Meet Our Composers (3)

Fenham Ensemble is extremely privileged to have been able to collaborate with three local composers for our next concert - The Sun Never Says; Music for Cello and Voice - on Saturday 23rd March 2024 at St James' and St Basil's Church in Fenham with RNS cellist, Gabriel Waite.

Eleanor Cully Boehringer, Kerrin Tatman and Len Young are all composers currently living and working in the North East of England. Eleanor and Kerrin both sing with the choir and we have been able to work closely with all three in preparing their pieces for the concert.

Let's meet them. Last, but by no means least, Len Young.....

Len Young

There can be few lovers of choral music in the North East who have not heard of Len Young, whether they have been conducted by him, trained by him, accompanied by him or had the pleasure of singing music written by him.

After teaching in Brixton for five years, we were extremely fortunate that Len moved to our region where he spent eleven years as Head of Music at Heaton/Heaton Manor School in Newcastle, ten years as Music Advisor for Newcastle upon Tyne LEA followed by thirteen years as Head of Music and Assistant Head (Arts College) at Queen Elizabeth High School in Hexham, Northumberland.

Writing for Fenham Ensemble and performing at St James' and St Basil's Church in Fenham is a kind of homecoming for Len, who joined the St James' and St Basil's Singers as choirmaster back in 1976 before it grew from a modest thirty or so members into a choir of over a hundred and was renamed the Newcastle Choral Society in 1986. Len was their conductor for 31 years until 2007. He also conducted Newcastle City Chorus and Felling Male Voice Choir.

In more recent years, Len has been as busy as ever working as a self-employed musician undertaking commissioned compositions, conducting various choirs and performing in a variety of accompaniment and solo piano roles.

We are so privileged that he has found time to write a piece especially for Fenham Ensemble and Gabriel Waite for 'The Sun Never Says: Music for Cello and Voice' on Saturday 23rd March. We will be premièring Len's 'Tarantella' based on a poem by Hilaire Belloc. An inscription to the poem says:

"The Miranda of Hilaire Belloc's 'Tarantella' is Miranda Mackintosh whom Belloc met at an inn in the Pyrenean hamlet of Canfranc on the River Aragon in 1909. The poem, written twenty years later, was a New Year's present to the Scottish Miranda. The holograph copy is inscribed: 'For Miranda: New Year's 1929.' The tarantella is a dance (for two) that is supposed to be brought on by the intoxication induced by the sting of the tarantula, which is similar to that induced by falling in love."

As Len explains:

"When Simon asked me last year to play for the concert with Gabs and the choir, it struck me that all of the music, although beautiful, was slow and reflective. I thought it would be good to have something fast and lively in contrast and the idea of a Tarantella for cello, piano and choir sprung to mind. I searched online for a Tarantella poem and up came the piece by Hilaire Belloc. It immediately inspired me to think that the choir could replicate the excitement of the interactions in the inn while the cello and piano kept the constant rhythm of the dance. I used the Phrygian mode (with its semitone between the first and second notes of the scale as favoured by Flamenco guitarists) to try and capture the Spanish Pyrenean atmosphere. I hope that the challenge of singing the complex rhythms of the text, and responding to the changing moods during the evening celebrations do really induce a sense of 'falling in love' and I hope it will be an exciting musical experience. I can't wait to hear it!"

'The Sun Never Says: Music for Cello and Voice' is on Saturday 23rd March 2024 at St James' and St Basil's church, Fenham, Newcastle NE4 9EJ starting at 7.30pm.

Tickets available from: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/sdfchoralevents/1133775

Programme:

Prelude from Cello Suite No.1 in G Major - J S Bach

O Magnum Mysterium (Serenity) - Ola Gjeilo

Snowdrop - Eleanor Cully Boehringer

Pie Jesu from Requiem in D minor - Gabriel Fauré

Romance - Gabriel Fauré

Agnus Dei II from Missa Brevis - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Goin' Home - Paul Langford after Antonín Dvorák

The Oak - Becky McGlade

Tarantella - Len Young

Stabat Mater - Kerrin Tatman