Thin Ice
Sat 13 Jul, 11:00 & 15:00
Join local musician Pete Doyle as he performs his composition ‘Thin Ice’ in our current exhibition, Julian Grater: Arctic Mirage.
The title ‘Thin Ice’ refers to the fragility of the human occupation and of all life with the climate change first seen in this region. Pete has created six pieces of music, each 60-90 seconds long, as a response to the six key pieces of artwork on the back wall.
Pete created the work in collaboration with two key groups: students at Priors Court Autistic School in Newbury, and local violin teacher (and Reading Symphony Orchestra violinist) Liz Bradbury
Working with Tomson Chauke (the music co-ordinator at Priors Court Autistic School), Pete recorded over six hours of music and sounds from fifteen students of the school whilst projecting the example of the artwork on the wall of the room. This created a very light and creative atmosphere for the students to relax and create sounds and soundscapes from a variety of instruments.
"The students at the school are mainly non-verbal but they can vocalise sounds. This is the first time we have allowed creative freedom for the students to make sounds and music using only the artwork as a prompt.
It was truly inspiring to witness their behaviour and creativity. Anxiety was lifted from their normal routine and the students created sounds which I'm now editing into the composition mix and structure.
Liz and I then visited the exhibition during May and looked at the six pieces of artwork on the back wall and have started to put the composition together. Liz 's involvement brings a classical training and experience of orchestration into the composition.
We have also look at how we can bring in the Inuit people into the composition and researched traditional instruments and techniques used by the Inuit people in terms of throat singing and the main Inuit percussion instrument, Qilaut, which is a wooden frame drum."
Please note: We will be running a special VIP performance as part of Museums, My Way for our Neurodivergent families (free, book online) at 10am - 11am. Please be aware that the exhibition won't be available to other visitors at this time.
There will then be two further drop in performances at 11am and 3pm, all welcome
