Synergy represented by

Amy Haworth, Micaela Haslam, Heather Cairncross

Synergy represented by

“A quick jaunt to Frankfurt for a run-through of Music for 18 with Ensemble Modern and Steve Reich at EM’s rehearsals studios, then off to Strasbourg by train. It was gorgeously sunny in both cities. I’ve never seen Frankfurt looking so good, and Strasbourg was positively baking.

Everyone was in good form, though Jenny was fighting off a lurgie. She managed to keep it at bay, largely by borrowing kettles at hotel receptions and inhaling steam. I was very grateful that she was alright on the night as I didn’t fancy singing soprano 1 – too many top B’s. Actually, it’s not so much those as the 2 patterns in sections 2 and 7 that seem to go on for ever – both set between E and top A. There’s nowhere to swallow, and you feel as though your larynx is going to self-combust if it doesn’t get out of that range!

The Cité de la Musique in Strasbourg is relatively new and contains a very fine concert hall. It proved to be perfect for this piece – big enough, but not too resonant which would have made it a nightmare for Norbert (EM’s very lovely and brilliant sound engineer).

We (well Steve, actually) decided on a slightly slower tempo for this performance which made for a rather nice “chilled” version of Music for 18, instead of the more driven, incisive version we often get with EM (which also works really well, I have to say). Steve joked after the concert that as we all get older, the piece will get slower and slower, down to crotchet=60. Can you imagine? It would be like the all-night Vespers!!

Many congratulations were in the air after the concert, and I was very touched to hear Steve say, “you always play better when you play with friends”. He’s absolutely right!”

Micaela

Synergy represented by

(from left to right): Amy Haworth, Heather Cairncross, Micaela Haslam

“A very busy week for me. This concert fell during the same week as a Ben Park project and BBC Singers’ rehearsals for the Birtwistle Prom the following week. Fortunately, I’d made the decision not to sing in the 2nd half of the Sunday Prom with the BBC Singers (for Les Noces – much as I love that piece). That really would have been too much to cram in.

Heather and I had sung Grand Pianola a couple of times before – including a performance with John Adams conducting in San Francisco – but this was Amy’s John Adams debut. The vocal lines look straightfoward enough on paper – pages of sustained triads shifting up and down the octave, repeated chords sung to scat, and overlapping sustained legato lines. The difficulty is one of nerve, stamina (especially for sop 1), and in tuning the “simple” chords precisely, without vibrato. As usual, Amy did a great job – just as well, as we had next to no rehearsal with the players. We had a run-through the day before the gig, then the balance on the morning of the concert. That was it.

There was some wonderful playing amongst the players of London Sinfonietta – I must mention Gareth Hulse’s oboe solos in particular – gorgeous! John Constable and Rolf Hind made light work of the grand (in every way) piano parts, and I think we all really enjoyed the piece. The only thing I find slightly odd about it is the amplication. The voices are amplified, with foldback monitors at the back of the stage so that we can hear ourselves, but it’s very difficult to hear the players as they are not amplified and therefore can’t be “fed” into our monitors. It can feel quite lonely at the back – especially in the Royal Albert Hall – and tuning to something you can barely hear is always a challenge. If I were a sound engineer, I think I’d amplify the whole ensemble slightly, in order to create a more unified sound from the front, and make it easier for everyone to hear each other on stage – hoping that John Adams wouldn’t mind, of course. Whichever way, I hope we get to perform Grand Pianola again before too long. The audience obviously loved it. It’s a real “feel good” piece, and we all need a bit of that from time to time.”

Micaela

Synergy represented by

“We’ve done quite a few workshops with Ben Park now. He and his lovely wife, Fin, are prolific in their creation of new music/dance projects with their company Walker Dance Park Music, and I admire their work hugely. This time, Ben had collaborated with Ian McMillan, “the bard from Barnsley”, to create several scenes in the life of a father and son (Lawrence and Phill – father a bit older than the son in this instance!), called Law of Motion.

