Legend has it that one day Pythagoras was astonished by the sounds that blacksmiths made when they struck their pieces of metal: the sounds were rich, varied, sometimes harmonious, sometimes discordant. When he returned home, the Greek thinker hastened to explore sound and invent new instruments.
In this co-creation by Rachel Warr (Dotted Line Theatre) and Benjamin Oliver, performed by the musicians of Paramirabo, our hero, the modern-day Pythagore, invites children aged 3 to 12 (but also adults) to follow him in his surreal, amusing and even danceable experiments.
A Paramirabo production, co presented by Le Vivier, Bach Before Bedtime and Festival de Casteliers.
Legend has it that one day Pythagoras was astonished by the sounds that blacksmiths made when they struck their pieces of metal: the sounds were rich, varied, sometimes harmonious, sometimes discordant. When he returned home, the Greek thinker hastened to explore sound and invent new instruments.
In this co-creation by Rachel Warr (Dotted Line Theatre) and Benjamin Oliver, performed by the musicians of Paramirabo, our hero, the modern-day Pythagore, invites children aged 3 to 12 (but also adults) to follow him in his surreal, amusing and even danceable experiments.
A Paramirabo production, co presented by Le Vivier, Bach Before Bedtime and Festival de Casteliers.
Legend has it that one day Pythagoras was astonished by the sounds that blacksmiths made when they struck their pieces of metal: the sounds were rich, varied, sometimes harmonious, sometimes discordant. When he returned home, the Greek thinker hastened to explore sound and invent new instruments.
In this co-creation by Rachel Warr (Dotted Line Theatre) and Benjamin Oliver, performed by the musicians of Paramirabo, our hero, the modern-day Pythagore, invites children aged 3 to 12 (but also adults) to follow him in his surreal, amusing and even danceable experiments.
A Paramirabo production, co presented by Le Vivier, Bach Before Bedtime and Festival de Casteliers.
I’ve spent the past few months busily revising and reworking, with my creative collaborator Rachel Warr of Dotted Line Theatre, the score of Pythagoras’ Toolkit (La Boîte à outils de Pythagore in French!) for ensemble and puppeteer. We are working towards the inaugural production of the show with the amazing Ensemble Paramirabo, which will take place in early March in Montreal. I’ve just sent off the production score and parts!
Rachel is brilliant to work with. Super talented of course but also so focused on ensuring the narrative of the show is totally honed. We started working on the piece back in 2019 and have had lots of (mostly pandemic induced) setbacks along the way so it’s really great to be finally heading towards showing this piece to the world.
Details of shows on my gigs page. We are filming and recording it too.
In November Rachel Warr and I did a cool outreach project around Pythagoras’ Tool Kit for the University of Southampton’s Hands on Humanities Day. You can watch the broadcast about the project and find out more at the special project Padlet.
I’m really delighted that Pythagoras’ Toolkit, led by Ensemble Paramirabo (Montreal) and involving me as co-creator, composer and conductor, has been awarded funding from the Canadian Council for the Arts.
In Pythagoras’ Toolkit Rachel Warr (co-creator/director, Dotted Line Theatre) and I will bring to life, through puppetry and live music, a modern-day Pythagoras who will explore sound, space (conceptual/sound/realworld), rhythm, harmony and dissonance (order and chaos), instrument making/design, dance, musical textures and ways of constructing music.
The production, currently planning for a tour in 2021, will feature musicians from Ensemble Paramirabo (Canada), Workers Union Ensemble (UK) and two musically literate puppeteers working with a specially created Pythagoras puppet.
Rachel and I are concocting ideas already… more soon!
Canadian new music group, Ensemble Paramirabo performed my The Circus Animals’ Desertion in Turner Sims as part of the University of Southampton Music Department’s Lunchtime Concert Series on Monday. It was great to have the ensemble here and they did an awesome job on my piece. They are also playing the piece tonight at a concert at Birmingham Conservatoire.
Canadian group Ensemble Paramirabo will perform as part of the University of Southampton lunchtime concert series. Their programme will include the UK premiere of my new piece for them 'The Circus Animals' Desertion'.
Ensemble Paramirabo will premiere my new twenty-minute piece, The Circus Animals’ Desertion, as they launch their 6th concert season on 23rd September with ‘Blurred Boundaries, a concert dedicated to exploring music on the edges of genres.
Other works on the programme are pop-inspired works by New York Indie Classical stars Nico Muhly (Doublespeak) and Missy Mazzoli (Still Life with Avalanche), the Montreal premiere of Transported for amplified sextet and electronics by Toronto composer Rose Bolton and premieres by Montreal jazzers Philippe Côté and Karine Bétournay.
The concert will take place at the Salle multimédia du Conservatoire in Montreal.
I’m super excited to be going out for this and to working with the ensemble in a few weeks time!
Legend has it that one day Pythagoras was astonished by the sounds that blacksmiths made when they struck their pieces of metal: the sounds were rich, varied, sometimes harmonious, sometimes discordant. When he returned home, the Greek thinker hastened to explore sound and invent new instruments.
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