Gergiev is the new Festival Patron

Last night at Swinfen Hall Hotel we launched the 2009 Festival to the Gold and Platinum members of the LFA. As is often the way at this time of year, there remain events that have yet to settle down, but on the whole it was our first opportunity to start talking openly about what is planned this July.

Last night also gave me the opportunity to announce that Valery Gergiev, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic and general director of the Marinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, is the new Patron of the Lichfield Festival, finally filling the huge gap left when Patrick Lichfield died in November 2005.

A 34-year-old Gergiev made his British debut at the 1987 Lichfield Festival, and remembers his time here very well. Becoming our Patron is him returning the favour. Gergiev actually accepted our long-standing invitation last October, but trips to Australia and Christmas got in the way, so it has taken until now to release this news.

That an artist if Gergiev's international stature has accepted this honorary position is of enormous importance to Lichfield and the wider Midlands. That he is particularly keen to support our ongoing commitment to giving opportunities to rising talent is of key significance, and could lead to specific programming opportunities over the next decade. We do not present a formal Young Artists Platform, and we don't have an ongoing association with, say, BBC New Generation Artists, YCAT, Park Lane Group, or the Tillet Trust. Lichfield Festival just has a long history of independently backing young musicians with sometimes key opportunities that they might not otherwise get. Hopefully, with Gergiev's support, this programming thread will grow and resonate even further.

opportunity to hear songs in time of war

Songs in Time of War, the first of the four-year Confluences project involving Vikram Seth and Alec Roth, finally appears to have a wee life of its own. While in Bristol over the weekend, I spotted it was being performed by the original lineup of Mark Padmore, Morgan Szymanski, Alison Nicholls and Philippe Honore at St George's Bristol on Friday 6 February. More information here.
The final year of this project receives it's first performance in Salisbury on 1 June, in Chelsea on 16 June, and Lichfield on 15 July.

CiB wins Best UK Blog 2008

Hearty and much deserved congratulations to Created in Birmingham for being named Best UK Blog 2008. Established a few years ago with the aim of bringing together the creative communities of Birmingham, it remains one of the few independent sites recognising that Birmingham audiences also like to know what's going on around the rest of the West Midlands. This is especially important for a city like Lichfield that is only 19 miles away and at one end of the central train route. They've been very kind to the Lichfield Festival over recent years, drawing grass roots, industry and blogland attention to what happens here, which I both personally and professionally appreciate. The fact that they received over 40% of the votes shows that everyone tapped into CiB really values the time, energy and commitment that the CiB team put in. Congratulations guys. May your blog rule for a long time to come.

from my window

just spotted Nicholas McGegan from my office window who, off the back of Handel's Jeptha with the CBSO last night, is doing the tourist thing and visiting Lichfield Cathedral, Erasmus Darwin House and the Samuel Johnson Musuem before zipping back to America. He is one of the lucky few who has been able to take a photo of the cathedral from the top floor of the Festival office...

sir john mortimer

Sir John Mortimer has died peacefully in his sleep after a long illness at the age of 85. Sir John last visited Lichfield as part of our inaugural Lichfield Literature Weekend in October 2006 when he was interviewed by Nick Booth in front of a capacity audience about his then latest book, Rumpole and the Reign of Terror. It was a privilege to witness the clarity of his mind, his wonderful anecdotes, and his dry humour, especially as they pertained to his strongly held views of what were then new UK terrorism laws. All fueled of course by the ubiquitous champagne, which subsequently became the inspiration for how we thank authors who visit that event.

elias leaves ensemble 360

the wonderful Elias Quartet, who have performed in Lichfield during the last two festivals (photo shows them rehearsing in St Michael's) and who are performing Schubert, Britten and Mendelssohn tonight at the the Abbotsholme Arts Society, have finally made public that they are leaving Ensemble 360. This means that they will no longer be resident at Sheffield's Music in the Round. To quote from their website:

After four amazing years we have decided to leave Ensemble 360 to be able to concentrate fully on the quartet. Through the arrangements of Music in the Round, we have been fortunate to be able to make music together with some of the finest young players in the world, and get to know an incredibly supportive audience. We hope to be able to come back to Sheffield often!

...and I hope they'll come back to Lichfield often.