The narrative is centred round a seminal moment in the two men’s lives, when the father left the family years ago. Both remember the shutting of the door; the father remembers the gentle whisper of the closing door; the son remembers an almighty slam. Both their lives were changed at this moment. (The title of the work comes from the fact that the father is a physicist.)

The two female singers are not characters as such, but represent the “inner voices” of the father and son – sometimes expressing what they don’t know how to say, sometimes singing with one of the characters, and occasionally with both.

As always with Ben, the music was presented as an enharmonic soup in a rhythmic snowstorm (I shall keep going on about it until he starts producing scores in Finale or Sibelius!!). Ben does know what he wants though – the challenge is simply in realising it. There are lots of funky rhythms in 5’s and 7’s, the vocals are often treated instrumentally, and that’s all mixed up with plenty of of beautiful expressivity.

We had the fabulous Steve Gibson, Rachael Bennett and Amanda Truelove on marimba, piano and cello, making light work of the fiendish instrumental parts; and Paul Wright at the helm. Paul was drafted in at very short notice and did a marvellous job.

Although we had to work hard, we did get to enjoy the delights of Ben’s beautiful home out in the wilds of Buckinghamshire, and our efforts were further rewarded by Ben’s mum with her delicious home-made bread and chocolate cake. She’d also made the plates on which the aforementioned delights were served. They’re a talented bunch, those Parks!

So off we eventually headed to Hammersmith and the Riverside Studios. We could have done with a bit more rehearsal, truth be told, but Tête-à-tête Opera Festival is for works in progress – for generating interest and funding, not for the finished article. We all did our best, the performances were well-received, so let’s see where the project goes from here…”

Micaela

“Julia and I had a lovely meal and stayed at Mandy’s place in West London on 7th, before taking a hideously early flight to Amsterdam on the day of the concert. From Schipol airport, we took a direct train to Eindhoven, checked in at the hotel and went straight back to bed! Actually, we had to wait a little while for the rooms to be ready, then I had to change rooms as the heating wasn’t working in mine, so that left less than an hour to make up for half a night’s sleep. Still we knew the 4pm rehearsal wouldn’t take long, so we could have another snooze after that. Once again however, that snooze ended up being less than an hour, so we just had to look forward to a long night’s kip after the concert!

Lovely to see everyone again of course, but also a bit sad as we knew this would be the last time we’d work with them for the foreseeable future. This extended Reich project had produced a team that felt like one big happy family. There was much talk about the possibility of future collaborations, a world tour (indeed world domination!) – and Julia and I offered to join Asko|Schönberg as permanent members of the ensemble. We look forward to receiving our contracts in the post, Willem!

The Muziekcentrum Frits Philip was sold out, which is always an excellent start to a concert. There was quite a long pre-concert talk at the beginning of the evening (8.15pm), about America in the 60’s and 70’s. I think that the talk was actually a bit too long as we didn’t get on stage until 9pm and the audience looked a bit tired by the end. Still we got a standing ovation which was lovely.

All the players headed straight back to Amsterdam after the concert. They couldn’t quite believe that we had chosen to stay in Eindhoven. There were many gentle quips about the architecture (lots of concrete), the scenery (lack thereof) and the weather (dull and grey), but it was noted that the people of Eindhoven were nice!

Needless to say, neither of us had a good night’s sleep after the concert. Why is it that you can’t sleep when you most need to? – so frustrating! Still, all we had to do the following morning was get up, eat breakfast and travel. Only a few brain cells required to catch the right train and find the right departure gate at the airport.

