hold a great celebration after finishing a house for a newlywed couple. The title comes from a poem by Hart Crane, with ‘spring’ referring to water rather than the season. Adams (1947-) wrote Shaker Loops in 1978 and a version for string orchestra premiered in 1983. The title refers to the energetic repetitive dancing of The Shakers and the ‘shaking’ of strings as they oscillate between notes.

Shakers originated in the Manchester area in the mid-18th-century. Their spiritual leader Mother Ann Lee left England with eight disciples and arrived in New York in 1774. Despite repeated persecution, they established Shaker communities best known for their minimalist furniture. The Shaker song tradition is less well known. They developed a form of music notation known as the letteral system’, which used letters of the alphabet (a-b-c-d-e-f-g) rather than conventional notes so tunes could be copied down quickly.
Full details of this year’s events can be found at our What’s On pages. For news on tickets and other curiosities follow the festival at twitter.com/Frome_Festival

Reginald D Hunter © S-J White, www.whitespace-brand.co.uk

Top UK comedian Reginald D. Hunter had wise words for Frome Festival as the 10th anniversary party burst into life. “Keep being you because I don’t think anyone else could pull it off,” he said in an exclusive video interview for the festival. Hunter proved one of the most successful opening acts in festival history as more than 500 packed out the Cheese & Grain. The TV comic from Georgia, USA, appeared on the first Friday night with support act Steve Hughes. In a performance that lasted more than hour, Hunter revealed what made him move to the UK and become a stand-up. “I used to watch re-runs of Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and Rumpole of the Bailey with my Dad as a 12-year-old. “Those shows introduced me to a dangerous thing for a young boy – sarcasm,” he said.

Elsewhere on opening night, the John Law Trio played to a full house at Rook Lane Chapel.

Frome Food Feast © Patrick Emery

The town filled with festival goers as the first weekend gathered pace. More than 3,000 turned out for the Frome Festival Feast held for the first time by the River Frome. Festival director Martin Dimery said: “We received lots of great feedback. People liked it by the river and who wouldn’t on a sunny evening in July.

Frome Food Feast © www.whitespace-brand.co.uk

Thanks to everyone who came along, especiaIly those who had come a long way. I met a couple from Doncaster, a birthday girl from Halifax and an eco-warrier from Canada. This remarkable town has friends worldwide.”

Street Bandits © David Chedgy

The Street Bandits marching band and hirsute ballet dancers in white tutus entertained the crowd before live sets from from Redback, Back Before Breakfast and The Johnsons had people dancing until sunset.

Bristol Bach Choir brought the evening to a serene close with a candlelit concert at Holy Trinity Church.

Sunday saw eco-bargain hunters flock to the Cheese & Grain for the annual Green Fair and writers descend on Frome Library for Writers & Publishers Day.

Words@FromeFestival’s Beverley Jones said the literary agents who visited from London had been impressed by the work that they had seen. “Who knows, maybe this year’s Writers & Publishers Day will launch another newcomer on the road to a best-selling success like it did for Rachel Ward a few years ago,” she said. Japanese Tourists by Lexie Elliott from Putney, London, won the £300 first prize in the Frome Festival Short Story Competition 2010. Second prize went to Watercress Makes A Meal by Rachel Crowther, from Oxford, and third to The Question by Fiona Allan, Horam, East Sussex. The Other Side by Jenny Gordon won top prize in the regional category. Short story organiser Alison Clink said judge Kate Harrison picked out the overall winner for its “many layers and quirky humour”.

Poet Helen Moore and audience

OUTSIDE OF THE BOX POETS brought the festival vibe to Saturday shoppers in Cheap Street as passers-by gathered to enjoy free performances on the hour from 10 till 2.  Ten local poets co- ordinated by Gordon Graft mounted the soapbox to declaim their words to the entertainment of an all-age crowd, even the very young, who were delighted by the novel idea of street poetry.  Themes ranged from eco-politics to personal passions, and sunshine maximised the success of the event. The poets are: Jo Butts, Helen Moore, Niall McDevitt, Dikra Ridha, Crysse Morrison, Liz Spurgeon, Dianne Penny, Rose Flint, Alex Lackey and Gordon Graft.

