Date
Sunday 27 March 2011
Location
Cecil Sharp House
2 Regent's Park Road,
London,
NW1 7AY,
United Kingdom
Tel: +44-(2)0-74852206
Web: http://www.efdss.org
Link
http://www.efdss.org/events/eventsdetails/eventsId/301/displaydate/2011-03-27
Description
Eight leading folk artists from England, Scotland, Canada and the US have been commissioned by the EFDSS and the Shrewsbury Folk Festival to produce new collaborative compositions inspired by the collections of Cecil Sharp. A unique concert featuring Steve Knightley, Jackie Oates, Andy Cutting, Caroline Herring, Jim Moray, Patsy Reid, Leonard Podolak, Kathryn Roberts. Not to be missed!
The concert immediately follows an intense one-week residential in Shropshire.
Festival director Neil Pearson, who is overseeing the C# Project, explained the idea behind the scheme.
“After the success of the Darwin Song Project which produced a set of stunning original songs we knew there must be more mileage in the idea.
“At a conference, I gave a talk about how we had devised and organised the Darwin project and Katy Spicer, the chief executive of EFDSS, sat in on the talk – she then approached us with the idea of doing something similar based on Cecil Sharp and the C# Project was born.”
He went on: “There are no artistic directions for the artists other that the songs and tunes should have some relevance and resonance to Sharp and in particular his Appalachian travels – it’s a blank canvas for the artists to explore as they see fit.
“As we saw with Darwin, that leaves the artists with the creativity they need to produce material about whatever aspect of his life or travels that ignites the spark for them. I think it's going to be fantastic.”
Katy Spicer, Chief Executive of EFDSS, said: “Cecil Sharp is the most prolific folk music and dance collector of what is now widely known as the first folk revival.
“This will be one of the most exciting and innovative ways we can pay tribute to a man who helped to preserve and bring to light so much wonderful traditional music.”
The project is being funded by Shrewsbury Folk Festival, EFDSS, Arts Council England and PRS Foundation.
The artists will live and work at the farmhouse near Shrewsbury and they can either work collaboratively or individually. They have been given access to Sharp's diary transcriptions well ahead of official publication.
The Festival has also launched a website – www.cecilsharpproject.com – to keep people up to date with the project.
Tickets £15 advance, £18 on the door
Line-up (8)
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