I must say I’m so pleased to have had this opportunity to make a (hopefully lasting) connection with Asko|Schönberg. I guess I have always been an instrumentalist at heart (perhaps an “instrumental singer” now) and this sort of music-making is where I feel most at home. The working atmosphere these players have created is exactly what I try to emulate in Synergy Vocals – one of enjoyment, high standards, mutual support, and with egos firmly in check. At Asko|Schönberg, everybody had done their homework, rehearsals were efficient, nobody was scowled at for offering suggestions, no-one took offense when constructive criticism was offered; there was no “point-scoring” and a good laugh was had by all. In my book, the only motivation should be to give one’s best to the music and to the audience, whilst having as much fun as possible. This project was a lovely reminder that it can be done. As young Sebastian Batchelor-Walsh would say – “more please!”

Micaela

View from my room

However, I had a rehearsal to go to; so allowing myself at least 2 minutes (plenty of time) I headed next door to the rehearsal in the Muziekgebouw. Asko Schoenberg are a great band and made light work of Daniel Variations, so much so the rehearsal was over in a flash, which left plenty of time for relaxing.

Due to the nature of the schedule it meant I had the whole of the next day free. I had a grand plan to get up early (!), hire a bike and go off exploring for the day. Didn’t quite work out like that though; got up late and spent ages eating a huge breakfast so by the time I got round to hiring a bike half the day had gone. At home I have two bikes, one is a speedy racing bike and the other a serious mountain bike and between them have a total of 57 gears! The bike I hired had one gear and I had to pedal backwards to brake. Once I’d got the hang of that with lots of comic moments at traffic lights, I decided to pootle (definition verb: to move in a leisurely fashion, with or without purpose) round Amsterdam in my armchair bike and see the sights instead.

I had a great day and also managed to do some shopping (a pair of mountain bike shoes which clip into my pedals, a red Crumpler ‘tummy tingler’ shoulder bag, an outrageously patterned top and a large container of wonderful salads from Vroom & Dreesman) and managed to get it all back to the hotel on the back of my bike.

The plan that evening was to meet up with Micaela and the ever lovely Will and possibly the International Man of Mystery, Pete Wilman. Pete had a better offer and met up with some friends, whilst we decided to head across town to go to an Argentinian steak house (near the Concertgebouw) that we’d been to when we were in Amsterdam last November, only to discover when we got there that it was shut for renovation! Hmm, Plan B here we come.

Two more huge and leisurely breakfasts (on different days, obviously) followed by another brief rehearsal and going to hear Micaela and Julia sing in Drumming filled in most of the time before the concert.

Muziekgebouw

Our poster

In Daniel Variations the singers stand/sit in between the four pianos and in front of the four marimbas; this does make you feel as if you are inside the pianos and means in a resonant hall like the Muziekgebouw it’s VERY LOUD and difficult to hear yourself think, let alone sing. Originally we were off to one side which meant that just Gerry (or in this case Pete) had his head inside piano 4. This time, I was sitting right next to piano 2 (with lid off), but fortunately was armed with my very pink earplugs and got through to the end without my ears bleeding! The performances of Daniel Variations and Music for 18 Musicians were great; the band played superbly and is possibly the friendliest bunch I’ve worked with for a long time.

Here’s to the next Synergy/Asko Schoenberg concert. Can’t wait to come back to Amsterdam as I’ve got at least two journeys left on my strippenkaart.”

Mandy

“Will and I had treated ourselves to an extra night in Amsterdam, but I’d had to change my flight because of a last minute film session, so Will ended up heading off to Amsterdam on his own. At least I managed to get there that same evening. Sadly my luggage didn’t and I had to wait until late the following morning to be reunited with my clothes and toiletries.

That afternoon was our first rehearsal for Daniel Variations, conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw. It was lovely to see Reinbert again after our big Andriessen project together last June. Reinbert is always so full of energy and enthusiasm, and is totally committed to what he’s doing. He had obviously looked at the score thoroughly, and I felt a little awkward pointing out several changes that Steve Reich had made to various tempi and dynamics during the final rehearsals for the premiere. There was no way that Reinbert could have foreseen these and I hope he didn’t feel undermined in any way. He was certainly very kind about it and we were grateful for that, as the changes definitely made for a better rendition of the piece. [Note to self – mention this to Boosey & Hawkes!]