The Traveller on Radio 3

just found out that both The Traveller and Shared Ground by Alec Roth and Vikram Seth, recorded in Lichfield Cathedral during the 2008 and 2007 festivals respectively, will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Afternoon on 3 during the week beginning 1 March 2009. They are still being scheduled, and things might change, but I'll detail and link from here as exact details become available. The Traveller was the third of the four-year Confluences project, was the inaugural performance by the Lichfield Festival Chorus, and received a four-star review in the Guardian.
Confluences' final year is Seven Elements weaving the themes of China, Europe and India together into two new works. Lichfield Festival Chorus' second year is likely to be a work for choir and jazz saxophone...

kampe

just noticed that Anja Kampe, who performed Strauss' Four Last Songs so wonderfully at the 2007 Lichfield Festival, and who was due to replace Irene Theorin to perform the same work with the CBSO in February 2008 (only to be struck down by illness herself), is making another return to the West Midlands to perform with the Halle and Sir Mark Elder on 17 January as part of the joint Halle-CBSO Nielsen Festival. I completely missed her turn as Isolde with Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra last December.

speaker's corner

it has been brewing since before last September, but last night was my first opportunity to attend a formal meeting for the Lichfield Speaker's Corner.
Instigated by Peter Bradley from the Speaker's Corner Trust and now led by locals, Lichfield is planning to have only the second formal Speaker's Corner outside of London (Nottingham being the first and Hyde Park Corner being the original).
The launch will take place in Lichfield on 2 May, with a skeleton programme of other events throughout the year, but once it is up and running anyone at anytime will be able to go down and have a rant, debate, discussion or heckle. As information becomes available, I will link to it from here.

don john

friends had a spare ticket for Kneehigh's latest offering Don John, which has just finished its run at the RSC's Courtyard Theatre. So after hurtling toward Stratford on Monday evening, I found myself for the third time in the incredible world of Kneehigh. I had seen their amazing Brief Encounter twice (and congratulations to Neil Murray for winning Best Design in the 2008 Evening Standard Theatre Awards late last year) so I was receptive to having a good time before I arrived, but their brilliant retelling of Don Giovanni, mixing a new script, haunting songs, and retro dancing with scraps of 70s TV and Mozart was unexpectedly moving. The peformance ended with the audience on stage dancing - brilliant.
Both performances are just about to go on the road and below are the chances to see them in the West Midlands:
Don John at Birmingham Rep 17-21 February
Don John at Warwick Arts Centre 24-28 February
Brief Encounter at Warwick Arts Centre 28 April - 2 May
Since Monday I have been obsessed with their idea of The Barns, an isolated creative environment away from TV and telephones where the majority of their shows are conceived and rehearsed. Of course this is the idea of IMS Prussia Cove, and to some extent, Aldeburgh, but it has got me thinking...

Shamefully, the last time I had visited the RSC in Stratford to see a show was in 1987, which I admit is pretty appalling for someone who has lived in the West Midlands for the last 8 years with the RSC in their doorstep. Even now, I have yet to return there to see Shakespeare.

resolute desk

I’ve started the new year with the same resolution I have every year - to tidy my office, respond to all the artists that write in looking for a gig, and sort out the ergonomics of where I work.

1. I am now under some pressure to stop utlising every possible flat surface in my office for piles of paper, as they have all pretty much been classified as a fire risk, and I have given myself until the end of January to sort through them all and file, delegate or discard accordingly. I have started, but there is a very (like, very) long way to go. I've even brought in extra tables over the years to increase the surface area of my office...
   
2. I am gearing myself up for the next wave of cold-calls from potential performers as they all respond to their own various new year's resolutions (the wave after this is the spring). By 'wave' I mean a noticable influx of contacts over and above the steady stream we already get. I do feel bad that I don't respond to each and every artist that writes in, especially knowing what it is like to try to earn a buck through music, and certainly to start a career from scratch with very few contacts. The responses that I received, even the negatives, were always preferable to total silence. But we do get too many, I don't have anyone to delegate this task to, and I really would spend the majority of my time writing to people acknowledging receipt of cds, dvds, biogs, and programme proposals. I do try, however, to respond where time allows. I also have all of the un-listened-to cds watching over my shoulder every day - piles and piles of them...
   
3. My lateral thinking has been sluggish in the area of ergonomics. I was in early yesterday morning sawing 15mm off the bottom of each table leg, and 80mm from the side of my desk so that after four years, my desk is finally snug against the wall rather than leaving the 13cm gap that existed before while also being the right height. I have also managed to locate (swap!) a chair within the office that goes high enough for my legs (most standard office chairs are about 5cm too low at their highest setting) allowing me to retire the three 1995 Lichfield International Arts Festival cushions that I have been sitting on since January 2005. My computer also now sits proudly on top of three consecutive Musical Americas so that my sight lines are right. Oh happy day...

My desk is currently uncluttered and clean for the first time in years, but only because I moved everything to cut a bit off it, which just 'brings us back to doh'.