Frome’s first ever Festival Pub Theatre on Sunday and Monday played to sellout audiences. Co-producer Crysse Morrison gave us this review from Rose Flint:  “The newest addition to Frome Festival - pub- theatre - started brilliantly with a dark and shocking tale of vampires, literary critics and the battle between good and evil.Upstairs at The Lamb provided am intimate venue for ‘St Nicholas’ by Conor McPherson, brilliantly performed by Matt Ward who held the audience in the absolute stillness of shock and suspense even through the distraction of a very hot night. Great night out - felt like a bit of Edinburgh Fringe fallen in from the North, all gritty and sparkly with velocity. Big thanks to Nevertheless Productions for guiding this meteor into Frome.”

Dianne Penny celebrates her win with bin Bag Bard Peter Wyton

Frome Festival Poetry Slam organisers may hug themselves: they opened a box of delights at the Garden Café on Wednesday evening.  Guest poet Peter Wyton, the acclaimed Bin Bag Bard, tickled the eager crowd with his quick-fire verses – including the region’s funniest look at cannibalism since the city of Wells hosted the making of Hot Fuzz.  Peter also dealt with the issues of what to do when you’re short of cash and the Picts are invading, and how a Swiss Army Wife can fend off an amorous Yeti.  It really all happens in Frome.
Performers and spectators from all over the region packed themselves into the Garden Café for a night of unrivalled talent, as poet after poet made their bids to be named Frome Festival Poet Laureate, with a bottle of fizz to celebrate.  Performers old and new delighted the audience, who were moved to tears, laughter – and indeed, tears of laughter – by turns.  Under the scrutiny of the judges, who struggled to slip an ink- or tear-stained notelet between them, each performer took his or her turn in the spotlight.  From fireworks to the menopause, ethereal beauty to bottom jokes, all were swept along by the tide of talent that regularly rocks the cobbles of Stony Street.  There were even tributes to old favourites TinTin and Dr Seuss, but with a perfect score of three sixes, the title was won by the magical performance of Dianne Penny, with the delightful words of her poem, ‘God in a Hoodie’.”

Mario Reading

An appreciative audience was wooed and wowed by a fascinating presentation from Mario Reading, a local author and world authority on Nostradamus.  The riveting talk was lavishly illustrated and unfailingly convincing.    Mario’s rigorous research and investigation is impressive – make up your own mind with his ‘Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus’  or ‘Nostradamus:  the complete prophecies for the future’.  These are all available through Somerset Libraries or local bookshops.  In addition Mario is penning a trilogy of novels on the subject – gritty fast-paced best sellers (150,000 sales worldwide for the first one. No 2, the Mayan Codex due out August 1st 2010).

The festival builds towards its finale weekend with three Chopin recitals from artist in residence Marina Nadiradze to celebrate the bicentenary of the composer’s birth. Born in Georgia, in Eastern Europe’s Caucasus region, Ms Nadiradze now lives in Scotland with her family. She will play Chopin’s two piano concertos on successive nights at St John’s Church, Frome, on Thursday 15, and At Andrew’s Church, Mells, on Friday 16 July.

The festival’s showpiece classical event sees Jason Thornton conduct Bath Philharmonia and Nashville bluegrass band Harpeth Rising in a night of 20th century American music with performances of Copland’s Appalachian Spring and John Adams’s Shaker Loops on Saturday 17.

Rook Lane Chapel welcomes two greats from the British jazz scene – saxophone player Stan Sulzmann and guitarist John Parricelli – on Friday 16.

Perennial fancy dress favourite Caberet Sans Frontieres returns with two nights at The Granary on Thursday 15 and Saturday 17 with headline act Coralie Hyde singing the standards.

If your browser won’t display the video you can watch it here on YouTube.

Frome Festival 2010 landed a rare beast for its 10th anniversary charity film preview – Toy Story 3, a movie sequel worth watching. Disney/Pixar’s latest adventure, with Woody, Buzz Lightyear and pals, screens at the Westway Cinema in a special afternoon matinee on Saturday 17 July.

FilmFrome’s Nicki Marshall predicted that Toy Story 3 could beat the box office success of previous festival favourites, WALL•E in 2008 and Up in 2009. “We’re delighted to have such a great film for the festival’s 10th birthday. Every child I know wants to see it. Best to book in advance to avoid disappointment,” she said.

Previous charity film previews have raised more than £5,000 over the past decade for children’s charities and organisations in Frome and the Mendip region. Proceeds from last year’s event helped Critchill School in Frome produce a Christmas Show at the Egg Theatre in Bath. One of this year’s nominated charities is Harrys Hydro, a hydrotherapy and sensory centre based in Frome for children with mental, physical and learning difficulties. The centre is expected to open later in the year.