The rehearsal schedules for 1st and 2nd April were intertwined. Julia and I were involved in both concerts so had more rehearsals to attend. We didn’t mind at all, however, as the players were such a delight to work with.

It was great to have Will around for this leg of the project. The weather was fabulous every day and we did lots of walking. We even managed to get into the Anne Frank house – a miracle! Last June, every time I went past the building, there was a queue a mile long. This time, we hadn’t even planned to go in, but were delighted to find the entrance deserted. I actually thought the place was closed. Anyway, I’m so glad we saw the exhibition, which is extremely well laid-out these days. It has been modernised considerably over the years, partly to preserve the place, I imagine, but also to provide much more information using modern technology. As you make your way through the house, there is a series of screens dotted about, showing interviews with those who survived, childhood friends etc, and telling the story from a variety of perspectives. I recommend it – if you can get in!

It’s always fun to watch removal men at work in Amsterdam. Because of the narrowness of all the houses with their unbelievably steep and narrow winding staircases, removals can only be achieved via the windows. They have these fabulous platform lifts, which must make the job easier than it is in the UK. No lugging furniture up and down stairs.

Finally we got to see the main hall of the Muziekgebouw, and it was a very pleasant surprise. Both Louis Andriessen and Reinbert had told me what a fabulous space it was, and we weren’t disappointed. It has an air of funky contemporary music about it – just the thing for Drumming. The final rehearsal took very little time, as we had all performed the piece so recently in Rotterdam. It was just a question of sorting out the balance. It was very sweet of the sound engineer to try and adjust our foldback speakers for the racket that is the end of Section 4. It doesn’t matter which stage you’re on, we’re always completely inaudible at the end, when everything is playing at the same time and we’re quite low in our voices, trying to compete with a piccolo – not a chance! Fortunately the piccolo in this case was being played by the lovely Ingrid Geerlings, so we didn’t mind too much. Apparently it all sounded great from the front, and that’s what matters!”

Micaela

“Heather and I arrived in Berlin just in time to miss the rush at the marvellous Italian restaurant across the road from our hotel. I can’t remember the name of the place (what’s new?) but just head for the Golden Tulip hotel and you can’t miss it. Within half an hour of sitting down, the place was packed, and on a Tuesday evening we knew that this was a good sign.  I ordered the pumpkin and sage ravioli in a buttery sauce.  It wasn’t a large portion, but it was really rich, and possible the most delicious pasta I’ve ever tasted.

I hardly noticed Berlin for these two days, as I was busy trying to sort out a film session for Air Edel. I’m always amazed at how little time we get to record film scores, when you consider how long it takes to cast and make a film. The music always seems to be last-minute and we all rush around trying to get scores finished, musicians organised and studios booked. I had 16 singers trying to organise their diaries, childcare, teaching etc, while the session moved from one day to another, and from one time to another. Of course all this had to happen while I was out of the UK. I must have spent about £50 on texts and phone calls. Still, we got there in the end and the sound track for Agora will be marvellous!

Heather had already sung Drumming with Ictus less than a fortnight ago in Salzburg, but I hadn’t seen these guys for ages and it was great to catch up again. No-one seems to change. I guess we’re all just getting older together! It was reassuring to note that the relaxed approach to rehearsing was the same as ever. We showed up on time for the sound check then went and had lunch for an hour! Finally we got round to a run-through, which was obviously going to be fine with such experienced players, and Alex Fostier on the sound desk – one of our favourite sound engineers.

I hadn’t realized that Steve Reich was going to be in Berlin. He arrived during the run-through. Having heard this version of Drumming in Salzburg, there were a couple of places he was concerned about. In particular he wanted to clarify what the flautist was playing in Section 3, as the patterns differed somewhat from his original score. Of course nobody minded, but having the flautist play these patterns while we were trying to rehearse Section 2 was rather unfortunate timing…. Still, Michael (the flautist) remained calm and professional, and all was well in the end.

