Artist/Event Name: Art & Organ at the Cathedral
Venue: Bradford Cathedral
Time: 19:00
Date: 18/12/2009
Town/City: Bradford
Country: UK
Postcode: BD1 4EH
Official Ticket Price: £10
Quick Ticket Links:
Recommended Ticket Website: http://www.bradfordcathedral.co.uk/
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Loading ...Art & Organ at the Cathedral @ Bradford Cathedral - Description
The Cathedra hosts an interesting evening on Friday 18th December when artist Sophie Hacker, from Winchester Cathedral, gives a talk on her interpretation of Messiaen’s La Nativité du Seigneur before Bradford Cathedral Organist Paul Bowen plays his interpretation of the same piece on the organ – a piece he played last year at a lunchtime organ recital which was so well received that he needed no persuasion to perform it again this Christmas.
Sophie Hacker is currently Visiting Tutor at both Winchester School of Art and Sarum College, and Arts and Exhibitions Consultant at Winchester Cathedral. She trained as an artist in Oxford and at the Slade School of Art. Her paintings and sculptures are in private collections and public spaces and mages of her work are used throughout Europe and the US. Her sculptures use found objects and natural materials – from wood and stone to metal, leather, Perspex, and textiles – to highlight the beauty of the ordinary and to point to the joy and suffering at the heart of creation. Her work based on the Messiaen is so large that it will not fit in Canterbury Cathedral – so Bradford had little chance of hosting the exhibition but she will be showing images and talking about the inspiration behind her series of contemporary abstract icons exploring themes of incarnation and eternity.
La Nativité du Seigneur is a work for organ written in 1935 by the French composer Olivier Messiaen when he was 27 years old. Described in 1967 as a masterpiece, and one of the great organ works of all time, it is certainly monumental and impressive, original and memorable. It is divided into nine ‘musical meditations’ exploring the underlying themes of the birth of Christ and, when first premiered on 27th February 1936 in Paris, the playing was shared amongst three organists! But just the one organist, Paul Bowen, is playing this time!
Paul is a Yorkshireman and developed a keen interest in the organ when in his teens he was a regular attendee at recitals in York Minster. During his time as an undergraduate at the University of Leeds, where he read mathematics and operational research, he served as organ scholar at Leeds Parish Church, as well as being the Edward Boyle Organ Scholar in the University of Leeds. Paul was appointed as Assistant Organist in Bradford Cathedral in January 2004 and prior to that he served as Second Assistant Organist for three years. As part of his work with the choir Paul has played in an ever increasing number of cathedrals in the UK, as well as accompanying the choir on many of its tours – including St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey – and at the funeral of Sharon Beshenivsky which was broadcast live worldwide on Sky News and BBC News 24.
Art & Organ, an Artspace event, starts at 7pm on Friday 18th December: tickets are £10 available from the Cathedral Office on 01274 777720.
This post was submitted by Linda Haywood.
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