Wye Valley River Festival 2024. Some Free Musical events.
May 4th 11 am to 5pm The Sound Forest, Drybridge park. Monmouth.
A space to wander and play with performances and workshops. Lyndon Owen playing old Welsh instruments like the pibgorn and bagpipes, Fiona Taylor, her bird song inspired flute music. Fiona will also lead a workshop inviting us to join eith the songs and sounds of local birds and people can help create a magical ‘singing tree’ with Michael Fairfax and use his ‘ear harps’. ‘Avant Bard’ Rhys Trimble will be bringing his feral hoard of words, all part of the Merry Monmouth Day.
May 4th 7.30pm Songs and Sighs of Earth, Wood and Sky.
St Thomas’ Church Over Monnow, Monmouth. NP25 5ES.
An evocative evening of jazz, folk and improvisation in the lovely riverside setting of St Thomas’ Church Over Monnow, Monmouth.
The evening includes one of the UK’s finest vocal improvisers Maggie Nicols, together with The Wodwose Trio, ‘Avant Bard’ Rhys Trimble, Sound artist Michael Fairfax, singer Olivia Preye and improvising wind player Lyndon Owen. Together they will be creating a rich programme of music, sounds and words inspired by the festival’s theme, ‘The Earth at our Feet’ and by sounds and stories of earth, wind, water and woods.
May 5th The Be Wilder Choir and Orchestra - an Improvising workshop inspired by the earth. 1pm to 4.30.
With a short performance at 4pm Redbrook Church. NP25 4LR
Join us for a day of musical explorations and adventure, creating an improvising choir and orchestra. Anyone can join, you can bring an instrument, your voice, but also write, draw, film, dance, listen or all of them. We will be playing sound games to free our ears and imaginations, creating ‘natural’ scores and collages to sing and play to and listen to and improvising with the sounds of the earth, sky, river and trees and with each other.
The day will be led .by Maggie Nichols and Tim Hill. Maggie Nicols is one of the world’s leading vocal improvisers, a pioneering singer who is also an inspiring choir leader. Tim is the WVRF musical director and he leads the Hullabaloo Improvising Orchestra and plays in the Bristol based South West Improvising Group.
Maggie says
This is a space, place and time where to build confidence in our creativity. Where we can listen, make sounds, melodies and noise, soft and loud, leave space, fill it up, explore rhythm and time, chaos and rhyme, lullabies and laments, shyly and boldly be in our different rhythms together
There will also be performances of Mark Andersons Warning Note