Michael Nyman came to the concert with Steve, and I had the pleasure of joining them both for dinner afterwards. They were in great form. Michael’s new piece about “Sparkie” the Geordie budgie was to be premiered in town the following night. This was a collaboration with Carsten Nicolai, with Kika Markham as speaker. Kika was delightful. She had also been at our concert and had enjoyed Drumming immensely. They were all, obviously, looking forward very much to their premiere, and we had a really fun evening. Michael showed me some of the script and told me the story of Sparkie. I was gutted that I wasn’t able to stay in Berlin and hear the piece – especially as Sparkie would be making a personal appearance (albeit stuffed), on loan from the Hancock Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne (my home town).

Steve Reich joined us on our flight back to London the following morning. From Heathrow, we only had the Piccadilly Line to contend with, while he had another 8 hour flight across the Atlantic. I don’t know how he does it!

Steve will be back in London later in the year for our performance of Music for 18 with London Sinfonietta on the South Bank. And we’ll be singing with Ictus again in October at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. See you then!”

Micaela

“We arrived in Salzburg ready for snow and ice, having checked out the 5-day weather forecast which put temperatures around the zero to two degree mark. We’d even had a text on our departure day from our friendly weathergirl Ms Cairncross warning us it’d be freezing… As it turned out there was just one very brief snow shower, and the rest of the time the only snow to be seen was high up on the beautiful nearby Alps.

When checking in to our hotel we noticed there was a big church right next door. The following morning we had a big reminder of that big church and its big bells – at 6am, no less!

For the OENM this Festival was their first encounter with Reich’s Music for Eighteen Musicians. Happily they’d had a lot of guidance from Micaela who’d made a trip to Salzburg to work with them on the piece in February. This had given the ensemble an invaluable head start. On our first rehearsal day we were warmly greeted by the OENM and by Steve Reich who’d just flown in to catch the days of the Biennale Festival which were to focus on his work. Apparently, of the 200 performances of Reich pieces given each year, Steve makes it to between five and ten of them. He was to be at BOTH of ours this week – no pressure then, gals..

We relaxed between our two rehearsal days with a trip by cable car up to Salzburg’s Castle, did the audio tour and had a leisurely lunch looking out over the town and pretty countryside. For me that evening wasn’t nearly as pleasant, as a snack I’d bought in town gave me food poisoning and I spent three hours getting to know my hotel bathroom far too well. But after a couple of magic pills from nurse Heather and a night’s sleep, all was OK. (Just as well – the next day I had 2 rehearsals and a performance!)

As usual, the bells of next door’s church woke us bright and early. After a final Music for 18 rehearsal for the four of us, Heather and I walked through the Mirabell Gardens to the pretty gold and white Mozarteum Grosser Saal for our Drumming rehearsal with Ictus. As wonderful as the acoustics of such a hall are for orchestral and chamber music, they’re hardly ideal for amplified Reich, and poor Alex (Ictus’ sound guy) buried his head in his hands as soon as the drums began. However, a few hours later a big audience soaked up the sound nicely. They obviously enjoyed the concert as well, keeping us fit as we all ran on and off stage several times to take a bow.

On Sunday morning the church bells went completely berserk, but that morning we didn’t mind (for once!) as we had to check out of the hotel and drag our wheelie cases down the walking street and along to the University hall for our 11am Music for 18 gig. As we were last on the programme and had a 3.10pm flight to make, we wondered how the timing would work out, especially as the set-up and sound check at interval took quite a while. But the piece flowed well and was a pretty solid ‘premiere’ performance for the OENM and a satisfying one for us. Steve jumped up on stage to make some thank-yous including one to ‘my good friends Synergy Vocals’, and after taking a final bow with the OENM we made a suitably Von-Trapp-style speedy exit towards a waiting taxi.

