WONDERFUL BEAST and the art station PRESENT
wild woods
1 DECEMBER 2023 · 5.00 AND 6.30PM
The Old Bank, 24 High Street, SAXMUNDHAM, IP17 1AJ
as part of saxmundham's victorian christmas fayre
admission free
The Wonderful Beast Singers presented two free performances (17:00 and 18:30) of songs and mythical tales. Director and tale-spinner Emma Bernard cast us back into a world where trees could talk and Green Ladies danced in the moonlight, when elders were witches and oak trees Gods of Thunder. Led by Rob Gildon and Wonderful Beast's Alys Kihl, the singers performed folk tales and songs ranging from traditional English to French to Handel, including two original songs composed by Martina Schwarz, who accompanies on accordion. The performances were set within an immersive arboreal environment created by film-maker Emily Richardson.
cast
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creatives |
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The Wonderful Beast Singers:
Bob Frost Annabel Gault Gillian Geen Diana Hiddleston Denise Mahood Jane Mardell Gabrielle Maughan Anthony Mehan Keith Noakes Nina Saunders Rosie Van Allan Philippa Watkins John Wood Pat Wood Narrator: Emma Bernard |
Director: Emma Bernard
Vocal Director: Rob Gildon Creative Producer: Alys Kihl Woodland projections: Emily Richardson Composer and Musician: Martina Schwarz Administrative support: Emma Close-Brooks |
biographies
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tHE WONDERFUL BEAST SINGERSThe Wonderful Beast Singers is a group of non-professional vocalists who simply love to sing. Beginning as a scratch choir in Wonderful Beast’s first community opera, The Six Swans, the singers went on to participate in The Nightingale, Wonderful Beast’s second community opera, for which they were trained by Jessica Maryon-Davies, chorus master for both productions. Ten members of the group took to the road performing as a shanty-singing chorus in Return of the Wildman, under the musical direction of Sylvia Hallett. The singers are led by Alys Kihl and Rob Gildon, and are always looking for new members. Find out more here.
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EMMA BERNARDEmma directs performance for stage, screen, site-specific locations and concert platforms. She has worked extensively for Streetwise Opera, most recently as Associate Artistic Director, and has collaborated with many organisations including Almeida Opera, Norwich Theatre Royal and the Barbican. In 2022 she directed Wonderful Beast's show, First the Dance, Then the Feast.
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ROB GILDONRob is a baritone opera singer, vocal animateur, and singing teacher. He has worked with Garsington, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Royal Opera House, among many others. He regularly leads workshops for Streetwise Opera and Snape Maltings as well as co-leading the Wonderful Beast singers.
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ALYS KIHLAlys established Wonderful Beast in 1997 and has produced and directed shows nationally and internationally. In 2014 she founded the Wonderful Beast Singers. She now runs the Wonderful Beast Arts Hub, bringing together artists from the company's 25 years to create a rich and invaluable resource for schools, arts organisations, individuals, writers, composers, and performers, as well as a facility for providing practitioners on request.
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martina schwarzMartina Schwarz is a musician, composer, performer and choir leader. She has composed and performed for the Arcola Theatre, Sadlers Wells, Laban Theatre, Lilian Baylis Theatre, the Place, the South Bank Centre, the Grant Museum (UCL), Spitalfields Festival, Little Angel Theatre, Norwich Puppet theatre and RADA. She has collaborated with Wonderful Beast on several occasions.
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EMILY RICHARDSONEmily Richardson is an artist filmmaker who makes films about the trace of human presence and our changing relationship with the environment and landscape. Her films have been shown in galleries, museums and festivals internationally including Tate Modern and Tate Britain, London, and in Paris, New York, Venice, and worldwide. She is a film lecturer and runs a monthly artists' film night, Art Station Film at The Art Station, a community focused arts organisation housed in a 1950s post office building in Saxmundham, Suffolk.
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Wonderful Beast · 150 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk IP15 5AQ · 07909 520 060