Disney executive Gow Gibson wished Frome Festival 2010 a happy 10th birthday. “Our links with the festival strengthen every year. I am pleased we have helped so many children’s charities with wonderful family entertainment. I just want to wish you all the best for the festival and tell you that it has been my personal pleasure and that of the Walt Disney Company to continue to support the Frome Festival and your choice of local charities,”  ” he said. ”

Toy Story 3 stars voiceovers from Tom Hanks (Woody), Tim Allen (Buzz Lightyear), Joan Cusack (Jessie), Ned Beatty (Lotso) and Michael Keaton (Ken). The story sees the toys dumped in a children’s day-care centre after their owner Andy goes to college. Woody and Buzz Lightyear plan their escape. Following the film’s US release last month, one reviewer described it as “a funny, touching and most excellent farewell to the characters we’ve come to know and love”.

It joins an elite group of brilliant movie triologies that include The Godfather and the first three Star Wars films. 

If you would like to nominate a children’s charity or organisation for next year’s charity film preview, contact Nicki Marshall at nickim@blueyonder.co.uk.

Once again a big thanks to Whitespace (http://www.whitespace-brand.co.uk/) for the production of this video. If your browser won’t display the video you can watch it here on YouTube.

Words@FromeFestival volunteer Beverley Jones models the Frome Festival 10th Anniversary bag.

Ingenious Beverley Jones decided Frome Festival needed a special souvenir to mark its 10th anniversary.The Words@FromeFestival volunteer commissioned a limited edition festival bag to celebrate ten magical years and raise money for future festivals.

She came up with the idea because the conclusion of this year’s festival, which runs Friday 9 to Sunday 18 July, marks a significant milestone. On festival finale night, the town and its residents will have hosted 100 days of community arts events over the past decade.

“I think it’s a fabulous achievement for a town of this size. A souvenir bag is a perfect keepsake to remember that achievement. “Who knows, it might become this summer’s fashion accessory,” she said.

Frome Festival 10th anniversary bags cost £5 and are on sale at Frome Library and Frome Tourist Information Centre. All profits will go towards putting on next year’s festival.

Beverley helps organise Words@FromeFestival literary events. One of this year’s highlights is the Writers & Publishers Day at Frome Library on Sunday 11. The day includes a series of talks and workshops covering every stage of the writing process up to and including publication, with several literary agents in town scouting for talent.

Full details of this year’s events can be found at our What’s On pages. For news on tickets and other curiosities follow the festival at twitter.com/Frome_Festival

Bruce M Hood

On Thursday 15 July at 19.30 in Frome library, Professor Bruce Hood http://brucemhood.wordpress.com/ will explore why so many of us believe in at least one supernatural phenomenon but would be unwilling to wear a serial killer’s cardigan in his Frome Festival talk, Believing the Unbelievable.

Coming straight from The Amaz!ng Meeting in Las Vegas  where he will be sharing the stage with Richard Dawkins, Hood, who lives locally and is Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Bristol, will explain how many supernatural beliefs have their origins in the way that children think about the world.

He says: ‘We are pre-wired with a mind design that creates a “supersense” that shapes our intuitions and superstitions and is essential to the way we learn to understand the world.’

Earlier this year, Hood was interviewed on BBC Newsnight for his role in helping to expose a local Somerset company that made ‘magic wand’ bomb detectors. The device, which Hood describes as ‘a piece of plastic with a car aerial sticking out of it’, was sold to China, Iraq, Pakistan and many other countries. The Iraqi government alone spent $85m on the device before the BBC exposé led to the British government introducing an export ban.

Hood is the author of SuperSense: From Superstition to Religion – the Brain Science of Belief, which New Scientist describes as ‘fascinating, timely and important … perhaps the millions who read and loved Dawkin’s The God Delusion can also read and learn to love Supersense.’ Hood will be signing copies of his book after the talk.

Of the Frome Festival, he said, ‘I am really delighted to be speaking in Frome which I have known and loved for the past 10 years and still continues to surprise me as an ancient town of many secrets.’

A limited number of tickets (£5/£4) for the event (no. 132), which will take place at 19.30 on Thursday 15 July in Frome library, are still available from the Cheese and Grain in Frome on 01373 455420.