On the way to the airport we did the usual concert post mortem. Jenny had coped brilliantly with two small boys in the front row who’d started singing along with the piece (!), by giving them a gentle glance to let them know it was Music for EIGHTEEN Musicians. We’d all been aware of some chat going on in the audience at one point during the piece, but the offenders soon clammed up after receiving a pointed look from Amy and the lead clarinet player during some quiet bars! All in all though, we concluded, we’d done two good gigs and had another happy Synergy trip. A trip, I have to say, with bells on!”

Rachel

Julia Batchelor, Micaela Haslam, Amanda Morrison, Katy Butler

“It was good to be home after New York, but I only had time to deposit my suitcase, pick up another one I’d packed before going to the US, and head straight off to Amsterdam for the final instrumental rehearsal of Music for 18. The piece was already in excellent shape largely thanks to Wim Voss, who was playing vibraphone this time. (I’ve worked with Wim many times over many years, including at The Conservatory in The Hague, where he masterminded a big Steve Reich project a few years ago.) Everyone I met at this rehearsal was not only highly competent, but also delightfully friendly. I knew at once that this was going to be a good tour.

Julia joined me the following morning for another low-maintenance rehearsal, this time of Drumming. Julia had done the piece with Synergy a while ago, but only the stop-watch version with Ictus and the Rosas dancers. Still, the original concert version was obviously going to be no problem for her at all. We just had to sort out who was giving us cues, who needed our return cues, and who had a useful downbeat in Section 4 so that I could make sure we all ended the piece together. Julia’s partner, David, and their adorable son Sebastian were also with us on this trip and it was great that we were staying at the Mövenpick hotel right next door to the rehearsal venue, so that we could get to and from rehearsals in a matter of seconds.

Although the Mövenpick is slightly out of the centre of Amsterdam, it’s a great place to stay. It’s part of the relatively new Muziekgebouw complex, behind the central station. The hotel rooms are excellent (as is the breakfast), and we all enjoyed the fabulous views out over the water, either over Amsterdam itself, or down the river with its fascinating array of carrier ships.

Next came Katy and Mandy for the first tutti Music for 18 rehearsal. Again this went by with the minimum of fuss. We really only had the “pulses” to worry about, which are more difficult than they look. It’s a question of getting the rises and falls of the swells to overlap seamlessly – rather like a series of breaking waves.

We were lucky to have lots of free time, so as well as enjoying an occasional stroll, I was able to get lots of work done. The free wireless internet in the rooms was a huge bonus in this department. The sun came out most days which made a lovely change from the snow of New York.

David and Seb headed back to London on the morning of our trip to Rotterdam. The journey for us was only an hour, and we arrived in time for a late lunch, a spot of shopping, an afternoon snooze and then dinner – it’s tough on tour but someone’s got to do it!

The Kunsthal Auditorium is a good size, but incredibly loud for amplified percussion instruments. The wooden stage acted like a giant soundboard and Music for 18 sounded like a rock concert. Drumming was possibly better suited to the auditorium as it’s on a smaller scale, but both pieces went down fantastically well with the audiences. There were originally going to be 3 concerts on the same day, one mid-afternoon, one at 8.30pm and one at midnight! Strangely, the afternoon concert was cancelled, but at least we managed to get the late one brought forward by half an hour to 11.30pm – relatively civilized. The evening concert was streamed live on the internet and apparently looked and sounded great. This was Katy’s first Synergy gig and you’d never have guessed. She did an excellent job.

Our Rotterdam hotel wasn’t quite so luxurious, but we were only there for a couple of nights. Poor Julia had to change rooms in the middle of the night as she was being harassed by a mosquito. I confess I would never have thought of bringing mosquito repellent to Rotterdam in the middle of March. I must add that to my travel list – everything you might ever need on tour – now 5 pages of A4!”

Micaela