LO
Just received this press release
Quote:
Acclaimed musician Julian Lloyd Webber launches this year’s New Generation Arts Festival (organised by Birmingham City University) with an original and improvised soundtrack created to a live broadcast of the BBC4 World News, in collaboration with award-winning composers Michael Wolters and Marcus Dross.
‘And Now, The News’
New Generation Arts Festival
5th June 2008
Town Hall, Birmingham
This unusual new commission, which will be performed live by Julian Lloyd Webber to an audience at Birmingham’s Town Hall, is inspired by this year’s festival theme of ‘Digital Utopia’ which explores the role of music in today’s hand-fed media obsessed broadband generation.
The BBC News has shaped the basic understanding and image of ‘news’ for generations of British people. Music plays a central part in most TV programming and Hollywood movies when it comes to mediating the emotional context of a story. The News, however, refrains from using this means of communication, leaving the audience to deal with the emotional content themselves. On the 5th June, celebrated composers Michael Wolters and Marcus Dross from the ‘New Guide To Opera’ will match every element of the BBC4 World News with a corresponding element of music, allowing the audience to not only experience a live broadcast of the news projected onto a large screen, but also its interplay with music on stage.
Michael Wolters says:
“The emotional situations created in news stories are diverse and complex. In our project we will reflect this ambiguity of emotions and offer a complete musical response which will come face to face with the sobriety of the news.”
One of the most creative musicians of his generation, Julian Lloyd Webber has collaborated with an extraordinary array of musicians from Lorin Maazel, Neville Marriner, Georg Solti to Elton John and Cleo Laine. He has made many outstanding recordings and received a Brit Award for his Elgar Concerto conducted by Yehudi Menuhin. Performing alongside students from Birmingham Conservatoire, Julian Lloyd Webber says;
“It is a great privilege to be launching this year’s NGA festival, working alongside emerging classical stars from Birmingham Conservatoire. I fully support the festival’s aim of providing a professional platform for new emerging talent, and channelling the vibrant and diverse artistic energy of Birmingham as a city”.
Alongside this unique commission, Julian will also be performing another new commission written specifically for him by Howard Goodall. In the second half of the evening, Integra 2008 will take centre stage with a performance of a new work by renowned Ensemble Ars Nova, who have a long history of performing groundbreaking repertoire. Other works include Pierre Jodlowski’s ‘Respire’, for ensemble, video and live electronics, a new work by Ed Bennett, in collaboration with Paul Dunmall (saxophone) and acclaimed musical collective Juneau Projects, who have recently been commissioned by Tate Britain.
‘And Now, The News’ kicks of the 16 day New Generation Arts Festival, which this year celebrates youth, diversity and the rise of digital culture. Organised by Birmingham City University and supported by Arts Council England, the New Generation Arts Festival is already renowned as the vanguard of creative content, notoriously championing the independent cause of showcasing the brightest talent, from graduates to emerging international stars. Previous celebrity supporters include model Erin O’Connor, social commentator Germaine Greer, comedian Frank Skinner, artist Anthony Gormley and author Philip Pullman.
‘And Now, The News’
New Generation Arts Festival
5th June 2008
Town Hall, Birmingham
This unusual new commission, which will be performed live by Julian Lloyd Webber to an audience at Birmingham’s Town Hall, is inspired by this year’s festival theme of ‘Digital Utopia’ which explores the role of music in today’s hand-fed media obsessed broadband generation.
The BBC News has shaped the basic understanding and image of ‘news’ for generations of British people. Music plays a central part in most TV programming and Hollywood movies when it comes to mediating the emotional context of a story. The News, however, refrains from using this means of communication, leaving the audience to deal with the emotional content themselves. On the 5th June, celebrated composers Michael Wolters and Marcus Dross from the ‘New Guide To Opera’ will match every element of the BBC4 World News with a corresponding element of music, allowing the audience to not only experience a live broadcast of the news projected onto a large screen, but also its interplay with music on stage.
Michael Wolters says:
“The emotional situations created in news stories are diverse and complex. In our project we will reflect this ambiguity of emotions and offer a complete musical response which will come face to face with the sobriety of the news.”
One of the most creative musicians of his generation, Julian Lloyd Webber has collaborated with an extraordinary array of musicians from Lorin Maazel, Neville Marriner, Georg Solti to Elton John and Cleo Laine. He has made many outstanding recordings and received a Brit Award for his Elgar Concerto conducted by Yehudi Menuhin. Performing alongside students from Birmingham Conservatoire, Julian Lloyd Webber says;
“It is a great privilege to be launching this year’s NGA festival, working alongside emerging classical stars from Birmingham Conservatoire. I fully support the festival’s aim of providing a professional platform for new emerging talent, and channelling the vibrant and diverse artistic energy of Birmingham as a city”.
Alongside this unique commission, Julian will also be performing another new commission written specifically for him by Howard Goodall. In the second half of the evening, Integra 2008 will take centre stage with a performance of a new work by renowned Ensemble Ars Nova, who have a long history of performing groundbreaking repertoire. Other works include Pierre Jodlowski’s ‘Respire’, for ensemble, video and live electronics, a new work by Ed Bennett, in collaboration with Paul Dunmall (saxophone) and acclaimed musical collective Juneau Projects, who have recently been commissioned by Tate Britain.
‘And Now, The News’ kicks of the 16 day New Generation Arts Festival, which this year celebrates youth, diversity and the rise of digital culture. Organised by Birmingham City University and supported by Arts Council England, the New Generation Arts Festival is already renowned as the vanguard of creative content, notoriously championing the independent cause of showcasing the brightest talent, from graduates to emerging international stars. Previous celebrity supporters include model Erin O’Connor, social commentator Germaine Greer, comedian Frank Skinner, artist Anthony Gormley and author Philip Pullman.