In the first, Ms Nadiradze performs one the composer’s finest works, the B minor Sonata, amid the Elizabethan grandeur of Longleat Great Hall on Wednesday 14 July. Before the concert starts, Ms Nadiradze will discuss her life and work with the festival’s classical music director Jason Thornton. “No-one in the world right now plays Chopin’s romantic repertoire with the same depth or feeling as Marina Nadiradze,” said Thornton. “We are honoured to have her as our artist in residence. It’s another great coup for the Frome Festival.”

Frome Festival 2010 runs Friday 9 to Sunday 18 with 200 arts events in Frome and surrounding villages.

Ms Nadiradze’s second concert at St John’s Church, Frome, on Thursday 15 July, sees her play the first of Chopin’s two piano concertos over successive nights. For this concert, she will be joined by the Amati String Quartet. The last concert in the Chopin Piano Concerto Cycle at St Andrew’s Church, Mells, on Friday 16 July, ends with one of Chopin’s most romantic works, Piano Concerto No. 2, written when the composer was only 19.

Ms Nadiradze has received international acclaim for her interpretation of romantic piano works. Described as ‘genuine dynamite’ in one national newspaper, her playing compares to Mitsuko Uchida. Born in Georgia in 1978, Ms Nadiradze won the first of many international prizes at the age of nine. She studied piano at the State Conservatoire in Tbilisi and later at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. She now lives in Scotland. Ms Nadiradze played on the soundtrack to Ae Fond Kiss… (2004), a romantic film drama directed by Ken Loach, starring Atta Yaqub and Eva Birthistle. The film’s title is taken from a Scottish poem by Robert Burns, “Ae fond kiss, and then we’ll sever…”. Our thanks to Yamaha for sponsoring the Chopin Piano Concerto Cycle.

The World Premiere of ‘The Blot Symphony’ an inspirational visual art piece created by Ralph Steadman.

The Black Swan are delighted to collaborate with Ralph Steadman to open this visual art piece up to musical interpretation. Imagine if you will Ralph’s trademark Blots on a musical manuscript and you have one of the most truly creative musical challenges open to composers & musicians.

In the lead up to its World Premiere a variety of artists will be working with the children of St.John’s First School, Vallis First School and Leigh on Mendip First School in a series of ‘free’ workshops.

*Workshops include:*

Instrument Making with Freya Hope - children will be encouraged to create musical instruments using found objects.

Interpretation of The Blot Symphony with Brighton Duo ‘Nordic Giants’ - the children will be given guidance and encouragement to compose their own version of ‘The Blot Symphony’ using the instruments that they have made.

*Kinetic Sculpture with Lucia
Hartley*<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w>- this link is for a kinetic sculpture created by OK GO. The children of three different schools will come together to create something similar.

*A Black Swan at The Silk Mill Event ‘The Blot Symphony’* - tickets £9 available from Black Swan Arts from Monday 28th June.

World Premiere of Ralph Steadman’s ‘Blot Symphony Film’. A short film introducing the possibilities….
Performances by St.John’s First School, Vallis First School and Leigh on Mendip First School.
Musical Interpretation of The Blot’s by:

De La Luna
The Gilbert Quick Orchestra and
Nordic Giants.

Fully licensed bar, plus circus entertainments for children.

This event marks the launch of Black Swan Arts *’Open Music Compeition’*<http://www.blackswan.org.uk/open_music_competition.html>

Stan Sulzmann

Stan Sulzmann has played with almost everyone including Chet Baker in a career that began in the early 1970s. Nicknamed ‘the classy composer’, Sulzmann wrote the saxophone solo for the theme tune to television series Poirot.

Reviews of his latest band Ordesa describe the music as “ravishing, delicious, powerful and direct”. Ordesa is a drumless and bassless collaboration with Parricelli and trumpet and flugelhorn player Kenny Wheeler.

Sulzmann is a good friend of Frome saxophonist and Radio 3 regular Iain Ballamy. “I like Frome. It will be nice to come and play in a good atmosphere,” Sulzmannn said.

John Parricelli helped found 1980s jazz collective Loose Tubes,along with Ballamy and Django Bates. He plays an electric Paul Reed Custom 24 guitar on stage most of the time though owns several classical guitars by Spanish maker Bellido. “I always aim to make my instrument sound the same as if I was singing,” he said.

The festival welcomes back Cottle and France, the backbone of Ballamy’s jazz trio.

Due to other commitments, however, Ballamy himself will miss this year’s festival.

“It’s a great shame because I look forward to playing my home town. These guys will raise the roof in my absence though. Be sure of that. Happy 10th Birthday,” he said.