Plenty of music at St Paul’s Hall

Jan 16 2009 by Val Javin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THERE’S a packed month of music in store at St Paul’s Hall this month, courtesy of the musical talents at Huddersfield University.

Concerts continue on Monday with the university’s Electric Guitar Orchestra presenting a concert of music for massed electric guitars.

They will be featuring two landmark pieces in experimental music, James Tenney’s Having Never Written A Note For Percussion and Terry Riley’s In C.

The concert is at the hall on the Queensgate campus and begins at 7.30pm.

Then at 1.15pm on Thursday there will be a concert involving Dewsbury-born double bassist Simon H Fell, who studied with Peter Leah at Batley Grammar School and the then Huddersfield Polytechnic.

Today he is renowned for his skills in improvisational jazz and experimental music, as well as classical composition.

He will be joined by Chris Burn, another of the UK’s leading exponents in the improvisational field, and with pianist Philip Thomas will create a concert of freely improvised music.

At 5.30pm the same day Sebastian Berweck will play a programme of music on piano with electronics.

Sebastian is a German pianist of international repute who has recently begun studying for a PhD at Huddersfield University.

His programme will include pieces by Hans Tutschku, Maximilian Marcoli, Alexander Grebtschenko, Terry Riley and the university’s own composition specialist, James Saunders.

There will also be a video by Jan-Peter E R Sonntag.

Admission is free.

On Tuesday, January 27 Elizabeth Kenny will change the mood entirely, playing Jacobean lute music, masque dances and folk tunes on her lute.

The concert begins at 1.15pm and admission is free.

Two concerts on the evenings of January 26 and 27 will fill the university’s Phipps Concert Hall with music from a wide range of pop music ensembles created by the university’s music and music technology students.

Performances begin at 7pm.

From January 28 the university will host six days of sonic explorations, with concerts, talks and workshops.

Concerts are at 8pm, free for all, and all are preceded by a pre-concert talk by the artists.

More details on www.gemdays.co.uk