The South Downs Songbook

£15 (General)

£12 (Concessions: Full time Students, 18 - 25, Disability PIP/Universal Credit, Pension Credit)

Discounted ticket package: The South Downs Songbook + Sussex Modernism:

£20 (General)

£16 (Concessions: Full time Students, 18 - 25, Disability PIP/Universal Credit, Pension Credit)

When you have a ticket to this event and a ticket to Sussex Modernism (for 13 July only) in the same basket, the above combined ticket prices will be applied automatically.

Members
If you hold a membership subscription you are eligible for a 10% discount for this event. Log in and these will be applied to your order automatically.

Join us for an intimate afternoon of live ensemble music from the South Downs Songbook, Guardian contemporary album of the month November 2024.  

Pieces by Shirley J Thompson, Rowland Sutherland, Evelyn Ficarra and Ed Hughes will be performed live with the composers present, the pieces consisting of music for flute, clarinet, keyboard, electric guitar, cello and voice. 

The songs explore the human experience of the South Downs, the chalk hills stretching from Winchester to Eastbourne. The music pieces are drawn from written sources, including: Phillis Wheatley’s poem An Hymn to the Evening (1753–1784), reflecting Wheatley’s time in England, a poem by Charlotte Turner Smith (1749–1806), words by Marion Robinson (1937), whose writings for the Mass Observation Archive were influenced by William Blake’s visions of the South Downs skies and a poem by contemporary Brighton-based poet Valerie Whittington.  

Accompanying the performances will be a few short films and readings of poems by Charlotte Smith and Phyllis Wheatley, all inspired by the South Downs past and present.  

The performance will conclude with the first performance of ‘Brilliant Rays of Arrowy Light’, created by composer Ed Hughes working with students from schools and colleges in West and East Sussex, with accompanying screenings of archive and contemporary film of Sussex Downs and seascapes between 1930 and today.  

After the performance there will be 10 minutes for audience questions.  

‘the composers take their cues from 10 centuries of music history. Yet all share a curious sense of yearning and a fractured beauty' 

– John Lewis Guardian contemporary album of the month (Nov 2024) 

Ed Hughes's music ranges from solo to large-scale compositions including orchestra, stage and silent screen. Described as 'enchanting...elaborate and strange, but incontrovertibly English' (Richard Hanlon), commissions have come from The Opera Group, London Sinfonietta, I Fagiolini, Mahogany Opera, Glyndebourne/Photoworks, Brighton Festival and others. His opera States of Innocence premiered at Brighton Festival 2024 starring Sir John Tomlinson. Ed Hughes is Professor of Composition at the University of Sussex.

edhughescomposer.com 
@ed.hughescomposer

Rowland Sutherland's commissions include Ensemble Bash, The New Music Players, COMA, Lontano, and for a trio recording by jazz trumpeter Chris Hodgkins. Rowland’s composition Enlightenment, for large ensemble and inspired by John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in early 2015. Rowland also composes for his jazz bands including the Brazilian influenced Mistura, his own six piece group Rowland Sutherland Sextet, Caribbean Nu Jazz outfit Creative Force and the London Art Collective  

Rowlands Soundcloud

@itinerant_sounds

Evelyn Ficarra is a composer and sound artist working across a range of forms including electronic music, multi-media, installation, dance, film, and improvisation. She studied composition at the University of Sussex and the University of California, Berkeley.  Evelyn is Professor of Interdisciplinary Composition at the University of Sussex. 

@evelynficarramusic

Shirley J Thompson is a highly versatile and prolific composer, filmmaker, professor of music, artistic director and entrepreneur. Thompson composed and conducted her symphony New Nation Rising: A 21st Century London Symphony to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002, the concept later became the framework for the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony. Thompson has consistently demonstrated in her work a belief in the transformative power of music to affect social, cultural and political change. Thompson was one of twelve British composers commissioned by His Majesty King Charles III to compose choral and orchestral music for The Coronation on 6 May 2023. 

@shirleyjthompsoncomposer 

Rachel is a UK-based Musician, and Actor represented by Nordlings Talent for Voice Acting. She is a singer for Elvis Fronted Nirvana and front-woman of Transatlantic Rumours.  

@rachelfarago 

Programmed alongside the exhibition Sussex Modernism. A discounted ticket package is available when booking for both this event and a ticket to Sussex Modernism (for the 13 July only).

This event has been supported by the School of Media Arts and Humanities at the University of Sussex and by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Impact Acceleration Account. It is a Sussex Retold event. 

Supported by Screen Archive South East at the University of Brighton.