Let there be music!

I’m very proud to be collaborating with acclaimed musician and composer John Rayson to add live music to my multimedia poetry show, Buzzing! As I write, John is busy composing music that he will play in the interludes between poems in my show. The music will be premiered at the Ilkley Literature Festival Fringe on Sunday 7th October (with a pre-premiere show to celebrate Apple Day at St Nicholas Fields in York the previous day.) Do come along!

John is an accomplished composer and arranger. He has written works for strings and wind that have been performed in a wide variety of settings, including, this year, in Aled Jones’s touring show! What’s more, you can buy his arrangements as sheet music, to play yourself! Find out more at John’s website: www.jasminmusic.com

As a viola player, John has played in many of Britain’s most prestigious orchestras, including the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Welsh National Opera and Covent Garden. He’s also been broadcast on Radio 3 and Channel 4.  So, do come and listen to him play in Buzzing! It’s going to be something very special!

The Ilkley Literature Festival Buzzing! show is free, and takes place at 1.45pm at the Ilkley Playhouse, on Sunday 7th October. It’s a family event – so all are welcome. And there’s no need to book – just come along on the day!

To see what other people have made of Buzzing!, click here.

See you in Ilkley on October 7th! (Or, if you live in York, at St Nicholas Fields on October 6th!)

Making the news

We had a surprise visitor at Saturday’s Buzzing! performance at St Nicholas Fields: a photographer from the local paper, The Press. And the result? See today’s paper …

 

Read The Press article in full (13.8.07)

Coming back for more!

Well, what greater compliment could I have? Three members of the audience at today’s Buzzing! performance at York Environment Centre (advertised in yesterday’s local paper) had been to the show before, and were coming again, bringing friends or family along with them. One such was John, who has just written to me to say he enjoyed it ‘even more’ second time around!

I was pleased John and his family came along too, because they were invaluable on the wildlife walk we went on round St Nick’s nature reserve after the show. Toby (who was 8 yesterday, and came to the show as a birthday treat!) and his brother Howard were very beady-eyed, and spotted lots of amazing creatures the rest of us would have missed.

And their Dad John was very knowledgeable about what we found, and told us loads of fascinating facts about them.

We also had two Americans in our audience, here in York on holiday. They found out all sorts of things today that most other tourists to our fair city know nothing about! (And they also got to pick and eat some delicious blackberries that are ripening nicely at St Nick’s!)

Here are some of the things we found on our post-show wildlife walk …

A Cinnabar moth caterpillar (on its favourite food, ragwort):

A grasshopper (on John’s finger):

A centipede (in one of his sons’ hand):

A hoverfly (I think!) (spotted by birthday boy Toby):

We’re now looking forward to Dr Dave Chesmore’s moth night at St Nick’s on September 15th, to see if he’ll find any adult cinnabar moths. They are every bit as dramatic in appearance as the caterpillars! Why not come along too? More info. at the St Nick’s website.

Meanwhile thank you to all the people at St Nick’s – especially Ivana – who made today’s show possible.

Hitting the Headlines!

My performance of Buzzing! tomorrow at St Nick’s Environmental Centre in York got great publicity in the local paper today. As did the (world-first) Berberis sawfly larvae in our garden!

Read the article in full: The Press article, 10.8.07 (pdf)

Find out more about our Berberis sawfly larvae

Try out Compost! The (mini-)Musical

Children’s photography

I was very impressed by how observant the children were who attended my photography workshop at St Nicholas Fields in York today. For example, Henry spotted and photographed a dragonfly, and Robert a Mint moth.

All the children learned how to use a tripod:

And Mums and Dads joined in too:

Here is James’ (age 5) great photo of chamomile flowers:

And here is a great photo Robert (age 8) took of a damselfly:

There are clearly some very talented budding photographers in York.

If you’d like to host, or bring your children along to, one of my photography workshops, then please get in touch (info@theBigBuzz.biz).

Anneliese Emmans Dean – info@theBigBuzz.biz

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